EWTN News portal reports that Alabama Governor Kay Ivey signed Senate Bill 248, the “Alabama Released Time Credit Act,” allowing public school students to be excused for off-campus religious instruction. The article frames this as a victory for “parental rights” and “religious liberty,” citing the 1952 Supreme Court case Zorach v. Clauson and praising the law for keeping parents “in the driver’s seat” regarding their children’s education. This entire narrative, however, is a profound symptom of the post-conciliar apostasy: it accepts the premise that the state has authority over the education of Catholic children, reduces religious instruction to an elective “off-campus” activity, and reveals the complete failure of the conciliar sect to uphold the Church’s immutable teaching that education belongs primarily to the Church and parents under her authority, not to the secular state.
The Heresy of State Supremacy Over Education
The very framing of this legislation — as a “permission” granted by the state for parents to exercise a “right” — is a capitulation to the liberal, Masonic principle that the state is the primary authority over the education of children. This is directly condemned by the perennial Magisterium of the Church. Pope Pius XI, in his encyclical Divini Illius Magistri (1929), taught with absolute clarity:
“The child is not the mere creature of the State; those who nurture him and direct his destiny have the right, coupled with the high duty, to recognize and prepare him for additional obligations.”
The Alabama law, and the EWTN article celebrating it, implicitly accepts the state’s jurisdiction by requiring parents to seek the state’s “permission” to have their children instructed in the Faith. This is a direct contradiction of the Church’s teaching. The state does not “allow” religious instruction; it is the state’s duty to facilitate and protect the natural and divine right of parents and the Church to educate children in the true Faith. As Pope Leo XIII wrote in Immortale Dei, the state must recognize “the divine origin of the Church” and her authority in all things pertaining to the salvation of souls, including education.
The article’s praise for the law’s “clearer guidelines and protections requested by school superintendents” is particularly revealing. It shows that the primary concern is the smooth functioning of the state’s educational apparatus, not the salvation of souls. The Church has always taught that the state’s role is subsidiary; it must serve the common good, which includes the spiritual welfare of its citizens. By making the state’s logistical concerns the benchmark for religious liberty, the article reveals a naturalistic, secularized mindset that has infected even those who claim to defend the Faith.
The Reduction of Religious Instruction to an “Elective”
The law allows students to earn “elective credit” for participating in released-time programs, provided they complete missed schoolwork. This reduces the teaching of the Catholic Faith — the most important knowledge a human person can possess — to the level of an optional extracurricular activity, akin to a hobby or a club. This is a grave error. The Faith is not an “elective”; it is the necessary means of salvation. As Our Lord Himself declared, “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved: but he that believeth not shall be condemned” (Mark 16:16).
The Church has always insisted that religious instruction must be the foundation and crown of all education, not an addendum. The Code of Canon Law (1917), Canon 1372, states:
“Catholic children must attend those schools which will provide a complete Catholic education in accordance with the teaching of the Church, and which are under the authority of the Church.”
The Alabama law, by contrast, accepts the premise that the default, state-controlled education is the norm, and religious instruction is a brief, off-campus interruption. This is the exact opposite of the Catholic vision. The Church teaches that the school itself must be Catholic, permeated with the Faith in every subject. The released-time model is a Protestant invention, born of the Reformation’s rejection of the Church’s authority over all of life. For Catholics to celebrate it as a victory is a sign of profound ignorance and capitulation.
The Silence on the True Nature of the Church’s Mission
The EWTN article is utterly silent on the Church’s mission to establish and maintain her own schools. It does not mention the countless encyclicals and papal documents that command Catholics to build and support Catholic schools where children can be formed in the Faith from dawn to dusk. It does not quote Pope Pius XI’s condemnation of “neutral” or “mixed” schools as “unnatural” and “harmful” to children. It does not recall the Church’s teaching that the state has no right to monopolize education or to force parents to send their children to schools that are, at best, religiously neutral and, at worst, actively hostile to the Faith.
Instead, the article celebrates a law that keeps Catholic children in the state’s clutches for the vast majority of their waking hours, allowing them a brief respite for “religious instruction” that is explicitly separated from their “real” education. This is not a victory for the Faith; it is a defeat. It is an admission that the Church has failed in her primary duty to provide a complete Catholic education for her children. The article’s praise for the law’s “protections” for schools — ensuring they are not “liable” for students during released time — further underscores the state’s primacy. The Church should not be seeking the state’s protection; she should be asserting her own authority.
The Conciliar Sect’s Abdication of Responsibility
This law and the EWTN article’s celebration of it are fruits of the conciliar revolution. Since the “Second Vatican Council,” the structures occupying the Vatican have systematically dismantled the Church’s independent school systems, closed Catholic schools, and promoted the idea that Catholic children can be adequately formed in the Faith through Sunday school or released-time programs while spending the rest of their time in state schools. This is a direct betrayal of the Church’s teaching.
The article’s reference to the Supreme Court’s 1952 ruling in Zorach v. Clauson is particularly galling. That decision, which upheld released-time programs, was a product of the very liberal, secularist jurisprudence that the Church has always condemned. The Supreme Court’s assertion that accommodating religious instruction “follows the best of our traditions” is a lie. The best of our traditions is the Catholic tradition, which holds that the Church, not the state, is the arbiter of what constitutes true religion and proper education. By citing this decision with approval, the EWTN article reveals its acceptance of the state’s authority over religious matters — a direct contradiction of the Syllabus of Errors, which condemns the proposition that “the Church ought to be separated from the State, and the State from the Church” (Proposition 55).
The Duty of Catholic Parents and the Failure of Leadership
The article quotes Greg Chafuen of the Alliance Defending Freedom praising the law for keeping parents “in the driver’s seat.” But where is the Church’s leadership in this matter? Where are the “bishops” and “priests” of the concilar sect, who should be telling parents that their primary duty is to ensure their children receive a fully Catholic education, not to beg the state for crumbs of religious instruction? The silence of the conciliar hierarchy on this issue is deafening and damning.
Catholic parents have a grave obligation to provide their children with a Catholic education. If the state will not allow it, they must find other means — homeschooling, independent Catholic schools, or even moving to a jurisdiction where Catholic schools are permitted. To accept the state’s premise that it has the authority to set the terms of religious instruction is to deny the Church’s divine mandate. The Alabama law is not a solution; it is a band-aid on a gaping wound. It is a symptom of the Church’s failure to assert her rights and a sign of the conciliar sect’s complete capitulation to the secular state.
Conclusion: A Call to Reject the Conciliar Apostasy
The Alabama Released Time Credit Act, as reported by EWTN News, is not a victory for religious liberty. It is a symptom of the post-conciliar apostasy, a sign that the structures occupying the Vatican have abandoned the Church’s immutable teaching on education. It accepts the state’s supremacy over the education of Catholic children, reduces religious instruction to an elective, and fails to assert the Church’s divine right to establish and maintain her own schools.
Catholics must reject this false “victory” and return to the perennial teaching of the Church. They must demand that their pastors — if they are true pastors — uphold the Church’s authority over education. They must build and support independent Catholic schools where their children can be formed in the Faith without compromise. And they must never accept the premise that the state has the right to set the terms of their children’s religious instruction. As Pope Pius XI taught, the child is not the creature of the State. The child belongs to God, and it is the Church’s duty to form him for heaven, not the state’s to permit a brief interruption in his secular formation.
Source:
Alabama updates law allowing students time for off-campus religious instruction (ewtnnews.com)
Date: 10.04.2026