Private Catholic school leaders, gathered for their annual conference at Ave Maria College in Ypsilanti, Michigan, presented the first annual Spes Nostra (“Our Hope”) Award to Cardinal Newman Society founder and president Patrick J. Reilly on June 27.
Eileen Cubanski, executive director of the National Association of Private Catholic and Independent Schools (NAPCIS), said Reilly is “a paradigm of hope and leadership in the restoration and preservation of Catholic identity in Catholic education.” Cubanski said that Cardinal Newman Society’s mission of renewing Catholic higher education closely resembles and supports the mission of NAPCIS, which helps establish and build lay-founded Catholic elementary and secondary schools dedicated to teaching the Catholic faith in fidelity to Church teaching.
In his keynote address to the conference, Reilly noted the reluctance of some bishops to formally recognize the Catholic identity of independent schools because of unwanted competition with parish schools, a situation that Reilly called “unjust” and inconsistent with Vatican II. But he encouraged the school leaders to do what they can to seek a good relationship with their bishops, just as Catholic colleges are required to do according to Ex corde Ecclesiae, the Vatican’s guidelines for Catholic higher education.
“What you are doing-struggling to provide young people the best education in the light of the Catholic faith-is so important in a day when both educational standards and the quality of catechetical instruction seem to have fallen victim to a wayward culture,” Reilly said.
Reilly also recounted many scandals in Catholic higher education but cautioned that young Catholics should still be encouraged to attend Catholic colleges, especially those that are faithful to Catholic teaching. He cited results from a recent report on college students’ beliefs and attitudes, commissioned by Cardinal Newman Society and conducted by researchers at UCLA, that showed Catholic students losing their faith more often at non-Catholic colleges.
“By the time a student graduates from one of your high schools,” Reilly told the school leaders, “it’s imperative that he or she be well-catechized, firmly committed to living a Christian life, and prepared for serious challenges to his or her faith.”
“Teach your students by example and education to live Eucharistic lives, to love the Church with all her scars caused by human imperfections and sin, and you will have accomplished something truly wonderful,” Reilly said.
You will also have empowered your students to face every challenge of college life with Christ in their hearts.”
This update courtesy of the Cardinal Newman Society newsletter. You may contact the Cardinal Newman Society at 207 Park Ave., Suite B-2, Falls Church, VA 22046; Phone (703) 536-9585; Fax (703) 532-3094 Email: info@cardinalnewmansociety.org; Website: www.cardinalnewmansociety.org.
