ACE Advocates News

Congratulations to Greg Celio, SJ, (ACE 11 - Nashville), who was ordained to the priesthood on July 15 at Dolores Mission Church in Los Angeles, CA.

• View Ordination Mass
• Read Greg's Bio
• Watch the Ordination Video

After gathering ideas and input from ACE graduates and friends at last summer's virtual summit, the ACE Advocates team coordinated a series of weekly conversations focused on critical issues impacting Catholic schools and educators.

Five months and 19 sessions later, Kati Macaluso and Taylor Kelly sat down with Audrey Scott to reflect on the significance of the series and the impact it has made on Catholic educators and supporters from across the country.

“My job is to help your children become saints.”

Several times over the past 12 years, Kelly Foyle has stood in front of Catholic school families and offered these words on Back-to-School Night. 

Kelly has made this declaration as an elementary teacher, a middle school teacher, a campus minister, and a school leader. She has stated it in a classroom at St. John Vianney School in Goodyear, Arizona; the cafeteria at Immaculate Conception-St. Joseph School in Chicago’s Old Town neighborhood; and in the gymnasium at St. Barnabas School on Chicago’s South Side. No matter where she serves or what her role happens to be, the goal remains the same: help kids become saints. 

More than 140 ACE graduates and friends came together on June 20 to break out of the upper room to serve Catholic schools as we work together against the global pandemic and systematic racism. Join our ongoing conversation and listen to thoughtful reflections from Fr. Lou DelFra, CSC, Matt DeBoer, Tony Harris, Michele Monk Hutton, Elias Moo, and Colleen Knight Santoni.

Throughout Catholic Schools Week 2020, we'll be sharing some of our favorite Catholic Schools Week reflections that ACE graduates, team members, and friends have submitted over the years. The below reflection is from Jennifer Beltramo and was originally published in 2012.

Last week, as several “partners in mission” began arriving for an appreciation event, I anxiously wondered whether I should have prepared our student ambassadors more fully. “What should we say?” they had asked just two days earlier. “They already know that I believe in Catholic education,” I had shared, “They want to know what you believe.  What makes our school unique? What difference has it made in your life?” That was it, no further guidance, just lofty questions for twelve-year-olds to ponder.