2023 Goals & Criteria

Goals & Criteria

R E S O U R C E D I R EC T O R Y Conference on Sacred Heart Education

Goals & Criteria Resource Directory

An Introduction St. Madeleine Sophie chose the service of education as the primary means by which the Society would carry on its mission of communicating the love of the Heart of Jesus. Faithful to her inspiration and like her open to new situations, we make her desires our own: • that people become ever more aware of the truth, of love and freedom • that they discover the significance of their lives, and devote themselves to others • that they take part creatively in the common effort to transform the world • that they be enabled to encounter the love of Jesus • that they let their lives be shaped by an active faith Sacred Heart educators are grounded in this mission and guided by the Goals and Criteria. Our Five Goals capture our aspirations as Sacred Heart Educators, and our Criteria indicate to us that our Goals are being lived. In the 2020 version of the Goals and Criteria introduction, we read, “…the living of a mission as great as ours is never fully complete or realized. Given as gift, our mission is a sacred work fulfilled only through the enfolding of it by each generation.”

Since the first articulation of the Goals and Criteria in 1975, Sacred Heart educators have worked to discern the enfolding of Grace in every generation. At the same time, Sacred Heart educators – in 1990, 2005, and

2020 – have recognized the shifting challenges of their time. Today, we realize demographic and social shifts along with technological innovation and the information explosion. These shifts and innovations, political divisiveness, and uncertainty raise new dilemmas and threaten human dignity. In processes that resemble that of a church-wide synod, we have sought to hear the experience of God’s people and articulate the mission of Sacred Heart education so that everyone in a Sacred Heart school community is charged with living those values in their generation.

The wisdom of the Goals and Criteria, which capture the essence of St. Madeleine’s Sophie’s vision of education, also carry with them the wisdom of Catholic philosophy and theology from the centuries. When seeking to live the values of the Goals and Criteria, one can take for granted the deep grounding of our mission in Scripture and Tradition, in Faith and Reason, and in proven pedagogical practices that ensure that Sacred Heart students develop deep critical thinking as well as skills to enrich the Common Good and further the Reign of God. This resource book provides all Sacred Heart educators with a deep understanding of the depth of each criterion.

Rooted in Scripture, Tradition, Church Teaching, the charism and Spirituality of the Society of the Sacred Heart, and proven pedagogy, each criterion is a concrete objective in helping Sacred Heart educators accomplish our shared mission in this generation. This resource will

also serve as a tool for those who seek to understand the foundations of the values of Sacred Heart educators as Catholic educators for people of all faiths.

The Education to Mission Committee and the task force specifically charged with this project hope that this resource helps one explore their own understanding of and commitment to the 2020 Goals and Criteria. And, consequently, enables all Sacred Heart educators to further the vision of St. Madeleine Sophie Barat, that each child encounters the love of God and becomes equipped with the knowledge and skills to know personal success and to further God’s reign.

Goals & Criteria

Foundational Principles I. In the Goals and Criteria, the Society of the Sacred Heart defines the mission of the schools as part of the Society’s educational mission in the Catholic Church.

II. Each school is accountable to the Society of the Sacred Heart Commission on Goals for its adherence to the Goals and Criteria.

III. Each school’s Board of Trustees and Administration establish and uphold policies that are consistent with the Goals and Criteria.

IV. The school allocates its resources to support each Goal and its Criteria.

V. The school is in compliance with professional standards as stated by accrediting agencies.

Goal I

Schools of the Sacred Heart educate to a personal and active faith in God. 1 The school identifies itself to the wider community as a Catholic-independent-Sacred Heart School and embodies the mission of the Society of the Sacred Heart.  2 The school forms its student and adult members in attitudes of the heart of Jesus, such as gratitude, generosity, compassion and forgiveness.  3 The school community reflects an ethos of joy, hope, and celebration and its programs assert that there is meaning and value in life.  4 The school community welcomes and respects persons of all faiths and educates to an understanding of the religions and spiritual traditions of the world.  5 School leadership prioritizes space and time for silence and contemplation for its members to deepen their interior life.  6 Members of the school community, open to transforming power of the Spirit of God, engage in personal and communal prayer, discernment and reflection which inform their actions.  7 The school community, rooted in the love of Jesus Christ, nurtures the spiritual lives of its members through the exploration of one’s relationship to God, to self, to others and to creation. 

Goal II

Schools of the Sacred Heart educate to a deep respect for intellectual values.

1 Sacred Heart educators and students engage in challenging experiences that inspire intellectual curiosity, a global mindset and a life-long love of learning.  2 Sacred Heart educators develop and implement a dynamic curriculum, effective instructional methodology, current educational research and ongoing evaluation.  3 Sacred Heart educators and students utilize a variety of teaching and learning strategies to support their growth and development.  4 The school curricular and co-curricular programs integrate innovation and collaboration, critical thinking and problem solving, the exploration of emerging technologies and critical evaluation of information.  5 The school utilizes space and the physical environment in alignment with best pedagogical practices.  6 The school cultivates aesthetic values and the creative use of the imagination.  7 Sacred Heart educators assume responsibility for their professional growth, supported by resources and a culture that promotes life-long learning. 

Goal III

Schools of the Sacred Heart educate to a social awareness which impels to action.

1 Sacred Heart educators prepare students to serve the common good in an interdependent world.  2 Sacred Heart educators immerse students in diverse global perspectives, developing competencies such as critical consciousness, language facility and cultural literacy.  3 The school, drawing from Catholic Social Teaching, educates students to analyze and work to eradicate social structures, practices, systems and values that perpetuate racism and other injustices.  4 All members of the school community accept accountability for the care of God’s creation, practice effective stewardship of the earth’s resources and work to alleviate the climate crisis.  5 School programs promote informed active citizenship and civic responsibility on the local, national and global level.  6 The school community engages in direct service, advocacy, outreach and partnerships to work for justice, peace and the integrity of creation.  7 Sacred Heart educators work to develop in the students a life-long commitment to service. 

Goal IV

Schools of the Sacred Heart commit themselves to the building of community as a Christian value.

1 The school, affirming that all are created in the image and likeness of God, promotes the inherent dignity of the human person and strives for relationships characterized by inclusion and mutual respect.  2 The school implements an ongoing plan for educating all members of the community to the charism, mission and heritage of the Society of the Sacred Heart.  3 The school engages with the Network of Sacred Heart Schools in the United States and Canada and Sacred Heart schools around the world.  4 All members of the school community support a clean, healthy and safe environment.  5 Members of the school community practice and teach with a spirit of peace and reconciliation the principles of non-violence and conflict management.  6 School leadership demonstrates a conscious effort to recruit students and employ faculty and staff of diverse races, ethnicities and backgrounds.  7 School leadership allocates financial resources to support socioeconomic diversity both in the admissions process and in the daily life of students. 

Goal V

Schools of the Sacred Heart educate to personal growth in an atmosphere of wise freedom.

1 Student and adult members of the school community grow in courage and confidence as they discover new abilities, cultivate strengths, learn from mistakes, develop empathy and exercise resilience in meeting challenges.  2 All members of the school community take personal responsibility for health and balance in their lives supported by a school culture that promotes spiritual, intellectual, physical and socio-emotional well-being.  3 Members of the school community model and teach respectful dialogue in support of clear, direct, open communication.  4 All members of the school community endeavor to practice informed, ethical decisionmaking and accountability.  5 Student and adult members of the school community model, practice, and teach safe, ethical and responsible use of technology.  6 Sacred Heart educators cultivate in the students life skills, such as initiative, creativity and agility.  7 Sacred Heart schools recognize and educate motivational, inspirational, and transformational leadership. 

Goal I RESOURCES

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Goal I Schools of the Sacred Heart educate to a personal and active faith in God. 1 The school identifies itself to the wider community as a Catholic-independent-Sacred Heart School and embodies the mission of the Society of the Sacred Heart.

SACRED HEART DOCUMENTS

OTHER CHURCH RESOURCES

Society of the Sacred Heart, Constitutions - 1982 4. By our charism, we are consecrated to GLORIFYING THE HEART OF JESUS: we answer His call to discover and reveal His love letting ourselves be transformed by His Spirit so as to live united and conformed to Him, and through our love and service to radiate the very love of His Heart.

Congregation for Catholic Education, The Identity of the Catholic School for a Culture of dialogue.pdf

OTHER SACRED HEART RESOURCES Conference of Sacred Heart Education, Identity Statement from RED book.pdf (Sacred Heart Identity Paper included in Orientation to Mission Red Book) Sacred Heart • Discover and reveal the Love of the heart of Jesus • Built on the traditions of the Society of the Sacred Heart, expressed in the Goals and Criteria.

Catholic = Based on the teaching and tradition of the Roman Catholic Church.

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Goal I Schools of the Sacred Heart educate to a personal and active faith in God. 2 The school forms its student and adult members in attitudes of the heart of Jesus, such as gratitude, generosity, compassion and forgiveness.

SACRED HEART DOCUMENTS

SCRIPTURE

Society of the Sacred Heart, Constitutions - 1982 15. Contemplating Jesus, we learn from His attitudes and responses how, in all our relationships, to witness to the liberating power of His love. In faith and simplicity we meet the other as a unique person, having respect and affection for each, and a humility which enables us to be receptive. Always, we are filled with hope in our encounters, sure of God's power at work in us all.

Luke 6: 36-37 Be compassionate just as your Father is compassionate. Do not judge;...do not condemn;... forgive.

73. Aware that it is always the Spirit who transforms us, we take seriously the responsibility of collaborating with the work of God throughout our lives….

OTHER SACRED HEART RESOURCES Society of the Sacred Heart, Life Unfolding – Offering the Gift – 2012 “We seek to incarnate in our daily life, through our presence and service, the compassion and forgiveness of the Heart of Jesus and, with other men and women, we bring to birth a world where humanity, justice and tenderness are possible.”

Clare Pratt, RSCJ “Compassion is more than feeling sorry for someone. It is living with an awakened heart. It is allowing the fire of love and a passion for justice to mobilize us, impelling us to go beyond feeling sorry to feeling a solidarity that seeks transformation, beginning with our own on-going conversion. It is giving all that we do and all that we are, our giftedness and our frailty, to God’s Project of Love. It is putting broken, divided hearts back together “that they may be one.”

OTHER CHURCH RESOURCES Thomas D. Williams, A Heart Like His: Meditations on the Sacred Heart of Jesus Sr. Mary Donze, ASC, In My Heart Room: 21 Prayers for Children For classroom teachers of young children, (available used) Wendy Wright, Sacred Heart: Gateway to God

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Goal I Schools of the Sacred Heart educate to a personal and active faith in God. 3 The school community reflects an ethos of joy, hope, and celebration and its programs assert that there is meaning and value in life.

SACRED HEART DOCUMENTS

CHURCH DOCUMENTS

Society of the Sacred Heart, Chapter 2008 “Let us open our eyes to the revelation of God’s love in each one.”

St. John Paul II, The Gospel of Life [Evangelium vitae], no. 3, 54 2. ….Even in the midst of difficulties and uncertainties, every person sincerely open to truth and goodness can, by the light of reason and the hidden action of grace, come to recognize in the natural law written in the heart (cf. Rom 2:14-15) the sacred value of human life from its very beginning until its end, and can affirm the right of every human being to have this primary good respected to the highest degree….

OTHER SACRED HEART RESOURCES Annette Schmeling, RSCJ “Several recent Supreme Court rulings have been the topic at many tables. There are people who are elated and rejoice, others are angry and outraged, and many who are afraid or sad. In this age of contempt, vitriol and polarization, Jesus invites us to learn of him, and follow him. The way of Jesus is our call. Let us look upon each moment, each encounter, each person, each duty, each opportunity, as God’s grace and a call to greater freedom.

Sacred Heart of Jesus, help us to open our minds and hearts to embrace the diversity of viewpoints, backgrounds and life experiences of those whom we encounter. Embolden us to testify to love, not fear, and to grace, not judgment.”

(Facebook posted excerpts Love is the Solution/ Love is the answer) St. Madeleine Sophie "Our whole being, our thoughts, actions, words, movements, even our breathing, everything in us must be a praise to the Lord, everything must be consecrated to his Heart ..."

3. ….every threat to human dignity and life must necessarily be felt in the Church's very heart….

Pope Francis, On Care for Our Common Home [Laudato Si'], no. 117 117. Neglecting to monitor the harm done to nature and the environmental impact of our decisions is only the most striking sign of a disregard for the message contained in the structures of nature itself.

When we fail to acknowledge as part of reality the worth of a poor person, a human embryo, a person with disabilities – to offer just a few examples – it becomes difficult to hear the cry of nature itself; everything is connected. Once the human being declares independence from reality and behaves with absolute dominion, the very foundations of our life begin to crumble, for “instead of carrying out his role as a cooperator with God in the work of creation, man sets himself up in place of God and thus ends up provoking a rebellion on the part of nature”.

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Goal I Schools of the Sacred Heart educate to a personal and active faith in God. 3 The school community reflects an ethos of joy, hope, and celebration and its programs assert that there is meaning and value in life.

OTHER CHURCH RESOURCES James Martin, SJ, Why I Am Pro-Life, America Magazine - 2019 James Martin, SJ, Truly Being ‘Pro-Life,’ NowThis - 2020 Steven Millies, A new way to think about the ‘consistent ethic of life,’ US Catholic - 2020 USCCB, Pro-Life Activities Page USCCB, Standing with Moms in Need - Statement in anticipation of the ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization USCCB, Assisted Suicide Laws in Oregon and Washington: What Safeguards? March 2022 Helen Alvare, Catholic Update: What the Church Teaches about Abortion - 2019 Education for Justice, Consistent Ethic of Life - 1983 The substance of a Catholic position on a consistent ethic of life is rooted in a religious vision that acknowledges God as the creator and destiny of human life. It is God who establishes the centrality and sacred meaning of human life and existence.

Joseph Cardinal Bernardin, Consistent Ethic of Life 1988 Joseph Cardinal Bernardin, A Consistent Ethic of Life Continuing the Dialogue - 1984

Tony Magliano, A consistent ethic of life protects everyone – no exceptions, National Catholic Reporter - 2014 Pope Francis, Peace depends on human dignity - 2014 Blasé Cupich, Timothy Michael Dolan, Catholic hospitals welcome transgender patients – and stand firm in their religious convictions, America – 2022 Pope Francis, In brief letter, Pope Francis speaks to LGBTQ Catholics, Outreach - 2022 Pope Francis, In new letter to Outreach, Pope Francis calls Catholics to foster a “culture of encounter,” Outreach - 2022

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Goal I Schools of the Sacred Heart educate to a personal and active faith in God. 4 The school community welcomes and respects persons of all faiths and educates to an understanding of the religions and spiritual traditions of the world.

OTHER SACRED HEART RESOURCES

CHURCH DOCUMENTS

Suzanne Cooke, RSCJ The Culture of Sacred Heart Schools – 1996 Your vision, like St. Madeleine Sophie’s, flows from your relationship with God as you understand God. Today the faith traditions within any of our adult communities include Christian, Jewish, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, and more. Together we reveal the face of God who is Mystery to our students, and they do the same for us, their teachers. Your vision of education also flows from your relationship with others and with yourself. Your vision causes you to commit yourself to a core set of values.

Second Vatican Council, Nostra Aetate - 1965

OTHER CHURCH RESOURCES John Paul II - To the Representatives of the World Religions - 2002

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Goal I Schools of the Sacred Heart educate to a personal and active faith in God. 5 School leadership prioritizes space and time for silence and contemplation for its members to deepen their interior life.

SACRED HEART DOCUMENTS Society of the Sacred Heart, Prayer, Constitutions 1982 Society of the Sacred Heart, Constitutions - 1982 87. Not only in prayer, but also in everything they do, the novices learn to unite themselves to the Heart of Jesus. Times of silence and of solitude will help them remain in an attitude of listening, which in turn will lead them to become honest in their relationship with God, with others and with themselves.

34. we shall create in our community life space for silence, times and places conducive to reflection, prayer and renewal.

OTHER SACRED HEART RESOURCES Society of the Sacred Heart, Life Unfolding - Offering the Gift - 2012 For Sophie “the spirit of the Society is essentially founded on prayer and the interior life” (Constitutions 17). She invites us to care for our interior life, because it is a source of fruitfulness, joy and vitality for us. It is the place where the human and divine come together, the place of our encounter with the Risen Christ, to which we bring our joys and sorrows and from which we draw strength to pronounce our “yes”.

Conference of Sacred Heart Education, Sacred Heart Educators: An Orientation to Mission - 2019 Espacio explanation, p. 16 Georgianna “Georgie” Blaeser, RSCJ, Espacio – 2017

St. Madeleine Sophie Create a desert and silence in your soul. The Lord is near; listen to God's voice.

Society of the Sacred Heart, An Act of Hope – 2019 First, we strongly affirm the centrality of prayer and contemplation in our lives. They guide our response to human need, enabling us to see the face of God in the painful realities of the world and to respond whole-heartedly in faith. As we deepen our life of prayer and the desire to make known God’s love, we strengthen the foundation from which we act together, in union with the international Society and in solidarity with each other and those we serve.

OTHER CHURCH RESOURCES Frank Jelenek (Author), Ann Boyajian (Illustrator), Journey to the Heart: A Centering Prayer for Children – 2007 Contemplative Outreach Contemplative Outreach is a spiritual network of individuals and small faith communities committed to living the contemplative dimension of the Gospel.

The common desire for Divine transformation, primarily expressed through a commitment to a daily Centering Prayer practice, unites our international, interdenominational community.

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Goal I Schools of the Sacred Heart educate to a personal and active faith in God. 6 Members of the school community, open to transforming power of the Spirit of God, engage in personal and communal prayer, discernment and reflection which inform their actions.

OTHER SACRED HEART RESOURCES

OTHER CHURCH RESOURCES

Dolores Aleixandre, RSCJ, In the Shadow of the Word – 1996 Praying with Madeleine Sophie Barat

Pope Francis, Pope at Audience: ‘Discernment requires loving relationship with God’ - Aug 2022

Kathleen Hughes, RSCJ, (Editor) Seeking the One Whom We Love: How RSCJs Pray – 2016 Morning Prayer Binders Kate Spelman (Newton), Discernment – 2022

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Goal I Schools of the Sacred Heart educate to a personal and active faith in God. 7 The school community, rooted in the love of Jesus Christ, nurtures the spiritual lives of its members through the exploration of one’s relationship to God, to self, to others and to creation.

SACRED HEART DOCUMENTS

SCRIPTURE

Society of the Sacred Heart, Constitutions - 1982 18. Jesus calls us to a personal encounter with Him. He wants to make known to us the feelings and the preferences of His Heart.

Luke 11: 1-13 Teach us to pray…

OTHER SACRED HEART RESOURCES Suzanne Cooke, RSCJ, The Culture of Sacred Heart Schools - 1996 Reading her letters and descriptions of Madeleine Sophie Barat, one senses that when she gave herself to God, she gave herself to God's people totally and completely. Really, one cannot explain her courage and confidence, her willingness to act, her tenacity in the face of incredible challenge without understanding her relationship with Jesus Christ.

What drew her to believe, to act, and to love is the compelling power of Jesus' person. He was real to her, just as real to her as the person whom you most love.

Concepcion Camacho, RSCJ May Mary, who pondered in her heart each encounter and each daily task, teach us to understand the meaning and importance of 'living from the heart'. The heart is the centre of our life, of our relationships.

Janet Erskine Stuart, RSCJ God is in every sense the home of the soul.

Goal II RESOURCES

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Goal II Schools of the Sacred Heart educate to a deep respect for intellectual values.

1

Sacred Heart educators and students engage in challenging experiences that inspire intellectual curiosity, a global mindset and a life-long love of learning.

OTHER SACRED HEART RESOURCES Janet Erskine Stuart, RSCJ Cultivate the wish to learn, rather than the wish to be taught. Be determined to “pick up” and do not wait for the Professor and the pedagogical devices of his or her craft...Do not think that lessons will do it, if you wait for lessons you will wait a life-time...If we wait to be taught, we shall never learn.

Do not give up any high aspirations, aim at the very highest and the best, but understanding that to get this is a life’s work, not the work of a day, so never let failure cast down or disappoint you, but always begin again with great courage and especially great confidence.

St. Madeleine Sophie Barat In this struggle concerning education, the Heart of Jesus asks us not for our blood, but for our minds.

We must strengthen our studies by intellectual work.

International Heads of Schools Conference, Mexico - 2015 Since the founding of the Society of the Sacred Heart, Madeleine Sophie Barat saw education as a means to communicate the love of the Heart of Jesus, because in Him is the source of growth in each person and the path of reconciliation for all. The Religious of the Sacred Heart have endorsed that desire, encouraging each person to be open to the truth, love and freedom; discovering the meaning of their life and service to others; collaborating creatively in the transformation of the world and experiencing the love of Jesus and the engagement in active faith….(2)

Lynne Lieux, RSCJ, Saintes Savantes: Learned Saints for the Twenty-First Century - 2001 Madeleine Sophie’s words, “Education must be concerned not only with studies but also with whatever may be required for the right ordering of life and requirements of cultivated society.” The mission of Sacred Heart schools has always included imparting to students a strong intellectual foundation. However, the course of studies was meant to do more than simply impart knowledge to students. The course of studies, the daily routine and life of the school, every aspect of a student’s experience at school, was meant to develop within them a love of learning.

Both St. Madeleine Sophie and St. Philippine Duchesne recognized that it was necessary to educate the whole person, and for two hundred years, following in their footsteps, Sacred Heart educators have sought to develop the mind, the heart, and the soul of each person. The mission has been clear: to educate young people to be all that God intended them to be, to give them a clear sense of their purpose in life, to instill in them a sense of their responsibility for others and the world in which they live, to inspire in them a desire to learn and to share their knowledge with others; in essence, to help them to learn how to live out of their minds and their hearts with confidence and with a sense of purpose. At the beginning of the twenty-first century and a new millennium, with all the challenges and issues that await the next generation and those to come, it seems that the world is more than ever in need of what St. Madeleine Sophie clearly saw in 1833, saintes savantes, learned saints, young men and women who are able to live out of their minds and hearts with confidence and a sense of purpose for the greater glory of God.

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Goal II Schools of the Sacred Heart educate to a deep respect for intellectual values.

1

Sacred Heart educators and students engage in challenging experiences that inspire intellectual curiosity, a global mindset and a life-long love of learning.

CHURCH RESOURCES

SECULAR RESOURCES

St. John Paul II, The Gospel of Life [Evangelium Vitae], no. 19 There is an even more profound aspect which needs to be emphasized: freedom negates and destroys itself, and becomes a factor leading to the destruction of others, when it no longer recognizes and respects its essential link with the truth. When freedom, out of a desire to emancipate itself from all forms of tradition and authority, shuts out even the most obvious evidence of an objective and universal truth, which is the foundation of personal and social life, then the person ends up by no longer taking as the sole and indisputable point of reference for his own choices the truth about good and evil, but only his subjective and changeable opinion or, indeed, his selfish interest and whim.

