For His Friends

The new school year is about to begin in our diocesan elementary and high schools, in fact it has already begun in the high schools. The diocese has a new Superintendent of Schools and there are a number of new principals in the various buildings. In the last two weeks, however, I have been looking at some statistics on the measurement of success of transmitting the faith in our Catholic schools in the diocese which I wish to share with you. They are encouraging. But before getting into the results of the testing, I feel compelled to once again raise the question of “Why Catholic schools?” To my mind there is only one plausible and logical answer to this question and that is that Catholic schools are the most effective way of transmitting the faith from one generation to the next. If they fail in this regard, then there is little reason for the Church to spend so much money and energy in maintaining them.

But teaching the faith is only part of the equation, though it is that part that is the responsibility of the schools themselves. Practicing the faith at the same time it is being taught is the responsibility of the sending parents. Like love and marriage in the famous song from the musical OKLAHOMA, “you can’t have one without the other.”

Too often we hear, I don’t know what happened to the faith of my children? I sent them to Catholic schools and yet today they do not practice. It is so sad. Well I am here to tell you that the school alone is not and has never been enough. What is taught must be lived and that lived experience is up to the parents and/or guardians. One can teach the Fourth Commandment, “Remember to keep holy the Sabbath Day” till one is blue in the face, can teach the gift that is the Eucharist to the children, but when Mom and Dad could but choose not to attend Sunday Mass with their children, then all that is taught is in conflict with all that is lived. So I pray and hope that the opening of school this year will be accompanied by a firmer commitment on the part of parent users to accompany their children on the journey of faith and support what is taught in the classroom with what is practiced in Church.

Now, to what is taught and how effective are our schools in transmitting the faith. Each year our elementary schools administer in the fifth and eighth grades the Assessment of Catechesis Religious Education developed and administered by the National Catholic Education Association. Additionally, our four high schools administer a similar test to eleventh graders. Jesuit High School and the Academy of the Holy Names either do not administer the test or choose not to share the results with me and with the diocesan school office. The good news is that in every category tested, our students outperformed the national average, often considerably so. The “domains” which are tested are God; Church; Liturgy and Sacraments; Revelation, Scripture and Faith; Life in Christ; Church History; Prayer/Religious Practice; and Faith Literacy. There are also four “pillars” which are also measured and those are: Creed, Liturgy/Sacraments, Morality and Prayer.  Both knowledge and attitudes are measured and the “domains” mentioned above reflect key concepts of our faith while the “pillars” reflect the Pillars of Faith according to the Catechism of the Church.

One interesting note to me is that for the past three years while the diocese has been focusing on its “Eucharistic Initiative”, the students’ awareness, understanding of and appreciation for Liturgy and the Sacraments has increased – perhaps the first fruit of bring all the teachers of our young together for in-service education on this centrality of our faith. I have before me the scores for the past five years and they have been and remain substantially and significantly higher than the national average. I can also tell something of the effectiveness of each of our elementary schools but these raw scores must be interpreted carefully. Any standardized test requires basic reading skills and some of our elementary schools work with students whose reading aptitude is far below the norm for the year of study. All in all, I wish to compliment our elementary schools teachers and principals for a good year of transmitting the faith.

Our four high schools are also above the national average but not as markedly and remarkably as the elementary schools. I would like to see the results higher in the coming years and I will be communicating this hope to the high school principals soon. There are also some very remarkable variances and differences between the test scores of our four high schools with Tampa Catholic consistently outscoring her three sister schools (St. Petersburg Catholic, Clearwater Central Catholic, and Bishop McLaughlin). Again, I should also note that in the domain and pillar of Liturgy and Sacraments, there are also to be found better results in the last three years. I have reviewed all the results with our Director of Faith Formation, Brian Lemoi, and know that a careful reading, perhaps more careful than I have given which I would term more “cursory” than “careful” is required, but I can affirm to all parents reading this blog entry that I truly believe that in the area of faith formation and transmission, you are getting what you paid for. Now I plead with you to do your part.

