47 Everyone is aware of the great importance, present and future, of the mission country schools, and of how much effort and work the Church has devoted to establishing schools of every description and level and to defending their existence and well-being. It is obviously difficult to add to school curricula a program of formation for Catholic Action executives, and therefore it will often be necessary to resort to extracurricular methods to bring together the most promising youths, and train them in the theory and practice of the apostolate. The local ordinaries must, therefore, use their prudent judgment in assessing the best ways and means for opening schools of the apostolate, in which, obviously, the type of instruction will be different from that in ordinary schools. Sometimes the task will be to preserve from false doctrine children and adolescents who must attend non-Catholic schools; in any event, it will always be necessary to balance the humanistic and technological education offered by the public schools with a formation based on spiritual values, so that the schools may not turn out falsely educated men, swollen with arrogance, who can hurt the Church and their own people instead of helping them. Their spiritual education must always be commensurate with their intellectual development, and must be planned to make them lead a life inspired by Catholic principles in their particular social and professional environments; in time, they must be able to take their places in Catholic organizations. To this end, if Catholic youths should be forced to leave their communities and attend public schools in other towns and cities, it will be expedient to open social centers and boarding houses, in which Christian life and morals are safely preserved, and the talents and energies of the young people are directed toward lofty apostolic ideals. By thus entrusting to the schools the special and highly useful tasks of preparing Catholic Action executives, We do not, however, intend to exempt families from their responsibilities, or to minimize in any way their influence, which at times equips them even better for nurturing apostolic fervor in the souls of their children, for instructing them in Christian precepts, and for preparing them for action. The home is, in fact, an excellent and irreplaceable school.
Source: Princeps Pastorum (Vatican.va)