While we are proud of our Catholic Schools all year, Catholic Schools Week gives all of us a moment to pause and to take time to intentionally celebrate who we are and highlight the contributions that we make to our many communities – local, state, national and global.
These contributions spring out of our mission to evangelize and spread the Gospel to our students and families as we “nurture faith, inspire learning, foster service and build leadership” so that our graduates can do the same. Our schools exist as an integral ministry in the work of the Church.
One of the ways in which our schools bring the Church’s evangelizing mission to life is by integrating our faith within the education of the whole person.
The success of Catholic schools in passing on our faith – generation after generation – is a bright light in the history of the Church in the United States. In our Catholic schools, a young person can cultivate a personal relationship with Jesus Christ on a daily basis. Our schools foster unapologetically Catholic environments, led by pastors, principals and teachers who bear witness to the Gospel every day.
There are so many people to thank and to acknowledge for their support, which allows our schools to thrive. Beginning with Bishop David Bonnar and his leadership, our pastors, parish leaders, parishioners, parents and community partners all contribute to this ongoing mission.
Two very special groups of people to spotlight during this Catholic Schools Week are our educators and staffs, in recognition of their deep commitment and dedication to our students and families.
Our schools came back into session full-time in August 2020 and have remained so since. While the effects of the pandemic have been felt by all students, the National Assessment of Educational Progress results released in fall 2022 indicated that “if all U.S. Catholic Schools were a state, their 1.6 million students would rank first in the nation across NAEP reading and math tests for fourth and eighth graders,” said Kathleen Porter-Magee, superintendent of Partnership Schools in an op-ed piece in the Wall Street journal. Full-time in-person learning has been slated as a major factor in this success.
Please take some time this week to let your principal, teachers and staff members know that you appreciate them. It is so easy for all of us in our busy lives to not take the time to show our gratitude, especially for things that we tend to take for granted. This has not been an easy two years for our educators, but because of them, we have been able to be in school for in-person learning for two years – still experiencing the Catholic school environment of hospitality that can be so evident to people who are not with us every day.
