Catholic Schools Week started this past weekend. 

“Since 1974, National Catholic Schools Week is the annual celebration of Catholic education in the United States. It starts the last Sunday in January and runs all week, which in 2020 is January 26 – February 1. The theme for National Catholic Schools Week 2020 is ‘Catholic Schools: Learn. Serve. Lead. Succeed.’ Schools typically observe the annual celebration week with Masses, open houses and other activities for students, families, parishioners and community members. Through these events, schools focus on the value Catholic education provides to young people and its contributions to our church, our communities and our nation.”

National Catholic Educational Association Website

Our own community has a rich history of Catholic Schools with St. Aloysius and St. Francis Xavier Schools.  Many of you attended one or both of the schools.  Even this weekend, we heard from our wonderful speakers about their experience of our schools and how attending them impacted their lives, as I am sure they impacted your lives for those who attended. 

The goal of a Catholic school is to provide students with an environment of learning and excellence, but also to center on Catholic values.  I am a firm believer that the search for Truth is the search for God, and that can be found in all aspects of a Catholic school.  The truth found in math, science, literature, fine arts, athletics, and social studies all lead to the Truth of God, for all truth comes from God.  He is there on the pages of a Calculus textbook, He is found in nature, He is found in studying the sciences, and He is found in the great literature works, among other things. Our Catholic schools aid in that search. 

God is most profoundly found in the Faith, which is why it is wonderful that we have religion classes in the school.  It is seen as an equal to the other classes in learning, and it can put into practice all the other truths we have learned in the other classes.  The wholeness of a Catholic education reaps the benefits for generations, as our community has seen in having Catholic education since 1860.

Let us pray for our students this week as they celebration Catholic Schools Week.