Church Legislation on Education in 1929

[12] THE OFFICIAL POSITION of the Catholic Church regarding education can be clearly determined by reference to three sources, namely: the Decrees of the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore, the Code of Canon Law and the 1919 Pastoral Letter of the Hierarchy.

"All parents shall be bound to send their children to a parochial school, unless it is evident that such children obtain a sufficient Christian education at home, or unless they attend some other Catholic school, or unless, for sufficient cause approved by the bishop, with proper cautions and remedies duly applied, they attend another school. It is left to the Ordinary to decide what constitutes a Catholic school."—From the Law Promulgated by the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore, 1884. 

Canon 1113: "Parents are bound by a most grave obligation to provide to the best of their ability for the religious and moral as well as for the physical and civil education of their children, and for their temporal well-being."

Canon 1373: "In every elementary school religious instruction, adapted to the age of the children, must be given."

Canon 1374: "Catholic children must not attend non-Catholic. neutral, or mixed schools, that is, such as are also open to non-Catholics. It is for the bishop of the place alone to decide, according to the instructions of the Apostolic See, in what circumstances and with what precautions attendance at such schools may be tolerated, without danger of perversion to the pupils."—From the New Code of Canon Law [i.e. the 1917 Code].

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Source: "Legislation of the Church on Education," The National Catholic Welfare Council Bulletin 11, no. 3 (Aug. 1929): 12.