Category: Catholic School Matters

This week’s Catholic School Matters Radio Hour (Episode 153) features five great Catholic school leaders sharing their stories. It’s a long episode but chock full of great content. The first guest (1:55) is Jason Curtis, the current principal of Cardinal Gibbons High School in Raleigh who has taken a new job as President of Saint […]

In this week’s newsletter, I reflect on the fact that last week’s NCEA convention in Chicago left me energized, enthused, and a bit exhausted. It occurred to me that I had read a number of great books in the past couple of weeks and I thought it might be great to highlight these inspiring works.  […]

On Wednesday’s Catholic School Matters Radio Hour podcast, Bishop George Murry of Youngstown leads off. He discusses what life is like for a bishop during these trying times and shares his remarkable story of beating leukemia last year. Then, Dr. Liz Guneratne of Moreau Catholic HS joins me to discuss why she returned to the principalship after a […]

As the school year wears you down, you might be identifying with the suffering Jesus this week. Or you might think the Church is the suffering savior, broken from abuse. I know that from time to time, I need to change my focus in order to see the bigger picture. Last summer on a road […]

Hafa Adai! This week’s Catholic School Matters Radio Hour focuses on Guam, which was in the news last week after the former archbishop’s conviction was upheld. Richard Alvia, the second-year superintendent of the Archdiocese of Agaña Catholic Schools, joins me to discuss the schools on Guam. The challenges and successes are highlighted and Alvia gives […]

The whole church needs to confront attitudes of power, privilege, and entitlement that characterize many of the ordained and reinforce a structure that protects them from accountability. – Cardinal Cupich Clericalism has been a popular topic in American Catholic circles over the past year. The crisis in leadership is often framed as a result of […]

This week’s podcast is focused on the Cristo Rey Network. First, President/CEO Elizabeth Goettl of the Cristo Rey Network joins me to discuss the origins of the Cristo Rey Network and how it operates as a system. Goettl mentions the origins in 1996 in the Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago. Goettl describes the model and their […]

This week has found me engrossed in Learning to Improve by Tony Bryk et al. In the beginning, the authors point out several recent reform initiatives such as smaller high schools and rigorous teacher evaluations. In each case, there was a germ of a good idea but the process was “going fast and learning slow.” […]

On this week’s Catholic School Matters Radio Hour podcast, I bring on three great guests. First, Dr. Tim McNiff of the Archdiocese of New York comes on to discuss his career and the state of Catholic schools. Dr. McNiff is retiring at the end of the month so it is an appropriate time for our first […]

Prayer enlarges the heart until it is capable of containing God’s gift of himself.—Saint Teresa of Calcutta I often hear prayer described as something we should do in order to promote Catholic identity. School leaders are often challenged to be prayer leaders and to promote community expressions of prayer. While this is certainly important, I […]