Quick Facts, International Coalition of Girls’ Schools 13. Higher Aspirations - Students in all-girls learning environments strive for greatness.

• Students at girls’ schools have higher aspirations and greater motivation than their female peers at coeducational schools. 99% of students at girls’ schools expect to earn a four-year degree.

More than 2/3 expect to earn a graduate or professional degree.

– Dr. Richard A. Holmgren, Allegheny College, Steeped in Learning: The Student Experience at AllGirls Schools

OTHER CHURCH DOCUMENTS Congregation for Catholic Education, The Identity of the Catholic School for a Culture of Dialogue - 2022 41. Pupils are active participants in the educational process. As they grow older, they increasingly become the protagonists of their own education. Therefore, not only must they be made responsible for following the educational programme delivered with scientific competence by teachers, but they must also be guided to see beyond the limited horizon of human reality. In fact, every Catholic school helps “pupils to achieve [...] an integration of faith and culture.”

• Girls at all levels of achievement in the single-sex schools receive a…benefit from the single-sex school environment in terms of heightened career aspirations—an effect unprecedented in any other portion of our study.

– Dr. Cary M. Watson, Stanford University, Sex Roles: A Journal of Research Battelle for Kids, Partnership for 21st Century Learning

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Goal II Schools of the Sacred Heart educate to a deep respect for intellectual values.

2

Sacred Heart educators develop and implement a dynamic curriculum, effective instructional methodology, current educational research and ongoing evaluation.

OTHER SACRED HEART RESOURCES St. Madeleine Sophie Barat Education must be concerned not only with studies, but also with whatever may be required for the right ordering of life and requirements of cultivated society.

It is all very well to lay the foundation of solid virtue, but only the union of virtue with learning will give our work its perfection.

SECULAR RESOURCES Why a School for Boys? International Boys’ School Coalition 3. Schools for boys know that boys develop and learn in different ways.

It’s a simple fact that boys and girls grow at a different pace. Boys’ strengths are different from those of girls. While girls generally develop earlier physically and socially, refining their reading and writing skills sooner, boys are more spatial and visual by nature, and they demonstrate a natural affinity for areas like abstract mathematics. They are also hardwired to learn more easily through action than words.

4. Schools for boys teach in ways that boys learn best. Each faculty member in an all-boys school has made a conscious choice to teach boys. They enjoy boys’ irreverent humor and draw energy from their natural exuberance. Their passion to teach boys requires a commitment to build relationships, craft a curriculum, and lead a classroom that engages each student in the way he learns best.

Battelle for Kids, Partnership for 21st Century Learning

National Association of Independent Schools, 21st Century Competencies - 2016 Halah Ahmed Alismail & Dr. Patrick McGuire, 21st Century Standards and Curriculum: Current Research and Practice, Journal of Education and Practice - 2015 NAIS, A Guide to Becoming a School of the Future 2012 (members only) NAEYC, Developmentally Appropriate Practice in Early Childhood Programs Serving Children from Birth Through Age 8, Fourth Edition - 2022

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Goal II Schools of the Sacred Heart educate to a deep respect for intellectual values.

3

Sacred Heart educators and students utilize a variety of teaching and learning strategies to support their growth and development.

OTHER SACRED HEART RESOURCES

OTHER CHURCH DOCUMENTS

St. Madeleine Sophie Barat Give only good examples to the children; never correct them when out of humor or impatient. We must win them by an appeal to their piety and to their hearts.

Soften your reprimands with kind words; encourage and reward them. That is, in short, our way of educating.

Congregation for Catholic Education, The Identity of the Catholic School for a Culture of Dialogue - 2022 47. In the formation of the younger generations, teachers must be outstanding in correct doctrine and integrity of life (cf. can. 803 8 2 CIC and can. 639 CCEO). Teachers and administrative personnel who belong to other Churches, ecclesial communities or religions, as well as those who do not profess any religious belief, have the obligation to recognize and respect the Catholic character of the school from the moment of their employment. However, it should be borne in mind that the predominant presence of a group of Catholic teachers can ensure the successful implementation of the educational plan developed in keeping with the Catholic identity of the schools.

Mary H. Quinlan, RSCJ, Mabel Digby Janet Erskine Stuart Superiors General of the Society of the Sacred Heart 1895-1914 (Janet Erskine Stuart, RSCJ) was a realist and recognized that not everyone can benefit from any and every type of education and that not all have the same capacities. But she was unusual, perhaps in her conviction that each individual is unique and has certain potentialities which, they are fostered, will bring about the maturing of the whole person. . . . Education, she said, is a hidden work more like planting seeds in the ground and waiting for them to mature than like turning out manufactured products.

One of her favorite maxims was that at the end of the educational process the student should be “well begun” on broad lines which would form a foundation for life rather than turned out as a finished but small product.

SECULAR RESOURCES Quick Facts, International Coalition of Girls’ Schools 7. Dedicated to How Girls Learn All-girls learning environments capitalize on girls’ unique learning styles.

• To be successful, students need more than just a feeling of support. That support must translate into actions geared toward student success. Nearly 96% of girls’ school students report receiving more frequent feedback on their assignments and other course work than girls at coeducational schools.

– Dr. Richard A. Holmgren, Allegheny College, Steeped in Learning: The Student Experience at AllGirls Schools

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Goal II Schools of the Sacred Heart educate to a deep respect for intellectual values.

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Sacred Heart educators and students utilize a variety of teaching and learning strategies to support their growth and development.

• More positive academic and behavioral interactions were observed between teachers and students in single-sex schools than in the comparison to coeducational schools.

—U.S. Department of Education, Early Implementation of Public Single-Sex Schools: Perceptions and Characteristics Why a Boys’ School, International Boys’ School Coalition 3. Schools for boys know that boys develop and learn in different ways.

It’s a simple fact that boys and girls grow at a different pace. Boys’ strengths are different from those of girls. While girls generally develop earlier physically and socially, refining their reading and writing skills sooner, boys are more spatial and visual by nature, and they demonstrate a natural affinity for areas like abstract mathematics. They are also hardwired to learn more easily through action than words.

4. Schools for boys teach in ways that boys learn best.

Each faculty member in an all-boys school has made a conscious choice to teach boys. They enjoy boys’ irreverent humor and draw energy from their natural exuberance. Their passion to teach boys requires a commitment to build relationships, craft a curriculum, and lead a classroom that engages each student in the way he learns best.

NAIS Principles of Good Practice - 2017 Elementary school educators and all personnel who interact with children have appropriate training and knowledge regarding the developmental characteristics and needs of this age group.

Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL), What Is the CASEL Framework?

Carol Ann Tomlinson & Marcia B. Imbeau, Leading and Managing a Differentiated Classroom - 2010 Bryan Goodwin, Kristin Rouleau, Cheryl Abla, Karen Baptiste, Tonia Gibson, Michele Kimball, The New Classroom Instruction That Works: The Best ResearchBased Strategies for Increasing Student Achievement - 2022

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Goal II Schools of the Sacred Heart educate to a deep respect for intellectual values.

4

The school curricular and co-curricular programs integrate innovation and collaboration, critical thinking and problem solving, the exploration of emerging technologies and critical evaluation of information.

SACRED HEART DOCUMENTS Society of the Sacred Heart, Constitutions - 1982 14. Our service of education is carried out in a genuine relationship of mutual interaction, where each person both receives and gives so that all may grow together. Of its nature, our service of education means creating community among ourselves and with others.

It asks of us generous commitment, serious on-going formation and a broad critical vision of the world, enlightened by faith.

Society of the Sacred Heart, General Chapter 2016 Chapter Calls 2016 - SERVICE OF EDUCATION Intention: We are called to live our service of education as a process of humanization, rooted in the Gospel and in the educational intuitions of Madeleine Sophie. . . . This education fosters a critical vision of the world.

CHURCH DOCUMENTS St. John Paul II, The Gospel of Life [Evangelium Vitae], no. 19 There is an even more profound aspect which needs to be emphasized: freedom negates and destroys itself, and becomes a factor leading to the destruction of others, when it no longer recognizes and respects its essential link with the truth. When freedom, out of a desire to emancipate itself from all forms of tradition and authority, shuts out even the most obvious evidence of an objective and universal truth, which is the foundation of personal and social life, then the person ends up by no longer taking as the sole and indisputable point of reference for his

own choices the truth about good and evil, but only his subjective and changeable opinion or, indeed, his selfish interest and whim.

Congregation for Catholic Education, The Identity of the Catholic School for a Culture of Dialogue - 2022 29. In addition to bearing witness, another educational component of school is knowledge. School has the important task of bringing people into contact with a rich cultural and scientific heritage, preparing them for professional life and fostering mutual understanding. Faced, then, with the continuous technological transformations and the pervasiveness of digital culture, professional expertise needs to be equipped with ever newer skills throughout life in order to respond to the needs of the times without, however, “losing the synthesis between faith, culture and life, which is the keystone of the educational mission”. Knowledge must be supported by means of a solid permanent formation that enables teachers and school leaders to be characterised by a marked “ability to create, invent and manage learning environments that provide plentiful opportunities”, as well as “to respect students’ different intelligences and guide them towards significant and profound learning”[38]. Accompanying pupils in getting to know themselves, their aptitudes and inner resources so that they can make conscious life choices is of no secondary importance.

49. In accordance with the canonical norms concerning Catholic schools, it is the responsibility of the school leadership to collaborate with the entire school community and in close dialogue with the pastors of the Church. This in order to make explicit, along with the official educational project, the guidelines

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The school curricular and co-curricular programs integrate innovation and collaboration, critical thinking and problem solving, the exploration of emerging technologies and critical evaluation of information.

on the school’s educational mission[64]. Indeed, every official act of the school must be in accordance with its Catholic identity, while fully respecting the freedom of each person’s conscience. This also applies to the school’s curriculum, which “is how the school community makes explicit its goals and objectives, the content of its teaching and the means for communicating it effectively. In the curriculum, the school’s cultural and pedagogical identity are made manifest.”

SECULAR RESOURCES Quick Facts, International Coalition of Girls’ Schools 10. Fosters Increased Interest & Confidence in STEM All-girls learning environments champion the educational needs of girls as a group currently underrepresented in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) majors and careers.

• Girls’ school graduates on average report greater science self-confidence than coeducated peers in their ability to use technical science skills, understand scientific concepts, generate a research question, explain study results, and determine appropriate data collection.

– Dr. Tiffani Riggers-Piehl, University of MissouriKansas City, Fostering Academic and Social Engagement: An Investigation into the Effects of All-Girls Education in the Transition to University • Girls’ school graduates are 6 times more likely to consider majoring in math, science, and technology compared to girls who attended coeducational schools.

– Goodman Research Group, The Girls’ School Experience: A Survey of Young Alumnae of Single-Sex Schools

• Compared to coeducated peers, girls’ school graduates are 3 times more likely to consider engineering careers.

– Dr. Linda Sax, UCLA, Women Graduates of SingleSex and Coeducational High Schools: Differences in their Characteristics and the Transition to College • During the middle school years, girls show a decline in both their performance in math and theIr attitudes towards math. Research suggests that girls’ schools may mitigate the decline when compared with coeducational schools.

– Dr. Carlo Cerruti, Harvard University, Exploring Girls’ Attitudes about Math • Girls from all-female courses reported more academic interests in computer science or potential to pursue a computing career.

• All-girl environments with girl-only peers helped build community and increased girls’ self-reported amount of learning. Girls felt they could do computing because there were other girls doing it around them.

– National Center for Women & Information Technology, Girls in IT: The Facts Advancing independent schools through auxiliary program excellence, SPARC National The responsibilities of Auxiliary Program Directors are extensive and varied. The most common responsibilities are Summer Programs (96%), After School Programs (72%), and Enrichment Programs (68%). Other significant responsibilities include Facility Rentals, Faculty/Staff Childcare, Music Lessons, Special Events, Before Care, Vacation Programs, and School Store.

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The school utilizes space and the physical environment in alignment with best pedagogical practices.

SECULAR SOURCES Inspired by Reggio Emilia: Emergent Curriculum in Relationship-Driven Learning Environments, NAEYC - 2015 Environment as the third teacher Bodies in motion. Brains in motion. VS America - 2015 “What is Forest Therapy?” Association of Nature and Forest Therapy - 2021 Barbara Fraser, Forest therapy reawakens human connection to the natural world, NCR - 2020 NCR Earthbeat Article on Forest Therapy (in which Mary Frohlich, RSCJ, and Maureen Glavin, RSCJ, were interviewed) Qing Li, Forest Bathing: How trees can help you find health and happiness - 2018 Richard Louv, Last Child in the Woods - 2008 This (or other books by Louv) are important resources for those who work with children. He discusses the current epidemic of “nature deficit disorder” among children who rarely have the opportunity for free play in the natural world.

O’Donnell, Wicklund, Pigozzi and Peterson (Author), Bruce Mau (Author) The Third Teacher: 79 Ways You Can Use Design to Transform Teaching & Learning - 2010 Movement Increases Engagement and Learning, vs America

Jesse Pearson, Teaching & Learning: Technology in the Classroom, NAIS - 2022 NAIS, Principles of Good Practice - Teaching and Learning in the Digital Age - 2017

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The school cultivates aesthetic values and the creative use of the imagination.

OTHER SACRED HEART RESOURCES Lynne Lieux, RSCJ, Saintes Savantes: Learned Saints for the Twenty-First Century - 2001 Developing each student’s gifts and interests was paramount. In Mother Stuart’s educational conference she further stated “We must remember that each one of our children is destined for a mission in life. Neither we nor they can know what it is, but we must know and make them believe that each one has a mission in life and that she is bound to find out what it is, that there is some special work for God which will remain undone unless she does it, some place in life which no one else can fill.... We must bring home to our children and to ourselves the responsibilities of our gifts. We must put our talents at interest, not bury them in the earth and the reason is sufficient, that they are God’s.”

Barbara Bowe, RSCJ, “Spirituality of the Goals and Criteria” Schools of the Sacred Heart – 2005 “The school program develops aesthetic values and the creative use of the imagination.” Many of you know better than I the importance of fostering creativity and imagination in young people, those qualities that put us in touch with the spark of the infinite in each one of us. We are not automatons, robots, or puppets on a string. Our minds and hearts soar beyond ourselves, they reach for the beauty, the wisdom, the intricate complexity, the expansiveness of the universe. The old/traditional practices, such as the “Lily Procession” on Dec. 8 were as much about beauty as they were about religious ritual and theological truth.

Concepcion Camacho, RSCJ, The Assembly of the Union of Superiors General - 1982 “However, creativity is part of life and should become an everyday affair. It is part of the very plenitude that God promised us in his “new creation;” creativity is a faithful response to the mystery of God within itself, whose freshness God himself reveals to us little by little.” (p.209) A note from the Carrollton College Counselor: Many state universities require art be taken in high schools, some requiring a ½ credit, some requiring a full year credit for fine and performing arts.

St. Madeleine Sophie Barat We must know how to inspire in our pupils a passion for the beautiful.

SCRIPTURE Isaiah 40:12-31 the biblical “disputation form” knows that wisdom comes through questions more than answers. “Who has measured the waters? Have you not known?

Have you not heard?”

Job 38:1 Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth...?

Matthew 10:16 Jesus sent his disciples out instructing them to be “wise as serpents and innocent as doves.”

Matthew 20:1-11 Jesus’ teaching style is parabolic - inviting reflection, pondering, stretching.

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The school cultivates aesthetic values and the creative use of the imagination.

Matthew 22:21 Then he said to them, “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.

Ecclesiastes 3:11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.

Exodus 35:31-33 and He has filled him with the Spirit of God, in wisdom and understanding, in knowledge and all manner of workmanship, to design artistic works, to work in gold and silver and bronze, in cutting jewels for setting, in carving wood, and to work in all manner of artistic workmanship.

Jeremiah 18:3-4 So, I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was working at his wheel. And the vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter’s hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to do.

Wisdom 7:7-22 Therefore I prayed ... I called on God and the spirit of wisdom came to me.” ... I preferred her to scepters and thrones, and I accounted wealth as nothing in comparison with her. I loved her more than health and beauty, and I chose to have her rather than light, because her radiance never ceases..... For she is a breath of the power of God, and a pure emanation of the glory of the Almighty; therefore nothing defiled gains entrance into her. For she is a reflection of eternal light, a spotless mirror of the working of God, and an image of his goodness. Although she is but one, she can do all things, and while remaining in herself, she renews all things; in every generation she passes into holy souls and makes them friends of God, and prophets.

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Sacred Heart educators assume responsibility for their professional growth, supported by resources and a culture that promotes life-long learning.

SACRED HEART DOCUMENTS Society of the Sacred Heart, Constitutions - 1982 118. I commit myself to its mission of manifesting the love of Christ through the service of education, especially of youth, according to our Constitutions.

7. We participate in the mission of the Church through the service of education which is our way of continuing the work of Christ. This service of education and instruction is directed chiefly towards the young and those who bear within them the future of the world.

OTHER SACRED HEART DOCUMENTS International Heads of Schools Conference, Mexico - 2015 Since the founding of the Society of the Sacred Heart, Madeleine Sophie Barat saw education as a means to communicate the love of the Heart of Jesus, because in Him is the source of growth in each person and the path of reconciliation for all. The Religious of the Sacred Heart have endorsed that desire, encouraging each person to be open to the truth, love and freedom; discovering the meaning of their life and service to others; collaborating creatively in the transformation of the world and experiencing the love of Jesus and the engagement in active faith….

Society of the Sacred Heart, Act of Hope - 1992 Second, throughout the whole Society and clearly reflected in this country is a renewed conviction that at the heart of our contemplative vocation is a call to be educators, women whose apostolic service is marked by faith, love, compassion, and a capacity for relationship. Our approach to and understandings of our educational vocation are lived out in a wide spectrum of ministries and settings.

Suzanne Cooke, RSCJ, The Culture of Sacred Heart Schools - 1996 What about professional development? Ask yourself: Do I see my colleagues and myself engaged in ongoing study, learning and professional growth?

Do I see that our expectations for our students are consistently challenging and, simultaneously, do I see we wish for students’ conspicuous daily success?

What are our conversations with colleagues like? Are they constructive, upbeat, and professional? Can one see demonstrative evidence that trust operates within our school community? Is our respect for one another within the adult community mutual and inclusive? That is to say, how are we, teacher to teacher, teacher to administrator, teacher to student, student to student? Where do the parents fit in? Are they included in our culture of respect, or do we hold them at a distance?

Concepcion Camacho, RSCJ, The Assembly of the Union of Superiors General - 1982 That education is always something reciprocal. As Religious of the Sacred Heart we are not only those who “teach,” we also have something to learn from others.

The education is always carried out in collaboration with others… Today there is no true education in faith without educating to mutual love. (p.231) Faculty Meeting Goal-Setting Session Goal-setting Resources for Faculty Lucas Jacob, Reframing Well-Worn Questions to Guide Professional Development, NAIS - 2022

Goal III RESOURCES

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Sacred Heart educators prepare students to serve the common good in an interdependent world.

SACRED HEART DOCUMENTS

OTHER SACRED HEART RESOURCES

Society of the Sacred Heart, Constitutions - 1982 7. We participate in the mission of the Church through the service of education which is our way of continuing the work of Christ. This service of education and instruction is directed chiefly towards the young and those who bear within them the future of the world. Caught up as we are in the desires of His Heart, we want people to grow in dignity, as human beings and as children of God. Our starting point is the Gospel with all that it demands from us of love, forgiveness and justice, and of solidarity with those who are poor and rejected by the world….

Society of the Sacred Heart, Artisans of Hope - 2019 With honest and humble vulnerability, we likewise acknowledge that power is a reality with which to contend in the Society of the Sacred Heart. Power is available to us in a variety of ways: knowledge, culture, language, use of information, roles and services entrusted to us, access to funds, just to name a few. Power affects the way we relate in community, live our vow of obedience, collaborate with people and groups in our ministries, and value or, at times, hold on to, the ministries entrusted to us. As we become increasingly more aware that we are not called to be a star that shines alone, but rather to be part of a constellation in the universe, we realize how important it is to exercise critical self-reflection about our concept and exercise of power and authority. We recognize our need to grow in freedom to speak about power and to share our inspirations and struggles in integrating it into our lives.

8. …The pierced Heart of Jesus opens our being to the depths of God and to the anguish of humankind….

178. Although we have to own goods, we hold them only as stewards, never forgetting that God destined the world and all that it contains for the use of everyone and for all peoples…

Society of the Sacred Heart, General Chapter - 1970 SOLIDARITY will shake us out of our complacency.

It requires that all take whatever steps they can to ensure a more just distribution of the world’s goods; it demands an appreciation of other cultures and traditions; it means an end to any attitude of power and paternalism. It should also lead to us to take a stand against the dehumanizing structures of a consumer society. (16)

We also know that we need to harness power, especially our shared power, and put it at the service of mission and the common good. The desire to care and to be artisans of hope becomes sentimental and fruitless without the power to act on it. Thus, with passion and generosity, we expend our energies to respond as best we can to the needs in our different ministries and contexts. As Sacred Heart educators, we are convinced that “to educate is in itself an act of justice” and we take to heart the call “to orient all our educative endeavors toward creating relationships of equality, inclusion, non-violence, and harmony, believing that to have life, and life in abundance, is the deepest desire of God.” (2008 General Chapter)

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SCRIPTURE

CHURCH DOCUMENTS

Leviticus 25:23-43 The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine; with me you are but aliens and tenants. … what was sold shall remain with the purchaser until the year of jubilee; in the jubilee it shall be released, and the property shall be returned. ….If any of your kin fall into difficulty and become dependent on you, you shall support them; they shall live with you as though resident aliens. Do not take interest in advance or otherwise make a profit from them…

United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Economic Justice for All, no. 124 ….Government should not replace or destroy smaller communities and individual initiative. Rather it should help them to contribute more effectively to social well-being and supplement their activity when the demands of justice exceed their capacities. ….good government intervention (is) that which truly “helps” other social groups contribute to the common good by directing, urging, restraining, and regulating economic activity as “the occasion requires and necessity demands.” This calls for cooperation and consensus building among the diverse agents in our economic life, including government. The precise form of government involvement…. will depend on an assessment of specific needs and the most effective ways to address them.

Romans 12:4-5 For as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another. We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us: prophecy, in proportion to faith; ministry, in ministering; the teacher, in teaching; the exhorter, in exhortation; the giver, in generosity; the leader, in diligence; the compassionate, in cheerfulness.

Philippians 2:4 Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others.

