Fr. Scully Reflects on the Meaning of the Pope's Visit to a Harlem School

In an op-ed piece for the New York Post, Rev. Timothy R. Scully, C.S.C., ACE's founder and the Hackett Family Director for Notre Dame's Institute for Educational Initiatives, offers a reflection on Pope Francis' visit to Our Lady Queen of Angels in East Harlem.

"So when Pope Francis arrives in East Harlem to visit Our Lady Queen of Angels Catholic School today, many people might view this moment as a sort of “pilgrimage,” a nod to the “relic” that is Catholic schooling in the United States. But that would misunderstand Pope Francis and his pontificate.

If there’s one theme the Holy Father has made the animating feature of his ministry, it has been the abiding need to reach out to those on the margins of society — and to do so boldly. By visiting Our Lady Queen of Angels, a small K-8 school that serves 290 kids — Francis is drawing attention to a community that has been serving marginalized children for more than a century.

Francis’ visit is no empty gesture. It’s an invitation to each of us — calling us to go out to the world, to the periphery, and bring life and hope to the people who need it most. Nothing in American Catholicism offers a more vivid testament to this mindset than our Catholic schools, which have served — and will continue to serve — as indispensable instruments of human formation and social transformation."

 Read Fr. Scully's entire reflection here.