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Catholic schools and their students lost a singular witness to hope last week with Bishop Joseph McFadden’s passing into eternal life. Through a lifetime of joyful service as a teacher, coach, pastor, bishop, and mentor, Bishop McFadden embodied the Good News and inspired all those who knew him to do the same.

In his ministry in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, the Diocese of Harrisburg, and the USCCB Committee on Catholic Education, Bishop McFadden served as a catalyst for the transformation of K-12 Catholic education throughout the United States. In the face of unprecedented challenge, he was a passionate and prophetic voice for the indispensable role that Catholic schools can and must play as agents of the common good – tirelessly inviting us all to “put out into the deep” to renew these national treasures. He was an architect of and driving force behind the ongoing revitalization of these schools, which remain such powerful agents of evangelization. When the story of these schools is ultimately written, it will surely and prominently feature Bishop McFadden.

On behalf of the Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE) at the University Notre Dame family, I extend my prayerful sympathy to Bishop McFadden’s family, the people of Harrisburg, and all those who mourn his passing.

Rev. Timothy R. Scully, CSC
Hackett Family Director of the Institute for Educational Initiatives
Founder, Alliance for Catholic Education

Hundreds of educators and school leaders eager to enhance the future of Catholic schools will attend a unique collection of summertime conferences hosted annually by the University of Notre Dame’s Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE).

The June and July conferences, some of which are currently accepting registrants, are part of ACE’s mission to sustain, strengthen, and transform Catholic schools. They are a growing component of the busy summers when ACE conducts the majority of its on-campus academic programming and graduate-level classes with the hope of inspiring the next generation of Catholic school teachers and leaders.

Preparation of outstanding college graduates to teach in Catholic schools is the organization’s best-known activity, now welcoming its 20^th cohort of aspiring educators as ACE prepares a major celebration of the nation’s Catholic schools to mark its 20^th anniversary.

The conferences are hosted by various ACE units that have grown in recent years to respond to particular issues and needs. Those interested in attending or learning more can visit these conferences’ respective web pages:

ACE Teaching Fellows Annual Conference (June 11-14). Participants in the Melody Family ACE Teaching Fellowship program convene to assess and catalyze their growth as master teachers, educational leaders, and generators of problem-solving research. Several benefactor-supported fellowships support highly promising educators who wish to continue their careers in Catholic classrooms while pursuing advanced knowledge and skills. Fellows cultivate these leadership assets along with their mentors during the conference.

Advocates for Parental Choice Symposium (June 14-19). This intensive formation experience gives participants a first-hand experience of people and places on the cutting edge in implementing school choice policies. Catholic school supporters will receive skills, insights, and working relationships to equip them as advocates in the parental choice movement. Major speakers on- and off-campus will increase these future leaders’ understanding of the social, legal, political, pedagogical, and moral dimensions of parental choice.

Play Like a Champion Today ® Sports Leadership Conference (June 21-23). This annual conference, titled “Character Education through Sports Leadership” for 2013, emphasizes developing the whole person through sports. Guest speakers offer professional development for coaches and athletic administrators at both the youth and high school levels. Hosted by ACE’s Play Like a Champion Today ® experts in sports as ministry, the conference gathers representatives of parochial leagues around the country to network and share best practices. Register for the Sports Leadership Conference.

Equitable Services Institute (June 23-28). Students in Catholic schools across the country are not getting federally funded services to which they’re entitled; this institute assists diocesan superintendents, principals, and other educational leaders to address this problem. Attendees will receive updated information about complex federal funding policies plus practical roadmaps for the process of consultations by which educators obtain equitable shares for their students from Title 1, Title 2, and Title 3 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. Information and registration are available online.

Principals Academy (June 24-28). A four-day enrichment experience for Catholic school principals, entitled “Fueling the Fire of Leadership in Catholic Schools” for 2013, will engage expert faculty and practitioners as they develop an action plan to increase motivational practices for instruction, enrollment, and school identity. Principals will explore tangible, evidence-based strategies to increase teacher motivation and self-efficacy, improve supervision processes, and encourage teacher self-evaluation to improve the professional learning environment of schools. Register for this academy hosted by ACE Consulting.

Latino Enrollment Institute (June 25-28). The Catholic School Advantage campaign will invite principals from around the country to discuss strategic possibilities and pursue practical strategies to increase enrollment, particularly among Latino children, in Catholic schools.