Pope Francis, On Care for Our Common Home [Laudato Si’], no. 157, 158 157. Underlying the principle of the common good is respect for the human person as such, endowed with basic and inalienable rights ordered to his or her integral development. It has also to do with the overall welfare of society and the development of a variety of intermediate groups, applying the principle of subsidiarity. Outstanding among those groups is the family, as the basic cell of society. Finally, the common good calls for social peace, the stability and security provided by a certain order which cannot be achieved without particular concern for distributive justice; whenever this is violated, violence always ensues.

Society as a whole, and the state in particular, are obliged to defend and promote the common good.

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Sacred Heart educators prepare students to serve the common good in an interdependent world.

158. In the present condition of global society, where injustices abound and growing numbers of people are deprived of basic human rights and considered expendable, the principle of the common good immediately becomes, logically and inevitably, a summons to solidarity and a preferential option for the poorest of our brothers and sisters. ….We need only look around us to see that, today, this option is in fact an ethical imperative essential for effectively attaining the common good.

Pope Benedict XVI, Charity in Truth [Caritas in Veritate], no. 7 …the common good. To love someone is to desire that person’s good and to take effective steps to secure it. Besides the good of the individual, there is a good that is linked to living in society: the common good.

It is the good of “all of us”, made up of individuals, families and intermediate groups who together constitute society. It is a good that is sought not for its own sake, but for the people who belong to the social community and who can only really and effectively pursue their good within it. To desire the common good and strive towards it is a requirement of justice and charity. To take a stand for the common good is on the one hand to be solicitous for, and on the other hand to avail oneself of, that complex of institutions that give structure to the life of society, juridically, civilly, politically and culturally, making it the pólis, or “city”. The more we strive to secure a common good corresponding to the real needs of our neighbors, the more effectively we love them. Every Christian is called to practice this charity, in a manner corresponding to his vocation and according to the degree of influence he wields in the pólis. This is the institutional path —

we might also call it the political path — of charity, no less excellent and effective than the kind of charity which encounters the neighbor directly, outside the institutional mediation of the pólis. When animated by charity, commitment to the common good has greater worth than a merely secular and political stand would have. Like all commitment to justice, it has a place within the testimony of divine charity that paves the way for eternity through temporal action. Man’s earthly activity, when inspired and sustained by charity, contributes to the building of the universal city of God, which is the goal of the history of the human family.

In an increasingly globalized society, the common good and the effort to obtain it cannot fail to assume the dimensions of the whole human family, that is to say, the community of peoples and nations, in such a way as to shape the earthly city in unity and peace, rendering it to some degree an anticipation and a prefiguration of the undivided city of God. Pope Benedict XVI, Charity in Truth [Caritas in Veritate], no. 66 …the consumer has a specific social responsibility….

Consumers should be continually educated regarding their daily role, which can be exercised with respect for moral principles without diminishing the intrinsic economic rationality of the act of purchasing. … certain conditions need to be met: the market should be genuinely transparent; the producers, as well as increasing their profit margins, should also receive improved formation in professional skills and technology; and finally, trade of this kind must not become hostage to partisan ideologies. A more incisive role for consumers… is a desirable element for building economic democracy.

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Sacred Heart educators prepare students to serve the common good in an interdependent world.

St. John Paul II, The Gospel of Life [Evangelium Vitae], no. 19 It is precisely in this sense that Cain’s answer to the Lord’s question: “Where is Abel your brother?” can be interpreted: “I do not know; am I my brother’s keeper?” (Gen 4:9). Yes, every man is his “brother’s keeper”, because God entrusts us to one another.

And it is also in view of this entrusting that God gives everyone freedom, a freedom which possesses an inherently relational dimension. This is a great gift of the Creator, placed as it is at the service of the person and of his fulfillment through the gift of self and openness to others; but when freedom is made absolute in an individualistic way, it is emptied of its original content, and its very meaning and dignity are contradicted.

St. John Paul II, On Social Concern [Sollicitudo rei Socialis], no. 38 ….it is already possible to point to the positive and moral value of the growing awareness of interdependence among individuals and nations.

The fact that men and women in various parts of the world feel personally affected by the injustices and violations of human rights committed in distant countries, countries which perhaps they will never visit, is a further sign of a reality transformed into awareness, thus acquiring a moral connotation….

When interdependence becomes recognized in this way, the correlative response as a moral and social attitude, as a “virtue,” is solidarity. This then is not a feeling of vague compassion or shallow distress at the misfortunes of so many people, both near and far. On the contrary, it is a firm and persevering determination to commit oneself to the common

good; that is to say to the good of all and of each individual, because we are all really responsible for all. This determination is based on the solid conviction that what is hindering full development is that desire for profit and that thirst for power already mentioned.

These attitudes and “structures of sin” are only conquered - presupposing the help of divine grace by a diametrically opposed attitude: a commitment to the good of one’s neighbor with the readiness, in the gospel sense, to “lose oneself” for the sake of the other instead of exploiting him, and to “serve him” instead of oppressing him for one’s own advantage.

St. John Paul II, On Social Concern [Sollicitudo rei Socialis], no. 39 The exercise of solidarity within each society is valid when its members recognize one another as persons. Those who are more influential, because they have a greater share of goods and common services, should feel responsible for the weaker and be ready to share with them all they possess…. The same criterion is applied by analogy in international relationships. Interdependence must be transformed into solidarity, based upon the principle that the goods of creation are meant for all. That which human industry produces through the processing of raw materials, with the contribution of work, must serve equally for the good of all…. Solidarity helps us to see the “other”-whether a person, people or nation-not just as some kind of instrument, with a work capacity and physical strength to be exploited at low cost and then discarded when no longer useful, but as our “neighbor,” a “helper,” to be made a sharer, on a par with ourselves, in the banquet of life to which all are equally invited by God. ….world peace is inconceivable

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Sacred Heart educators prepare students to serve the common good in an interdependent world.

unless the world’s leaders come to recognize that interdependence in itself demands the abandonment of the politics of blocs, the sacrifice of all forms of economic, military or political imperialism, and the transformation of mutual distrust into collaboration. ….The goal of peace, so desired by everyone, will certainly be achieved through the putting into effect of social and international justice, but also through the practice of the virtues which favor togetherness, and which teach us to live in unity, so as to build in unity, by giving and receiving, a new society and a better world.

St. John XXIII, On Christianity and Social Progress [Mater et Magistra], no. 157 ….The solidarity which binds all men together as members of a common family makes it impossible for wealthy nations to look with indifference upon the hunger, misery and poverty of other nations whose citizens are unable to enjoy even elementary human rights. The nations of the world are becoming more and more dependent on one another and it will not be possible to preserve a lasting peace so long as glaring economic and social imbalances persist.

Pius XI, Quadragesimo Anno, no. 80 ….those in power should be sure that the more perfectly a graduated order is kept among the various associations, in observance of the principle of “subsidiary function,” the stronger social authority and effectiveness will be the happier and more prosperous the condition of the State.

OTHER CHURCH RESOURCES Congregation for Catholic Education, The Identity of the Catholic School for a Culture of Dialogue - 2022

SECULAR RESOURCES Jim Wallis, On God’s Side: What Religion Forgets and Politics Hasn’t Learned About Serving the Common Good, Sojourners - 2013

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Sacred Heart educators immerse students in diverse global perspectives, developing competencies such as critical consciousness, language facility and cultural literacy.

SACRED HEART DOCUMENTS Society of the Sacred Heart, Constitutions - 1982 11. Saint Madeleine Sophie chose to express this conviction through the service of education, especially of the young. Faithful to her inspiration, and, like her, open to new situations, we make her desire our own: • that people become ever more aware of truth, of love and of freedom; • that they discover the significance of their lives, and devote themselves to others; • that they take part creatively in the common effort to transform the world; that they be enabled to encounter the love of Jesus; • that they let their lives be shaped by an active faith….

14. Our service of education is carried out in a genuine relationship of mutual interaction, where each person both receives and gives so that all may grow together. Of its nature, our service of education means creating community among ourselves and with others. It asks of us generous commitment, serious on-going formation and a broad critical vision of the world, enlightened by faith.

15. Contemplating Jesus, we learn from His attitudes and responses how, in all our relationships, to witness to the liberating power of His love…. Always, we are filled with hope in our encounters, sure of God’s power at work in us all.

16. As members of the same Body, through apostolic prayer, mutual support and work undertaken by all, each religious, each community, has a role and shares the responsibility of our mission in the Church, for the glory of the Heart of Jesus.

30. …we are sent to proclaim, by our very lives and activities, the Good News of the Kingdom. ….

Whatever the service entrusted to us, we stand together, united in a common mission.

32. We want to be discerning communities, living in awareness and sensitivity to the Spirit. This attitude makes us responsive, in our mission, to the sufferings and aspirations of our sisters and brothers. It helps us to respond better to the calls of the world around us, and it enlightens us to make choices more true to the spirit of the Gospel.

140. ….This means listening to God’s calls in the world, in others, and within herself.

Society of the Sacred Heart, Chapter 2016 - Service of Education We are called to live our service of education as a process of humanization, rooted in the Gospel and in the educational intuitions of Madeleine Sophie. An education that humanizes is relational and inclusive.

This education fosters a critical vision of the world.

This orientation marks our mission at all stages of life, looking increasingly to be present in the peripheries and where life cries out….

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Sacred Heart educators immerse students in diverse global perspectives, developing competencies such as critical consciousness, language facility and cultural literacy.

Society of the Sacred Heart, Chapter 2008 We recognize with greater clarity the interconnectedness of global realities and the impact that these have on our local situations. We are more aware of the marginalizing effects of globalization and of cultures of dominance and exclusion…. (26) We are convinced that “to educate is in itself an act of justice.” (Letter of the General Council, Feast of the Sacred Heart, June 2006) We take responsibility to orient all of our educative endeavors towards creating relationships of equality, inclusion, nonviolence and harmony, believing that to have life, and life in abundance, is the deepest desire of God. In whatever apostolic activity we may be engaged, our educative mission makes visible our solidarity with those who are excluded…. (27) In whatever may be our apostolic engagement, in our relationships and involvement, the advancement of justice, peace, and the integrity of creation unites and orients us as a Society and energizes us towards the future…. (28) Society of the Sacred Heart, Chapter 2000 In order that education be transformative, it is necessary: -to form critical thinking -to learn the work of God from the perspective of those who are excluded -to analyze social reality, to draw up objectives and plan actions that respond to the needs of the social context -to work for a change of ideas and attitudes with respect to the unequal relationships between men and women, among ethnic groups, religions, cultures, social classes, generations and with the environment. (23)

OTHER SACRED HEART RESOURCES Conference of Sacred Heart Education, An Orientation to Mission CRITICAL CONSCIOUSNESS — conscientization— conscientização in Portuguese—is a popular educational and social concept developed by Brazilian pedagogue and educational theorist Paulo Freire. Critical consciousness focuses on achieving an in-depth understanding of the world, leading to the perception and exposure of social and political contradictions. Freire perceived critical consciousness to be an essential tool in education and described it as “reading the world.” The goal of critical consciousness is to create a world characterized by justice.

Janet Erskine Stuart, RSCJ The pupils may acquire a little insight into social problems and the right service of the poor; their minds will be besieged by such questions as soon as they take up their life in the world, and no education is now complete without some preparation for these rapidly growing requirements.

There are two ways of preparing students for the government of themselves in after-life, one direct and the other indirect. The first has its merits; it is quick in results, often very successful. It fosters piety, inculcates some clear principles, dictates the main lines of action and by rule and maxim, fits the being into its place in the world, and gives it means to do its duty creditably. The indirect method is longer and less clearly defined. It aims at giving a guiding light within, and power to climb a difficult path, and pick a way

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Sacred Heart educators immerse students in diverse global perspectives, developing competencies such as critical consciousness, language facility and cultural literacy.

through unknown country by that light. This must be waited for, and slowly developed, but in the end it is of greater worth. The training of the Sacred Heart aims at this.”

St. Madeleine Sophie Barat Let us respect childhood; let us honor the soul of that small creative of God who can already make choices of the best if we take time to awaken her reason and make her use her judgment….

Let your Heart be more attentive than your head for the Holy Spirit’s love to take hold; it is more important to love than to understand.

The Spirit is always speaking to us deep in our hearts if we listen.

Courage and confidence! I cannot repeat this way-cry too often. We shall make it our support in our life of conflict.

What is the goal of searching various subjects or wasting time in learning them if at the same time we cannot teach children the words of life and touch their hearts and their consciences?

Great hearts, generous hearts, are required in the family of God’s Heart, because the difficulties in the way of doing good increase day by day.

Fran Gimber, RSCJ, Mother Stuart’s Educational Vision and the Goals and Criteria: “How Old the New!” - 2014 (talk at Roehampton for the centenary of the death of Janet Stuart, Summer 2014; Subsequently, at Greenwich for a Heads’ gathering) Janet Erskine Stuart speaks of the negative characteristics of the age: impatience, sudden

change, lawlessness and so on. Then she asserts that the antidotes to them are found in our Catholic faith, Catholic home life, Catholic citizenship, rightly understood. We educators must “kindle in the minds of the children the ambition to do something more, to devote themselves to the great Cause…thus to make it worthwhile for others as well as for themselves that they have lived their life on earth.”

Suzanne Cooke, RSCJ, The Culture of Sacred Heart Schools - 1996 Evidence of a school’s values may be seen in conversations and activities. How do we see justice?

Is justice more than a word? Is the experience of searching for justice within this Sacred Heart school community demonstrative of humility and struggle?

Are we clear that a commitment to justice is more than a humanitarian gesture? It must be if we are true to our religious convictions.

The mission of Sacred Heart education has and continues to be to educate to an informed, active faith, critical thinking, and service to others. Allow me to emphasize informed, active, critical. Our aim has been constant: to ensure that students gain self-knowledge, energy and purpose so that they may become people of conviction and compassion.

Like St. Madeleine Sophie, we know that self-esteem must be nurtured in people if they are to develop into thoughtful, compassionate actors. Sacred Heart education is about both the soul and the intellect. Our education of the whole child intends to address both the heart and the mind. We enable young people to become successful because they come to know who they are and how their God loves them. Our alumni’s success evolves from their conviction to treat others

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Goal III Schools of the Sacred Heart educate to a social awareness that impels to action.

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Sacred Heart educators immerse students in diverse global perspectives, developing competencies such as critical consciousness, language facility and cultural literacy.

with dignity and respect because each person is known and valued by God. To educate the whole child for us means to form conscience and develop faithfilled hearts.

Barbara Dawson, RSCJ, Superior General, Feast of the Sacred Heart -2020 Recognizing the sacredness of each person is the basis of Catholic Social Teaching and the underpinning of universal human rights. Sadly, when we look around we see that much life is not sacred.

We know people who are afraid to be on the streets because of the color of their skin with fear of violence or even death. We know people who are alone and hungry, without work, in fear of losing their homes, or perhaps isolated in a nursing home. We see people on the move from country to country, walking from one end of a country to the other, crossing large bodies of water, deserts and mountains to find safety.

Like Sophie we hold people and their suffering before God, in our times of silence, before the Eucharist.

We anguish because God’s sacred people and God’s sacred planet are suffering…. “ We need to WAKE UP AND PAY ATTENTION to this moment when our hearts are filled with both fear and compassion, to allow this pain to enter into our own hearts, to begin the slow process of transformation and the invitation to real solidarity. The first step toward SOLIDARITY is knowing real people who are suffering, and deepening our compassion.

Society of the Sacred Heart, Artisans of Hope - 2019 As family of the Sacred Heart, we are called to respond “as One Body,” drawing from our charism and mission as educators. This means growing in a shared

vision that allows us to understand the complexity of the political, economic, and social systems that confront us; increasing awareness of how we ourselves may be complicit in injustice; and deepening practices rooted in an integral ecology…. (1) As we hear and respond to the cry of the poor and of wounded earth, we see the effect of unbridled power, especially when it is driven by greed, domination, and callous indifference. As we stand with the weak and oppressed, engage in efforts to bring about structural change in our local and global contexts, advocate for a more just, humane society and an ecologically balanced world, we are confronted with the reality that power, without justice, is destructive and death-dealing. Power, when exercised without mutuality and reciprocity, becomes a tool of domination and oppression. Power without concern for peace and unmindful of the integrity of creation is cruel and violent, and is harmful to both victims and perpetrators of violence…. (8) At the same time, we have been witness to the healing capacity and redemptive value of power, especially when it is put at the service of reconciliation and love. We come from different countries with histories of war or colonization, or whose current governments espouse opposing policies…. (5) With honest and humble vulnerability, we likewise acknowledge that power is a reality with which to contend in the Society of the Sacred Heart. Power is available to us in a variety of ways: knowledge, culture, language, use of information, roles and services entrusted to us, access to funds, just to

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Goal III Schools of the Sacred Heart educate to a social awareness that impels to action.

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Sacred Heart educators immerse students in diverse global perspectives, developing competencies such as critical consciousness, language facility and cultural literacy.

name a few. (8) ….As we become increasingly more aware that we are not called to be a star that shines alone, but rather to be part of a constellation in the universe, we realize how important it is to exercise critical self-reflection about our concept and exercise of power and authority. (9) We recognize our need to grow in freedom to speak about power and to share our inspirations and struggles in integrating it into our lives…. (9) International Heads Meeting - 2015 Decision Making and Discernment As the architects of the future, young people will make the strategic decisions that will affect humanity.

Essential to their formation, to their education as decision makers is discernment.

At every level of our education from the youngest to the oldest, we want to ensure that the young are encouraged to make decisions that favor life.

We hope to accompany them in such a way that they believe they have authority - the right and responsibility to influence the quality of the future through their decisions. (6) Helen McLaughlin, RSCJ, Superior General, Easter Letter to the Society of the Sacred Heart - 1992 Jesus’ compassion is the most radical kind of criticism, for it tells us that the wound of humanity has been taken seriously, that it is not something normal to be accepted passively….

But being compassionate as a way of life is not easy.

Compassion, the feeling that all humans have deep within them, is a feeling that hurts. “Suffering with” to the point of being stirred to the depths upsets our comfortable, sometimes selfish life, our indifference,

or individualism. And because it upsets, we try to lull it to sleep, to reduce it to what today we call “armchair compassion”, the kind we feel fleetingly when the TV screen shows us such widespread suffering…. For the most part humankind tries to avoid suffering, to avoid all that stirs us to the depths, rather than going forward to meet it, to enter it…. (2-3) …compassion implies a link with justice. Being compassionate means having courage to take a stand when circumstances require it. In certain conflicts, one side is right and the other wrong, one side unjust, the other suffers as a result. I do not think that in such a case we can seek a consensus.

Being compassionate does not mean reconciling justice and injustice, but seeing what can be done to prevent injustice…. (3-4) We are called to live this particularly through our service of education. Saint Madeleine Sophie wanted each person to become aware of truth, of love, and freedom (Const. 11). Educating for compassion, awakening compassion in children, adolescents and adults—this is our duty and our mission. Our world calls us to try by the very fact that it makes such efforts to put compassion to sleep, to obstruct it…. (4) Wherever we may be, whatever work we do, we are called to be compassionate.

Society of the Sacred Heart, Education - A Commitment - IEC Working Paper - 1988 We ask what it asks of us –in God: to purify our vision, to tame our ways of violence, selfishness, of competition, to nourish the seeds of risk, of courage, of faithfulness, and to share our goods, whatever we have; to tend to our gifts of service – of mind, of heart, of body, of spirit.

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Sacred Heart educators immerse students in diverse global perspectives, developing competencies such as critical consciousness, language facility and cultural literacy.

Political involvement There is another, equally important dimension of our new educational vision as organically linked with the struggle of justice: the aspect of political involvement. As educators who seek to understand with others the dynamics underlying poverty around the world, there is no way that we can be apolitical. To try to be apolitical is in itself a political act in favor of the status quo. No matter what our point of entry into the world of the poor, sooner or later we will come up against political realities, and the necessity of involvement…. (23) Social Analysis It Is not possible today to generate and accompany educational processes which will support social transformation without starting from an analysis of reality. Social analysis is a method which allows us to seize reality in all its complexity; to know the basic orientation and mechanisms of socioeconomic systems and of the political regimes which create, maintain, and re-produce situations of injustice, marginalization, domination, and violence.

It allows us, as well, to understand the interaction of socio-political, socio-economic, religious and cultural forces and their repercussions on the society at any given moment.

At this time social analysis appear to be one of the best means; • To understand the deep causes of the extreme suffering that we see around us, and to understand how these causes are interrelated on the world level: • To see where the center of power are located and who it is that seeks to control the development and the futures of our people today; • To discern the roots of the social, economic and

political crises whose consequences we’re all suffering; • To situate the context in which we are acting and to hear the cry that arises from it; to take a stand as Jesus did on the side of the weak, the poor, the marginalized; • To discern the educative needs of those to whom we wish to respond….

SECULAR RESOURCES: Kylene Beers, A Curriculum of Irrelevancy - 2021 (blogpost - for thought - why/how we teach) Conclusion: We cannot, dear teachers, ever give in to the demands of irrelevancy. So, Mr. Principal, you must be brave. You must steer the ship into tomorrow. Your teachers will be there with you. And your students, they may shudder at past injustices – of yesteryear and yesterday – and I hope they do.

If they don’t, we are in more trouble than I thought. I wish you all bravery. Stamina. And the knowledge that your hard work is the good work; the best work; the needed work. Thank you.

Critical consciousness - Freire • Critical analysis - gaining knowledge about the systems and structures that create and sustain inequity • Sense of agency - developing a sense of power or capability • Critical action - committing to take action against oppression

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Goal III Schools of the Sacred Heart educate to a social awareness that impels to action.

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The school, drawing from Catholic Social Teaching, educates students to analyze and work to eradicate social structures, practices, systems and values that perpetuate racism and other injustices.

SACRED HEART DOCUMENTS Society of the Sacred Heart, Chapter 2016 The world is crying out to us, challenging us in its suffering, its dizzying rate of change, its lives ravaged by violence…and at the same time, it beckons with all of its gifts as well…. (13) We are called: To reach new frontiers: To go out, to “set sail” as a Society and go with others to new geographic and existential peripheries1 to accompany the life that is emerging there, to defend justice, peace, and the integrity of creation in response to all of those who are searching for meaning in their lives, those who have been wounded, displaced, and excluded because of poverty, violence, and environmental degradation…. (18) Society of the Sacred Heart, Constitutions - 1982 10. We are sent by the Church to communicate the love of the Heart of Jesus. In Him all find their true growth as persons and the way towards reconciliation with one another. This we believe; this we want to proclaim….

11. Saint Madeleine Sophie chose to express this conviction through the service of education, especially of the young. Faithful to her inspiration, and, like her, open to new situations, we make her desire our own: • that people become ever more aware of truth, of love and of freedom; • that they discover the significance of their lives, and devote themselves to others;

• that they take part creatively in the common effort to transform the world; that they be enabled to encounter the love of Jesus; • that they let their lives be shaped by an active faith….

