Every year the Catholic Church in the United States dedicates a week to focusing on Catholic schools. Highlighting such an option in any educational system is important. Catholic schools provide an opportunity for parents to seek out a well rounded and Christ centered academic agenda. Guided by Christian values and ethics, the child is envisioned in a holistic way: mind, body, and spirit!

From the earliest days in our country, the great Bishop, Saint John Neumann, and wonderful layperson, Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, saw to the establishment of Catholic schools as a viable option for Catholic children to develop minds and souls, with Christ at the center of the school community. Free to express Christ in both academics and athletics, prayer and reason could be jointly pursued without the State dictating what was right and what was wrong; what was allowed and what wasn’t.

In many regards, Catholic schools continue to stay true to the core values on which they were founded. Unfortunately, some if not many, of our schools cannot always called recalled big “C” Catholic schools, just simply schools in the “spirit” of our Catholic Faith. This is most certainly true with too many of our “Catholic“ Colleges as well.

Sadly our grade and high schools are suffering from the cultural influences which dictate against our moral teachings and values. The “Catholic“ identity is dissolving in favor of a multi-verse of cultural relativism, academic shallowness, and spiritual syncretism.

We need to re-capture our original goals and Catholic identity, without apology or political and cultural correctness. Christ is not an agenda. He is a person, he is God! Catholic education must never falter in its goal of a Christ-centered and infused program that seeks to edify the whole child, mind body and soul!

Let us enrich Catholic Schools Week by praying for Catholic Schools, the students and parents, their faculty and staff. Let us never weaken our resolve to stay Catholic in a sea of wishy-washy tendencies and errors. The next generation demands the right to experience the Catholic faith. If we can’t do it in our Catholic schools, then why expend finances and resources needed, just to be like everyone else? If we can’t meet that goal, why have Catholic schools at all?