CNS/L’OSSERVATORE ROMANO
Pope urges support for women Pope Benedict XVI poses with the general assembly of the Pontifical Academy for Life in Clementine Hall at the Vatican Feb. 26. He addressed the group on ethical questions related to umbilical-cord blood banks and the damage abortion causes women. page 10
THE EAST TENNESSEE
Volume 20 • Number 13 • March 6, 2011
The
newspaper
of the D iocese of K noxville www.dioknox.org
St. Joseph School in Knoxville to become regional
St. Dominic School marks 65 years Hundreds attend a pair of celebrations to show support and gratitude for the Kingsport school. By Dan McWilliams
B Y M A R Y C . WEAVER
St. Joseph continued on page 8
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he St. Dominic family in Kingsport enthusiastically turned out for two 65th-anniversary celebrations for the parish school. More than 200 attended a dinner-dance Feb. 19 at St. Dominic Church, following a Catholic Schools Week kickoff event Jan. 30 that drew 300-plus. The diocese announced in January 2010 that St. Dominic School would close at the end of the school year because of declining enrollment and increased subsidy costs to the parish. Bishop Richard F. Stika rescinded the decision the following month, giving the institution a two-year period to “demonstrate increased enrollment, an overall reduction in costs, and a healthy pattern of improvement,” as the ETC reported March 7, 2010. “There are a lot of people who take a lot of pride in the school and what St. Dominic has been able to accomplish over the decades,” said parish pastor Father Mike Nolan. “The kids are well-trained, wellbehaved, and well-respected. They know about the Lord. They know to go to him in prayer privately or publicly. “I’m very appreciative of all the efforts that went into
DAN MCWILLIAMS
ishop Richard F. Stika announced on Feb. 23 that St. Joseph School in Knoxville will become a regional school on June 1. The school, located off Cedar Lane in North Knoxville, has been a parish school of Holy Ghost Church. Most students are members of Holy Ghost Parish as well as Immaculate Conception and St. Albert the Great parishes, also in Knoxville. In a letter sent to the school community and members of the above parishes, Bishop Stika wrote, “Because of my deep personal belief and commitment to the importance of Catholic schools in the Diocese of Knoxville, I have been concerned about the future of St. Joseph due to declining enrollment and significant budget deficits which burden Holy Ghost Parish.” In response, he wrote, he formed a task force led by Father Patrick Garrity, “to look for ways to broaden support for the school, strengthen its financial position, and create a vision for its future.” The task force and its committees recommended making the school a regional rather than a parish institution. Father Garrity is the pastor of St. John Neumann Parish in Farragut and a former principal of Knoxville Catholic High School. The bishop noted that the school would be overseen by an executive committee made up of the pastors of Holy Ghost, Immaculate Conception, and St. Albert the Great—as well as a pastor to represent parishes that send fewer than 10 children to the school—and possibly one or two ex-officio members assigned by the bishop. One of the pastors will serve as president of the school for a fiveyear term. The first such president will be Father Chris Michelson, pastor of St. Albert the Great Parish. The school’s president will have essentially the same role as is cur-
School parents Mary and Joseph de Wit gave a talk at the 65th-anniversary dinner-dance on the merits of a St. Dominic education. Above, Mrs. de Wit checks off the final item on a list her husband and she used when considering where to send their children to school when they arrived in Kingsport in the 1980s. View a slide show of the celebration at dioknox.org/sdom-slideshow. CHECKLIST COMPLETED
not only making this night successful but also trying to make our school more successful and more viable for more people.” Father Nolan praised St. Dominic school-board chair Marie Wilson and “all the hard work of the school board, who earlier in the year were meeting weekly and then twice a month and have put in countless hours
of strategizing and setting goals and finding action plans. The progress they’ve made is incredible.” At the anniversary celebration Jan. 30, Bishop Stika celebrated Mass at the church, then joined parish families at the school for a tour, program, and lunch. Many of the families were visiting the school for the first time, said Father Nolan
“[The bishop] engaged, charged, and challenged and was a real shot in the arm to our parish community and the efforts we have made with our school,” he said. St. Dominic School opened in 1945 as the city’s first private school, with students meeting in the basement of the original church on Crescent Drive St. Dominic continued on page 6
Safe-environment program for children gets an upgrade The diocese will soon begin offering a new and improved curriculum to help protect youngsters from abuse, bullying, and online dangers. BY MARY C. WEAVER
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MARY C. WEAVER
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‘KEEPING KIDS SAFE’ Deacon
Sean Smith, chancellor for the diocese, explains a new child-protection program to Cumberland Mountain Deanery religious educators and pastors on Feb. 25.
his spring the diocese will roll out new safe-environment training for children, Bishop Richard F. Stika announced in a Feb. 14 letter to pastors and parish safe-environment coordinators. U.S. dioceses are subject to regular audits to ensure compliance with the U.S. bishops’ Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, introduced in 2002. As a result of the Knoxville Diocese’s most recent audit, the bishop wrote, “we have created a committee of dedicated religious educators to create and implement a diocesan program for age-appropriate safe-environment training for children in our parish/diocesan schools and our religious-education programs. This committee has gathered information from numerous dioceses throughout the country and has worked to create a new, comprehensive safeenvironment program for our kids.” The new program will replace the diocese’s current one for children. The other elements of the safe-environment program—background checks for all volunteers, employees, clergy, candidates for ordination, and religious; Virtus “Protecting God’s Children” training for all of the above; and the Safe environment continued on page 3