As Aidan Camire walked across the stage to collect his diploma in Paul VI High School’s auditorium, his family reflected on the gift of their son and brother, as well as the faith-based education he’s received in the past four years.
“We’re proud of him and the man he’s becoming,” said Camire’s sister Linsey, who graduated PVI in 2017.
Their mother, Tracey, said she appreciated the Catholic experience her children had at the school. “Faith is such an important part of our lives. We should always be thankful for God and his blessings, like the one tonight.”
In the Diocese of Camden’s Catholic high schools, family members undoubtedly shared the same sentiments, as their sons, daughters, nieces, nephews and grandchildren graduated from South Jersey Catholic schools.
“Whatever you do, as you go forth, take Jesus with you. He knows you. He loves you. He has a plan for you,” Bishop Joseph Williams told graduates of Paul VI High School; Camden Catholic, Cherry Hill; Gloucester Catholic, Gloucester City; and Wildwood Catholic Academy, North Wildwood, as he celebrated their respective Baccalaureate Masses with concelebrating clergy, and graduation ceremonies with school faculty and administration during the first week of June. Bishop Dennis Sullivan celebrated the Baccalaureate Mass and graduation for Holy Spirit High School, Absecon.
In his remarks, Bishop Williams reminded the young graduates of the Church’s current Jubilee Year of Hope, noting the “natural optimism that shines on your faces. … You just accomplished something great. Your whole lives are open before you in a land of opportunity. You’re expecting good things.”
Bishop Williams referenced the Mass reading from Romans, where a confident Paul writes that “hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts.”
Indeed, the Catholic school graduates have “a great foundation for hope,” Bishop Williams said. “Even when the good things that we expected don’t come – we don’t get the job we want, we don’t get the relationship we want – God still loves us. You are dearly beloved children of a God who cannot stop loving you. … He has a plan for our happiness.”
Bishop Williams recounted his own personal understanding of God’s plan when he was in their shoes as a 1992 graduate of Stillwater High School, Minn. At the time, he had plans to be a doctor and have a large family. He recalled asking God to answer that prayer. But then, a question began to linger. “Shouldn’t I ask God what he’d like me to do?”
He started praying, “Lord, what would you have me do?” Soon, another plan unfolded.
“When my prayer changed, my life changed,” Bishop Williams said. “God made it crystal clear: He didn’t want me to be doctor of the body, but a doctor of the soul. I wouldn’t have just 10 children, but tens of thousands. God never destroys our dreams. He actually makes them more beautiful, if we ask Him.”
In a similar way, Bishop Williams urged the graduates to ask themselves, “What is the work that God has created me to do, that He has given to no one else?”
At Holy Spirit High School, graduates were congratulated by Bishop Sullivan, who celebrated the Baccalaureate Mass at Assumption Church, Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish, Galloway. Bishop Sullivan expressed hope that the new alumni would “now, and throughout your lives, find in your hearts the tenderness, the mercy and the closeness of God.”
“If you ever experience loneliness, look into your hearts and find God,” he preached. “If you ever think that something you did angered God, remember God’s mercy and forgiveness. If you ever experience suffering – physical, emotional, mental, spiritual – that keeps God at a distance from you, remember God is compassionate. God shares your suffering.”
As witnesses to this love, Bishop Sullivan urged the graduates to pay it forward and “have the compassion of God for those who are different from you, [those] whom society rejects and looks down upon, and with those whom you may disagree.”
Bishop Sullivan reflected on his recent trip to Florence, Italy, and seeing Michelangelo’s statue of David. The 17-foot sculputre shows a figure “ready for action … determined, [whose] eyes are watchful.”
Like the classic piece, the graduates have had much molding these past four years, Bishop Sullivan continued, “and yet, you are not done. There is much more ahead in the next round of chiseling and sculpturing in your life journey.”
Knowing how a Catholic education can provide a solid foundation for the future is Dr. Bill Watson, superintendent of Catholic schools for the Diocese of Camden. Dr. Watson joined the bishops in handing out diplomas to the 569 graduates at the five diocesan high schools.
“When I go to the graduations, hear the speeches and see the smiles, I know there’s something good here,” he said. “In a Catholic school, the fact that we accept and acknowledge the grace of God lifts us high. It’s true joy.”
Of the diocesan high school graduates, 84% will attend four-year colleges next year, and more than $112 million in combined academic and athletic scholarships was distributed.
The three religious order Catholic high schools in the Diocese of Camden – Our Lady of Mercy Academy, Newfield; Bishop Eustace Preparatory School, Pennsauken; and Saint Augustine Preparatory School, Richland – have 257 out of their 265 graduates (97%) attending four-year colleges, with more than $207 million in combined academic and athletic scholarships distributed.
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