13. Wherever we are sent, whatever our work may be, our lives will be inspired by the love of the Heart of Jesus and the desire of making Him known, expressed in: • a concern for the growth of the whole person; • a thirst for working towards justice and peace in the world in response to the cry of the poor; • a passion to proclaim the Gospel….

171. We want to make a genuine effort to bring about a more just distribution of the world’s resources, in solidarity with all who suffer. We build communion with them by setting aside our own interests, by giving, without seeking reward or gain, by sharing at every level… and by depriving ourselves for the benefit of those who are in need of everything. We can do this if we are prepared to take the permanent risk of choosing a way of life consistent with our option of solidarity with the poor and oppressed.

OTHER SACRED HEART RESOURCES: St. Madeleine Sophie Barat Times change and we must change with them.

Conference of Sacred Heart Education, At the Core Catholic Social Teaching - 2021

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The school, drawing from Catholic Social Teaching, educates students to analyze and work to eradicate social structures, practices, systems and values that perpetuate racism and other injustices.

G. Dammann, RSCJ, President, Manhattanville College Principles versus Prejudices - 1938 At the start of the 1930s, the college consisted of just over 200 students. Though small, the school confronted the decade with a unique spirit and made headlines across the nation. It was not only the decision to admit an African American student in 1938 that captivated America, but also the passionate defense of this decision offered by college president G. Dammann, R.S.C.J. that would establish Manhattanville as a true leader in the field of social action.

The Roots of Social Action at Manhattanville (1933-1938) Principles versus Prejudices Draft document Society of the Sacred Heart, Artisans of Hope - 2019 Transformation through an ethic of caring implies our participation in personal, local and global transformation. …rooted in the experience of God’s compassion, which evokes a caring response at all levels, always guided by the Spirit. Seeing the world through the perspective of God’s compassion, engaging in education and prayerful reflection, and acting from a deep place of love all help us to see transformation as a value, a goal, and a way of life. …we continue to be called to advocate for structural and systemic change in our respective local contexts.

This time, however, we do so with urgency and a shared global vision that begins with an honest examination of how we may be complicit to the very structures that we work to transform.

We have seen the impact of institutional abuse of power in our ministries within diverse contexts...

It is evident in political, social, economic, cultural and religious structures that impose unequal power relations, favoring some while oppressing, impoverishing, and marginalizing others. Moreover, through mass media and social media, we are bombarded with events that show us how people, countries, and our common home – earth – are devalued and destroyed by various forms of structural violence. It includes, but is not limited to patriarchy and clericalism in the church; extreme political ideologies such as dictatorships and unhindered global capitalism; systemic and systematic disregard of the environment; institutionalized racism, classism and sexism; and the many forms of xenophobia, all of which condone and normalize unjust attitudes, practices, and social policies.

It is in this spirit of “transforming and being transformed” that we take action for structural and systemic change. This not only requires an understanding of integral ecology (Laudato Si’# 137), but also critical self-reflection on our own biases and complicity in these systems and structures.

We are convinced more than ever that this work for structural and systemic change will be rendered ineffective if we do not collaborate with one other as well as with groups that share the same vision and hope for justice, peace, and integrity of creation.

Being and acting together as One Body will enliven our power to effect transformation of unjust structures and systems. While our spirituality has

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Goal III Schools of the Sacred Heart educate to a social awareness that impels to action.

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The school, drawing from Catholic Social Teaching, educates students to analyze and work to eradicate social structures, practices, systems and values that perpetuate racism and other injustices.

always been relational, it is precisely at this moment in our collective history that we are more sensitive to the potential of interrelationships. We recognize the urgency to strengthen collaboration amongst ourselves as RSCJ and the entire family of the Sacred Heart, as well as with collaborators. We are convinced that our unity and spirit of Cor Unum give us greater hope, energy and creativity to transform unjust structures.

Society of the Sacred Heart, Act of Hope - 1992 Our country professes the equality of all, but its fundamental institutions and practices continue to privilege one race, one gender, one class, certain cultures and citizenships, and one particular view of the place of the United States in the international order. We have a growing understanding of the ways in which the attitudes, practices, and structures that institutionalize racism and violence in our country relate both to the subordination of women and to the dispossession of some socio-economic groups and some so-called “minorities.” To privilege some by harming or dispossessing others is surely violence of the most basic kind.

The Social Analysis process led to three major insights about the reality of our country: 1) Conditions of poverty are growing worse, with devastating consequences, but all are not suffering equally. This intensification of poverty is not just a by-product of the recent downturn in the economy; rather, it results from political and economic decisions made during what was for some a more affluent time. Whole groups of people suffer from inadequate housing, health care, employment, nutrition, income, and

education; they are conscious of their inability to participate in the basic institutions of society. Here as elsewhere in the world, the burden of poverty is heaviest on people of color, on women, on children.

2) Violence and racism are pervasive and intertwined.

Those who are poor, especially people of color, suffer disproportionately the effects of both, as well as discrimination in employment, housing, education, and immigration. Likewise, the least powerful are most apt to be victims of violence.

On a societal level, abusive power structures and violence glorified in the pursuit of personal and “national interests” provide fertile soil for the politics of racism and isolation to flourish.

3) Our country’s educational system, both public and private, fails those who suffer from poverty compounded by discrimination based on race, ethnicity, or nationality status. Moreover, by favoring the economically secure at the expense of the poor, American education feeds into the cycle of systemic poverty and institutionalized racism.

The priorities that have emerged from our corporate reflection are closely interrelated. They result from a heightened awareness of division and woundedness in our country, a recognition that our political economy establishes and sustains two separated spheres of existence rather than one “common weal.” We may name this dividedness in two different ways (“opposing interests” those who “belong” and those who are “marginalized,” the powerful and the powerless, or the “haves and have-nots”), but however we name it, we have discerned here both the power of evil at work and

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Goal III Schools of the Sacred Heart educate to a social awareness that impels to action.

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The school, drawing from Catholic Social Teaching, educates students to analyze and work to eradicate social structures, practices, systems and values that perpetuate racism and other injustices.

the Spirit-filled challenge to live the Gospel ever more faithfully.

Helen McLaughlin, RSCJ, Superior General, Easter Letter to the Society of the Sacred Heart - 1992 Jesus’ compassion is the most radical kind of criticism, for it tells us that the wound of humanity has been taken seriously, that it is not something normal to be accepted passively….

His desire is to come close to the sufferings of others, to heal, free and reconcile, and Jesus draws near to this suffering in his feelings, in his words, gestures, and glance. Everything in Him shows us that life within God’s Heart is COMPASSION. In Jesus, suffering and love have met…. compassion implies a link with justice. Being compassionate means having courage to take a stand when circumstances require it. In certain conflicts, one side is right and the other wrong, one side unjust, the other suffers as a result.

I do not think that in such as case we can seek a consensus. Being compassionate does not mean reconciling justice and injustice, but seeing what can be done to prevent injustice…. (3-4) We are called to live this particularly through our service of education. -Saint Madeleine Sophie Wherever we may be, whatever work we do, we are called to be compassionate.

To be compassionate is to heal: • the wounds of the poor, of those on the fringes of society, of women wounded in their human dignity; • the wounds caused by contempt, competitiveness, the consumer society; • the victims of unjust systems of education; • and finally, we are called to be compassionate

towards nature, for it too is wounded by human greed and neglect….. (4) Anne Montgomery, RSCJ, Swords Into Plowshares – 1996 Civil disobedience is traditionally the breaking of a civil law to obey a higher law, sometimes with the hope of changing the unjust civil law...But we should speak of such actions as divine obedience, rather than civil disobedience. The term “disobedience” is not appropriate because any law that does not protect and enhance life is no real law. In particular, both divine and international law tell us that weapons of mass destruction are a crime against humanity and it is the duty of the ordinary citizen to actively oppose them. (p.1) https://rscj.org/about/memoriam/annemontgomery Phil Kilroy, Madeleine Sophie Barat, A Life - 2000 Sophie hoped that education within her schools would be profound enough to inspire people to rebuild, renew and transform society, wherever they lived. As her intuition matured, developed, and expanded, she came to see education as the means and the way to renew society. All the issues of the day impacted the Society in one place or another: class, race, color, creed, gender, theology, politics, education. Within a turbulent and changing world, Sophie learned painfully that we never create in a vacuum. While we wish to create anew, we inherit what has been and have to live with the blend of both.

Society of the Sacred Heart, Statement on Racism 2020

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Goal III Schools of the Sacred Heart educate to a social awareness that impels to action.

The Stuart Center for Mission, JPIC Statements - Society of the Sacred Heart / Stuart Center

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Juliet Mousseau, RSCJ, Catholic Social Teaching and the Goals and Criteria - 2020

The school, drawing from Catholic Social Teaching, educates students to analyze and work to eradicate social structures, practices, systems and values that perpetuate racism and other injustices.

Maria Cimperman, RSCJ, Social Analysis for the 21st Century - 2015 A comprehensive text on social analysis in light of Catholic Social Teaching with worksheets included in the appendix.

Conference of Sacred Heart Education, At the Core – Catholic Social Teaching Issue - 2021 Conference of Sacred Heart Education, Sacred Heart Examen on Social Sin

CHURCH DOCUMENTS USCCB, Open Wide Our Hearts: The Enduring Call to Love, A Pastoral Letter Against Racism - 2018 Racism arises when—either consciously or unconsciously—a person holds that his or her own race or ethnicity is superior, and therefore judges persons of other races or ethnicities as inferior and unworthy of equal regard. When this conviction or attitude leads individuals or groups to exclude, ridicule, mistreat, or unjustly discriminate against persons on the basis of their race or ethnicity, it is sinful. Racist acts are sinful because they violate justice. They reveal a failure to acknowledge the human dignity of the persons offended, to recognize them as the neighbors Christ calls us to love (Mt 22:39). ….Racism shares in the same evil that moved Cain to kill his brother. It arises from suppressing the truth

that his brother Abel was also created in the image of God, a human equal to himself. Every racist act— every such comment, every joke, every disparaging look as a reaction to the color of skin, ethnicity, or place of origin—is a failure to acknowledge another person as a brother or sister, created in the image of God. In these and in many other such acts, the sin of racism persists in our lives, in our country, and in our world.

Racism comes in many forms. It can be seen in deliberate, sinful acts. In recent times, we have seen bold expressions of racism by groups as well as individuals. The re-appearance of symbols of hatred, such as nooses and swastikas in public spaces, is a tragic indicator of rising racial and ethnic animus.

All too often, Hispanics and African Americans, for example, face discrimination in hiring, housing, educational opportunities, and incarceration. Racial profiling frequently targets Hispanics for selective immigration enforcement practices, and African Americans, for suspected criminal activity. There is also the growing fear and harassment of persons from majority Muslim countries. Extreme nationalist ideologies are feeding the American public discourse with xenophobic rhetoric that instigates fear against foreigners, immigrants, and refugees. Finally, too often racism comes in the form of the sin of omission, when individuals, communities, and even churches remain silent and fail to act against racial injustice when it is encountered.

Racism can often be found in our hearts—in many cases placed there unwillingly or unknowingly by our upbringing and culture. As such, it can lead to thoughts and actions that we do not even see

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The school, drawing from Catholic Social Teaching, educates students to analyze and work to eradicate social structures, practices, systems and values that perpetuate racism and other injustices.

as racist, but nonetheless flow from the same prejudicial root. Consciously or subconsciously, this attitude of superiority can be seen in how certain groups of people are vilified, called criminals, or are perceived as being unable to contribute to society, even unworthy of its benefits. Racism can also be institutional, when practices or traditions are upheld that treat certain groups of people unjustly. The cumulative effects of personal sins of racism have led to social structures of injustice and violence that makes us all accomplices in racism.

has been very limited formal acknowledgement of the harm done to so many, no moment of atonement, no national process of reconciliation and, all too often a neglect of our history. Many of our institutions still harbor, and too many of our laws still sanction, practices that deny justice and equal access to certain groups of people. God demands more from us. We cannot, therefore, look upon the progress against racism in recent decades and conclude that our current situation meets the standard of justice. In fact, God demands what is right and just.

….What is needed, and what we are calling for, is a genuine conversion of heart, a

….When we begin to separate people in our thoughts for unjust reasons, when we start to see some people as “them” and others as “us,” we fail to love. Yet love is at the heart of the Christian life.

conversion that will compel change, and the reform of our institutions and society. Conversion is a long road to travel for the individual. Moving our nation to a full realization of the promise of liberty, equality, and justice for all is even more challenging. However, in Christ we can find the strength and the grace necessary to make that journey.

In this regard, each of us should adopt the words of Pope Francis as our own: let no one “think that this invitation is not meant for him or her.”9 All of us are in need of personal, ongoing conversion. Our churches and our civic and social institutions are in need of ongoing reform. If racism is confronted by addressing its causes and the injustice it produces, then healing can occur. ….Too many good and faithful Catholics remain unaware of the connection between institutional racism and the continued erosion of the sanctity of life. We are not finished with the work. The evil of racism festers in part because, as a nation, there

….Love compels each of us to resist racism courageously. It requires us to reach out generously to the victims of this evil, to assist the conversion needed in those who still harbor racism, and to begin to change policies and structures that allow racism to persist. ….Examining our sinfulness—individually, as the Christian community, and as a society—is a humbling experience. Only from a place of humility can we look honestly at past failures, ask for forgiveness, and move toward healing and reconciliation. This requires us to acknowledge sinful deeds and thoughts, and to ask for forgiveness. The truth is that the sons and daughters of the Catholic Church have been complicit in the evil of racism. ….As Pope Benedict XVI has said, “Being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives

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The school, drawing from Catholic Social Teaching, educates students to analyze and work to eradicate social structures, practices, systems and values that perpetuate racism and other injustices.

life a new horizon and a decisive direction.” (Pope Benedict XVI, Deus Caritas Est, no. 1.) ….To work at ending racism, we need to engage the world and encounter others—to see, maybe for the first time, those who are on the peripheries of our own limited view. Knowing that the Lord has taken the divine initiative by loving us first, we can boldly go forward, reaching out to others. We must invite into dialogue those we ordinarily would not seek out.

We must work to form relationships with those we might regularly try to avoid. This demands that we go beyond ourselves, opening our minds and hearts to value and respect the experiences of those who have been harmed by the evil of racism. Love also requires us to invite a change of heart in those who may be dismissive of other’s experiences or whose hearts may be hardened by prejudice or racism. Only by forging authentic relationships can we truly see each other as Christ sees us. Love should then move us to take what we learn from our encounters and examine where society continues to fail our brothers and sisters, or where it perpetuates inequity, and seek to address those problems. ….Nationally, taking concrete action should include advocating for equality in how laws are implemented and advocating for moral budgets that reduce barriers to economic wellbeing, appropriate healthcare, education, and training. We can also learn from the example of other countries, such as South Africa, Germany, and Rwanda, and from certain institutions that have recognized past wrongs and have come to understand the truth of their history. Locally, including in our own parishes, practical plans should be made to provide further opportunities for qualified

candidates who historically have been excluded, such as through hiring and contracting practices. Likewise, within our dioceses, taking concrete action entails that struggling parishes, schools, and organizations receive resources and training for catechesis, youth ministry, and other pastoral needs. It also means providing necessary support to families, seniors, and ex-offenders. ….organize activities that foster community, dialogue, and reconciliation. ….Here we call on our religious education programs, Catholic schools, and Catholic publishing companies to develop curricula relating to racism and reconciliation. Our campus ministers should plan young adult reflections and discussions that strive to build pathways toward racial equality and healing. We can also learn from the example of those young people who rise above racist attitudes and model respect. We also charge … all our educational institutions to break any silence around the issue of racism, to find new and creative ways to raise awareness, analyze curricula, and to teach the virtues of fraternal charity. ….The roots of racism have extended deeply into the soil of our society. Racism can only end if we contend with the policies and institutional barriers that perpetuate and preserve the inequality— economic and social—that we still see all around us. With renewed vigor, we call on the members of the Body of Christ to join others in advocating and promoting policies at all levels that will combat racism and its effects in our civic and social institutions.

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The school, drawing from Catholic Social Teaching, educates students to analyze and work to eradicate social structures, practices, systems and values that perpetuate racism and other injustices.

St. John Paul II, On Social Concern [Sollicitudo rei Socialis], no. 38 ….Thus one would hope that all those who, to some degree or other, are responsible for ensuring a “more human life” for their fellow human beings, whether or not they are inspired by a religious faith, will become fully aware of the urgent need to change the spiritual attitudes which define each individual’s relationship with self, with neighbor, with even the remotest human communities, and with nature itself; and all of this in view of higher values such as the common good or, to quote the felicitous expression of the Encyclical Populorum Progressio, the full development “of the whole individual and of all people.”

For Christians, as for all who recognize the precise theological meaning of the word “sin,” a change of behavior or mentality or mode of existence is called “conversion”... This conversion specifically entails a relationship to God, to the sin committed, to its consequences and hence to one’s neighbor, either an individual or a community. It is God, in “whose hands are the hearts of the powerful” and the hearts of all, who according his own promise and by the power of his Spirit can transform “hearts of stone” into “hearts of flesh” (cf. Ezek 36:26). …positive and moral value of the growing awareness of interdependence among individuals and nations.

The fact that men and women in various parts of the world feel personally affected by the injustices and violations of human rights committed in distant countries, countries which perhaps they will never visit, is a further sign of a reality transformed into awareness, thus acquiring a moral connotation.

These attitudes and “structures of sin” are only conquered - presupposing the help of divine grace by a diametrically opposed attitude: a commitment to the good of one’s neighbor with the readiness, in the gospel sense, to “lose oneself” for the sake of the other instead of exploiting him, and to “serve him” instead of oppressing him for one’s own advantage.

Pope Benedict XVI, Charity in Truth [Caritas in Veritate], no. 32 The significant new elements in the picture of the development of peoples today in many cases demand new solutions…. The dignity of the individual and the demands of justice require, particularly today, that economic choices do not cause disparities in wealth to increase in an excessive and morally unacceptable manner, and that we continue to prioritize the goal of access to steady employment for everyone. All things considered, this is also required by “economic logic”. Through the systemic increase of social inequality, both within a single country and between the populations of different countries (i.e. the massive increase in relative poverty), not only does social cohesion suffer, thereby placing democracy at risk, but so too does the economy, through the progressive erosion of “social capital”: the network of relationships of trust, dependability, and respect for rules, all of which are indispensable for any form of civil coexistence.

Economic science tells us that structural insecurity generates anti-productive attitudes wasteful of human resources, inasmuch as workers tend to adapt passively to automatic mechanisms, rather than to release creativity. On this point too, there is a

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The school, drawing from Catholic Social Teaching, educates students to analyze and work to eradicate social structures, practices, systems and values that perpetuate racism and other injustices.

convergence between economic science and moral evaluation. Human costs always include economic costs, and economic dysfunctions always involve human costs.

It should be remembered that the reduction of cultures to the technological dimension, even if it favors short-term profits, in the long term impedes reciprocal enrichment and the dynamics of cooperation. It is important to distinguish between short- and long-term economic or sociological considerations. Lowering the level of protection accorded to the rights of workers, or abandoning mechanisms of wealth redistribution in order to increase the country’s international competitiveness, hinder the achievement of lasting development.

Moreover, the human consequences of current tendencies towards a short-term economy — sometimes very short-term — need to be carefully evaluated. This requires further and deeper reflection on the meaning of the economy and its goals, as well as a profound and far-sighted revision of the current model of development, so as to correct its dysfunctions and deviations.

Second Vatican Council, The Church in the Modern World [Gaudium et Spes], no. 27 Coming down to practical and particularly urgent consequences, this council lays stress on reverence for man; everyone must consider his every neighbor without exception as another self, taking into account first of all His life and the means necessary to living it with dignity, so as not to imitate the rich man who had no concern for the poor man Lazarus.

In our times a special obligation binds us to make ourselves the neighbor of every person without exception and of actively helping him when he comes across our path, whether he be an old person abandoned by all, a foreign laborer unjustly looked down upon, a refugee, a child born of an unlawful union and wrongly suffering for a sin he did not commit, or a hungry person who disturbs our conscience by recalling the voice of the Lord, “As long as you did it for one of these the least of my brethren, you did it for me” (Matt. 25:40).

Pope Francis, On Care for Our Common Home [Laudato Si’], nos. 179, 219 179. …while the existing world order proves powerless to assume its responsibilities, local individuals and groups can make a real difference. They are able to instill a greater sense of responsibility, a strong sense of community, a readiness to protect others, a spirit of creativity and a deep love for the land. They are also concerned about what they will eventually leave to their children and grandchildren. These values are deeply rooted in indigenous peoples. Because the enforcement of laws is at times inadequate due to corruption, public pressure has to be exerted in order to bring about decisive political action.

Society, through non-governmental organizations and intermediate groups, must put pressure on governments to develop more rigorous regulations, procedures and controls. Unless citizens control political power – national, regional and municipal – it will not be possible to control damage to the environment. Local legislation can be more effective, too, if agreements exist between neighboring communities to support the same environmental policies.

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The school, drawing from Catholic Social Teaching, educates students to analyze and work to eradicate social structures, practices, systems and values that perpetuate racism and other injustices.

219. Nevertheless, self-improvement on the part of individuals will not by itself remedy the extremely complex situation facing our world today. Isolated individuals can lose their ability and freedom to escape the utilitarian mindset, and end up prey to an unethical consumerism bereft of social or ecological awareness. Social problems must be addressed by community networks and not simply by the sum of individual good deeds. This task “will make such tremendous demands of man that he could never achieve it by individual initiative or even by the united effort of men bred in an individualistic way. The work of dominating the world calls for a union of skills and a unity of achievement that can only grow from quite a different attitude”. The ecological conversion needed to bring about lasting change is also a community conversion.

USCCB, The Summary Report of the Task Force on Catholic Social Teaching and Catholic Education - 2011 Catholic social teaching is a central and essential element of our faith. Its roots are in the Hebrew prophets who announced God’s special love for the poor and called God’s people to a covenant of love and justice. It is a teaching founded on the life and words of Jesus Christ, who came “to bring glad tidings to the poor . . . liberty to captives . . . recovery of sight to the blind”(Lk 4:18-19), and who identified himself with “the least of these,” the hungry and the stranger (cf. Mt 25:45). Catholic social teaching is built on a commitment to the poor. This commitment arises from our experiences of Christ in the eucharist.

As the Catechism of the Catholic Church explains, “To receive in truth the Body and Blood of Christ given up

for us, we must recognize Christ in the poorest, his brethren” (no. 1397).

Catholic social teaching emerges from the truth of what God has revealed to us about himself.