Superintendents Strategic Leadership Conference (July 9-12). ACE Consulting will host its annual conference for diocesan schools superintendents, providing expert speakers and facilitating in-depth conversations to explore key issues faced by the invited school leaders.

School Pastors Institute (July 9-12). Pastors whose parishes include schools are invited to this annual institute to learn to manage and leverage better the distinctive relationship between a parish and its school. The Institute develops many skills and perspectives that a pastor will need in overseeing a parish school,its people, and its finances. Insights presented will support pastors’ reflections on the value of Catholic schools to parishioners and to the Church’s future.

Mary Ann Remick Leadership Conference (July 12). This conference, a capstone event for those earning their master’s degrees in educational administration through the Mary Ann Remick Leadership Program, is a unique and informal venue for South Bend-area educators to discuss current research with ACE leaders and experts from across the country. The graduate students preparing to serve as principals present the action research they have conducted, and local visitors attending free-of-charge exchange ideas on school challenges and solutions.

ACE Summer Forum (July 12-14). The ACE Summer Forum is a professional development opportunity for Catholic school supporters and ACE graduates, focusing on urgent needs in Catholic schools and how aadvocates can address them. This summer, Forum participants will discuss raising local awareness for Catholic schools and connecting local initiatives to the broader ACE movement.

ACE 19 Parent Retreat (July 24-26). Parents whose sons or daughters have just finished their first year in ACE Teaching Fellows often have many questions about these first-year teachers’ experiences. ACE Advocates hosts a special retreat for these parents at Notre Dame to get their questions answered and to see the broader context of the journey their ACE teachers are taking. The retreat also allows these parents of the ACE 19 cohort to hear presentations, worship together, and swap stories.

Kids who love science—and those who want to get to know it better—have a great opportunity for hands-on learning and fun in a Catholic school setting this summer.

The Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend and the University of Notre Dame’s Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE) are once again teaming up to offer the “Catholic Schools Summer Science Educational Program” for 6^th, 7^th, and 8^th grade students.

Parents can choose from a June session, focused on forensics and early engineering concepts, and a July session, focused on ecology and life science. Both will be held at Christ the King School in South Bend and will utilize the lab facilities daily.

A student can attend one or both, with each three-week session costing $80.

Register by May 7 and save $10 off the cost of each session. There is a registration fee of $25 per child. Visit http://ace.nd.edu/summercamp/ to learn more and download a form for registration by mail.

Session one spans Mondays through Fridays June 10-28. Session two spans Mondays through Fridays July 1-24, with July 4-5 off. The sessions meet daily from 8 am to 11 am.

The Alliance for Catholic Education forms college graduates to be teachers serving in Catholic schools around the country. Teachers in formation, studying at Notre Dame during the summer as part of the highly selective ACE Teaching Fellows program, serve alongside current Catholic school teachers to lead the Science Educational Program experiences, sharing their own affinity for science. This yields an optimal learning opportunity, with frequent individual instruction.

This is the seventh year ACE teachers are offering the science program and a separate Catholic Schools Summer Camp Educational Program for students entering grades 2 through 8—also co-hosted by the Diocese and based at several area Catholic schools. Information on these camp opportunities is at the same online address. You can also contact Caitlin Cameron of ACE at 574-631-9332.

The number of four-year-olds in early-childhood education programs in the United States has skyrocketed from about 127,000 in the 1960s to 2.7 million today, says Dr. Jim Frabutt, a member of the faculty in ACE’s Mary Ann Remick Leadership Program. Catholic schools are sharing in that trend and in the emerging opportunities, he adds.

Frabutt, who discussed his research on the topic in a presentation last week to the National Catholic Educational Association’s annual convention, says pre-kindergarten programs are “a real growth area in Catholic education.” He spoke on the Son Rise Morning Show, giving a national Catholic radio network audience a glimpse at the NCEA presentation he gave with Rachel Waldron, a graduate of the Remick Leadership Program.

“This is a wonderful opportunity for family evangelization,” Frabutt told Morning Show anchor Brian Patrick on Friday, April 5. He said research on Catholic preschool programs in 15 arch/dioceses, including interviews with diocesan superintendents, uncovered not only growth in the programs, but nearly unanimous hope that this would help Catholic schools reach out to parents of these young children in the spirit of the New Evangelization.

