I picked up from the Caroline Chisholm Library a booklet called Grounded in the Faith: Handing on the Deposit of Faith to School Pupils and Students. It was published by the Bishop of Sandhurst in 1975 for use by schools in the diocese and contains some revealing quotes.

Quoting Pope Paul VI to Catholic bishops:
"In the face of ravages being inflicted upon the Christian people by the diffusion of venturesome hypotheses and of opinions that disturb the faith, we have a duty to recall, with the Council, that true theology rests upon the written word of God, together with sacred tradition, as its perpetual foundation ... Dearly beloved brothers, let us not be reduced to silence for fear of criticism ... However necessary may be the function of theologians, it is not to the learned that God has confided the duty of authentically interpreting the Faith of the Church; that faith is borne by the life of the people whose bishops are responsible for them to God. It is for bishops to tell the people what God asks them to believe."

Quoting Cardinal Seper, prefect of the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith:
"I have much faith in the Catholic sense, the sense of Catholic orthodoxy amongst our laity ... But it seems to me, alas, that the Bishops, who obtained many powers for themselves at the Council, are often to blame because in this crisis they are not exercising their powers as they should. Rome is too far away to cope with every scandal, and Rome is not well obeyed. If all bishops would deal decisively with these aberrations as they occur the situation would be different."

On Pre-school Religious Instruction in the Home:
"All parents have the duty and grace of state to form their children religiously by way of example. This they do at home, as their sons and daughters pass through infancy to early childhood, then through adolescence to early maturity.

When parents show their tiny children how to make the Sign of the Cross and how to pray the Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory be to the Father, they are teaching the children, in a child's way, the greatest truths that any man can know, namely the Unity and Trinity of God, that God is One and God is Three, Father, Son and Holy Spirit; the Incarnation; the divine motherhood of Mary; the fact of sin; Redemption and the Cross; the greatness and goodness of God; Grace; the supreme importance of death in the state of grace.

If small children have witnessed a baptism, or have watched their parents go to the confessional, or have accompanied them to the altar-rails, they have already a glimmering of the Sacraments. If they have watched the Crib with gladness at Christmas and have gazed in silent sadness at the Crucifix, they are beginning to grasp the wonder of the love of Christ. If they have looked at the sanctuary lamp, the altar and the tabernacle, if they bow their head when the sanctuary bell rings at Mass, they are acquiring a child's knowledge of the Mystery of faith.

If children see in their own homes sacred images and pictures of Our Blessed Lady and the saints and Angels, if they hear of their Guardian Angel and the Angel of their brothers and sisters, if their mother or father has sprinkled them with holy water, especially as they go to rest at night, they are beginning to think of that unseen world where the angels and saints live with God and towards which their own lives are being directed."

On Religious Practices at School
"Senior pupils are to be trained in approved and properly ordered liturgies. They are to be instructed in private mental prayer. So-called charismatic prayer, or public spontaneous prayer, or prayer in tongues, is not be practiced in schools.

Pupils are to be taught the serious obligation of going to Mass on Sundays and Holy Days; they are to know that deliberate omission is mortally sinful. Parents are reminded of their twofold obligation in this regard.

Let all remember, that while Mass in English is permitted and encouraged, Latin remains the official language and by direction of Vatican II it is to be preserved. Hence the people are to know how to say or sing in Latin the people's parts of the Mass: the Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Pater Noster, Agnus Dei.

In order to foster the sense of religious faith and to engender a personal lively belief in the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament, the Church's most precious treasure, priests, parents and teacher should cooperate in promoting among pupils reverence in Church and observance both of rubrics and legitimate customs. Some of the these rubrics and customs are the following:

(a) Holy Communion is not to be received or administered on the hand.
(b) the communicant is not to take into his or her hands the chalice, unless presented by deacon or priest
(c) the preferred way of receiving Holy Communion under both kinds is by moistening the Sacred Host in the Chalice
(d) the traditional composition, size and shape of the Altar Breads is to be maintained in the diocese
(e) where altar rails exist, the Communicant should kneel
(f) members of the Congregation should not enter the sanctuary or gather around the altar during Mass
(g) if people receive Holy Communion standing, they should make a visible reverent act of adoration before communicating; if they receive kneeling, then that act of of kneeling is itself the required act of adoration.
(h) children, as well as adults are to be informed that Holy Communion under both kinds adds nothing of sacrament, of grace, of supernatural reality to Holy Communion under one form only
(i) a reverent genuflection before the Blessed Sacrament should be made as one takes one's place, or leaves from the Church
(j) a reverent sign of the Cross with holy water is made coming into the Church
(k) a genuflection is made when passing in front of the tabernacle
(l) unnecessary salutations and everyday conversations are excluded from Church or Chapel; they are disedifying, irreverent to Our Blessed Lord, distracting to those who come to pray

From the Lenten Pastoral Letter of Bishop Stewart
"Catholic schools are under threat from outside pressure and from internal stress. We cannot close our eyes to a weakening of the system.

The core of this malaise consists in a faulty presentation, first of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and second of those sacred truths which he revealed and commanded to be handed in their entirety to all succeeding generations ...

From the very beginning the teaching of Peter and the Apostles has been resisted, even in the Church itself ... The Church has seen the rise and fall of many heresies. At different times bishops, priests, religious and laity have found Christ's sayings hard, His teaching in faith and morals difficult. They have pitted their vain speculations against His unerring words, closely guarded and divinely guaranteed in His Church. Victims of their own conceit, they have seduced many by introducing what the Apostles calls 'new intruding forms of speech, quibbling knowledge that is knowledge in name only.' Our own age is not immune. Ancient fallacies are dressed in modern garb and taught with a new vocabulary. Fresh attempts are made to whittle down the meaning of the Faith; the true word of Sacred Scripture is distorted by the innovator ...

While the teaching apostolate seems to have become the exclusive prerogative of certain self-styled catechetical experts, honest, faithful Parents find themselves barred from their bounden duty of watching over the Christian formation of their own children. Rendered almost helpless on the sidelines, they are compelled to look on what they rightly judge to be travesties of liturgical worship, devious doctrine and dangerous trends in moral behaviour.

Yet it is not without significance that parental representations played a strong part in moving the Bishops of England and Wales to reform their own catechectical centre.

What has all this to do with our schools?

To find the answer you have only to read certain popular text books, heretical or near-heretical, found in some schools. You have only to examine new pedagogies, strong in method but practically devoid of Christian content. You have only to ask about the endless discussions, too often among the uninformed, and sometimes cynically described as a pooling of mutual ignorance. You will find intuition replaces reason, personal experience supplanting the Truths of Faith and human emotions becoming the basis of the moral code.

We should be blinding ourselves if we failed to see all is not well with our schools. Too many pupils are affected by teaching that is inadequate or even contrary to true relgious belief and practice. The speculations of vogue theologians have a fascination for their devotees, even when such speculations are opposed to the authoritative doctrine of the Church, and, in time, these aberrations find their way into the class room.

We must not overlook the harmful effect which the rejection of authority is having on the Church today. There are increasing defections from the ranks of clerical and religious life, and a serious falling off in Catholic practice among the laity, particularly the youth ...

We will be rightly condemned if by default we deprive children of their Catholic heritage by countenancing errors in Doctrine or by neglecting to impart to the coming generation the certainties of our God-given Faith. Great as may be the difficulties to maintain our Catholic School System, they can be overcome with faith, courage and a resurgence of that spirit of loving dedication which made possible its beginnings and truly impressive results in the history of the Catholic Church in Australia"