We believe in the triune God whose very nature is communal and social. God the Father sends his only Son Jesus Christ and shares the Holy Spirit as his gift of love. God reveals himself to us as one who is not alone, but rather as one who is relational, one who is Trinity. Therefore, we who are made in God’s image share this communal, social nature. We are called to reach out and to build relationships of love and justice.

Catholic social teaching is based on and inseparable from our understanding of human life and human dignity. Every human being is created in the image of God and redeemed by Jesus Christ, and therefore is invaluable and worthy of respect as a member of the human family. Every person, from the moment of conception to natural death, has inherent dignity and a right to life consistent with that dignity. Human dignity comes from God, not from any human quality or accomplishment.

Our commitment to the Catholic social mission must be rooted in and strengthened by our spiritual lives. In our relationship with God we experience the conversion of heart that is necessary to truly love one another as God has loved us.

• Life and Dignity of the Human Person • Call to Family, Community, and Participation • Rights and Responsibilities • Option for the Poor and Vulnerable

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Goal III Schools of the Sacred Heart educate to a social awareness that impels to action.

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These moral values and others outlined in various papal and episcopal documents are part of a systematic moral framework and a precious intellectual heritage that we call Catholic social teaching. The Scriptures say, “Without a vision the people perish” (Prv 29:18). As Catholics, we have an inspiring vision in our social teaching. In a world that hungers for a sense of meaning and moral direction, this teaching offers ethical criteria for action. In a society of rapid change and often confused moral values, this teaching offers consistent moral guidance for the future. For Catholics, this social teaching is a central part of our identity. In the words of John Paul II, it is “genuine doctrine” (Centesimus Annus, no. 5).

The school, drawing from Catholic Social Teaching, educates students to analyze and work to eradicate social structures, practices, systems and values that perpetuate racism and other injustices.

The Dignity of Work and the Rights of Workers Solidarity Care for God’s Creation

There will be legitimate differences and debate over how these challenging moral principles are applied in concrete situations. Differing prudential judgments on specifics cannot be allowed, however, to obscure the need for every Catholic to know and apply these principles in family, economic, and community life.

Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace Contribution to World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerence – 2001

OTHER CHURCH RESOURCES Social Justice Resource Center, Catholic Social Teaching: Church Documents Comprehensive list of church documents on Catholic Social Teaching in chronological order.

USCCB, A Century of Social Teaching: A Common Heritage, A Continuing Challenge - 1990 Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, The Church and Racism: Toward a more Fraternal Society - 1988, 2001 Education for Justice website Access to materials is limited to members. The Conference of Sacred Heart Education is a member, and each school will be given a username and password. Contact your Head of School for the name of the contact person for your school.

Thomas Massaro, SJ, Living Justice: Catholic Social Teaching in Action, 3rd Classroom Edition - 2011 A resource for teachers and students who are looking for ways to put Catholic Social Teaching principles in action.

Fred Kammer, SJ, Key Principles of Catholic Social Teaching - 2014 A seven-part detailed overview of Catholic Social Teaching for grades 6-12.

Fred Kammer, SJ, Faithjustice: An Introduction to Catholic Social Thought - 2004 Explores the biblical grounding for this virtue and provides an overview of its historical development in the Catholic community.

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Goal III Schools of the Sacred Heart educate to a social awareness that impels to action.

Christopher J. Devron, S.J. “Should Catholic Schools Teach Critical Race Theory?” America Magazine – 2021

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Education for Justice, Curriculum MAP: Catholic Social Teaching - 2020 Curriculum map includes links to all their materials by topic – wide range of prayers, lesson plans, toolkits and articles. NOTE: Access to materials is limited to members. The Conference of Sacred Heart Education is a member, and each school will be given a username and password. Contact the Assistant to your Head of School for the name of the contact person for your school.

The school, drawing from Catholic Social Teaching, educates students to analyze and work to eradicate social structures, practices, systems and values that perpetuate racism and other injustices.

USCCB, Catholic Social Teaching Resources - 2020 Includes documents, videos, discussion guides with videos and additional resources for young children through young adults.

Kenneth Himes, OFM, Responses to 101 Questions on Catholic Social Teaching, 2nd Ed - 2013 A resource for teachers on the basics of Catholic Social Teaching

SCRIPTURE Luke 4:18 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free.

1 Corinthians 12:12-26 For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot would say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear would say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many members, yet one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” On the contrary, the members of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and those members of the body that we think less honorable we clothe with greater honor, and our less respectable members are treated with greater respect; whereas our more respectable members do not need this. But God has so arranged the body, giving the greater honor to the inferior member, that there may be no dissension within the body, but the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it.

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The school, drawing from Catholic Social Teaching, educates students to analyze and work to eradicate social structures, practices, systems and values that perpetuate racism and other injustices.

Acts 2:42-45 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. Awe came upon everyone because many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need.

Luke 22:25-27 But he said to them, “The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them; and those in authority over them are called benefactors. But not so with you; rather the greatest among you must become like the youngest, and the leader like one who serves. For who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one at the table? But I am among you as one who serves.

Matthew 10:40-42 Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me.

Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward; and whoever welcomes a righteous person in the name of a righteous person will receive the reward of the righteous; and whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple— truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward.

Matthew 25:40 And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.’

Matthew 20:25 But Jesus called them to him and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them.”

Mark 10:42-45 “…and whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple—truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward.”

Micah 6:8 He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? Genesis 4:9 Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?” He said, “I do not know; am I my brother’s keeper?”

Genesis 1:26-27 Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.” So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.

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Goal III Schools of the Sacred Heart educate to a social awareness that impels to action.

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The school, drawing from Catholic Social Teaching, educates students to analyze and work to eradicate social structures, practices, systems and values that perpetuate racism and other injustices.

SECULAR Jacey Fortin, Critical Race Theory: A Brief History 2021 CRT = “It is a way of seeing, attending to, accounting for, tracing and analyzing the ways that race is produced,” she said, “the ways that racial inequality is facilitated, and the ways that our history has created these inequalities that now can be almost effortlessly reproduced unless we attend to the existence of these inequalities.” Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw (Law Professor at the U.C.L.A. School of Law and Columbia Law School), EdPost Staff, EXPLAINED: The Truth About Critical Race Theory and How It Shows Up in Your Child’s Classroom - 2021 National Equity Project, Equity Messaging Guidance for Districts - 2021 ]

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Goal III Schools of the Sacred Heart educate to a social awareness that impels to action.

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All members of the school community accept accountability for the care of God’s creation, practice effective stewardship of the earth’s resources and work to alleviate the climate crisis.

SACRED HEART DOCUMENTS Society of the Sacred Heart, Chapter 2016 The Society of the Sacred Heart is as a body moved from its center by Love. Within this body, life flows, weaving different kinds of connections, bringing energy and flexibility to each part. What affects one of these parts affects the whole body. Likewise, this body belongs to a large ecosystem that is in transformation and it needs to live processes of change: opening its senses, firmly planting its bare feet on the earth, breathing in rhythm with the heartbeat of Life.

OTHER SACRED HEART RESOURCES: Society of the Sacred Heart, Artisans of Hope - 2019 The call to care for our common home, which is replete with diverse beauty, holds unprecedented urgency. Driven by an ethic of caring about the future of our planet we along with so many others responding to this call seek creative and effective ways to heed this urgency. In his encyclical Laudato Si’, Pope Francis urges us to listen to “the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor (# 49).” It is always the poor who suffer most from the degradation of the earth. As educators for justice, we are committed to reflection, critical analysis and action in order to effect changes in the root causes and systems that endanger our planet and those who are most vulnerable. As we search for solutions we acknowledge the importance of listening to the voices of those who are most affected by the abuse of our common home. All our actions must be inspired by this spiritual and moral imperative.

We know that such transformation can only begin by acknowledging our personal responsibility for our common home. We want to examine the ways in which we are complicit in unethical environmental and consumer practices, and address these as constructively as possible.

CHURCH DOCUMENTS Pope Francis, On Care for Our Common Home [Laudato Si’], no. 25 Climate change is a global problem with grave implications: environmental, social, economic, political and for the distribution of goods. It represents one of the principal challenges facing humanity in our day.

Its worst impact will probably be felt by developing countries in coming decades. Many of the poor live in areas particularly affected by phenomena related to warming, and their means of subsistence are largely dependent on natural reserves and ecosystemic services such as agriculture, fishing and forestry. They have no other financial activities or resources which can enable them to adapt to climate change or to face natural disasters, and their access to social services and protection is very limited. For example, changes in climate, to which animals and plants cannot adapt, lead them to migrate; this in turn affects the livelihood of the poor, who are then forced to leave their homes, with great uncertainty for their future and that of their children. There has been a tragic rise in the number of migrants seeking to flee from the growing poverty caused by environmental degradation. They are not recognized by international conventions as refugees; they bear the loss of the lives they have left behind, without enjoying any legal protection whatsoever.

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All members of the school community accept accountability for the care of God’s creation, practice effective stewardship of the earth’s resources and work to alleviate the climate crisis.

Sadly, there is widespread indifference to such suffering, which is even now taking place throughout our world. Our lack of response to these tragedies involving our brothers and sisters points to the loss of that sense of responsibility for our fellow men and women upon which all civil society is founded.

United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Global Climate Change: A Plea for Dialogue, Prudence and the Common Good - 2001 Global climate is by its very nature a part of the planetary commons. The earth’s atmosphere encompasses all people, creatures, and habitats. The melting of ice sheets and glaciers, the destruction of rain forests, and the pollution of water in one place can have environmental impacts elsewhere. As Pope John Paul II has said, “ We cannot interfere in one area of the ecosystem without paying due attention both to the consequences of such interference in other areas and to the well being of future generations.” [John Paul II, World Day for Peace 1990, The ecological crisis: a common responsibility] Responses to global climate change should reflect our interdependence and common responsibility for the future of our planet. Individual nations must measure their own self-interest against the greater common good and contribute equitably to global solutions.

John Paul II, World Day for Peace, The ecological crisis: a common responsibility - 1990 Today the ecological crisis has assumed such proportions as to be the responsibility of everyone. As I have pointed out, its various aspects demonstrate the need for concerted efforts aimed at establishing the duties and obligations that belong to individuals,

peoples, States and the international community.

This not only goes hand in hand with efforts to build true peace, but also confirms and reinforces those efforts in a concrete way. When the ecological crisis is set within the broader context of the search for peace within society, we can understand better the importance of giving attention to what the earth and its atmosphere are telling us: namely, that there is an order in the universe which must be respected, and that the human person, endowed with the capability of choosing freely, has a grave responsibility to preserve this order for the well-being of future generations. I wish to repeat that the ecological crisis is a moral issue. ….Christians, in particular, realize that their responsibility within creation and their duty towards nature and the Creator are an essential part of their faith.

Pope Benedict XVI, Caritas in veritate (June 29, 2009) | BENEDICT XVI, no. 50 This responsibility is a global one, for it is concerned not just with energy but with the whole of creation, which must not be bequeathed to future generations depleted of its resources. Human beings legitimately exercise a responsible stewardship over nature, in order to protect it, to enjoy its fruits and to cultivate it in new ways, with the assistance of advanced technologies, so that it can worthily accommodate and feed the world’s population. On this earth there is room for everyone: here the entire human family must find the resources to live with dignity, through the help of nature itself — God’s gift to his children — and through hard work and creativity. At the same time we must recognize our grave duty to hand the earth on

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Goal III Schools of the Sacred Heart educate to a deep respect for intellectual values.

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All members of the school community accept accountability for the care of God’s creation, practice effective stewardship of the earth’s resources and work to alleviate the climate crisis.

to future generations in such a condition that they too can worthily inhabit it and continue to cultivate it. This means being committed to making joint decisions “after pondering responsibly the road to be taken, decisions aimed at strengthening that covenant between human beings and the environment, which should mirror the creative love of God, from whom we come and towards whom we are journeying”[Message for the 2008 World Day of Peace, no. 41]. Let us hope that the international community and individual governments will succeed in countering harmful ways of treating the environment. It is likewise incumbent upon the competent authorities to make every effort to ensure that the economic and social costs of using up shared environmental resources are recognized with transparency and fully borne by those who incur them, not by other peoples or future generations: the protection of the environment, of resources and of the climate obliges all international leaders to act jointly and to show a readiness to work in good faith, respecting the law and promoting solidarity with the weakest regions of the planet. One of the greatest challenges facing the economy is to achieve the most efficient use — not abuse — of natural resources, based on a realization that the notion of “efficiency” is not value-free.

United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Economic Justice for All - 1986, no. 28 The basis for all that the Church believes about the moral dimensions of economic life is its vision of the transcendent worth—the sacredness—of human beings. The dignity of the human person, realized in community with others, is the criterion against which

all aspects of economic life must be measured.(1) All human beings, therefore, are ends to be served by the institutions that make up the economy, not means to be exploited for more narrowly defined goals. Human personhood must be respected with a reverence that is religious. When we deal with each other, we should do so with the sense of awe that arises in the presence of something holy and sacred.

For that is what human beings are: we are created in the image of God (Gn 1:27). Similarly, all economic institutions must support the bonds of community and solidarity that are essential to the dignity of persons. Wherever our economic arrangements fail to conform to the demands of human dignity lived in community, they must be questioned and transformed. These convictions have a biblical basis. They are also supported by a long tradition of theological and philosophical reflection and through the reasoned analysis of human experience by contemporary men and women.

Pope Francis, On Care for Our Common Home [Laudato Si’] no. 52. The foreign debt of poor countries has become a way of controlling them, yet this is not the case where ecological debt is concerned. In different ways, developing countries, where the most important reserves of the biosphere are found, continue to fuel the development of richer countries at the cost of their own present and future. The land of the southern poor is rich and mostly unpolluted, yet access to ownership of goods and resources for meeting vital needs is inhibited by a system of commercial relations and ownership which is structurally

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Goal III Schools of the Sacred Heart educate to a social awareness that impels to action.

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All members of the school community accept accountability for the care of God’s creation, practice effective stewardship of the earth’s resources and work to alleviate the climate crisis.

perverse. The developed countries ought to help pay this debt by significantly limiting their consumption of non-renewable energy and by assisting poorer countries to support policies and programmes of sustainable development. The poorest areas and countries are less capable of adopting new models for reducing environmental impact because they lack the wherewithal to develop the necessary processes and to cover their costs. We must continue to be aware that, regarding climate change, there are differentiated responsibilities. As the United States bishops have said, greater attention must be given to “the needs of the poor, the weak and the vulnerable, in a debate often dominated by more powerful interests”.[United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Global Climate Change: A Plea for Dialogue, Prudence and the Common Good] We need to strengthen the conviction that we are one single human family. There are no frontiers or barriers, political or social, behind which we can hide, still less is there room for the globalization of indifference. no. 49. It needs to be said that, generally speaking, there is little in the way of clear awareness of problems which especially affect the excluded. ….This lack of physical contact and encounter, encouraged at times by the disintegration of our cities, can lead to a numbing of conscience and to tendentious analyses which neglect parts of reality. ….Today, however, we have to realize that a true ecological approach always becomes a social approach; it must integrate questions of justice in debates on the environment, so as to hear both the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor.

no. 91.A sense of deep communion with the rest of nature cannot be real if our hearts lack tenderness, compassion and concern for our fellow human beings. It is clearly inconsistent to combat trafficking in endangered species while remaining completely indifferent to human trafficking, unconcerned about the poor, or undertaking to destroy another human being deemed unwanted. ….Everything is connected.

Concern for the environment thus needs to be joined to a sincere love for our fellow human beings and an unwavering commitment to resolving the problems of society.

OTHER CHURCH RESOURCES: USCCB, Statement on the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation - 2022 Brian Roewe, With the planet at ‘a breaking point’, pope urges decisive action at UN environment summits, NCR - 2022 As heatwaves blister the globe, Pope Francis has called for all people to “repent and modify our lifestyles and destructive systems.”

Laudato Si’ Year, Catholic Climate Covenant resources - 2020 Laudato Si’ Anniversary Year Laudato Si Movement - Catholics for our Common Home Laudato Si’ has been and continues to be the cornerstone of our movement, even as the Magisterium of the Church has continued to evolve with texts such as Querida Amazonia and Fratelli Tutti. Laudato Si’ is just one milestone in the long

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All members of the school community accept accountability for the care of God’s creation, practice effective stewardship of the earth’s resources and work to alleviate the climate crisis.

tradition of Catholic Social Teaching, a tradition we embrace wholeheartedly; but Laudato Si’s distinctive theme, “care for our common home,” makes it a milestone that has touched our hearts profoundly and brought us together to advance our mission to care for our imperiled planetary home. In fact, in the spirit of an integral ecology, many of our key initiatives are named after the encyclical: LS Animators, LS Week, LS Circles, LS Generation, LS Retreats, and more. We also humbly acknowledge that there is a lot of Laudato Si’ action taking place outside of our movement, starting with the Vatican’s own Laudato Si’ Action Platform which we actively support together with many others. We are delighted with so much life inspired by the encyclical and Querida Amazonia.

USCCB, Summary of Activities of the U.S. Church in Response to Laudato Si’ - 2020 USCCB, Environmental Resources & Initiatives CST 101 CARE FOR GOD’S CREATION - 2017 A discussion guide from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and Catholic Relief Services

Jesuit Forum for Social Faith and Justice, On Care of our Common Home: A Dialogue Guide on Laudato Si’ 2016 Intercommunity Peace & Justice Center, Climate Change Resources Social Justice Resource Center, Environment The mission of the Social Justice Resource Center is to link faith to action by providing information & resources on the social issues of our time.

USCCB, Prayer to Become Stewards of God’s Creation - 2010 USCCB, Caring for God’s Creations, Resources for Liturgy, Preaching and Taking Action - 2020

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Goal III Schools of the Sacred Heart educate to a social awareness that impels to action.

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School programs promote informed active citizenship and civic responsibility on the local, national and global level.

SCRIPTURE

CHURCH DOCUMENTS

Jeremiah 22:13-16 Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness, and his upper rooms by injustice;

Catechism of the Catholic Church - 1993 1913 “Participation” is the voluntary and generous engagement of a person in social interchange. It is necessary that all participate, each according to his position and role, in promoting the common good.

This obligation is inherent in the dignity of the human person.

who makes his neighbors work for nothing, and does not give them their wages; who says, “I will build myself a spacious house with large upper rooms,” and who cuts out windows for it, paneling it with cedar, and painting it with vermilion. Are you a king, because you compete in cedar?

Did not your father eat and drink and do justice and righteousness?

Then it was well with him. He judged the cause of the poor and needy;then it was well.

Is not this to know me? says the Lord.

James 2:14-17 What good is it, my brothers and sisters,[a] if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,” and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.

1914 Participation is achieved first of all by taking charge of the areas for which one assumes personal responsibility: by the care taken for the education of his family, by conscientious work, and so forth, man participates in the good of others and of society.

1915 As far as possible citizens should take an active part in public life. The manner of this participation may vary from one country or culture to another. “One must pay tribute to those nations whose systems permit the largest possible number of the citizens to take part in public life in a climate of genuine freedom.

United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship, Nov. 2007, no. 13 In the Catholic Tradition, responsible citizenship is a virtue, and participation in political life is a moral obligation. This obligation is rooted in our baptismal commitment to follow Jesus Christ and to bear Christian witness in all we do. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church reminds us, “It is necessary that all participate, each according to his position and role, in promoting the common good. This obligation is inherent in the dignity of the human person. . . . As far as possible citizens should take an active part in public life” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, nos.

1913-1915).

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Goal III Schools of the Sacred Heart educate to a social awareness that impels to action.

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School programs promote informed active citizenship and civic responsibility on the local, national and global level.

St. John Paul II, The Gospel of Life [Evangelium Vitae], no. 19 There is an even more profound aspect which needs to be emphasized: freedom negates and destroys itself, and becomes a factor leading to the destruction of others, when it no longer recognizes and respects its essential link with the truth. When freedom, out of a desire to emancipate itself from all forms of tradition and authority, shuts out even the most obvious evidence of an objective and universal truth, which is the foundation of personal and social life, then the person ends up by no longer taking as the sole and indisputable point of reference for his own choices the truth about good and evil, but only his subjective and changeable opinion or, indeed, his selfish interest and whim.

Pope Francis, The Joy of the Gospel [Evangelii Gaudium], no. 220 People in every nation enhance the social dimension of their lives by acting as committed and responsible citizens, not as a mob swayed by the powers that be. Let us not forget that “responsible citizenship is a virtue, and participation in political life is a moral obligation” [USCCB, Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship]. Yet becoming a people demands something more. It is an ongoing process in which every new generation must take part: a slow and arduous effort calling for a desire for integration and a willingness to achieve this through the growth of a peaceful and multifaceted culture of encounter.

SECULAR Steven Rockefeller, America as a Spiritual Democracy - 1990

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Goal III Schools of the Sacred Heart educate to a social awareness that impels to action.

6

The school community engages in direct service, advocacy, outreach and partnerships to work for justice, peace and the integrity of creation.

NOTE: Supporting documents for Criteria 6 and Criteria 7 are the same.

SOCIETY DOCUMENTS Society of the Sacred Heart, Constitutions - 1982 3. This mission is carried on through the Church, the People of God, until the Kingdom in all its fullness has come. The Society of the Sacred Heart shares in this mission by making known the revelation of God’s love, whose source and symbol is for us the Heart of Christ.

4. By our charism, we are consecrated to GLORIFYING THE HEART OF JESUS: we answer His call to discover and reveal His love … through our love and service to radiate the very love of His Heart.

7. Caught up as we are in the desires of His Heart, we want people to grow in dignity, as human beings and as children of God. Our starting point is the Gospel with all that it demands from us of love, forgiveness and justice, and of solidarity with those who are poor and rejected by the world….

12. The urgency of the world’s needs, the call of our local Church, impel us to respond creatively….

13. Wherever we are sent, whatever our work may be, our lives will be inspired by the love of the Heart of Jesus and the desire of making Him known, expressed in… a thirst for working towards justice and peace in the world in response to the cry of the poor….

14. Our service of education is carried out in a genuine relationship of mutual interaction, where each person both receives and gives so that all may grow together….

OTHER SACRED HEART RESOURCES St. Madeleine Sophie Barat Your example, even more than your words, will be an eloquent lesson to the world.

8. For us, life, community, apostolic service, all spring from our union and conformity with the Heart of Jesus. ….The pierced Heart of Jesus opens our being to the depths of God and to the anguish of humankind. Jesus draws us into His movement of adoration of the Father and love for all, especially those who are poor….

SCRIPTURE

10. We are sent by the Church to communicate the love of the Heart of Jesus….

Joshua 22:5 Take good care to observe the commandment and instruction that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you, to love the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to keep his commandments, and to hold fast to him, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul.

