Category: Catholic School Matters

Reading Lay Catholics in Schools for the Church Documents series, I was struck by the great quotes and the central argument that lay Catholics have a vocation within the Church.  I’m certain that not the concept of a lay vocation isn’t widely understood.  I have had the experience of feeling like a second-class citizen in […]

Last month I had the privilege to spend a few days at Notre Dame and ACE headquarters. The Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE) began at Notre Dame and is perhaps best known for its teaching corps. But it also houses the headquarters for the ACE Academies, the Remick Leadership Program, and initiatives in school choice, […]

After listening to the Catholic School Matters podcast with Sr. Elizabeth Allen on the Vatican document The Catholic School (1977), I find its relevance to our American Catholic education (even 40 years later) remarkable.  And while different themes of the document emerge and are highlighted at different times in history, there are also themes that […]

I often find “Christ-centered” and “Gospel-centered” in mission and vision statements.  In my conversation with Sr. Elizabeth Anne Allen, OP on the Church Documents series on the Catholic School Matters podcast about The Catholic School, the Vatican’s 1977 document on Catholic schools, we both pointed out the importance of paragraph 34 in establishing a Catholic […]

The following blog was contributed by Justin McClain, O.P., theology teacher at Bishop McNamara High School in Forestville, MD. As a theology teacher, my perspective on Catholic education easily centers on the role that Catholic schools play in forming disciples – making saints, if you will – out of its students. Ideally, this is an […]

In Episode 84 of the Catholic School Matters podcast, Gwen Byrd of the Archdiocese of Mobile, joins me to discuss the US Bishop’s 1976 pastoral statement on Catholic education “To Teach Them.”  Here is the link to the podcast. The first thing that stands out is that one of our longest-serving superintendents, Gwen Byrd, talks […]

Today’s Guest Blogger is Kathy Mears, the Superintendent of Catholic Schools in the Archdiocese of Boston. I’d like to share my reactions to the latest Church Documents podcast on the Catholic School Matters podcast series. I first read To Teach as Jesus Did in the mid 1990’s.  I was going to teach a course for a local Catholic college […]

Congratulations to Sr. John Mary Fleming, OP and Timothy Uhl for this informative, organized and engaging presentation on The Declaration of Christian Education on the Catholic School Matters podcast. It was a delight to revisit this beautiful document of 12 basic statements, situated within the time and context in which it was written; namely the post-Vatican II time […]

In last week’s Catholic School Matters newsletter, I shared the article “Who Do You Say You Are: Relationships and Faith in Catholic Schools” from this fall’s Journal of Catholic Education. The authors (Jennifer Maney, Carrie King, and Thomas Kiely) examine the importance of teacher-student relationships within Catholic schools. They found that the quality of those relationships mirror the […]

Guest blog response to the Declaration on Christian Education (1965) podcast by Lorraine Ozar, Ph.D. When the Declaration on Christian Education (Gravissimum Educationes) was published in 1965 at the end of the Second Vatican Council, Catholic schools in the United States were at their peak enrollment.  They functioned almost as a parallel school system, aimed at transmitting the faith and […]