By Father Joseph Szolack
In his address to teachers and religious in 2010, Pope Benedict XVI, of happy memory, said, “A good school provides a rounded education for the whole person. And a good Catholic school, over and above this, should help all its students to become saints.”
There is no doubt that our Catholic schools have produced men and women who excel in science, the arts, athletics … producing teachers and entrepreneurs. Amazing things have been accomplished with, most of the time, very limited resources. We continue to fight for our government to give assistance to private schools so that our faithful are not paying both for public schools and the schools of their choice.
The priests, brothers and especially women religious built a school system in this country that was unparalleled anywhere in the world. Attending Saint Charles Borromeo Seminary (in Wynnewood, Pa.), and working as a priest in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia for nine years allowed me to learn about, and to see up close, an unbelievable Catholic education network.
In the same way, our own Diocese of Camden offers a Catholic education that forms excellence in young men and women. Bishop Dennis Sullivan has always made a good Catholic education a top priority of his shepherding in our Diocese, and anyone who has been with him when he visits our schools and parishes sees the rapport he has with young people.
We can form good men and women, but returning to Pope Benedict’s words, we must make sanctity in our young people the most important thing we offer them. They can gain excellence in so many areas in even non-Catholic schools, but what the Church can give them is priceless.
My current parish school, Our Lady of Hope in Blackwood, is a place where our principal, Mrs. Elizabeth Martino, and staff see the need for being sure that we not only give our children reading, writing and arithmetic, but also Jesus.
Like other Catholic schools in our Diocese, Our Lady of Hope has a committee that was formed to ever-expand and protect the Catholic faith. Our schoolchildren go to Holy Mass; we have Adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament, confessions, Stations of the Cross, the recitation of the Rosary and the May Crowning. Our eighth-grade boys celebrate Saint Joseph for his feast day.
These are very special moments in the life of our school, but also importantly, we must teach the faith in the classroom, in the cafeteria and on the playing field. If our children leave our school without knowing the faith, then we are failing not only them, but the Lord. Faith in God is not some choice among others or an extra add on.
If our children go to a Catholic school and do not go to Mass on Sunday, do not go to confession, and do not have a fervent love for Our Lady, we must ask ourselves if we are giving our children what they truly need. Our faith will affect us forever. Our schools must have excellent teachers who know the faith, live the faith and zealously teach the faith. If our schools are special, it is because they transmit the faith. Saint Paul says, “So then, brethren, stand firm and hold to the traditions which you were taught, whether by word of mouth or by letter from us.” (2 Thessalonians 2:15) We must be sure our schools are Catholic, and we must never apologize for handing on the truth.
Parents, you make heroic sacrifices to send your children to one of our Catholic schools. I have had numerous parents tell me they make the sacrifice because our schools are safe, strict, have excellent teachers or teach good manners. All true, but I am most gratified when I hear, in the spirit of Pope Benedict, “I send my child to your school, Father, because I want my son, my daughter to be a saint!”
Father Joseph Szolack is pastor of Our Lady of Hope Parish, Blackwood.
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