‘Catholic-schools’: one wordArchbishop tells Florida school administrators that fostering Catholic identity should be top priority. Posted: 10.09.09 FORT LAUDERDALE | “Catholic-schools”: Think not of two words but one. Not religion “tacked” on to a curriculum, but an identity, a vision of the world, imbued in every aspect of school life. That was the message the archbishop of Vancouver, British Columbia, brought to more than 240 school principals and superintendents from throughout Florida gathered for their annual conference Sept. 30-Oct. 2. The theme was “Miami CSI: Catholic School Identity.” “Your schools should be ecclesial in every dimension of their educational activity. Being Catholic is fundamental to their identity,” said Archbishop Michael Miller, one of the keynote speakers at the conference. “They are not first schools then Catholic. They are almost one word, ‘Catholic-schools.’” Archbishop Miller served as secretary of the Vatican Congregation for Catholic Education from 2003 until his appointment to Vancouver in 2007. Before that, he served as president of the University of Houston and seminary professor. “He has borne the heat of the day in the classroom. He knows of what he speaks,” said Father Chris Marino, once a student of Archbishop Miller and now pastor of St. Michael the Archangel Parish in Miami. In his talk, Archbishop Miller provided a framework by which administrators could check the Catholicity of their schools: • What is the role of Christ in the school? • What is the understanding of the human person that guides the school’s approach to teaching? • What attention is given to fostering among students a Catholic perspective on the world? • What attention is given to ongoing faith formation of the teachers, staff and administrators? He noted that, in terms of Catholic identity, “what was once taken for granted must now be more explicitly spelled out,” so fostering Catholic identity should be the goal of everyone who works in the school. “Every Catholic school should be a place where young people meet Jesus,” Archbishop Miller said. “Catholic education’s main aim is to produce good Catholics.” In terms of a Catholic vision or perspective on the world, he noted that “there is such a thing as a Catholic take on reality. We have a tradition of thought” that encompasses “more than a collection of facts and devotional practices.” It involves helping students “make connections between learning and the Christian life, between human culture in all its dimensions and faith in Christ.” The archbishop warned administrators to guard against “the relativist mindset” and “that split between religion and everyday life which so undermines the living of the Gospel.” “Truth can be sought after … and attained by human minds and passed on to others,” Archbishop Miller said, emphasizing that Catholics are not afraid of reason. On the contrary, faith is reasonable. It “cannot be reduced to the realm of the sentimental and the irrational and therefore dismissed as mere opinion.” As for teachers and faith formation, he said, “the teacher is the key to a school’s Catholic identity” and must see his or her role as a vocation, an ecclesial ministry in the Church. “A disgruntled or a dissident Catholic is a fish out of water and therefore has no place in a Catholic school,” Archbishop Miller said. “Young people are searching for ideals to live by” and they are “experts at sniffing out hypocrisy.” He suggested that ongoing faith formation of teachers – both spiritual and doctrinal – should be a priority for school administrators. Teachers, he said, “will not be able to hand on or to give what they don’t have.”
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