Catholic Diocese of Jackson- Office of Education 2019-2020 Annual Report

CATHOLIC IDENTITY MAINTAINING CATHOLIC IDENTITY DURING COVID19 Our Catholic Identity is the underpinning of everything that happens here in our Catholic schools. Our mission is to be schools that live the two great commandments: love God with all our heart, soul, and mind and love our neighbors as ourselves. We seek to accomplish this through daily prayer, Mass, retreats, and service to others. It is our objective to help our faculty and students grow in faith through these activities. Additionally, we provide units of study on various Catholic faith themes for our faculty/staff. We believe that providing faculty/staff with education about our Catholic faith benefits our students by underscoring the importance of our baptismal duty to evangelize by word and action.

As many have noted in looking back on the 2019-2020 school year, we faced enormous challenges in the final stretch; however, with the strong foundation our Catholic Identity laid at the beginning of the school year and God’s infinite grace, we finished strong.

During the 2019-2020 school year, we studied the theological virtues of faith, hope, and love. As the basis of our study, we used the texts Virtuous Leadership: An Agenda for Personal Excellence by Alexandre Havard, and The Virtue Driven Life by Fr. Benedict J. Groeschel, C.F.R, in addition to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, documents from the USCCB and writings from Pope Francis. We examined these virtues by using the parables in the bible and the living example of Mary, Queen of Heaven and Earth. We learned the profound connection between these virtues is the love God has for us, His creation, as he infused our souls with the ability to act as His children and to merit eternal life with Him forever. We are thankful for the opportunity to prepare ourselves for the calamities of this year by studying faith, hope, and love. As we face the challenges of our new reality, we needed to understand the depth of God’s love for us and to recognize that He has already given us the tools to cope with the pandemic of COVID-19 and the widespread social unrest and division plaguing our country presently.