VaticanNews portal reports on a certain Sr. Philomena W. Jappah, a member of the Sisters of the Holy Family, who serves as Education Secretary of the Diocese of Cape Palmas and National Coordinator for Catholic Schools in Liberia. The article presents her work as a model of Catholic education, emphasizing “education as a ministry of evangelization, healing, hope, and nation-building.” It describes her congregation’s focus on family ministry, child protection policies, teacher training, and collaboration with state authorities and international partners. The piece concludes with an expression of hope for a better future through Catholic education and collaboration between Church and State. What is presented as Catholic education is, in reality, a naturalistic, modernist program of social engineering that has nothing to do with the supernatural mission of the true Church of Christ.
The Naturalistic Reduction of Catholic Education to Social Work
The article’s opening statement already reveals the fundamental bankruptcy of the entire concept: “In Liberia, education is more than the transmission of knowledge; it is a ministry of evangelization, healing, hope, and nation-building.” This formulation, seemingly pious, is in fact a complete inversion of the proper ends of Catholic education. The primary purpose of any Catholic school is the salvation of souls — the formation of children in the Catholic faith, the teaching of the truths necessary for eternal life, and the leading of souls to Our Lord Jesus Christ through His Holy Church. Everything else is secondary and subordinate to this supernatural end.
The modernist conception presented here reduces education to a purely naturalistic enterprise: “healing, hope, and nation-building.” These are the buzzwords of the United Nations, of secular NGOs, of the Freemasonic project of the New World Order. Where is the mention of the necessity of baptism? Where is the mention of the state of grace? Where is the mention of the Four Last Things — death, judgment, heaven, and hell? Where is the mention of the necessity of the true Mass and the sacraments for the salvation of souls? The complete silence on supernatural matters is the gravest indictment of this entire project.
Pius XI, in his encyclical *Divini Illius Magistri* (1929), taught with the full weight of his Apostolic authority: “The proper and immediate end of Christian education is to cooperate with divine grace in forming the true and perfect Christian… the true Christian must be distinguished from the natural man by the supernatural qualities which he possesses.” The education described in this article produces not supernatural Christians but natural men — men formed in “values” and “dignity” but without the supernatural life of grace, without knowledge of the true God, without the sacraments that alone can save their souls.
The Heresy of “Values-Based Education” Without Dogma
The article speaks repeatedly of “values-based education,” “upholding the dignity of the human person,” “safe and inclusive learning environments,” and “student-centered” approaches. These are the hallmarks of the modernist educational philosophy condemned by the true Magisterium of the Church. They are the language of the conciliar revolution — the same revolution that has destroyed Catholic education throughout the world.
The true Catholic education, as defined by the Council of Trent and every Pope before 1958, is founded upon the teaching of Catholic dogma without compromise, without dilution, without the modernist “pastoral” reduction of truth to vague “values.” The Council of Trent declared anathema those who say that Catholic doctrine should be adapted to the spirit of the ages. Yet this entire article is precisely such an adaptation — the reduction of Catholic education to a program of social improvement that any secular institution could endorse.
“Catholic education must always uphold the dignity of the human person,” says Sr. Philomena. But what is the “dignity of the human person” apart from the supernatural destiny of each soul to beatitude with God? What is “dignity” for a child who is not baptized, who is not taught the true faith, who is not led to the sacraments? The modernist concept of “dignity” is a naturalistic substitute for the supernatural reality of sanctifying grace. It is the dignity of the natural man — the very man whom St. Paul tells us is dead in sin and cannot please God.
Collaboration with the State: The Modernist Subjection of the Church
The article proudly describes collaboration with “the Ministry of Education and other partners,” ensuring that schools meet “both Church and national educational standards.” This is the very error condemned by Pius IX in the *Syllabus of Errors* (1864), which anathematized the proposition that “the entire government of public schools… may and ought to appertain to the civil power” (Proposition 45) and that “the civil authority may interfere in matters relating to religion, morality and spiritual government” (Proposition 44).
The true Church has always maintained Her supreme authority over Catholic education. The Church does not submit Her schools to the standards of the State — the State has no authority over the education of Catholic children in matters of faith and morals. The very concept of meeting “national educational standards” alongside “Church standards” implies that the State has a legitimate role in determining what is taught in Catholic schools — a proposition that is heretical.
Pius XI in *Quas Primas* (1925) declared: “The Church demands for herself by a right belonging to it, which it cannot renounce, full freedom and independence from secular authority, and that in fulfilling the mission entrusted to it by God — to teach, govern, and lead all to eternal happiness, those who belong to the Kingdom of Christ — it cannot depend on anyone’s will.” The collaboration described in this article is precisely such dependence — the subjection of Catholic education to the dictates of a secular state.
The Apostasy of “Inclusive Education” and False Ecumenism
The emphasis on “safe and inclusive learning environments” and “special attention to the education of girls and vulnerable children” reveals the penetration of modernist egalitarianism and gender ideology into what is presented as Catholic education. The true Church teaches that the primary educator of the child is the Church herself, acting through parents and the hierarchy. The modernist concept of “inclusivity” is the antithesis of the Catholic understanding of education, which is founded on truth — one truth, the truth of the Catholic faith — and not on the false “tolerance” of error.
The article makes no mention of the necessity of conversion to the Catholic faith. It makes no mention of the duty of the Church to convert all nations to Christ the King. It speaks instead of “nation-building” — a purely temporal goal that has nothing to do with the supernatural mission of the Church. Our Lord Jesus Christ did not command His Apostles to “build nations” but to “teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost” (Matthew 28:19).