11. Saint Madeleine Sophie chose to express this conviction through the service of education, especially of the young. Faithful to her inspiration, and, like her, open to new situations, we make her desire our own… that they take part creatively in the common effort to transform the world …that they let their lives be shaped by an active faith.

1 Samuel 12:24 Only fear the Lord, and serve him faithfully with all your heart; for consider what great things he has done for you.

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Goal III Schools of the Sacred Heart educate to a social awareness that impels to action.

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The school community engages in direct service, advocacy, outreach and partnerships to work for justice, peace and the integrity of creation.

Matthew 5:16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.

Matthew 23:11 The greatest among you will be your servant.

Matthew 25 ‘Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?’ And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.’

Mark 10:45 For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.

John 12:26 Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honor.

Acts 20:35 In all this I have given you an example that by such work we must support the weak, remembering the words of the Lord Jesus, for he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’

1 Peter 4:10 Like good stewards of the manifold grace of God, serve one another with whatever gift each of you has received.

Hebrews 6:10 For God is not unjust; he will not overlook your work and the love that you showed for his sake in serving the saints, as you still do.

Galatians 5:13b For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another.

Romans 12:11 Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord.

Romans 12:13 Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers.

OTHER CHURCH RESOURCES Pope Francis (8/15/22) Looking at her, in glory, we understand that the true power is service, and that to reign means to love.

Marty Rogers, How a 6th grader’s question inspired a ministry to the homeless, America - 2022.

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Goal III Schools of the Sacred Heart educate to a social awareness that impels to action.

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Sacred Heart educators work to develop in the students a life-long commitment to service.

NOTE: Supporting documents for Criteria 6 and Criteria 7 are the same.

SACRED HEART DOCUMENTS Society of the Sacred Heart, Constitutions - 1982 3. This mission is carried on through the Church, the People of God, until the Kingdom in all its fullness has come. The Society of the Sacred Heart shares in this mission by making known the revelation of God’s love, whose source and symbol is for us the Heart of Christ.

4. By our charism, we are consecrated to GLORIFYING THE HEART OF JESUS: we answer His call to discover and reveal His love … through our love and service to radiate the very love of His Heart.

7. Caught up as we are in the desires of His Heart, we want people to grow in dignity, as human beings and as children of God. Our starting point is the Gospel with all that it demands from us of love, forgiveness and justice, and of solidarity with those who are poor and rejected by the world….

12. The urgency of the world’s needs, the call of our local Church, impel us to respond creatively….

13. Wherever we are sent, whatever our work may be, our lives will be inspired by the love of the Heart of Jesus and the desire of making Him known, expressed in… a thirst for working towards justice and peace in the world in response to the cry of the poor….

14. Our service of education is carried out in a genuine relationship of mutual interaction, where each person both receives and gives so that all may grow together….

OTHER SACRED HEART RESOURCES St. Madeleine Sophie Barat Your example, even more than your words, will be an eloquent lesson to the world.

8. For us, life, community, apostolic service, all spring from our union and conformity with the Heart of Jesus. ….The pierced Heart of Jesus opens our being to the depths of God and to the anguish of humankind. Jesus draws us into His movement of adoration of the Father and love for all, especially those who are poor….

SCRIPTURE

10. We are sent by the Church to communicate the love of the Heart of Jesus….

Joshua 22:5 Take good care to observe the commandment and instruction that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you, to love the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to keep his commandments, and to hold fast to him, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul.

11. Saint Madeleine Sophie chose to express this conviction through the service of education, especially of the young. Faithful to her inspiration, and, like her, open to new situations, we make her desire our own… that they take part creatively in the common effort to transform the world …that they let their lives be shaped by an active faith.

1 Samuel 12:24 Only fear the Lord, and serve him faithfully with all your heart; for consider what great things he has done for you.

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Goal III Schools of the Sacred Heart educate to a social awareness that impels to action.

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Sacred Heart educators work to develop in the students a life-long commitment to service.

Matthew 5:16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.

Matthew 23:11 The greatest among you will be your servant.

Matthew 25 ‘Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?’ And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.’

Mark 10:45 For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.

John 12:26 Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honor.

Acts 20:35 In all this I have given you an example that by such work we must support the weak, remembering the words of the Lord Jesus, for he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’

1 Peter 4:10 Like good stewards of the manifold grace of God, serve one another with whatever gift each of you has received.

Hebrews 6:10 For God is not unjust; he will not overlook your work and the love that you showed for his sake in serving the saints, as you still do.

Galatians 5:13b For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another.

Romans 12:11 Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord.

Romans 12:13 Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers.

OTHER CHURCH RESOURCES Pope Francis (8/15/22) Looking at her, in glory, we understand that the true power is service, and that to reign means to love.

Marty Rogers, How a 6th grader’s question inspired a ministry to the homeless, America - 2022.

Goal IV RESOURCES

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Goal IV Schools of the Sacred Heart commit themselves to the building of community as a Christian value.

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The school, affirming that all are created in the image and likeness of God, promotes the inherent dignity of the human person and strives for relationships characterized by inclusion and mutual respect.

SACRED HEART DOCUMENTS

OTHER SACRED HEART RESOURCES

Society of the Sacred Heart, Constitutions - 1982 15. Contemplating Jesus, we learn from His attitudes and responses how, in all our relationships, to witness to the liberating power of His love. In faith and simplicity we meet the other as a unique person, having respect and affection for each, and a humility which enables us to be receptive. Always, we are filled with hope in our encounters, sure of God’s power at work in us all.

Society of the Sacred Heart, Artisans of Hope - 2019 ... We were reminded that relationship is the cornerstone of JPIC:

40. Communication with other communities and provinces makes us aware of the needs of the whole Body and more ready to serve wherever we are sent.

Wherever we are, we participate actively in the life and mission of the Society; we remain united… in the joy of being called and sent forth to love as Jesus has loved us.

71. Community is the principal place of our formation insofar as we experience support and challenge to grow… as persons….

139. ….In Him, we enter into a new relationship with one another in faith and love.

140. Each one’s commitment to contribute to the progress of the whole is an expression of our communion….

181….We shall form but one heart and one mind, thus giving reality to the words: ‘Cor unum et anima una in Corde Jesus.’ Then… the prayer of Jesus may be fulfilled: ‘The glory which you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one’ (Jn 17:22-23).

relationship with God, the past, one another, others, the earth and the future. ... As Sacred Heart educators, we are convinced that ‘to educate is in itself an act of justice²’ and we take to heart the call ‘to orient all our educative endeavors toward creating relationships of equality, inclusion, non-violence, and harmony, believing that to have life, and life in abundance, is the deepest desire of God’” (2008 General Chapter).

Being and acting together as One Body will enliven our power to effect transformation of unjust structures and systems. While our spirituality has always been relational, it is precisely at this moment in our collective history that we are more sensitive to the potential of interrelationships. We recognize the urgency to strengthen collaboration amongst ourselves as RSCJ and the entire family of the Sacred Heart, as well as with collaborators. We are convinced that our unity and spirit of Cor Unum give us greater hope, energy and creativity to transform unjust structures Conference of Sacred Heart Education, Profile of a Graduate From their time at Sacred Heart, graduates have developed a care for others grounded in civic responsibility and a strong belief in the common good. Able to see beyond personal gains, graduates consciously try to understand others and broaden their own cultural competencies to create

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Goal IV Schools of the Sacred Heart commit themselves to the building of community as a Christian value.

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The school, affirming that all are created in the image and likeness of God, promotes the inherent dignity of the human person and strives for relationships characterized by inclusion and mutual respect.

communities that prioritize respect. Aware that their Sacred Heart experiences are a privilege, graduates recognize the need to practice humility, generosity, gratitude and hope that is anchored in the knowledge that God lives in all. Sacred Heart Graduates are drawn to communities that foster inclusion and promote a sense of belonging.

Sacred Heart Graduates are instinctively relational.

They value their relationship with God, others and themselves. Having benefited from a nurturing environment that promotes personal growth, they have begun to develop the capacity to love and be loved. They seek relationships marked by mutual respect and trust. Ideally, graduates practice open and transparent communication that reflects emotional maturity. Cognizant of what is important to them, graduates appreciate personal relationships that are rooted in shared values and a deep respect for the dignity of all people.

Conference of Sacred Heart Education, Mission Moment: I Know You and I Love You - 2022 Knowing and loving, and being known and loved, are not always easy. But, if we can open our hearts, to welcome this love, from our God and from one another and if we choose to be the carriers of this love into our world, we can transform it with LOVE, starting with each one we meet. Being known and loved is critical to our philosophy of education and should guide the work of Sacred Heart Educators.

We remember that our school is Catholic through this spirituality of the Sacred Heart – that our brokenhearted God says to each one of us, made in God’s own image with our own broken hearts – I KNOW YOU AND I LOVE YOU.

Maureen J. Chicoine, RSCJ, Grave on the Prairie: Seven Religious of the Sacred Heart and Saint Mary’s Mission to the Potawatomi “At times, they were really successful; other times, they struggled. We are all going to make mistakes.”

St. Madeleine Sophie Barat For the sake of [a single child], I would have founded the Society of the Sacred Heart.

Pauline Perdrau, RSCJ Mother Barat had stipulated that newcomers were not to be served sensible food like carrots but given what they wanted at no matter what trouble to the kitchen. This child demanded “potatoes that open with butter inside.” While the potatoes disappeared Mother Perdrau let her talk about home, then led her to the best dormitory and tucked her into bed. The child hugged her pillow happily, then suddenly threw her arms around Mother Perdrau. ‘Why do you love me so much? You’ve never seen be before!’”

Janet Erskine Stuart, RSCJ Every friendship with God and every love between God and a soul is the only one of its kind.

I am more and more convinced that one can never do too much, and one can scarcely do enough to express gratitude, consideration, regard, and, even in a way, affection. ...not gushing affection, but the affection of quiet and deep friendship and spiritual kinship, which we all have.

As long as we want people, and especially those in authority, to be with us this way or that way, we will never find happiness. Take people as they are and think of making them happy, not whether they make you happy.

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Goal IV Schools of the Sacred Heart commit themselves to the building of community as a Christian value.

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The school, affirming that all are created in the image and likeness of God, promotes the inherent dignity of the human person and strives for relationships characterized by inclusion and mutual respect.

We are all God’s property, and our life must be one wild bird’s song of praise, one wild flower’s face looking up to God.”.

Day by day we write the story of our lives; no day in our life is without influence on the last, for ourselves as well as others.

There is a deep-down unity, but there is no forced uniformity. The spirit is one, but its manifestations are many ... no one is ‘made to order’ of this or that shape, but each gives what she can for the common good; the common good demanding for its own sake, as well as for hers, that she should remain – herself.

We must remember that each one of our children is destined for a mission in life. Neither we nor they can know what it is, but we must know and make them believe that each one has a mission in life and that she is bound to find out what it is, that there is some special work for God which will remain undone unless she does it, some place in life which no one else can fill.

Soul touches soul, words and other contacts are not necessary….God allows the paths to cross, that sister souls may waken in each other the deeper springs that for the most part lie untouched.

Do not give up any high aspirations, aim at the very highest and the best, but understanding that to get this is a life’s work, not the work of a day, so never let failure cast down or disappoint you, but always begin again with great courage and especially great confidence.

SCRIPTURE Genesis 1:27 God created mankind in his image; in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.

Isaiah 43:1 But now, thus says the LORD, who created you, Jacob, and formed you, Israel: Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name: you are mine.

Acts 2:42-47 They devoted themselves to the teaching of the apostles and to the communal life, to the breaking of the bread and to the prayers. Awe came upon everyone, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their property and possessions and divide them among all according to each one’s need. Every day they devoted themselves to meeting together in the temple area and to breaking bread in their homes. They ate their meals with exultation and sincerity of heart, praising God and enjoying favor with all the people.

And every day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved. (This passage describes the communities of the early followers of Jesus.)

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Goal IV Schools of the Sacred Heart commit themselves to the building of community as a Christian value.

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The school, affirming that all are created in the image and likeness of God, promotes the inherent dignity of the human person and strives for relationships characterized by inclusion and mutual respect.

CHURCH DOCUMENTS Catechism of the Catholic Church - 1993, no. 1938 “There exist also sinful inequalities that affect millions of men and women. These are in open contradiction of the Gospel: ‘Their equal dignity as persons demands that we strive for fairer and more humane conditions. Excessive economic and social disparity between individuals and peoples of the one human race is a source of scandal and militates against social justice, equity, human dignity, as well as social and international peace44’” St. John Paul II, On the Hundredth Year [Centesimus annus], no. 11 This teaching rests on one basic principle: individual human beings are the foundation, the cause and the end of every social institution. That is necessarily so, for men are by nature social beings. This fact must be recognized, as also the fact that they are raised in the plan of Providence to an order of reality which is above nature” (St. John XXIII, Mother and Teacher [Mater et Magistra], no. 219).

Re-reading the Encyclical in the light of contemporary realities enables us to appreciate the Church’s constant concern for and dedication to categories of people who are especially beloved to the Lord Jesus.

The content of the text is an excellent testimony to the continuity within the Church of the so-called ‘preferential option for the poor’, an option which I defined as a ‘special form of primacy in the exercise of Christian charity.

Pope Francis, All Brothers [Fratelli tutti], no. 8 It is my desire that… by acknowledging the dignity of each human person, we can contribute to the rebirth of a universal aspiration to fraternity. Fraternity between all men and women. Here we have a splendid secret that shows us how to dream and to turn our life into a wonderful adventure. No one can face life in isolation… We need a community that supports and helps us, in which we can help one another to keep looking ahead. How important it is to dream together… By ourselves, we risk seeing mirages, things that are not there. Dreams, on the other hand, are built together. Let us dream, then, as a single human family, as fellow travelers sharing the same flesh, as children of the same earth which is our common home, each of us bringing the richness of his or her beliefs and convictions, each of us with his or her own voice, brothers and sisters all.”

OTHER CHURCH RESOURCES: Isabella Piro, Fratelli tutti: short summary of Pope Francis’s social encyclical - 2020 “In the presence of God, during a recollected reading of the text, it is good to ask, for example: ‘Lord, what does this text say to me? What is it about my life that you want to change by this text? What troubles me about this text? Why am I not interested in this? Or perhaps: What do I find pleasant in this text? What is it about this word that moves me? What attracts me? Why does it attract me?’ When we make an effort to listen to the Lord, temptations usually arise.

One of them is simply to feel troubled or burdened, and to turn away. Another common temptation is to think about what the text means for other people, and so avoid applying it to our own life. It can also

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Goal IV Schools of the Sacred Heart commit themselves to the building of community as a Christian value.

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The school, affirming that all are created in the image and likeness of God, promotes the inherent dignity of the human person and strives for relationships characterized by inclusion and mutual respect.

happen that we look for excuses to water down the clear meaning of the text. Or we can wonder if God is demanding too much of us, asking for a decision which we are not yet prepared to make. This leads many people to stop taking pleasure in the encounter with God’s word; but this would mean forgetting that no one is more patient than God our Father, that no one is more understanding and willing to wait. He always invites us to take a step forward, but does not demand a full response if we are not yet ready.

He simply asks that we sincerely look at our life and present ourselves honestly before him, and that we be willing to continue to grow, asking from him what we ourselves cannot as yet achieve” (Pope Francis, The Joy of the Gospel [Evangelii Gaudium], no. 153).

USCCB, Seven Themes of Catholic Social Teaching A webpage on the USCCB’s website dedicated to the Seven Themes of Catholic Social Teaching; reference Life and Dignity of the Human Person.

Pope Francis, Pope: Peace depends on human dignity, Catholic News Service - 2014 A video in which Pope Francis reflects on the connection between peace and human dignity.

SECULAR RESOURCES Springtide Research Institute, Belonging: Reconnecting America’s Loneliest Generation - 2023 Research on and strategies to cultivate a sense of belonging in young people.

Natalie Tanner, Your grades do not define you - 2017 An important reminder written by a student at the University of Northern Colorado.

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Goal IV Schools of the Sacred Heart commit themselves to the building of community as a Christian value.

SACRED HEART DOCUMENTS

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Sacred Heart Commission on Goals, Goals and Criteria A link to the updated Goals and Criteria

The school implements an ongoing plan for educating all members of the community to the charism, mission and heritage of the Society of the Sacred Heart.

Society of the Sacred Heart, Constitutions - 1982

OTHER SACRED HEART RESOURCES

Conference of Sacred Heart Education, Sacred Heart Educators: Orientation to Mission Sacred Heart education is framed by the assumption that education is a developmental process that lays the foundation for the students to become integral persons, people who live lives of integrity. As Sacred Heart Educators, we are primarily concerned with the development of the whole person. Within an atmosphere charged by the presence of the divine, we engage each student’s heart, mind, and will.

Considering the realities of the world and the profound challenges young people face in light of the emerging future, we aim to form our students on a path towards transformation and hope by providing an effective education that includes the formation of character.

Conference of Sacred Heart Education, Educational Philosophy Sacred Heart Educators intend to instill in young people the skills and attitudes that enhance critical consciousness and compassionate action. The charism of the Society of the Sacred Heart, Sophie’s vision of education, and the values articulated in the Goals and Criteria guide the educators as they cultivate the virtues essential for students to embark on a path of discernment and realize their full potential as socially aware empathetic thinkers committed to compassion and justice.

Conference of Sacred Heart Education, Guiding Principles - 2019 Sacred Heart educators share certain fundamental principles which frame the philosophy of Sacred Heart education and influence their pedagogical practices.

Conference of Sacred Heart Education, Founding Mothers A Society webpage devoted to Barat, Duchesne, Hardey, and Stuart Sally M. Furay, RSCJ, Claiming Our Heritage: What Is It We Are Claiming - 1998 Suzanne Cooke, RSCJ, The Culture of Sacred Heart Schools - 1996 St. Madeleine Sophie Barat Be humble, be simple, and bring joy to others.

If I had my life to live over again, I would seek to live in complete openness to the Holy Spirit.

Janet Erskine Stuart, RSCJ To be a joy-bearer and a joy-giver says everything; it means that one is faithfully living for God and that nothing else counts, and if one gives joy to others we are doing God’s work.

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Goal IV Schools of the Sacred Heart commit themselves to the building of community as a Christian value.

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The school engages with the Network of Sacred Heart Schools in the United States and Canada and Sacred Heart schools around the world.

Network Summer Service Projects Website - Conference of Sacred Heart Education

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Goal IV Schools of the Sacred Heart commit themselves to the building of community as a Christian value.

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All members of the school community support a clean, healthy, and safe environment.

SACRED HEART DOCUMENTS

OTHER SACRED HEART RESOURCES

Society of the Sacred Heart, Constitutions - 1982 8. For us, life, community, apostolic service, all spring from our union and conformity with the Heart of Jesus. This grace of vocation is a way of conversion and of apostolic fruitfulness. The pierced Heart of Jesus opens our being to the depths of God and to the anguish of humankind. Jesus draws us into His movement of adoration of the Father and love for all, especially those who are poor. We keep returning to this word of Jesus, as to a light which gradually transfigures us in His image: ‘Learn of Me, because I am gentle and humble of heart.’ (Mt. 11:29).

Fran Gimber, RSCJ, Mother Stuart’s Educational Vision and the Goals and Criteria: “How Old the New!” - 2013 “She [Janet Erskine Stuart] believed in the benefits of making art, of manual work, of gardening. I think she would applaud the gardening projects that so many of our schools have undertaken. She says: ‘Little gardens of their own are perhaps the best gifts which can be given to children. To work in them stirs up not only health but joy…From growing the humblest annual from a seed packet to grafting roses, there is work for every age…It is of greater value to a child to have grown one perfect flower than [sic] to have pulled many to pieces to examine their structure.’”

64. Community life supports and strengthens this commitment. The conviction of being gathered together in the name of Jesus, the quality of our affection, our openness to others, the atmosphere of joy and generosity, help our communities to become humble but real signs of that all-inclusive love whose source is the Heart of Jesus.”

88. So as to prepare to follow Jesus Christ in the religious life, the novices will practice living the vows, according to the spirit of the Society. Progressively, they will enter into the following of Jesus in His obedience. Within the framework of the formation programme, established by the competent authority, they share in the drawing-up and evaluation of the plan for community life as it directly concerns themselves; they assume corporate decisions which they might not always have made of their own accord; they are introduced to the process of making their personal and community evaluation and of being accountable.…”

CHURCH DOCUMENTS: USCCB, Protection of Children & Young People A webpage for the USCCB’s committee with resources regarding the protection of children and young people.

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Goal IV Schools of the Sacred Heart commit themselves to the building of community as a Christian value.

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Members of the school community practice and teach with a spirit of peace and reconciliation the principles of non-violence and conflict management.

SACRED HEART DOCUMENTS Society of the Sacred Heart, Constitutions - 1982 31. Through our mutual trust… through our love and loyalty towards one another, we come to find real joy in living together, welcoming our gifts and our differences of culture and mentality. Our desire to live in mutual love helps us to overcome our egoism, and to work through our moments of tension, open to forgiveness and reconciliation.

OTHER SACRED HEART RESOURCES Suzanne Cooke, The Culture of Sacred Heart Schools 1996 How do I manage conflict? How do I see the adults within our school community managing conflict and modeling conflict resolution and management? How do we accept divergent thinking? Can I listen to the one with whom I disagree? Can I, do I, reach out to the one with whom I have experienced conflict? Is my manner, is our manner, with one another straight-forward and direct? Can a visitor to our school recognize that we hold building community as a core value?”

St. Madeleine Sophie Barat Unfailing gentleness with all, patience in bearing annoyances which arise in every direction, trust in God which does not allow us to doubt God’s protection on any occasion that we fear: these are the fruits of fidelity to the Holy Spirit.

Let us be kind without weakness, humble without groveling.

Let your heart be more attentive than your head, for the Holy Spirit is love, and to take hold, it is more important to love than to understand.

St. Rose Philippine Duchesne Let’s try not to be exacting with other people, but rather to pass over in silence those thousand little annoyances that tend to irritate us. For we know that no one is perfect in this life, and we must put up with the defects of others as they put up with ours.

Mother Mary Aloysia Hardey, RSCJ Under no circumstances should three words be spoken, when two will suffice.

You may do more good to a child by one kind word, than by a whole day of scolding.

What would it be like if Our Lord were as exacting with you as you are with the children?

Our loving-kindness with ourselves is the source of our loving-kindness to others. When we develop this consciousness within our self and toward our self, then we can offer genuine, Christ-like love, tolerance and compassion to others. This is the true work (and reward) of our life.

Janet Erskine Stuart, RSCJ Try to render all possible service to others, not talking of the thing, but doing it. If you are known to be a person who loves to serve, many opportunities will come in your way, to your great inconvenience perhaps, but to your far greater profit and instruction.