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I must have something of a death wish for reopening this issue but I was thinking about what has happened in the year since the University of Notre Dame held its last commencement ceremony with all the attendant publicity and controversy. What prompted this reflection was the splendid Laetare Medal recipient’s speech given this year and available on the “mother of all Catholic blogs,” Whispers in the Loggia“ (worth a listen!) What are the givens a year later after President Obama’s appearance, commencement address, and award of an honorary degree? Notre Dame is still the premier Catholic university in the country; its current President enjoys more support from faculty, students, Board of Trustees and nation than he did prior to the contretemps; more parents than ever seek admission to Notre Dame for their daughters and sons; and in a moment of truth, many bishops in the United States would tell you that ND produces more signs of hope for the faith and its transmission from its young graduates than any other Catholic college or university. True, some alumni may temporarily or permanently cease giving to their alma mater but my sources tell me that this backwash has been very minimal. So the University continues along doing good things, preparing students to live in a religiously pluralistic world and embracing a strong Catholic identity as well as core beliefs.

How about President Obama, who along with the university president, took his lumps during the controversy? Well, “the most pro-abortion president ever elected” as he is often referred to has not exactly led the pro-abortion movement as was feared. His actions to date, and I emphasize to date, are no more pro-abortion, anti-life than the Clinton administration’s in their eight years with whom I had to deal during my Washington years. His actions on behalf of born human life have led to a lessening of the chance of nuclear war; extended health care which the Church posits as a basic human right soon to be available to millions of additional Americans even if, as I suspect, the legislation has severe flaws; he promises a genuine, just and effective immigration policy for the future; and so on. In other words, last year’s Notre Dame commencement speaker with the worrisome exception of being   unacceptably pro-choice/pro-abortion  has done other things which embody much of Catholic social teaching and its concomitant dreams for a better society. The jury is still out on this president in many ways and the history of his presidency is yet to be written. We will have to see.

How has the Church fared through this controversy and its fallout? Some bishops chose to take a strong stand. I was not among them then and am not now. I merely publicly stated that the exclusion of the local bishop from the decision making process on something which would be controversial was sad, as I understood it at the time. I would hate to be blind-sided by such an occurrence in this diocese, even if the college or university chose to reject my position and proceed anyway. I believe that a university can remain solidly Catholic while allowing for a certain freedom of expression. Inviting the President of the United States and having him accept, even if there are substantial differences of opinion on major issues, is not beyond the scope of my thinking. President Bush was invited to Notre Dame very early in his time in office with rumblings already in the air about an attack on Iraq which was a challenge even then to the traditional Catholic just war theory. He also unabashedly supported capital punishment.  Anyone who thought then or thinks now that the nature of the college or university in the United States is likely to change because of the assault on Notre Dame last year is deceiving themselves. Perhaps colleges and universities will be more cautious (thoughtful?) in making the choices, and perhaps local bishops where these colleges and universities are located may be more involved prior to a public announcement, but that, or so it seems to me, is about all that was accomplished last year. Zero sum gain for the Church, in my mind.

I remain proud of the University of Notre Dame, our own St. Leo University, St. Thomas and Barry University in Miami, and of all our Catholic colleges and universities. They need a certain amount of autonomy within the framework of a dedication to Catholic identity to remain credible in the higher education ethos in which they are found. As I have often said in this space in the last year and a half, as shepherds we need more energy and assistance in inviting people into the Church than drumming them out. As a religious minority in a pluralistic society we have much to be proud of  in our elementary and secondary schools, our colleges and universities, our hospitals and nursing homes, our charitable outreach through various ministries of mercy. Only close collaboration has a chance of keeping all these disparate elements in the fold. Attacks do little good for the common weal other than make the attacker feel better. Finding common ground remains the Christian and Catholic way of dealing with those things which can be accommodated while boldly but perhaps more empathetically teaching that which can not be changed. This is the reflection I draw from last year’s dome days.

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For centuries the Church has put “funny” hats on its bishops. In our case, they are called mitres and zuchettas (Italian word for the purple beanie). The mitre can be traced back to a certain headgear that was worn by Jewish High Priests but in Catholicism is evolved into a front and back of somewhat triangular shape and various colors. I thought of the mitre today as I presided (without wearing one) at the first of six high school graduations and/or baccalaureate Masses. But we bishops do not have a lock-on distinctive headgear. The traditional headgear of a high school and college/university graduate can be even more distinctive and occasionally troublesome. Of course, I am speaking of the mortarboard or cap worn at graduation ceremonies. The graduate has worked hard at various levels of educational activity for the privilege of wearing a cap and a gown at their graduation. Unlike bishops, they only have to wear them a couple of times in their lifetime and in some graduation ceremonies they can not wait to toss them into the air. Bishops can’t do that – they cost too much for one thing. But in the history of civilization, headgear has often been a sign of accomplishment or office.

