Why Catholic Schools

Each day during Catholic Schools Week, we will post a reflection on the focus of the day centered around this year's theme, A+ for America. Today's theme: "Catholic Schools are an A+ for our Team and Volunteers"

Each day during Catholic Schools Week, we will post a reflection on the focus of the day centered around this year's theme, A+ for America. Today's theme: "Catholic Schools are an A+ for our Nation

In the spring of 1995 at La Salle Academy, while standing by my junior year locker, my freshmen

Each day during Catholic Schools Week, we will post a reflection on the focus of the day centered around this year's theme, A+ for America. Today's theme: "Catholic Schools are an A+ for our Students"

When I taught Amy she was a bright, athletic, beaming eighth grader. She loved her older sister, her younger brother, and playing soccer. A short two years later, her body was ravaged by leukemia, and after a long and valiant battle, she passed away. Attending her funeral was one of the most difficult things I’ve ever done. And yet, though it was many years ago, I still remember the theme of the homily: Amy’s life is changed, not ended.
 
I sometimes imagine Amy looking down from heaven and saying to me, “These students you teach will not be here forever. Teach them something that lasts.”

Each day during Catholic Schools Week, we will post a reflection on the focus of the day centered around this year's theme, A+ for America. Today's theme: "Catholic Schools are an A+ for our Community"

Chicago Jesuit Academy, where I was blessed to work for four years, is a place of hope.  Although it is surrounded by violence and poverty, and although the students are choosing to use their already-tough middle school years to do something incredibly daunting, the attitude of these young men and their teachers, families, and benefactors is consistent: work hard, love well, pray often and there are great things waiting on the horizon.
 
It is shocking to no one that eleven and thirteen-year-old boys do not usually discuss the benefits of learning, loving and praying. CJA provides the West Side of Chicago a sanctuary where these activities can be praised by adults and other students alike—where sixth-grade readers can play “Vampire Tag” at recess, where young musicians can showcase their talents at the Black History Month Celebration, where aspiring mathematicians can recite up to the hundredth digit of Pi on March 14^th, where zealous poets can display their work on the walls, and where young men of faith can share their stories out loud in weekly chapel.

Each day during Catholic Schools Week, we will post a reflection on the focus of the day centered around this year's theme, A+ for America. Today's theme: "Catholic Schools are an A+ for our Parishes"

When I was an associate pastor at St. Joseph parish in South Bend, Indiana, I met a fifth-grade boy named Gabe who wanted to become Catholic. Gabe learned about our Catholic faith in his religion classes, he went to Mass with his classmates, and he decided he wanted to be baptized. His parents sent him to a Catholic school, but Gabe’s family didn’t go to Mass on Sunday and his parents didn’t quite know what to make of their son’s desire to join the Church. But they were supportive of their son and took him to Mass one Sunday. The spark of Gabe’s enthusiasm and faith spread to the rest of his family and I started to see them at Mass every weekend. Not long after, Gabe’s dad joined RCIA, his little sister was baptized, and his mom who had grown up Catholic, came back to the Church.