On willing acceptance of criticism: To very unenlightened people criticism comes as a personal injury. To beginners it is a serious trial, but to the proficient a most encouraging and interesting communication. …May peace be your gift to all who come near or depend on you. May God’s presence be ever your

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Goal IV Schools of the Sacred Heart commit themselves to the building of community as a Christian value.

living joy and the central fact in your life, from which will flow patience, calmness and an unquenchable joy, with that in your soul you can meet anything and each trial will be a small treasure to offer Him…

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The color of our thoughts dyes our soul; the color of our soul dyes our world.

Members of the school community practice and teach with a spirit of peace and reconciliation the principles of non-violence and conflict management.

Congregation for Catholic Education, The identity of the Catholic School for a Culture of Dialogue - 2022 27. Today’s societies are characterized by a multicultural and multireligious composition. In this context, “Education contains a central challenge for the future: to allow various cultural expressions to co-exist and to promote dialogue so as to foster a peaceful society”. The history of Catholic schools is characterized by welcoming pupils from different cultural backgrounds and religious affiliations. In this context, “what is required [...] is courageous and innovative fidelity to one’s own pedagogical vision”, which is expressed in the capacity to bear witness, to know and to dialogue with diversity.

SCRIPTURE Proverbs 18:13 Whoever answers before listening, theirs is folly and shame.”

Proverbs 19:20 Listen to counsel and receive instruction, that you may eventually become wise.

Matthew 18:11 [Jesus said] It is not what enters one’s mouth that defiles that person; but what comes out of the mouth is what defiles one.

James 1:19-20 Know this, my dear brothers: everyone should be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath, for the wrath of a man does not accomplish the righteousness of God.” James 3:17-18 But the wisdom from above is first of all pure, then peaceable, gentle, compliant, full of mercy and good fruits, without inconstancy or insincerity. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace for those who cultivate peace.

1 Thessalonians 5:14-15 We urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, cheer the fainthearted, support the weak, be patient with all.

See that no one returns evil for evil; rather, always seek what is good [both] for each other and for all.

Colossians 4:6 Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you know how you should respond to each one.

Hebrews 12:14 Strive for peace with everyone, and for that holiness without which no one will see the Lord.

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Members of the school community practice and teach with a spirit of peace and reconciliation the principles of non-violence and conflict management.

OTHER CHURCH RESOURCES:

SECULAR SOURCES

USCCB, Seven Themes of Catholic Social Teaching A webpage on the USCCB’s website dedicated to the Seven Themes of Catholic Social Teaching; reference Life and Dignity of the Human Person.

Bob Castello, Joshua Wachtel, and Ted Wachtel, The Restorative Practices Handbook for Teachers, Disciplinarians, and Administrators, Second Edition 2019

USCCB, A Better Kind of Politics: Civilize It A webpage on the USCCB’s website with resources inspired by the encyclical Fratelli Tutti.

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School leadership demonstrates a conscious effort to recruit students and employ faculty and staff of diverse races, ethnicities and backgrounds.

SACRED HEART DOCUMENTS

SECULAR RESOURCES

Society of the Sacred Heart, Constitutions - 1982 12. The urgency of the world’s needs, the call of our local Church, impel us to respond creatively, in conformity with the spirit of the Society. It is, therefore, at provincial level, according to the diversity of our cultures, that we discern in what places and by what concrete means we are to carry out our service of education.”

David Rock and Heidi Grant, “Why Diverse Teams Are Smarter, Harvard Business Review - 2016” “People from diverse backgrounds might actually alter the behavior of a group’s social majority in ways that lead to improved and more accurate group thinking…

Greater diversity may also change the way that entire teams digest information needed to make the best decisions….One of the best ways to boost their capacity to transform themselves and their products may involve hiring more women and culturally diverse team members, research suggests. ..All of this can make your teams smarter and, ultimately, make your organization more successful, whatever your goals.”

SCRIPTURE Acts 2:7-11 They were astounded, and in amazement they asked, “Are not all these people who are speaking Galileans?

Then how does each of us hear them in his own native language? We are Parthians, Medes, and Elamites, inhabitants of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the districts of Libya near Cyrene, as well as travelers from Rome, both Jews and converts to Judaism, Cretans and Arabs, yet we hear them speaking in our own tongues of the mighty acts of God.”

OTHER CHURCH DOCUMENTS USCCB, Cultural Diversity in the Church The webpage for the USCCB’s committee with links to documents and other resources.

School Integration Is Making a Comeback as Research Documents Its Benefits, Teachers College, Columbia 2016 “The evidence for the beneficial effects of integration – including enhanced creativity and motivation, deeper learning, and sharper critical thinking and problem-solving skills – is summarized in How Racially Diverse Schools and Classrooms Can Benefit All Students, a new report coauthored by Amy Stuart Wells, Professor of Sociology & Education at Teachers College, and doctoral students Lauren Fox and Diana Cordova-Cobo.“As our K-12 student population becomes more racially and ethnically diverse, the time is right for our political leaders to pay more attention to the evidence, intuition and common sense that supports the importance of racially, ethnically and socioeconomically diverse educational settings to prepare the next generation,” the TC authors write.

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School leadership demonstrates a conscious effort to recruit students and employ faculty and staff of diverse races, ethnicities and backgrounds.

Importance of Having Teachers Who Look Like Their Students, Texas A&M - 2019 “The study found that when students had teachers of the same race, they ‘felt more cared for, were more interested in their schoolwork, and were more confident in their teachers’ abilities to communicate with them.’ Conversely, students reported lower levels of these feelings and attitudes when they had teachers who did not look like them. These findings support the idea that students do better in school if they view their teachers as role models. And it may be easier to consider your teachers as role models if they look like you”

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Goal IV Schools of the Sacred Heart commit themselves to the building of community as a Christian value.

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School leadership allocates financial resources to support socioeconomic diversity both in the admissions process and in the daily life of students.

SACRED HEART DOCUMENTS Society of the Sacred Heart, Constitutions - 1982 12. The urgency of the world’s needs, the call of our local Church, impel us to respond creatively, in conformity with the spirit of the Society. It is, therefore, at provincial level, according to the diversity of our cultures, that we discern in what places and by what concrete means we are to carry out our service of education.”

OTHER SACRED HEART RESOURCES Mother Mary Aloysia Hardey, RSCJ In Bethlehem, all was provided for the accommodation of the rich and the great, but no one thought of Joseph, of Mary, of the Incarnate Word.

There was no room for them. No room in His own city for the expected Messiah. Our hearts are moved with sorrow and indignation as we read these words; yet how often may they be applied to us. Jesus presents Himself at the door of our hearts, and our actions give answer, ‘there is no room.’

Maryvonne Keraly, RSCJ, Madeleine Sophie’s View of Education - 1998 2. Educational projects have ends, purposes, which encompass the whole educational work, which give meaning and direction. They also shed light which allows for confrontation, evaluation, and adaptation of the means and strategies. We are not talking on the level of the ideal, for your responsibilities do not make absolute idealism possible. The scope of your field of operation can be narrow; there are numerous constraints; you must act within a limited framework, sometimes in the absence of clear and easy answers.

You are aware that the pursuit of academic excellence comes into conflict with the leveling of the student population, even to the inclusion of students from economically deprived, and, therefore, culturally deprived, backgrounds with all the attendant scholastic handicaps. On the other hand, successful instruction (the earning of diplomas) gives a means of livelihood; it does not give a reason for living. The issue for you is, therefore, to harmonize the two goals, often in the face of parental pressure which is more interested in livelihood than in reasons for living.

SCRIPTURE: Matthew 4:18-22 As he was walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon who is called Peter, and his brother Andrew, casting a net into the sea; they were fishermen. He said to them, ‘Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.’ At once they left their nets and followed him. He walked along from there and saw two other brothers, James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John. They were in a boat, with their father Zebedee, mending their nets. He called them, and immediately they left their boat and their father and followed him.

OTHER CHURCH RESOURCES USCCB, Seven Themes of Catholic Social Teaching A webpage on the USCCB’s website dedicated to the Seven Themes of Catholic Social Teaching; reference Call to Family, Community, and Participation, [Preferential] Option for the Poor and Vulnerable, Solidarity

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School leadership allocates financial resources to support socioeconomic diversity both in the admissions process and in the daily life of students.

SECULAR RESOURCES: Linda R. Tropp and Suchi Saxena, Brief No. 13, National Coalition on School Diversity - 2018 Providing youth with opportunities to experience meaningful intergroup contact is especially important because children’s early life experiences can have long-term consequences for their developing intergroup attitudes and beliefs. It also helps to reduce anxiety about difference, builds capacity for empathy and caring about others, develops leadership competencies and plants seeds for social change.

Goal V RESOURCES

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Goal V Schools of the Sacred Heart educate to personal growth in an atmosphere of wise freedom.

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Student and adult members of the school community grow in courage and confidence as they discover new abilities, cultivate strengths, learn from mistakes, develop empathy and exercise resilience in meeting challenges.

SACRED HEART DOCUMENTS

OTHER SACRED HEART DOCUMENTS

Society of the Sacred Heart, Constitutions - 1982 31. Through our mutual trust… through our love and loyalty towards one another, we come to find real joy in living together, welcoming our gifts and our differences of culture and mentality. Our desire to live in mutual love helps us to overcome our egoism, and to work through our moments of tension, open to forgiveness and reconciliation.

Society of the Sacred Heart, Artisans of Hope - 2019 Finally, our experiences in life and mission have taught us that we can only do so much. Even the best of our efforts is not enough to respond to the immensity and complexity of the situations that clamor for justice, peace, and integrity of creation.

While we may be able to attain some successes, we also have moments when we are faced with limits, with failures, with vulnerabilities. Each time we realize that transformation is ultimately the work of the Spirit, that power is a share in the Spirit’s energy, and that hope is a gift that we receive from the Spirit. (page 9)

32. We want to be discerning communities, living in awareness and sensitivity to the Spirit. This attitude makes us responsive… It helps us to respond better to the calls of the world around us, and it enlightens us to make choices more true to the spirit of the Gospel.

71. Community is the principal place of our formation insofar as we experience support and challenge to grow… as persons…

72. Adapted to the capabilities of each one and directed towards responding to the challenges of the world…. A certain discipline will allow us to find the balance between work, rest and relaxation, between relationships with others and solitude, a balance which is essential to personal integration.

Conference of Sacred Heart Education, Profile of a Graduate Graduates endeavor to think beyond personal gains and show empathy, compassion and respect for others. As students, they discover the essential value in listening to diverse perspectives. They develop a personal commitment to service. Inspired by the principles of Catholic Social Teaching, Sacred Heart students value fostering human rights and dignity for all people and creation.

Janet Erskine Stuart, RSCJ You must not take a failure so much to heart. You must cultivate hopeful courage in God’s service, and remember all our life there must be fails and failures from time to time to keep us steeped in humility and contrition, so “off again, on again, away again.”

The higher we want to fly, the greater the risk, but that is the glorious part of it. The great uncertainties in which we trust God, the breathless risks we run, with no assurance but our great trust in God, that seems

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Goal V Schools of the Sacred Heart educate to personal growth in an atmosphere of wise freedom.

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Student and adult members of the school community grow in courage and confidence as they discover new abilities, cultivate strengths, learn from mistakes, develop empathy and exercise resilience in meeting challenges.

to me to be of the essence of our life and its beauty.

This will grow upon you; you will get your balance in the risk and get to love it.

On willing acceptance of criticism: To very unenlightened people criticism comes as a personal injury. To beginners it is a serious trial, but to the proficient a most encouraging and interesting communication.

We must remember that each one of our children is destined for a mission in life. Neither we nor they can know what it is, but we must know and make them believe that each one has a mission in life and that she is bound to find out what it is, that there is some special work for God which will remain undone unless she does it, some place in life which no one else can fill.

SCRIPTURE Luke 16:19-31, The Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus Abraham replied, “My child, remember that you received what was good during your lifetime while Lazarus likewise received what was bad; but now he is comforted here, whereas you are tormented.”

Romans 12:3-8 For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. Having gifts

that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.

James 1:12 Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him.

CHURCH DOCUMENTS Second Vatican Council, The Church in the Modern World [Gaudium et Spes], no. 12

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All members of the school community take personal responsibility for health and balance in their lives supported by a school culture that promotes spiritual, intellectual, physical and socio-emotional well-being.

OTHER SACRED HEART RESOURCES Janet Erskine Stuart, RSCJ Girls as well as boys have to be trained to take care of themselves and be responsible for themselves, and if they are not so trained, no one can now be responsible for them or protect them in spite of themselves.

St. Madeleine Sophie Barat We cannot change our character, it is true, as easily as we change our clothes. It is the work of a lifetime. It is achieved with the grace of God and constant effort.

SCRIPTURE: 1 Corinthians 12:22-26 Indeed, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are all the more necessary, and those parts of the body that we consider less honorable we surround with greater honor, and our less presentable parts are treated with greater propriety, whereas our more presentable parts do not need this. But God has so constructed the body as to give greater honor to a part that is without it, so that there may be no division in the body, but that all the parts may have the same concern for one another. If one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it; if one part is honored, all the parts share its joy.

Proverbs 11 A false balance is an abomination to the Lord, but an accurate weight is his delight. When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but wisdom is with the humble.

The integrity of the upright guides them, but the crookedness of the treacherous destroys them. …

Job 31:6 let me be weighed in a just balance, and let God know my integrity!

OTHER RESOURCES Minding Your Mind - 2022 Speaker series (Used by Princeton Academy) CASEL, An Examination of Frameworks for Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) Reflected in State K-12 Learning Standards - 2019

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Goal V Schools of the Sacred Heart educate to personal growth in an atmosphere of wise freedom.

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Members of the school community model and teach respectful dialogue in support of clear, direct, open communication.

SACRED HEART DOCUMENTS Society of the Sacred Heart, Constitutions - 1982 14. Our service of education is carried out in a genuine relationship of mutual interaction, where each person both receives and gives so that all may grow together. Of its nature, our service of education means creating community among ourselves and with others. It asks of us generous commitment, serious on-going formation and a broad critical vision of the world, enlightened by faith.

49. It is through personal and community discernment, through dialogue with those in authority, that together we may find God. 113. Periodic accountability to the provincial in what concerns our prayer, our community relationships and our apostolic commitments, is both a help for our formation and a requirement of our religious life.

Our trustful dialogue with her, without prejudice to freedom of conscience, keeps us in an attitude of availability, and will help her to be better informed and to act responsibly with regard to the mission of the Society.

SACRED HEART RESOURCES Society of the Sacred Heart, Artisans of Hope - 2019 As we become increasingly more aware that we are not called to be a star that shines alone, but rather to be part of a constellation in the universe, we realize how important it is to exercise critical self-reflection about our concept and exercise of power and authority. We recognize our need to grow in freedom

to speak about power and to share our inspirations and struggles in integrating it into our lives. (p.9) Our formation programs should include spaces for critical self-reflection and dialogue on power and authority in relation to: how we live our vocation; practice discernment; and exercise co-responsibility for our life and mission. In addition, there should be an opportunity to examine our use and possible misuse of power in our personal relationships, our life in community, and within the different structures of the Society of the Sacred Heart. (p.10) Suzanne Cooke, RSCJ, The Culture of Sacred Heart Schools - 1996 What are our conversations with colleagues like?

Are they constructive, upbeat, and professional?

Can one see demonstrative evidence that trust operates within our school community? Is our respect for one another within the adult community mutual and inclusive? That is to say, how are we, teacher to teacher, teacher to administrator, teacher to student, student to student? Where do the parents fit in? Are they included in our culture of respect, or do we hold them at a distance? …. Values are demonstrative in the act of being accountable. How do I experience being held accountable? Do I hold myself accountable? How do I hold my students, my colleagues accountable? What is my manner with others when holding another accountable or being held accountable?

Duchesne Academy of the Sacred Heart (Omaha) Communication Standards

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Members of the school community model and teach respectful dialogue in support of clear, direct, open communication.

Janet Erskine Stuart, RSCJ It is a false notion that to be honest we must always speak our minds, etc.; to glory in always being outspoken may only mean that we are unmortified and unrestrained, weak, and wanting to our ourselves out. Silence of prudence means silence of mortification, holding in check our chattering tongues.

Conference of Sacred Heart Education, Profile of a Graduate Aspirations of Sacred Heart Graduates: A desire to form authentic relationships that are built on mutual respect and shared values Sacred Heart Graduates are instinctively relational. They value their relationship with God, others and themselves. Having benefited from a nurturing environment that promotes personal growth, they have begun to develop the capacity to love and be loved.

They seek relationships marked by mutual respect and trust. Ideally, graduates practice open and transparent communication that reflects emotional maturity. Cognizant of what is important to them, graduates appreciate personal relationships that are rooted in shared values and a deep respect for the dignity of all people.

SCRIPTURES ON LISTENING & DIALOGUE Proverbs 18:13 Whoever answers before listening, theirs is folly and shame.”

Proverbs 19:20 Listen to counsel and receive instruction, that you may eventually become wise.

Matthew 18:11 [Jesus said] It is not what enters one’s mouth that defiles that person; but what comes out of the mouth is what defiles one.

James 1:19-20 Know this, my dear brothers: everyone should be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath, for the wrath of a man does not accomplish the righteousness of God.” James 3:17-18 But the wisdom from above is first of all pure, then peaceable, gentle, compliant, full of mercy and good fruits, without inconstancy or insincerity. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace for those who cultivate peace.

1 Thessalonians 5:14-15 We urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, cheer the fainthearted, support the weak, be patient with all.

See that no one returns evil for evil; rather, always seek what is good [both] for each other and for all.

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Goal V Schools of the Sacred Heart educate to personal growth in an atmosphere of wise freedom.

Colossians 4:6 Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you know how you should respond to each one.

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Hebrews 12:14 Strive for peace with everyone, and for that holiness without which no one will see the Lord.

Members of the school community model and teach respectful dialogue in support of clear, direct, open communication.

Ephesians 4:29 Let no evil talk come out of your mouths but only what is good for building up, as there is need, so that your words may give grace to those who hear.

OTHER CHURCH RESOURCES Catholic Common Ground Initiative, Characteristics of an Initiative Dialogue

SECULAR SOURCES Generation Global Free resources available; can also come to your school and do training.

International Coalition of Girls’ Schools, Episode 11: Girls Who Speak Up Bob Castello, Joshua Wachtel, and Ted Wachtel, The Restorative Practices Handbook for Teachers, Disciplinarians, and Administrators, Second Edition 2019

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All members of the school community endeavor to practice informed, ethical decision-making and accountability.

OTHER SACRED HEART RESOURCES Conference of Sacred Heart Education, Profile of a Graduate Aspirations of Sacred Heart Graduates: • An ability to engage in informed, critical analysis that reflects an understanding of the world and a conscious recognition of the dignity of all people During their time at Sacred Heart, students develop the intellectual competencies and skills needed to engage in critical thinking that reflects a commitment to service to others. By graduation, students have begun to establish their own identity and to examine their own life experiences, personal biases and lens on the world. Able to move past self-interest and practice empathy for others, graduates are open to different life experiences and diverse perspectives.

They seek an understanding of systems that perpetuate injustice and work to eradicate these systems. They are aware of the global nature of many current social issues and understand the importance of critically examining varying sources that lead to informed, active citizenship.

Graduates recognize the dignity of all humans and respond with compassion to all forms of human suffering. They strive to create a more just world that is characterized by inclusion and respect.

• A discerning spirit that is rooted in an active faith in God and that supports sound decision making and action Sacred Heart Graduates hope that their decisions and actions reflect their beliefs. This hope evolves from active faith, the development

of interior life and the conviction that God is in everything. St. Madeleine Sophie believed that informed faith is essential to developing confident and compassionate students. Honoring their relationship with God, graduates engage in contemplative practices that promote silence, personal reflection and discernment. Through the use of these contemplative practices, graduates seek to act intentionally. Trusting their relationship with God and sensing the Spirit dwelling within their very core, graduates strive to be people of Integrity.

Graduates value truthful self-assessment and recognize its connection to emotional wellbeing. As students, they develop the habit of self-reflection so that they may more effectively understand their strengths and limitations.

Sacred Heart students take accountability for their choices and actions. They build in time for personal reflection.

Kate Spelman (Newton), Discernment - 2022

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Goal V Schools of the Sacred Heart educate to personal growth in an atmosphere of wise freedom.

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Student and adult members of the school community model, practice, and teach safe, ethical and responsible use of technology.

OTHER SACRED HEART RESOURCES Society of the Sacred Heart, Artisans of Hope - 2019 Moreover, through mass media and social media, we are bombarded with events that show us how people, countries, and our common home – earth – are devalued and destroyed by various forms of structural violence. It includes, but is not limited to patriarchy and clericalism in the church; extreme political ideologies such as dictatorships and unhindered global capitalism; systemic and systematic disregard of the environment; institutionalized racism, classism and sexism; and the many forms of xenophobia, all of which condone and normalize unjust attitudes, practices, and social policies. (p.12) Conference of Sacred Heart Education, Profile of a Graduate Graduates use critical thinking skills and compassion to analyze complex world issues. As students, they learn to study contemporary issues, assess information sources and evaluate diverse viewpoints.

Sacred Heart students practice the skills necessary to live cooperatively in a global technological world.

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Goal V Schools of the Sacred Heart educate to personal growth in an atmosphere of wise freedom.

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Sacred Heart educators cultivate in the students life skills, such as initiative, creativity and agility.

OTHER SACRED HEART DOCUMENTS

CHURCH DOCUMENTS

Conference of Sacred Heart Education, Profile of a Graduate Aspirations of Sacred Heart Graduates A commitment to being responsible for their well-being and personal development as integral people

Pope Francis, Laudato Si’ 179, 219 “Local individuals and groups can make a real difference. They are able to instill a greater sense of responsibility, a strong sense of community, a readiness to protect others, a spirit of creativity and a deep love for the land. … Social problems must be addressed by the community networks and not simply by the sum of individual good deeds.”

Sacred Heart Graduates have the knowledge and skills to operate with integrity and a sense of personal responsibility. This capacity stems from understanding that personal growth is fluid and must be continuously nurtured. Graduates desire excellence in all aspects of life - intellectually, emotionally, spiritually, and physically. They are intellectually curious and recognize the importance of remaining informed. They are open to learning about diverse experiences and listening to others. Selfaware graduates have a balanced understanding of their strengths, abilities and limitations. Able to learn from their mistakes, they practice accountability and accept responsibility for their actions. They understand the importance of constructive feedback.

They seek opportunities to reflect on personal successes and failures. Sacred Heart Graduates are conscious of the formation of their mind, will and spirit in order to maintain balance in their lives.

Graduates display courage and confidence as they meet challenges and uncertainty. As students, they cultivate agility by learning from challenges as well as from opportunities, whether working independently or collaboratively. Sacred Heart students develop a multiplicity of skills that enrich the human person.