The graduation season at the six high schools in the diocese began this Sunday afternoon (May 16th) and for all but last year, I have tried to be present to the graduates and their families at this special moment of achievement. Some of my brother bishops have chosen not to attend graduation or baccalaureate Masses for a variety of reasons but I see it as one last opportunity to accomplish several goals: to briefly remind the graduates that they are being sent to the world to among other things make Christ more present; that the education they have received is a sign of the love for them which their parents or guardians and the Church have as today it comes at considerable financial sacrifice; and, finally, that at least in our Catholic schools, administrators, teachers, and staff also make a big sacrifice to be present to them and help them. It all has to  be done rather expeditiously because the graduating class just wants to get out, get on with the parties and celebrations and get on with their lives. This afternoon I tried to remember who spoke at my high school graduation, who were the salutatorian and valedictorian. Couldn’t! Could not even remember who did it for my college graduation either. So the “who” of graduation day and the “what” he or she said is very transitory.

I did look at the graduates however and I do have the feeling that we have done the best we can for them to prepare them for their next adventure. At least at St. Petersburg Catholic I see them arrive in their freshman year and grow, physically, emotionally, spiritually and educationally. I can tell that their Catholic school experience made some difference. Our schools compete against a lot in the culture and world which teen-agers experience today. High schools do not always win that tug-of-war, but I still think we make enough of a difference that we must be committed to keeping the opportunity available for future high school generations. A sometime endless debate centers on whether or not, if one could have only one, would elementary or high schools be the place where one deposits the greatest investment. At the moment and I hope up to the time I leave, it will never be “either-or” but “both-and.” The elementary schools after all are the principle feeders for the high schools.

To all the graduates of St. Petersburg Catholic, the Academy of the Holy Names, Bishop McLaughlin, Tampa Catholic, Jesuit, and Clearwater Central Catholic, I offer my congratulations but I save my greatest good wishes for those loving parents and guardians and faculties and staffs who make this day possible annually.

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Updated: Here are some photos of yesterday’s (5/16/2010) Graduation at St. Petersburg Catholic.

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Br. Jerry Meegan, SDB, Principal; Bishop Lynch; and Fr. Mike Conway, President before the St. Petersburg Catholic High School Graduation in the narthex of the Cathedral of St. Jude the Apostle.

Rev. Theodore Hesburgh CSC, (ND Newswire)

It would be hard to think of a single American outside of government who in his or her lifetime has been more instrumental in shaping public policy than Father Ted Hesburgh of Notre Dame. His contributions to American life in the latter half of the last century, especially in the area of civil rights are nearly unparalleled and so it was with great interest that I read the following article which appeared in the Wall Street Journal. I offer it to you for your own thoughtful analysis.

A Setback for Educational Civil Rights

Wall Street Journal

March 18, 2010

Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, CSC

When President Dwight D. Eisenhower asked me to become one of the founding members of the newly formed U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, African-Americans drank at separate water fountains and our schools were segregated. A decade later, when people came together to march against these injustices, the idea that a black man could ever be elected president of the United States was still something for dreamers. My experience with that great movement gives me a particular appreciation for the historic importance of the presidency of Barack Obama—and the new dreams that his example will inspire in our young.

If Martin Luther King Jr. told me once, he told me a hundred times that the key to solving our country’s race problem is plain as day: Find decent schools for our kids. So I was especially heartened to hear Education Secretary Arne Duncan repeatedly call education the “civil rights issue of our generation.” Millions of our children—disproportionately poor and minority—remain trapped in failing public schools that condemn them to lives on the fringe of the American Dream.

For all these reasons, I was deeply disappointed when Sen. Richard Durbin (D., Ill.) successfully inserted a provision in last year’s omnibus spending bill that ended one of the best efforts to give these struggling children the chance to attend a safe and decent school.

That effort is called the Opportunity Scholarship program. Since 2004 it has allowed thousands of children in Washington, D.C., to escape one of the worst public school systems in the nation by providing them with scholarships of up to $7,500.

