Advertisements ad

November 9, 2008

Seeing the faces of our ‘saints’ Schools’ superintendent draws hope from the kids

By Sister M. Paul McCaughey, O.P.

I keep seeing the faces. Like my dad’s old slide projector, like the photo DVD edited by a graduating class for their ceremonial farewells, I keep seeing the faces. Rapid fire, freeze frame. Faces.

The faces are white, brown, black and all hues in between. Most are smiling, some puzzled or intense and a few are dreamy — reflecting a rich, inner world not always accessible to a teacher’s current program.

The faces, in turn, are attached to all body types and sizes, encased in uniforms, gym outfits, ethnic clothing, liturgical gowns, theater costumes, choral robes and slickers in crossing-guard yellow. Arms raise in response to questions or pull the voting lever in a mock election, voices proclaim an anti-violence pledge or sing a hymn, fingers touch an electronic SMART board or are immersed in Play-Doh, feet dance at a vocation-awareness rally or skid across a gym floor, eyes focus on the microscope’s slide and on the Eucharist.

For these are the faces of the saints, the faces of the young people of our Catholic schools in Lake and Cook counties. As I slowly make my way through our schools and am introduced to these young people by their teachers and administrators and pastors, I am grateful for the sea of faces and the time to search them. Otherwise, it is too much paper: too many worries about finance, policy, personnel, parish-school relations, buildings. From time to time, it is good to be reminded that we concern ourselves about these things because of the children, because of the saints.

Kids are not perfect, of course, but like all of us they are called to live in and for Christ. In every school across the Archdiocese of Chicago, the Feasts of All Saints and All Souls were celebrated last week with prayer, with Eucharist and in the stories about the saints (canonized or not) who have “gone before us in faith.”

In the previous issue of the Catholic New World, Jesuit Father Ray Baumhart quoted the proverb “Those who live in the Lord never see each other for the last time.” Not only does this deep concept of the communion of saints never fail to move me because of the living connection with those I love, but because of that amazing link in the present moment with those who built the places and spaces of worship, love and learning. The saints before us often left their legacy in stone, the stones are a concrete reflection of the faith of the builders’ hearts and minds.

What of our age and the needs of our young saints for a school structure deeply rooted in faith, for a learning that is “high tech and high touch,” for the integration of mind and heart that is so much the hallmark of Catholic education? Will we find new ways to ensure the faith is deliberately taught, modeled and practiced by young people and their families?

In the University of Notre Dame’s task-force report on the future of Catholic education, “Making God Known, Loved and Served,” they raise the challenge, “Will it be said of our generation that we presided over the demise of the most effective and important resource for evangelization in the history of the church in the Unites States? Will it be said of our generation that we lacked the resolve to preserve national treasures built on the sacrifice of untold millions?”

Everywhere I go, people ask, “What is your plan?” Dare I say it will not be mine but ours, a multilayered plan that needs the advice of committed clergy, educators and civic leaders — and the engagement of all Catholics in the archdiocese?

We have the research to support the success of Catholic schools, solid analysis of the issues and a broad plan in the Genesis document. Over the course of the next two years, we must move to make this education accessible to all Catholic young people and to others who share this vision.

But for now, even as I try to immerse myself in these broader issues, I must continue to look at the faces. The faces of saints.