Father Joe Corpora Appointed as Bishops' Consultant on Education

Rev. Joseph Corpora, C.S.C., director of university-school partnerships in the Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE) at the University of Notre Dame, has been appointed a consultant to the Committee on Catholic Education of theU.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).

Father Corpora, who is working to boost Latino enrollments in Catholic K-12 schools in his role as director of ACE’s Catholic School Advantage campaign, will consult with the bishops’ committee for a term extending to November 2014.

The committee provides guidance for the educational mission of the Church in the United States in all its institutional settings; its scope includes Catholic elementary and secondary schools as well as Catholic colleges and universities.

Chaired by the Most Rev. Joseph P. McFadden, Bishop of Harrisburg, Pa.,  the USCCB committee advocates for federal public policies in education that are consistent with Catholic values and uphold parental rights and responsibilities regarding education.

The Catholic School Advantage campaign partners with dioceses and schools across the country with the goal of doubling the percentage of Latinos who send their children to Catholic K-12 schools by 2020. This effort envisions offering greater educational choice and social opportunity to immigrant families while making use of available seating in Catholic schools, many of which serve at-risk children in impoverished neighborhoods.

Father Corpora co-chaired theNotre Dame Task Force on the Participation of Latino Children and Families in Catholic Schools, which, in 2009, issued its report, To Nurture the Soul of a Nation: Latino Families, Catholic Schools, and Educational Opportunity. That report prompted the Catholic School Advantage campaign.

Father Corpora, a priest of the Congregation of Holy Cross, is an alumnus of Notre Dame. He served at the University of Portland in Oregon for six years before beginning two decades as a pastor—first at St. John Vianney Parish in Goodyear, Arizona, a parish that is 90 percent Mexican-American and Mexican, and then at Holy Redeemer Parish in Portland, Oregon. In the former position, he founded the first Catholic school to be opened in the Diocese of Phoenix in thirty years.

He returned to Notre Dame in 2009. Among his duties on campus, he is assistant rector in Dillon Hall, one of the residence halls for students.

Regarding the appointment as a USCCB consultant, Father Corpora said, “I’m very grateful for the opportunity to serve the Church in this way. This kind of appointment speaks of the platform that Notre Dame has for serving the Church. Notre Dame continues to be a powerful means for doing good in the Church and in the world.”