Despite its successes, it is now closing down. On Tuesday the Senate voted against a measure introduced by Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I., Conn.) that would have extended the program. Throughout this process Mr. Duncan’s Education Department and the White House raised no protest.

Much has been written about the crisis in education, and the effective resegregation of our public schools. It’s clear who is paying the price. A study a few years ago from Johns Hopkins University highlighted the terrible disparity of the current system: Nearly half of our nation’s African-American students, nearly 40% of Latino students, but only 11% of white students attend high schools in which graduation is not the norm.

Many of the parents using Opportunity Scholarships chose Catholic schools for their children even though they are not Catholic themselves. That’s no coincidence. When others abandoned the cities, the Catholic schools remained, and they continue to do heroic work.

At Notre Dame we launched our own efforts to bolster this mission. Our Alliance for Catholic Education, for example, takes talented young men and women, trains them to see teaching as a career, and then sends them into struggling inner-city schools such as Holy Redeemer in Washington, D.C.

But these inner-city schools can’t do it themselves. Recently the archdiocese of Washington announced that Holy Redeemer would be forced to close its doors at the end of the year because the families who send their children to the school are unable to afford it without the financial aid they receive from this program. The archdiocese stated that “decisions last year by the U.S. Department of Education and by Congress to phase out the federal D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program . . . negatively impacted Holy Redeemer’s financial situation.”

Of Holy Redeemer’s 149 students, 60 were on Opportunity Scholarships. Unlike so many of their peers, these kids were on their way to college. Now they have to find some other safe haven. Others will never get the chance at all.

I know that some consider voucher programs such as the Opportunity Scholarships a right-wing affair. I do not accept that label. This program was passed with the bipartisan support of a Republican president and Democratic mayor. The children it serves are neither Republican nor Democrat, liberal or conservative. They are the future of our nation, and they deserve better from our nation’s leaders.

I have devoted my life to equal opportunity for all Americans, regardless of skin color. I don’t pretend that this one program is the answer to all the injustices in our education system. But it is hard to see why a program that has proved successful shouldn’t have the support of our lawmakers. The end of Opportunity Scholarships represents more than the demise of a relatively small federal program. It will help write the end of more than a half-century of quality education at Catholic schools serving some of the most at-risk African-American children in the District.

I cannot believe that a Democratic administration will let this injustice stand.

Father Hesburgh is the former president of the University of Notre Dame.

The Old Florida Capitol Building (now a museum) and behind it the current capitol building.

This was a long day for several hundred of us in the state capital today. In addition to the six diocesan bishops (Bishop John Ricard of Pensacola-Tallahassee, our usual host, was unable to join us) and one auxiliary bishop, about three hundred women and men joined us for the annual “Catholic Days at the Capitol” events. These people received a briefing yesterday from the staff of the Florida Catholic Conference and then were asked to personally visit the offices and, hopefully, speak to their individual Senators and Representatives about forthcoming legislation of interest to the Church and to Catholics. It can be both exciting and frustrating. It is exciting because these volunteers often find strength in numbers and work up their courage to make their case with the elected representatives and it can be frustrating because early in the legislative session (we are in the second week) many members of the legislature are tied up in committee hearings and suddenly are unavailable.

The bishops were supposed to meet with Governor Crist this morning, something we have done for the past three years, but late word came that the governor had to fly to seven Florida cities/towns today and would not be available. Those meetings are valuable but predictable. We talk about education, farmworkers, migration and health care issues and he is engaged but when the subject switches to the death penalty, he, like his predecessors listens respectfully, but then says that he must uphold the laws of the state and continue to sign death warrants for prisoners on Florida’s death row. I am now in my third governor (Chiles, Bush and Crist) and the response of all three have been the same on this neuralgic issue. There was, in fact, to be an execution today but it was stayed last week by the Florida Supreme Court while they determined whether the felon had a sufficient IQ to warrant full knowledge of the consequences of his acts.

