Mission Statement

Our Lady of Good Counsel School, LLC is a Catholic ministry for homeschooling families under obedience to the Roman Pontiff (Pope) and Magisterium of the Roman Catholic Church and our bishops and priests in union with him. The purpose of Our Lady of Good Counsel School, LLC is to provide a means of fulfilling both the civil law of the state of Alabama and our responsibility before God, as defined and mandated by the Catholic Church, of being the primary educators of our children. We are strictly obligated to incorporate the Catholic faith into the teaching of all subjects and provide a Catholic environment for education. Homeschooling is a valid means of providing the education and religious environment mandated by the Church. Excerpts from official Church documents follow.

• "The sacrament of marriage gives to the educational role the dignity and vocation of being really and truly a ministry of the church at the service of building up her members. So great and splendid is the educational ministry of Christian parents that Saint Thomas has no hesitation in comparing it with the ministry of priests: 'Some only propagate and guard spiritual life by a spiritual ministry: this is the role of the sacrament of Orders; others do this for both corporal and spiritual life, and this is brought about by the sacrament of marriage, by which a man and a woman join in order to beget offspring and bring them up to worship God.'" Familiaris Consortio #38
• "The Synod too, taking up and developing the indications of the council, presented the educational mission of the Christian family as a true ministry through which the Gospel is transmitted and radiated, so that family life itself becomes an itinerary of faith and in some way a Christian initiation and a school of following Christ. Within a family that is aware of this gift, as Paul VI wrote, 'all members evangelize and are evangelized.'" Familiaris Consortio #39
• "The family holds, therefore, directly from the Creator the mission, and hence the right, to educate the young, a right inalienable because inseparably joined to a strict obligation, a right anterior to any right whatever of civil society and the State, and therefore inviolable on the part of any power on earth." Divini Illius Magistri
• "To use the words of Leo XIII: 'It is necessary not only that religious instruction be given to the young at certain fixed times, but also that every other subject taught be permeated with Christian piety. If this be wanting, if this sacred atmosphere does not pervade and warm the hearts of masters and scholars alike, little good can be expected from any kind of learning, and considerable harm will often be the consequence.'" Divini Illius Magistri
• "Parents are under a grave obligation to see to the religious and moral education of their children, as well as their physical and civic training, as far as they can, and moreover to provide for their temporal well-being." Divini Illius Magistri
• "By nature, parents have a right to the training of their children, but with the added duty that the education and instruction of the child be in accord with the end for which by God's blessing it was begotten. Therefore, it is the duty of parents to make every effort to prevent any invasion of their rights in this matter, and to make absolutely sure that the education of their children remains under their own control in keeping with their Christian duty, and above all to refuse to send them to those schools in which there is danger of imbibing the deadly poison of impiety." Divini Illius Magistri
• "For the love of Our Savior Jesus Christ, therefore, we implore pastors of souls, by every means in their power, by instructions and catechisms, by word of mouth and by widely distributed written articles, to warn Christian parents of their grave obligations. And this should be done not merely in a theoretical and general way, but with practical and specific application to the various responsibilities of parents touching the religious, moral and civil training of their children, and with an indication of the methods best adapted to make their training most effective, in addition to the influence of their own exemplary lives." Divini Illius Magistri
• "Those in society who are in charge of schools must never forget that the parents have been appointed by God Himself as the first and principal educator of their children and that their right is completely inalienable... If ideologies opposed to the Christian faith are taught in the schools, the family must join with other families, if possible through associations of families, and with all its strength and with wisdom help the young not to depart from the Faith." Familiaris Consortio #40

These quotes are taken from official documents written by the Roman Pontiff, and are directed to each and every individual member of the Roman Catholic Church. We emphasize our obligation to obey this teaching by reminding each parent/teacher of the following excerpts from the Code of Canon Law:

• "The Bishop of the Church of Rome, in whom resides the office given in a special way by the Lord to Peter, first of the Apostles and to be transmitted to his successors, is head of the college of Bishops, the Vicar of Christ and Pastor of the universal Church on Earth; therefore, in virtue of his office he enjoys supreme, full, immediate, and universal ordinary power in the Church, which he can always freely exercise." Code of Canon Law 331
• "The Roman Pontiff, by virtue of his office, not only has the power in the universal Church but also possesses a primacy of ordinary power over all particular churches and groupings of Churches by which the proper, ordinary, and immediate power which bishops possess in the particular churches entrusted to their care is both strengthened and safeguarded. The Roman Pontiff, in fulfilling the office of the supreme pastor of the Church is always united in communion with the other bishops and with the universal Church; however he has the right, according to the needs of the Church, to determine the manner, either personal of collegial, of exercising this function. There is neither appeal nor recourse against a decision of decree of the Roman Pontiff." Code of Canon Law 333