First of all, I would like to thank all of you for coming to this meeting this morning and I would also like to thank our BS Elementary School Principal, Jim Grogan, and the President of KMC, Mike Burris, for agreeing to join me in saying a few words to you about our Catholic schools. I am sure that you will agree with me that we are very privileged and blessed to have such good and competent Catholic men at the helm of both our grade school and high school – both of whom are parishioners of Blessed Sacrament. I have now been Pastor of Blessed Sacrament for just over a year and a half and I have not had the occasion nor the opportunity to address this segment of our parish, the segment whose families choose to send their children to our Catholic schools. Catholic education is a vital part of our mission at Blessed Sacrament (over 80% of annual budget of 2.4 million dollars goes directly to Catholic education) and so, with enrollment for next year underway and Parish Family Agreement Forms for the 2008/2009 academic year currently being turned in, I thought that this would be a good time to come together “in order to celebrate and articulate just what our core values and goals are and how everyone can be on the same page with regard to helping us accomplish them”. As a wise philosopher once said, it is necessary from time to time to “restate the obvious” in order to remind ourselves again and again, what we are all about. As most of you know, I am a convert to the Catholic faith and the very first Catholic educational institution I ever set foot in, was the seminary when I was in my early 20's. I never had the benefit of a Catholic education and for this fact, I always feel as if I am a little behind cradle Catholics, who have had the blessing of a Catholic education. However, being a priest and a pastor, I really see the value of a Catholic education – especially today, in the highly secularized cultural in which we live. Therefore, I would like to make 3 points: 1) As Bishop Jackels wrote in his article (February 1st edition of TCA) “the main purpose of a Catholic school is help make disciples of Jesus Christ” – it is to form and educate saints for the Kingdom of God. Isn’t this the whole purpose of our existence? To love and serve the Lord in this world and to be happy with him in the next? And our mission as a Catholic school is to help in this process. Furthermore, in carrying out our mission to make disciples of Christ, I believe, we also form good citizens, good members of society who contribute to the common good and make this world a better place to live. This is our mission at Blessed Sacrament and KMC and if we are not all about this, then we might as well fold up and go home. So my first point: “our mission is to make disciples of Jesus Christ” 2) Second point: it is a fundamental principal of Catholic social and moral doctrine that: “parents are the first and primary educators of their children”. The Catholic school is only here to assist parents in their God given and grace-filled vocation to form and educate their children in the faith. Each of you have this grace by virtue of the Sacrament of Marriage. This is an essential element of your vocation: “the procreation and education of your children”. And you have received special graces at your disposal, graces that I don’t have, graces that we don’t have as a Catholic school, to accomplish this task. No matter how hard we work at the Catholic school or how good our Catholic schools are, we can never replace the role of parents in the education of their children. As Bishop Jackels mentions in his article, if parents themselves do not live an authentic Catholic life by following the teachings of the Church in worship and in service, if they do not create a Catholic culture in their own homes, and if they do not provide a good example and witness to Jesus by what they say and do, then even the best Catholic school will not be effective in forming good disciples of Christ, which is our primary goal. One little anecdotal issue that has being weighing heavily on my conscience has to do with the obligation that parents have take their families to Mass on Sunday – or to see that the children get to Mass on Sunday. I know for a fact that there are parents (obviously this group excluded) who send their kids to Catholic schools, who make great sacrifices so that their children receive a good Catholic education, and who they themselves do not go to Mass on Sunday. Or who don’t go to Mass when they are on vacation or traveling. What kind of mixed message does this send to our young people who learn in their religion class that the Sunday Mass obligation is one of the 10 Commandments - Keep Holy the Sabbath - and one of the Precepts of the Catholic Church? Who learn in their classes that it is a mortal sin if we miss Mass on Sunday through our own fault and their own parents don’t even go to Mass on Sunday? This comes up in confession and it breaks my heart. For the little ones, I know it is not a mortal sin because it is not their fault and I tell them this, but I always ask them to encourage their parents come to Mass on Sunday because we need that weekly contact the divine, we need the Bread of Life in Holy Communion, we need that time of spiritual worship and renewal to help us get through the week. 3) Finally, whether we accept it or not, we live in a morally toxic culture. The world does not do a very good job in supporting us in our mission to form disciples of Jesus Christ. There is a lot of competition for the souls of our young people today - for the souls of your children. The attraction and influence of drugs and alcohol, the pervasiveness of pornography (especially on the internet - and recently we have had two really good presentations on the dangers of pornography and what you can do as parents to help your children), the temptation to engage in pre-marital sex, the rampant materialism and consumerism, or any other dis-value that competes with what we believe and uphold to be true, good, and beautiful, is both insidious and intense in our world today. We have to realize this and have our eyes wide open. And we (and I include you as parents and we as a Catholic school) are in this spiritual battle together for the hearts and souls of our children. We need to realize this so that we can fight this spiritual crusade together (to take the mascot of KMC), and do all we can to equip our children with the tools they need to resist these temptations - the tools of knowledge and virtue, the tools of self-discipline and good judgement, the tools of courage, compassion and humility, so that they can resist these temptations and live a good, meaningful and joyful life as disciples of Jesus. Conclusion: my three points: |