Representative Will Weatherford, recipient of the "Defensor Parentum" award from the Florida Catholic Conference

We had a giant, fast lunch today with all the volunteers in town for “Catholic Days at the Capit0l” and any legislator who can break away and make it (they pay for their own lunches) and I am happy to report that Representative Will Weatherford sat at my table and was awarded the Defensor Parentum (Latin for “Defender of Parents) award from the Conference this year for his abiding commitment to “choice in education.” Representative Weatherford, a Methodist, is from Wesley Chapel in our diocese and while not of our faith he has consistently voted pro-life and pro-educational choice. He is from a family of nine  children and a younger brother would be well known to football fans in the state (Drew Weatherford, quarterback for Florida State University). The awardee is slated to become Speaker of the House in three years and I am proud to have him represent a large portion of our diocese. Congratulations to you, Representative Weatherford, for receiving this award and the Catholics of our diocese are proud to have you among our delegation in the Florida House of Representatives.

We bishops met for an hour in the morning with Heroic Media and an hour in the afternoon with the leadership of Catholic Volunteers in Florida. The former is an effort to utilize more fully the media in reaching young women and convincing them of the terrible  consequences of abortion. Its founder, Brian Follett, claims significant success in reducing the number of abortions in those markets which Heroic Media has so far chosen. In the Tampa Bay area there are approximately 300 abortions for every 1000 live births (in Miami the number is a staggering 650 for every 1000 live births) and in Austin, Texas, where the media effort was first tried, the number of abortions per live births has been reduced by one-third. It is an interesting concept which each diocese will have to consider in the future. CVF (Catholic Volunteers in Florida) is a program for recent college graduates whereby they can if they choose to do so devote a few years to doing volunteer work for their Catholic Church. This year there are twenty volunteers working in the state.

The annual Red Mass took place at six o’clock at St. Thomas More Co-Cathedral with Archbishop Favalora as both celebrant and homilist. The Archbishop is planning to retire in November of this year and a lot of things we will do will be something of a victory lap or farewell tour for him. So while he is usually the celebrant for the Mass, this year, likely his final year, we also asked him to preach. He is quite cognizant of the length of time other Red Mass preachers have taken so this year I “clocked” him at exactly fifteen minutes hoping for conversation “fodder” in private.

I should note that we normally have a Florida Catholic Conference meeting of about three hours on this day and will again in the future but last week we did our business on a conference telephone call freeing up some time today (again the Archbishop’s idea leading the rest of us to acknowledge that he must be counting the days). Nonetheless, it is a long day for the bishops and those volunteers who come from around the state seeking to secure some political capital in the capitol.

The 2010 St. Petersburg contingent at Catholic Days at the Capitol

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Saturday night last (the 20th), the Catholic Foundation which has as its goal among other things providing tuition assistance to needy families so that their children can attend Catholic schools held its annual fund raising dinner at the Grand Hyatt in Tampa. 527 people were in attendance for the dinner.

Timothy Dolan, Archbishop of New York gives the principle address at the 2010 Catholic Foundation Gala

The principal address was given by my friend, Archbishop Timothy Dolan, Archbishop of New York. I was h0nored that he would fly down here to be present on this important occasion on the eve of the First Sunday of Lent and his own archdiocese’s Rite of Election and Call to Continuing Conversion later on Sunday at St. Patrick’s Cathedral. He spoke about the year of priests which has been declared by the Holy Father and the importance of Catholic schools in helping priests transmit the Gospel and make Jesus real and alive to our young people. The archbishop is a brilliant Church historian but in casual conversation and in formal presentations, he presents a wit and charm which makes all listeners see and hear a man of hope. He flew back right after his talk and I heard him at 1015am the next morning celebrating Mass and preaching at his St. Patrick’s Cathedral (You can listen to the Archbishop in a special one hour program he does every week entitled “Conversations with the Archbishop” on Sirius or XM satellite radio (Thursdays at 1pm, Sundays at 8am and 6pm and at other times). I am so grateful to the Archbishop for accepting my invitation and I have not met or heard from anyone yet who did not enjoy and gain from his presence.

We presented a special award to a husband and wife who have worked hard all their life for Catholic education, Darcie and JoAnn Cleary of St. Paul parish in St. Petersburg. JoAnn was principal for many years of Transfiguration elementary school and then taught at St. Petersburg Catholic High School.  Darcy has been the administrator of the Mary C. Forbes Foundation which makes tuition scholarship grants to Catholic schools to area students.

The “A-Train”, aka Mike Alstott was present to autograph a football auctioned off and the event probably cleared $135,000 for next year’s tuition scholarships.

My thanks to those who worked hard in planning the evening and to the over five hundred who purchased tickets, tables, etc. and attended. It was a sparkling evening for a good cause.

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