Vidal urges schools to give room for academic freedom, teach truth

WHILE denying that Catholic schools convert or “proselytize members for the Church,” Cebu Archbishop Ricardo Cardinal Vidal asked that they be unashamed in proclaiming Jesus’ truth.

He said the words while celebrating mass during the Sacred Heart School-Jesuit (SHS-J) Canduman, Mandaue City campus inauguration yesterday morning, which President Gloria Arroyo attended.

“(A Catholic school) is not an institution of propaganda or mind control; nor is it an enterprise of profit and business,” Vidal said during the homily attended by politicians and businessmen, who were all SHS-J alumni.

Teachers and an estimated 1,500 students, who numbered more than half of the school’s population, assembled for the mass, which was held in a covered court.

Aside from Arroyo, Cebu Governor Gwendolyn Garcia, Rep. Nerissa Soon-Ruiz (Cebu, 6th district), Mandaue City Mayor Jonas Cortes, and businessmen Bobby and Andoni Aboitiz and Mario King were also around.