and all the superiors of each particular school; and finally, good example”.133
Every school should have at least one priest as its spiritual father, who ordinarily should be the parish priest. The parish priest, besides having the specific qualities of the priest, namely knowledge, purity of life, honesty in habits, exemplariness, should also show great love and affection to the entire company, and in particular towards school members, since he is the spiritual father of the entire school. He should do this by knowing them personally, hearing their confession, showing interest in their spiritual and physical needs, promoting harmony, visiting the classrooms, nurturing them with the word of God”.134 There are some following chapters dealing with the main offices: the prior, assistant prior, the
councillors, the monitor or the one in charge of fraternal correction, the chancellor or secretary, the pacifiers, the headmasters, the teachers, the one in charge of safeguarding silence and his assistants, the infirmarian and the doorkeeper.135 We can find ideas, terms, intuitions sprinkled throughout which rightly belong to the preventive pedagogy of apostolic zeal and amorevolezza (loving kindness).
The prior “should make every effort to bring back the one who has given up or has got lost; he should encourage the weak with exhortations; he should spur on the negligent with kindly force; he should correct the wayward with loving severity so that acknowledging his mistake he will correct
himself”.136 “Above all, the prior should make sure and diligently see that the children learn how to live as Christians through the Christian doctrine they are taught, for this is the reason they come to these schools; and, if any of them have been soiled by vice, the school administration should see that they be washed and be made clean”. 137 “Once all this has been done, if an undisciplined student were to be presented to him or a student who may have committed some wrong in need of correction, it would be good if the culprit were to receive public punishment according to the degree of the wrong done, and depending on the circumstances of the student. This however, should be done with charity, accompanied by prudence and discretion”.138
The role of Teachers and Headmasters is decisive “because all the duties and rules are geared to having the students taught well, properly instructed in Christian doctrine and properly directed toward virtue and good moral behavior”.139 It is for these principles more than for any other that terms inspired by charity and loving kindness are used, terms to do with relationships.
Teachers should be urged to be in school on time. It is much better that the teachers wait for their students, rather than the students wait for their teachers… Once the headmasters have assigned the students to the care of the teacher, then the teacher should receive them with charity, loving-kindness and meekness .The teacher should show them the affection and the love of a father… The concern of the teacher should not only be that of teaching the lesson found in the book, but more than anything else instructing the students on how to acquire virtue and good morals. The teacher should make sure that what he teaches is not only retained in their minds but actually put into practice. … He should aim at making “good and perfect Christians out of them, giving them all the advice, reminders and means which the Lord thinks best to suggest to him”.140
This is an explicit Gospel pedagogy, eminently preventive and proposed in word and deed by Jesus, the Master.
They should hold this office in high esteem; they should always keep in mind the example
of Jesus Christ who welcomed the child before him with so much charity and loving
133 ibid, col. 152-162.
134 ibid, Ch. 3 Dell’officio del sacerdote, col. 162-165..
135 ibid, Chs. 4-16, col. 165-190.
136 ibid, col. 166.
137 ibid, col. 167.
138 ibid, col. 168.
139 ibid, col. 179.
140 Constitutioni, col. 181-182.