Pope Benedict XVI, Caritas in Veritate 50 “On this earth there is room for everyone: here the entire human family must find the resources to live with dignity, through the help of nature itself—God’s gift to his children—and through hard work and creativity.”

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Sacred Heart schools recognize and educate motivational, inspirational, and transformational leadership.

SACRED HEART DOCUMENTS Society of the Sacred Heart, Constitutions - 1982 Society of the Sacred Heart, End and Mission of the Society of the Sacred Heart, Constitutions -1982 7. We participate in the mission of the Church through the service of education which is our way of continuing the work of Christ. This service of education and instruction is directed chiefly towards the young and those who bear within them the future of the world. Caught up as we are in the desires of His Heart, we want people to grow in dignity, as human beings and as children of God. Our starting point is the Gospel with all that it demands from us of love, forgiveness and justice, and of solidarity with those who are poor and rejected by the world.

Suzanne Cooke, RSCJ, The Art of Sacred Heart Leadership: Vision Inspires Identity - 2022 Society of the Sacred Heart, Four Characteristics of Sacred Heart Leadership Courage and Confidence Saint Madeleine Sophie wrote let this be our war cry: “courage et confidence.” She herself demonstrated the ability to innovate, remain flexible and adapt constantly, set ambitious goals, think globally, move quickly and take risks. Throughout the ages, and in a variety of disciplines, Sacred Heart leaders have discovered new truths, explored new approaches and embraced new ideas and perspectives in a complex and changing world. Leadership happens not when obstructed by the habits and deeply entrenched ways of thinking that are heavily defended, but when we

can step out of old life scripts and act with clarity of purpose, courage and compassion.

Hearts of Fire Inherent in Sacred Heart leadership is a need to satisfy a deeply personal call linked to a positive and constructive change in the outside world. Saint Madeleine Sophie instilled a restless spirit and a critical awareness of the interconnectedness of the whole of creation. As women of compassion, we are challenged to look beyond our own needs and desires, and work together to make the world a better place.

Personal and Active Faith in God A personal and active faith in God is at the heart of every Sacred Heart leader. We are called to be Wholly Contemplative and Wholly Apostolic, and to surrender to God’s Love. Experiencing God’s desire for friendship unfolds over our lifetime. As the friendship develops, we learn to pay attention and discover God’s creative desire for each one of us. Here we discover who God created us to be.

Rooted in Love Relationships are the very heart of every Sacred Heart leader. It was clear to Saint Madeleine Sophie that friendship with God cannot be had in isolation from other human beings. We perform our best in supportive, encouraging and positively charged environments. Being rooted in God’s Love changes the way that we look at others and our ability to see each persons’ talent and potential. We enter in to direct relationship with another as a uniquely whole person and with deep appreciation of the potential, unique talent and fundamental human dignity.

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Goal V Schools of the Sacred Heart educate to personal growth in an atmosphere of wise freedom.

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Sacred Heart schools recognize and educate motivational, inspirational, and transformational leadership.

SCRIPTURE 2 Timothy 2:15 Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.

Mark 10:42-45 Jesus called them together and said, “You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

(OTHER) CHURCH DOCUMENTS Archbishop Eamon Martin, Leadership – a Catholic Perspective - 2015

SECULAR SOURCES Jena McGregor, Pope Francis on what leadership should look like in the Catholic Church - 2013 Ronald Heifetz & Marty Linsky, Leadership on the Line 2002 The most difficult work of leadership involves learning to experience distress without numbing yourself.

The virtue of a sacred heart lies in the courage to maintain innocence and wonder, doubt and curiosity, compassion and love, even through the darkest moments. Leading with an open heart means you could be abandoned and entirely powerless yet

remain receptive to the full range of human emotions.

In one moment you may experience total despair but in the next, compassion and forgiveness. You may even experience these in the same moment. A sacred heart allows you to feel, hear, and diagnose so that you can accurately gauge different situations and respond appropriately. Otherwise you simply cannot assess the impact of the losses you are asking people to sustain or comprehend the reasons behind their anger. Without keeping your heart open, it becomes difficult, perhaps impossible, to fashion the right response and to succeed. ….A sacred heart means you may feel betrayed, powerless, and hopeless and yet stay open and connected to people and the sources of your most profound purposes. Leadership should not mean that you must sacrifice yourself, but you will encounter dangers and difficulties when you are likely to feel as if you are being sacrificed.

A sacred heart is an antidote to a common, destructive “solution” to the challenges of modern life: numbing oneself. An open heart helps you stay alive in your soul, to feel faithful to whatever is true, including doubt, without fleeing. Moreover, the power of a sacred heart helps you to mobilize others to face challenges and endure the pains of change without deceiving themselves or running away. .…putting yourself on the line is difficult and the dangers are real. Yet the work has nobility, and the benefits for you and those around you are beyond measure. May you protect yourself, keep your spirit alive, and enjoy with a full heart the fruits of your labor. The world needs you.

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Goal V Schools of the Sacred Heart educate to personal growth in an atmosphere of wise freedom.

7

Sacred Heart schools recognize and educate motivational, inspirational, and transformational leadership.

Dankha Abdulmasih, Intelligent Leadership Based on Catholic Perspective, Scientific Research Publishing 2021

Goals & Criteria PRE VIOUS VERSIONS

Goals & Criteria 1975 PREAMBLE

Goals and Criteria for the Sacred Heart Schools in the United States The schools of the Sacred Heart in the United States, member of a world-wide network, offer an education that is marked by a distinctive spirit. It is of the essence of a Sacred Heart school that it be deeply concerned for each student’s total development: spiritual, intellectual, emotional, physical. It is of the essence of a Sacred Heart school that is emphasize serious study, that it educate to social responsibility, and that it lay the foundations of a strong faith.

Many educators, especially Christian educators, will find much that they can identify with in the stated purposes of Sacred Heart schools. Given the vast needs of the world, of the Church in United Sates, of Children and their parents, it should be cause for rejoicing that this is so -- that many seek to meet these complex challenges in a similar fashion. But that will always be distinctive about the schools of the Sacred Heart is the long tradition from which they come. This Religious of the Sacred Heart, is familiar to the Religious who teach in the schools, but perhaps less familiar to the lay colleagues who work so closely with them. It has been experientially familiar to generations of Sacred Heart students who, as alumnae, send their children to receive the education they themselves valued so highly.

For the religious of the Sacred Heart, education has always been viewed as a mission of the most demanding kind. “The Religious of the Sacred Heart are consecrated by their vocation to education.”1 Member of the Society

drew up the first Plan of Studies in 1805, five years after their own founding, and reformulated it ten times over the next 150 years. Sacred Heart Schools first held to a single, uniform curriculum, but in 1958 a document significantly entitled Spirit and Plan of Studies “deliberately puts aside all details of syllabus” noting that “these are bound to vary according to time and place,” and tries to “give a clear idea of a spirit . . . which will hold good for every work of education.”2 that the Society might undertake.

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In the last ten years the American schools of the Sacred Heart, following the spirit of the Society and of the Church, have adapted their programs and methods to suit the special situation of each school. The decentralization of control which made this possible was embarked upon in full confidence that the presence of the Religious of the Sacred Heart alone would (so it was assumed) assure that the essentials pf Sacred Heart education would be preserved.

Whatever / the orientation given to studies / may be, there must be not forgetting that it means the formations of the whole woman with a view to her own vocation in the circumstances and the age in which she has to live.3

It is never safe, however, to assume too much. Values taken for granted or left unarticulated can become inoperative. Patterns of leadership and governance, the make-up of faculties as the schools of the student bodies have changed rapidly, and as schools of the Sacred Heart enter the mainstream of American independent education, they feel its characteristic pressures and strains. As they become increasingly diverse, it becomes increasingly necessary to respond to the question: “What makes Sacred Heart school?”

Independent but never isolated, every Sacred Heart school needs to feel the strength of belonging to a larger whole, of sharing principles and values, broad purposes, hopes and ambitions.

The present paper resembles others in which, since 1967, the society of the Sacred Heart has defined itself and its missions in the contemporary Church. Like these, it does not pretend to say the last word on its subject.

Like these, it draws upon the texts of the Second Vatican Council, for it is in the Church, and to respond swiftly to the challenges and opportunities the Church offers.

For this reason, the Sacred Heart makes little sense if viewed outside the context of the history of the Catholic Church.

Five Goals are stated, and several Criteria are given for each. The first three Goals are taken directly from the section on education in the documents of the Society’s

If one seeks the timeless element in the Sacred Heart education, one must look to that spirit, for externals and customs were always seen as subject to change.

Timelessness has never meant rigid adherence to a single program or method. Revision of curriculum was always a concern of the Society’s General Congregations, which had the highest decision-making authority in the Order.

The following pages attempt to delineate what a Sacred Heart school is in the 1970’s. They draw upon the Society’s basic documents, as well as working papers recently developed by the Heads of Schools. This paper therefore repeats much of what will be familiar to Religious of the Sacred Heart and to those close to the Society in recent years.

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Goal & Criteria 1975 1970 General Chapter. The Criteria are signs which indicate that the Goal is being effectively pursued.

The Goals and Criteria are sine qua non for every school that belongs to the Sacred Heart network. They provide the framework within which each school is to develop specific Objectives appropriate to its local situation.

Means of evaluation and accountability have also been designed, so that each school, and the network as a whole, may draw maximum benefit from this process.

Approved by the Interprovincial Board April 26, 1975 Schools of the Sacred Heart commit themselves to educate to: • Faith which is relevant in a secularized world • A deep respect for intellectual values • A social awareness which impels to action • The building of community as a Christian value • Personal growth in an atmosphere of wise freedom

____________________

Constitutions of the Society of the Sacred Heart, 111,4, i.

Spirit and Plan of Studies, p.7.

3 Spirit and Plan of Studies, p.13.

1 2

GOAL I

GOAL II

FAITH WHICH IS RELEVANT IN A SECULARIZED WORLD

A DEEP RESPECT FOR INTELLECTUAL VALUES

CRITERIA FOR GOAL I:

CRITERIA FOR GOAL II:

1. The school recognized its life force in the love of Jesus Christ by supporting in concrete ways the value of reflection and of prayer.

1. The course of study is intellectually challenging.

2. The total educational program affirms the belief that there is meaning in life and thereby fosters within the school community a sense of hope.

3. The religious studies program probes the relationship of God to man to the world.

4. The school provides education to decision making in the light of Christian principles.

5. The school presents itself to the wider community as a Christ-centered institution within the evolving tradition of the Church.

2. Serious study and love of learning are encouraged.

3. Program development is based om research and evaluation.

4. Teaching/learning styles promote the development of persons who are knowledgeable, questioning, thoughtful, and integrated.

5. Opportunities are provided for experimental education which includes the element of reflection.

6. The curriculum encourages the development of aesthetic values and the creative use of the imagination.

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Goal & Criteria 1975 GOAL III

GOAL IV

GOAL V

A SOCIAL AWARENESS WHICH IMPELS TO ACTIONS

THE BUILDING OF COMMUNITY AS A CHRISTIAN VALUE

PERSONAL GROWTH IN AN ATMOSPHERE OF WISE FREEDOM

CRITERIA FOR GOAL III:

CRITERIA FOR GOAL IV:

CRITERIA FOR GOAL V:

1. The school awakens a critical sense which leads to reflection on our society and its values.

1. Skills needed to build community are taught and opportunities to exercise those skills are provided.

1. Genuine concern for each member of the school community is a priority.

2. The curriculum includes study of the problems of the world community.

2. School policies and practices are established and reviewed in the light of Christian principles.

2. Students learn to deal with their gifts and limitations in a growth-producing way.

3. The school provides the knowledge and skills needed for effective action on the problems of oppression and injustice.

3. The school provides experiences of diversity which are designed to develop an understanding and appreciation of various races, religions and cultures.

3. Students are helped to share their knowledge and gifts with others.

4. The school has programs which enable students to become actively involved in the wider community

4. An effective financial aid program supports socioeconomic diversity.

5. The life of the school community is deepened by an understanding of the purposes and evolving tradition of Sacred Heart education.

6. The school participates actively in the national and international network of Sacred Heart schools.

7. The program is designed to help students take their place as responsible citizens in an interdependent world.

4. School policies and practices further the development of self-discipline.

5. The school provides for the development of leadership.

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Goal & Criteria 1990 GOAL ONE

GOAL TWO

GOAL THREE

Schools of the Sacred Heart commit themselves to educate to a personal and active faith in God.

Schools of the Sacred Heart commit themselves to educate to a deep respect for intellectual values.

Schools of the Sacred Heart commit themselves to educate to a social awareness which impels to action.

1. Rooted in the love of Jesus Christ, the school promotes personal and communal prayer, and reflection.

1. The course of study offers intellectual challenge and inspires a love of learning.

1. The school awakens a critical consciousness that leads its total community to reflect on society and its values.

2. The total educational program affirms the belief that there is meaning in life and thereby fosters within the individual and the school community a sense of hope.

3. The school provides education in, and opportunities for, decision making in the light of Gospel values.

4. The religious studies program probes the relationship of self to God, to others, and to the world.

5. The school teaches respect for the various religious traditions of the world.

6. The school presents itself to the wider community as a Christ-centered institution within the evolving tradition of the Church.

2. The school develops a curriculum based on the Goals of Sacred Heart education research, and ongoing evaluation.

3. The curriculum prepares students to live cooperatively in a global and technical society.

4. The curriculum develops aesthetic values and the creative use of the imagination.

5. The school provides experimental education which includes elements of reflection, analysis, and synthesis.

6. A variety of opportunities to teaching and learning promotes the development of persons who are knowledgeable, questioning, thoughtful, and integrated.

7. A program for faculty/staff development, based on the values of Sacred Heart education, furthers the implantation of the Goals.

2. The curriculum includes the study of issues challenging out interdependent world.

3. The curriculum exposes students to the problems of oppression and injustice and teaches attitudes of peace and behaviors of nonviolence.

4. The curriculum includes the study of the welfare of our earth and its limited resources.

5. The school has programs which enable each member of the school community to be engaged in effective action for social change.

6. The school is linked in a reciprocal manner to ministries with the poor and marginalized.

7. The allocation of the school’s resources reflects the values of the Goals and Criteria.

Goal & Criteria 1990 GOAL FOUR

GOAL FIVE

Schools of the Sacred Heart commit themselves to educate the building of community as a Christian value.

School of the Sacred Heart commit themselves to educate to personal growth in an atmosphere of wise freedom.

1. The adults model and teach skills needed to build community and provide opportunities to exercise these skills.

1. All member of the school community show concern and respect for one another.

2. Laity and religion join as colleagues in the mission of Sacred Heart education.

2. Students develop self-confidence as they learn to deal realistically with their gifts and limitations.

3. The Board of Trustees and administration establish an review school policies in the light of Christian principles.

3. The school structures opportunities for its members to share their knowledge and gifts with others.

4. The financial aid program effectively supports socioeconomic diversity.

5. The school provides experiences of diversity which develop an understanding and appreciation of all people.

6. An understanding of the purposes, values, and evolving tradition of Sacred Heart education enriches the life of the school community.

7. The school participates actively in the national and international network of Sacred Heart schools.

8. The program educates students to assume their role as active and responsible citizens of an independent world.

4. School policies and practice promote self-discipline, responsibility, and decision making.

5. School programs provide for the recognition, development, and exercise of leadership in its many forms.

6. The school educates to a life-long sense of responsibility for health and well-being.

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Goal & Criteria 2005 INTRODUCTION The Preamble of the original edition of the Goals and Criteria states that “values taken for granted or left unarticulated become inoperative.”1 This conviction resulted in capturing the essence of Sacred Heart education in the five goals and their criteria. The Goals and Criteria provide both the uniqueness of a Sacred Heart School and the strong bond of union among the Network of Sacred Heart schools. They continue to challenge all Sacred Heart educators to deepen their understanding of these timeless principles. As the Introduction to the 1990 edition says: The challenge, however, continues to live in the five elements that have been the framework of Sacred Heart education since its beginning in 1800.

These principles are ageless, but the context for the challenge has changed and this requires of us a fresh response. …The needs of the world and of the United States again set the agenda for our response.

Since that description was written we have crossed the threshold into the third millennium as well as into the third century of Sacred Heart education.

In 2000 the Society of the Sacred Heart held a General Chapter, an international meeting of delegates of its members. Its purpose was to examine the context today for the Society’s mission. Through the eyes and experiences of the delegates, the Chapter …welcomed into our hearts and into our deliberations the faces of peoples across the globe. We have had before us the faces of hope and promise, the young in their generosity, those who are restless for God, women and men who create

and reverence life. We have seen the suffering of children without education, of young people searching for meaning, of those suffering from HIV/ AIDS, of women abused and discriminated against, of refugees displaced by war, violence and poverty.

These faces of people reveal the Heart of God. September 11, 2001 forever changed our context. The threat of terrorism in our world, the corporate greed and scandals in our country and a sense of entitlement in its citizens can drain us of hope. At times honesty and integrity in daily life seem to be forgotten virtues.

The innovations of technology have connected persons in newer, faster ways, but this instant networking can depersonalize communication. Environmental concerns seem not to get the attention they should be demanding of our governments. Globalization does not always clarify our interdependence; globalization too often brings new burdens for the poor of the world. The Roman Catholic Church finds itself profoundly challenged by internal and external factors. 3 Society of the Sacred Heart General Chapter 2000 Introduction, (Amiens, France, August 2000) p.14. The meaning of faithful membership can sometimes be lost in rhetorical arguments rather than in being firmly rooted in one’s relationship with God. The shortage of ordained ministers endangers sacramental life. We recognize we have much to learn about the spiritualities other faith traditions offer.

During the academic year 2004-2005 the constituencies of the Network Schools and the Religious of the Sacred Heart (RSCJ) engaged in a spirited consultation. The 2005 Goals and Criteria Document, crafted by the Sacred Heart Commission on Goals (SHCOG), is the fruit of this consultation. The “foundational principles” contained in this document are non-negotiable elements

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for being a Sacred Heart school. It is the expectation that these foundational principles be a part of a school community’s reflection when it evaluates its life during the SHCOG process. As with the Criteria, their order in the list does not signify importance; each foundational principle and each criterion is as important as any other one.

The process of refocusing and rearticulating our values as Sacred Heart educators led to many passionate conversations among us. This process of communal reflection has given us renewed appreciation of and commitment to our educational mission and how to live it in today’s world. Janet Erskine Stuart, RSCJ reminds us…

Epochs of transition must keep us on the alert.

They ask us to keep our eyes open upon the distant horizons, our minds listening to seize every indication that can enlighten us; reading, reflection, searching, must never stop; the mind must keep flexible in order to lose nothing, to acquire any knowledge that can aid our mission…. Immobility, arrested development bring decadence; a beauty, fully unfolded is ready to perish. So let us not rest on our beautiful past.

Let us accept the invitation to probe the depths of the Goals and Criteria that they might be prophetic orientations leading us to hope, a hope that believes in the goodness of each individual, a hope that believes in the goodness of humanity, a hope that believes in and trusts the love of the Heart of God.

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Goal & Criteria 2005 FOUNDATIONAL PRINCIPLES

GOAL ONE:

GOAL TWO:

1. In the Goals and Criteria, the Society of the Sacred Heart defines the mission of the school as part of the Society’s educational mission in the Catholic Church.

Schools of the Sacred Heart commit themselves to educate to a personal and active faith in God.

Schools of the Sacred Heart commit themselves to educate to a deep respect for intellectual values.

1. Rooted in the love of Jesus Christ, the school promotes a personal relationship with God and fosters the spiritual lives of its members.

1. The school develops and implements a curriculum based on the Goals and Criteria, educational research and ongoing evaluation.

2. The school seeks to form its students in the attitudes of the heart of Jesus expressed in respect, compassion, forgiveness and generosity.

2. The school provides a rigorous education that incorporates all forms of critical thinking and inspires a life-long love of learning.

3. The entire school program explores one’s relationship to God, to self, to others, and to all creation.

3. The school program develops aesthetic values and the creative use of the imagination.

4. Opening themselves to the transforming power of the Spirit of God, members of the school community engage in personal and communal prayer, reflection and action.

4. The faculty utilizes a variety of teaching and learning strategies that recognizes the individual needs of the students.

2. Each school is accountable to the Society through the Sacred Heart Commission on Goals for adherence to the Goals and Criteria.

3. Each school’s Board of Trustees and Administration establish and uphold policies that are consistent with the Goals and Criteria.

4. The school allocates its resources to support each Goal and its Criteria.

5. The school is in compliance with professional standards as stated by accrediting agencies.

5. The entire school program affirms that there is meaning and value in life and fosters a sense of hope in the individual and in the school community.

6. The school fosters inter-religious acceptance and dialogue by educating to an understanding of and deep respect for the religions of the world.

7. The school presents itself to the wider community as a Christ-centered institution and as an expression of the mission of the Society of the Sacred Heart.

5. The school provides ongoing professional development for faculty and staff.

6. Members of the school community model and teach ethical and respectful use of technology.

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Goal & Criteria 2005 GOAL THREE:

GOAL FOUR:

GOAL FIVE:

Schools of the Sacred Heart commit themselves to educate to a social awareness which impels to action.

Schools of the Sacred Heart commit themselves to educate to the building of community as a Christian value.

1. The school educates to a critical consciousness that leads its total community to analyze and reflect on the values of society and to act for justice.

1. The school implements an ongoing plan for educating both adults and students in the heritage and mission of Sacred Heart education.

Schools of the Sacred Heart commit themselves to educate to personal growth in an atmosphere of wise freedom.

2. The school offers all its members opportunities for direct service and advocacy and instills a life-long commitment to service.

2. The school promotes a safe and welcoming environment in which each person is valued, cared for and respected.

3. The school is linked in a reciprocal manner with ministries among people who are poor, marginalized and suffering from injustice.

3. Adult members of the school model and teach skills needed to build community and practice clear, direct and open communication.

3. Students grow in self-knowledge and develop selfconfidence as they learn to deal realistically with their gifts and limitations.

4. In our multicultural world, the school prepares and inspires students to be active, informed, and responsible citizens locally, nationally, and globally.

4. The school has programs that teach the principles of nonviolence, conflict resolution and peacemaking.

4. School programs provide for recognizing, nurturing and exercising leadership in its many forms.

5. The school makes a deliberate effort to recruit students and employ faculty and staff of diverse races, ethnicities and backgrounds.

5. The school provides opportunities for all members of the community to share their knowledge and gifts with others.

6. The financial aid program effectively supports socioeconomic diversity.

6. All members of the school community take personal responsibility for balance in their lives and for their health and well-being.

5. The school teaches respect for creation and prepares students to be stewards of the earth’s resources.

7. The school participates actively in the national and international networks of Sacred Heart schools.

1. All members of the school community show respect, acceptance and concern for themselves and for others.

2. School policies and practices promote self-discipline, responsible decision-making, and accountability.