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Pope Francis, speaking in Rome on Jan. 30, 2014, to a delegation from the University of Notre Dame, expressed gratitude for the University’s support of Catholic K-12 schools.

“From its founding, the University of Notre Dame has made an outstanding contribution to the Church in your country through its commitment to the religious education of the young and to serious scholarship inspired by confidence in the harmony of faith and reason in the pursuit of truth and virtue,” said the Pope, according to an English text provided by Vatican Radio.

“Conscious of the critical importance of this apostolate for the new evangelization, I express my gratitude for the commitment which the University of Notre Dame has shown over the years to supporting and strengthening Catholic elementary and secondary school education throughout the United States.”

The Pope made his remarks in Italian during an audience he granted to the Notre Dame delegation, as detailed by The National Catholic Reporter.  Pope Francis greeted Rev. John Jenkins, CSC, president of the University of Notre Dame, along with ACE founder Rev. Timothy Scully, CSC and other members of the University Board of Trustees.  In addition to creating the Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE), Fr. Scully is also the Hackett Family Director of the Institute for Educational Initiatives. Since the inception of ACE and the Institute, Notre Dame has reached out to ensure educational excellence and provide resources to strengthen Catholic identity and student achievements in schools, especially in service to under-resourced and the children they serve.

This meeting of the Board of Trustees in Rome coincided with the opening of the University’s new Rome Center and the granting of honorary degrees to ecumenical leaders.  Prominent among the participants in the papal audience was His Eminence Donald Cardinal Wuerl, Archbishop of Washington, DC.

To view video of Pope Francis' meeting with the Notre Dame delegation, please click here.

When I was asked to write a short essay on why Catholic schools are important in 2014, I, like any good educator, decided to cheat.  I asked Notre Dame Catholic School’s 8^th Graders to do it for me.  I told them that a list of reasons was due the next day (“No, you don’t have to write in complete sentences this time (AND ONLY THIS TIME!); yes, it will be a grade…”).

Now, I know our kids.  They are faith-filled, joyful, kind, respectful, energetic, and very bright … but they’re teenagers (AHHHH!).  I didn’t know what to expect, though I figured soccer and basketball might be prominent among their responses.

They weren’t.

When I was growing up, parents worried about things like MTV and AOL Instant Messenger.  Those things are ancient history.  Between iPods, iPads, and iPhones, the very nature of identity – of “I” – has changed.  Facebook has co-opted the idea “friend.”  Twitter invites us to “follow.”  We shut out the real world with our headphones and bury ourselves in user-friendly, intuitive interfaces.

Such, at least, is what we “adults” grumble about (“Well, sonny, when I was your age…”).  The Church, however, is doing something quite different.  The Pope Tweets!  Our own Bishop Melczek is on YouTube (if you don’t believe me, Google it)!

But what does this have to do with why Catholic schools are so important today?  Why am I not writing about pre-marital sex and crime and gangs and the economy and terrorism and poverty and empty pews…?  On the other hand, why am I not talking about high standardized test passing rates and college matriculation and rigor and discipline and innovation?

Notre Dame’s 14 year olds (“AHHHH!  Teenagers!  Run!”), given complete freedom to talk about what is important to them, focused on these themes:  Faith, Family, Vocations, Morals, Service, Caring, Gratitude, Learning, Connectedness, and Future.

We don’t give our young people nearly enough credit.  They are more than aware of all the struggles and troubles in the world.  They know that something isn’t right.  They know that there is more out there.  There is a thirst for love and joy and connectedness.  There is an energy and a vibrancy and a vitality.  There is an honest innocence.  There is a yearning for Truth (note the capital “T”).

Our young people are telling us exactly what they need and value, and it happens to be the Gospel.  Today’s youth – the youth with iPhones and headphones and Facebook and Twitter (and maybe even the youth with intentionally messy hair, though I’m not sure about that) – are hungry for the Word of God, for a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, and for life-giving relationships with one another.