At the same time, the opportunity to connect these children and their parents to Catholic schools and the Church spotlights the need to further “professionalize” the teaching and operation of the pre-K programs, Frabutt added. As with all Catholic schooling, the programs must serve the development of the whole child, including cognitive, emotional, social, and moral growth.

Regarding pre-school education, he said, “we need to invest in the people who are delivering it and the skill with which we’re doing so.”

Frabutt is the author of a new book—Beyond Academics: Supporting the Mental, Emotional, and Behavioral Health of Students in Catholic Schools—on Catholic schools’ attention to development of the whole child.       

The NCEA presentation by Frabutt and Waldron was titled “Educating the Youngest Hearts and Minds: The Landscape of Catholic Preschool Education.”

Tony Hollowell, a 2006 ACE Teaching Fellows graduate who has undertaken many adventures in support of Catholic schools, is living a new set of adventures these days as a seminarian at the Pontifical North American College in Rome. During his studies to be a priest for the Archdiocese of Indianapolis, he was invited to be lector at the March 12 Conclave Mass for the Church’s College of Cardinals, just a couple of days before they elected Pope Francis. Tony was in St. Peter’s Square among the throngs present to hear the words “Habemus Papam” and to enjoy the introduction to the new Holy Father.

Thank you, Tony, for taking the time in a seminarian’s busy life, especially during Lent and during these early days of the new papacy, to share the following reflections with your ACE family:

When I found out that I would be doing the first reading at the Mass to begin the Conclave, the first thing I thought was “I have to tell my family!”

I knew my parents would be excited, but through the whole experience, God showed me just how big my family has grown over the course of my life. As I sat in Saint Peter's, two hours before the start of the Mass, I was filled with an overwhelming sense of gratitude for all the wonderful people God had put into my life, people who had become a part of my family.

High school teachers, grade school principals, college roommates, students I had taught, mentors who had taught me, families that I had met—the list went on and on. Pulsing right in the middle of all this gratitude was an ineffable joy for the many people that I encountered while being a part of the ACE program.

I received many notes of encouragement from all these people whom I had encountered in ACE. God showed me that my family has continued to grow steadily as I continue to try to serve Him.

I did the “ACE Teaching Fellows” program with ACE. Our Holy Father Francis has proclaimed, “To be powerful is to serve.” He knows what I learned in ACE—namely, by serving others, we become powerful through love.

When I began to teach in Mississippi, I was confused, frustrated, tired, and just not very good. But that eventually did not matter. Though I was inexperienced, I was given mentors. Though I was weak, my love was strengthened. Though I was away from home, my family grew.

“Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains but a grain. But if it dies, it will bear much fruit.” The many emails and messages of encouragement I received from people that I met in ACE were the abundant fruit of two years of ACE Teaching Fellows.

They were sacramental reminders of the immeasurable love God pours out on those who serve Him. Truly, to be powerful is to serve.

I am continually reflecting on experiences and lessons learned in ACE and applying it to my journey in the seminary.

The greatest lesson ACE ever taught me was a fundamental truth of the Christian faith, that “whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” It is only through the cross that we will ever attain the Resurrection, a fact that Holy Week seeks to imprint on our hearts.

The name of the school I served in ACE was called Resurrection Catholic School. That is a prophetic name for the lesson learned in ACE, for it was through ACE that I first learned the joy of the Resurrection that comes from carrying the cross and following Christ.

God simply will never be outdone in generosity, giving us tenfold in return for every act of faith made out of love of Him. Thus, I remain in a debt of gratitude before a God who continues to expand my family to include more and more holy men and women, building us up together into the Body of Christ. And there is always room for more.

Homepage photo of Pope Francis: License Some rights reserved by the Catholic Church (England and Wales)

Photo of Tony Hollowell, provided by him, shows his ministry as lector at the Cardinals' Conclave Mass on March 12, 2013.

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A March 15 article in the Indianapolis archdiocesan newspaper, The Criterion, talked about Tony’s journey.

You can see a video of Tony’s ministry as lector at the Conclave Mass.

You can hear an audio recording of Tony's  interview on national Catholic radio on March 15. He spoke to the Son Rise Morning Show about his first glimpse of Pope Francis in St. Peter’s Square.

Also see ACE’s previous story about Tony and Notre Dame Magazine’s story about Tony as a cross-country cyclist supporting Catholic schools.