CATHOLIC IDENTITY

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.

The Office of Catholic Education chose the theme Celebrating Humanity for the 2020-2021 school year. Each letter in the word “humanity” represents an action we will study to apply the teachings of the virtues studied last year, and make our schools the centers of peace and justice Christ intended as he taught the Beatitudes at the Sermon on the Mount.

Because we have been unable to gather in person for quite some time, we have joined with the Office of Faith Formation to offer a virtual collection of resources that will help our faculty and staff address the immediate concerns of caring for one another and seeing ourselves as brothers and sisters in Christ. These resources include online sessions from Roy Petitfils, a Catholic author, speaker, and psychotherapist; Katie Prejean McGrady, an international Catholic speaker and author; Deacon Art Miller, author, radio host, revivalist, retired businessman, and the Director of the Office for Black Catholic Ministries for the Archdiocese of Hartford; and Dr. Christopher Baglow, Director, Science & Religion Initiative for the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame. Each of these highly engaging speakers will inspire our schools as faith communities that will help unite the people of God in love.

Without a doubt, we will continue to face challenges that present obstacles to the core of what makes us Catholic: the ability to gather as school communities for Mass, share a meal at a retreat, or hug a friend who needs comfort. However, with a little creativity, God’s grace, and your prayers, we will overcome these obstacles and become the people that God intended us to be.