It’s time for us adults to plug-in, log-on, and get connected – or, dare I say, reconnected.  Catholic schools are important in 2014 not because there are troubles all around us.  Catholic schools are important in 2014 because there is hope all around us, and hope does not disappoint.

Benjamin Devin John Potts, Ed.M., is the Principal of Notre Dame Catholic School in the Diocese of Gary, Indiana. He is also a member of the Mary Ann Remick Leadership Program's eleventh cohort. For more information on the Remick Leadership Program, please click here.

Notre Dame Catholic School is a ministry of the Notre Dame Catholic Community that fosters learning through an unsurpassed faith-based education and prepares young people for extraordinary lives. For more information on Notre Dame Catholic School, please click here. 

This blessed time of year prompts us to look back at cherished Christmas traditions and look forward to a new year—often considering plans for the future that reflect our deepest values. If these values include education, community, faith, and service to the Church and society, this is a good time to consider the life-transforming experiences of Notre Dame’s Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE).

Applications are now being accepted for the ACE Teaching Fellows program, which forms Catholic school educators, ready to serve at-risk children in under-resourced K-12 schools.

Those who already teach can apply for the Mary Ann Remick Leadership Program (RLP), which prepares the next generation of transformational school leaders, architects who bring to life a compelling vision of a better future for the families and communities they serve.

These initiatives grant a master’s degree from one of the nation’s leading universities and offer an unrivaled combination of education, community life, and spiritual growth. On-campus coursework at Notre Dame goes hand-in-hand with online learning and the everyday life of serving in a Catholic school—an unmatched opportunity to build skills as an educator while working to transform and revolutionize Catholic schools.

Join us! Make a differerence in the future of our children and help build stronger communities for them to live. College graduates from around the country are eligible to apply.

Explore the “journey of an ACE teacher” in the ACE Teaching Fellows program. Enjoy videos describing ACE—our 20th anniversary, as well as our people, mission, and activities. The deadline to apply for ACE Teaching Fellows--in the ACE 21 cohort starting in summer 2014—is Jan. 21, 2014.

Apply to ACE Teaching Fellows

For teachers eager to develop advanced leadership skills for Catholic schools, a brochure describes ACE’s Mary Ann Remick Leadership Program. Explore this program’s embrace of values through education, community, and spirituality. The deadline to apply for the Remick Leadership Program is Feb. 1, 2014.

Apply to Remick Leadership

A Catholic parish in the Diocese of Tucson, Arizona, has pledged an extraordinary $800,000 gift as a sign of solidarity with elementary school students from one of the nation’s most impoverished communities.

The pledge, part of a capital campaign to improve school facilities in the diocese, is a model other parishes may wish to follow. This show of support for two Notre Dame ACE Academies in downtown Tucson has been pledged by the people of Our Lady of the Valley Parish in the retirement community of Green Valley, Ariz., some 20 miles away.

The inner-city schools, now in their fourth year of partnership as Notre Dame ACE Academies schools, foster innovative opportunities for disadvantaged children to overcome the achievement gap that has plagued children in Tucson’s largely Latino south side neighborhoods.

The two Tucson schools slated to receive this generous investment in their students’ future are St. John the Evangelist and Santa Cruz. Standardized tests already show academic achievement rising under a transformative partnership with the University of Notre Dame’s Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE).

A new fund-raising campaign aims to improve the school facilities even as the partnership has already energized the Catholic identity and student-teacher interactions inside the buildings.

A bold response of $800,000 in pledges to the campaign came from the parish of Our Lady of the Valley, which has no school of its own. Many Green Valley residents are retirees.

These parishioners made a gesture of hope and solidarity needed throughout the Church and the Diocese of Tucson. The diocesan campaign continues through 2014, with a goal of raising $5.7 million.

“Our Lady of the Valley Parish stands as a beacon of inspiration for all people of good will who can answer the call of Pope Francis and the Lord’s piercing question about how we are serving the least of our brothers and sisters,” said the Most Rev. Gerald Kicanas, Bishop of the Diocese of Tucson.