The very name of the school mentioned — “Our Lady of Fatima High School” — is itself a mark of suspicion. The Fatima apparitions, as documented in critical analyses, bear the marks of a Masonic psychological operation against the Church: the ritualistic symbolism of dates (1717, 1917, 2017), the naturalistic explanation of the “Miracle of the Sun,” the ecumenical reinterpretation of the message, and the diversion of attention from the true enemy of the Church — modernist apostasy within. A school bearing this name is more likely to propagate the modernist, ecumenical reinterpretation of Fatima than the true Catholic message of conversion and penance.
The Modernist Congregation: Sisters of the Holy Family
The Congregation of the Sisters of the Holy Family, to which Sr. Philomena belongs, is described as being “inspired by the model of the Holy Family of Nazareth.” This is the typical modernist appropriation of Catholic imagery to advance a naturalistic agenda. The Holy Family of Nazareth — the Son of God made man, the Blessed Virgin Mary, the foster father St. Joseph — is the model of supernatural perfection, of the contemplative life, of obedience to the divine will. To use this model to justify a program of “nation-building” and “social transformation” is a blasphemous reduction of the supernatural to the natural.
The article describes the congregation’s work as “reading the signs of the times and responding with love.” This is the quintessential modernist formula — the adaptation of the Church to the “signs of the times” rather than the proclamation of eternal, unchanging truth. St. Pius X, in *Pascendi Dominici Gregis* (1907), condemned this very approach: “The office of the Church is not to express her doctrine in a way that conforms to the signs of the times, but to guard and teach the deposit of faith as it was handed down.”
The *Lamentabili Sane Exitu* (1907) condemned the proposition that “the organic structure of the Church is subject to change” (Proposition 53) and that “dogmas, sacraments, and hierarchy, both in concept and in reality, are merely modes of explanation and stages in the evolution of Christian consciousness” (Proposition 54). The entire modernist project of Catholic education, as described in this article, is built upon these condemned principles.
The Absence of the True Supernatural Mission
What is most striking about this article is what it does not say. There is no mention of:
– The necessity of baptism for salvation
– The necessity of the true Catholic Mass — the Unbloody Sacrifice of Calvary
– The necessity of the sacraments, particularly Confession and the Holy Eucharist
– The existence of the state of grace and the danger of mortal sin
– The reality of hell and the necessity of conversion
– The social kingship of Christ over all nations
– The duty of the Church to convert all peoples to the Catholic faith
– The necessity of the true Catholic hierarchy — not the conciliar sect’s usurped authority
This silence is not accidental. It is the silence of modernism — the systematic suppression of supernatural truth in favor of naturalistic activism. It is the silence of the conciliar revolution, which has replaced the supernatural mission of the Church with a program of social work that any secular organization could undertake.
Pius XI warned in *Ubi Arcano Consilio* (1922): “When God and Jesus Christ are removed from laws and states and when authority is derived not from God but from men, the foundations of that authority are destroyed, because the main reason why some have the right to command and others have the duty to obey was removed.” The education described in this article is precisely such a removal of God — the reduction of Catholic education to a naturalistic enterprise that serves the temporal order while ignoring the eternal destiny of the souls it claims to serve.
The True Catholic Education: What Has Been Lost
The true Catholic education, as practiced by the Church for nineteen centuries before the conciliar revolution, was founded on the following principles:
1. The supernatural end of education is the salvation of souls — not “nation-building” or “social transformation.”
2. The content of education is Catholic dogma — taught without compromise, without dilution, without adaptation to the “signs of the times.”
3. The means of education are the sacraments — particularly the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, Confession, and the Holy Eucharist.
4. The authority of education is the Church Herself — not the state, not “international partners,” not the United Nations.
5. The goal is the formation of true Catholics — not “inclusive” citizens of a secular order.
The education described in this article has none of these characteristics. It is modernist education wearing the mask of Catholic education — a mask that fools only those who do not know what true Catholic education is.
Conclusion: The Spiritual Ruination of a Continent
The article presents the work of Sr. Philomena and her congregation as a model for Catholic education in Africa. In reality, it is a model for the destruction of Catholic education — the replacement of supernatural formation with naturalistic social work, the substitution of dogma with “values,” the subjection of the Church to the state, and the abandonment of the Church’s true mission of converting souls to Christ.
The people of Liberia — and of all Africa — do not need “nation-building” programs dressed in Catholic language. They need the true Catholic faith, the true sacraments, the true Mass, and the true Church of Christ. They need to be taught that there is no salvation outside the Catholic Church, that the state of grace is necessary for eternal life, that the sacraments are the only means of obtaining this grace, and that the social kingship of Christ must be recognized by all nations.
What is offered to them instead is the conciliar sect’s counterfeit — a naturalistic, modernist program that leads souls not to heaven but to the temporal kingdom of man. This is not Catholic education. It is the destruction of Catholic education. And it is the destruction of souls.
“The Church is not a human institution that can adapt its mission to the signs of the times. The Church is the Mystical Body of Christ, founded to lead souls to eternal salvation through the preaching of the true faith and the administration of the sacraments. Any ‘education’ that neglects this mission is not Catholic — it is anti-Catholic.”
Source:
Liberia: A Catholic sister’s mission in the community (vaticannews.va)
Date: 29.06.2026