Denver Catholic

16 OCTOBER-NOVEMBER 2026 | DENVER CATHOLIC deeply personal decisions concerning children without involving their parents, or when teach- ers lose the freedom to respond to individual students because decisions are centralized far from the classroom. We see it in healthcare when policies imposed by insurers, hospital systems or government bureaucracies override the judgment of doctors and patients. We see it when government regula- tions unnecessarily usurp the authority of fami- lies, parishes and local organizations. But subsidiarity isn't something only govern- ments violate. Parents can surrender too much responsibility to schools, coaches, childcare providers or screens. Businesses can centralize decisions better made by employees closest to their customers. Pope St. John Paul II captured the wisdom of subsidiarity beautifully: "Needs are best under- stood and satisfied by people who are closest to them and who act as neighbors to those in need" (Centesimus Annus, 48). Our culture often assumes bigger is better. Subsidiarity reminds us otherwise. At its heart, subsidiarity preserves human agency and calls us to take responsibility. Through advocacy and civic engagement, we protect the freedom of families and local insti- tutions to fulfill the roles entrusted to them. Strong families and communities cannot be legislated from above. They must be cultivated from within. F A M I L Y BY ANNETTE BERGEON CEO ENDOW Who should make the decisions that shape a child's life? A parent? A teacher? A school board? The state? The federal government? The answer to this question gets to the heart of one of the most important principles of Cath- olic Social Teaching: subsidiarity. When it comes to a child's formation, edu- cation, health and well-being, most decisions are best made by their parents, the people who know and love that child most. They know their child's strengths and challenges, gifts and strug- gles. They know what lights up their child's eyes and sets their heart on fire. This is subsidiarity at its most basic. Subsidiarity teaches that decisions should be made at the lowest competent level of authority. A central authority should perform only those tasks that cannot be effectively performed at a more local level. As Pope Leo XIV writes in Magnifica Huma- nitas, "The role of individuals, families, local communities and intermediary organizations should not be supplanted by higher-level authorities." Higher institutions should instead "recognize, protect and promote the freedom and creativity of lower-level entities" (68). We violate this principle when schools make

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