by Vince Anch
With schools in full session for the fall semester, our teachers, principals and school staff are working diligently and sacrificially to ensure that every student in our Catholic schools gets the best education possible. When you add faith formation, a family atmosphere and a safe environment, it’s easy to see why our schools are so successful.
Government-funded schools provide a baseline of learning opportunities, but they lack the family atmosphere that our Catholic schools provide. Our students study the same core subjects, but the gap in philosophies, approaches and outcomes continues to widen.
Our students are learning how to be good Samaritans and to live like Jesus and his apostles while receiving their sacraments together. There’s a big difference when students pray, attend Mass and prepare for their sacraments as a class. This is extremely powerful in building the whole student and not just focusing on mandated tests.
Pope Leo, in his first apostolic exhortation, “Dilexi te” (“I have loved you”), wrote the following:
“For the Christian faith, the education of the poor is not a favor but a duty. Children have a right to knowledge as a fundamental requirement for the recognition of human dignity. Teaching them affirms their value, giving them the tools to transform their reality. Christian tradition considers knowledge a gift from God and a community responsibility. Christian education does not only form professionals, but also people open to goodness, beauty and truth. Catholic schools, therefore, when they are faithful to their name, are places of inclusion, integral formation and human development. By combining faith and culture, they sow the seeds of the future, honor the image of God and build a better society.”
I have some special friends that I have known most of my life. We attended the same grade school, high school and college. However, the one thing that has kept us close through all of these years has been our faith. I studied and played sports with them for years but it was our faith formation that made us “brothers” and not just “friends.” The same thing is happening in all of our Catholic schools.
Education, when intertwined with faith, develops the whole mind of our youth where truth, beauty and goodness are instilled.
The Catholic Education Foundation (CEF) takes pride in providing scholarships to children from financially struggling families. Without CEF, hundreds of children would not be attending Catholic schools right now.
Catholic education does more than teach. It transcends. We are excited that Pope Leo feels the same way.