“This generous contribution in support of the Notre Dame ACE Academies embodies the parishioners’ ‘yes’ to the Lord, to the educational mission of the Church, and to the entire Tucson region,” Kicanas said. “These students will benefit from the Catholic school advantage, which increases their likelihood of college and career success while making them more engaged citizens and more faith-filled Catholics.”

Notre Dame’s own “Catholic School Advantage” campaign, which has sharply increased Latino enrollments in the Notre Dame ACE Academies, is working to bring those benefits to students in schools around the country.

“I hope parishes everywhere will emulate Our Lady of the Valley,” said Catholic School Advantage campaign director Rev. Joseph Corpora, C.S.C. “The people of Our Lady of the Valley understand how vital Catholic schools continue to be to the future of the Church.  Our schools continue to be the Church's best arm for the New Evangelization.  Children who attend our Catholic schools will learn of the Catholic faith and the joy of the Gospel.  We need to keep our Catholic schools strong and welcoming to kids of all economic backgrounds.  I am deeply grateful to the people of Our Lady of the Valley Parish for their tremendous generosity."   

Rev. Francisco Maldonado, pastor of Our Lady of the Valley, said he believes the pledges parishioners have made reflect the parish’s own faith-filled community. “These good folks saw Catholic schools and the Catholic faith bring graces to their own families, to their own lives, and to their own parish and neighborhood,” Maldonado said. “They’re accepting their responsibility to pass along the power of love—really the message of the New Evangelization—to the next generation, and our parish will be among those blessed by this.”

Photo: Most Rev. Gerald Kicanas, Bishop of Tucson, with students from Notre Dame ACE Academies partnership in his diocese.

The moral imperative to improve K-12 education for Hispanic children requires action by schools, governments, families, and corporations, a leader from the Notre Dame ACE Academies said during a “summit” hosted recently by the Hispanic Council for Reform and Educational Options (Hispanic CREO).

Cristina Espino, advancement coordinator for Notre Dame ACE Academies, urged the 200 conference attendees to recognize the synergies achieved in such schools as crucial for empowering Latino students. The Notre Dame ACE Academies initiative is an innovative university-school partnership program that joins the University of Notre Dame with inner-city Catholic schools in Tucson, Arizona, and the Tampa Bay area of Florida.

“We see in Florida and Arizona that school choice is a necessary component of efforts to reform educational opportunities for the Latino community,” said Espino, who was a member of the panel addressing “The Power of One Voice: Empowering Students, Teachers, Parents, and Faith Leaders.” Notre Dame ACE Academies has seen school choice work in an atmosphere where families and corporations alike pitch in to strengthen the schools—and where school communities themselves embrace the dual goals of “college and heaven” for every child.

Espino reported that a public school county board member, convening with education reform advocates during the Miami conference Nov. 14-16, proposed raising the quality of K-12 education by placing more Hispanic teachers in the public school system. But she said a broader answer to the Latino achievement gap requires a collaborative commitment to do whatever it takes for students - these unyielding efforts are not tied to race, as proven by many at the five Notre Dame ACE Academies.

"We have a relentless focus on the children,” she said of the Tucson and Tampa Bay schools, where students and teachers alike are experiencing new initiatives and academic gains. In contrast to collaborations exclusively aimed at public schools, she said, “What I’m hearing [at the Summit] is that communities need more schools and partnerships that put children first.”

Sponsors of the three-day Hispanic CREO conference, now assembling annually to advance quality schooling for all children through school choice and other approaches, included Notre Dame’s Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE), Step Up for Students, the Ford Motor Company, the Walton Family Foundation, and the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice.

(Photo L to R) Jose A. Fernandez, Immediate Past President of Democratic Hispanic Caucus of Florida; Daniel A. Leon, Chief of Staff to civil rights leader Michael Skolnik; Cristina Espino, Advancement Coordinator Notre Dame ACE Academies; Maria Garza Brown, Advocate for Hispanic Scholarship Consortium and E3 Alliance; and Julio Fuentes, President & CEO Hispanic CREO