Embarking on a new vision for Catholic Schools

At the behest of Bishop Michael Mulvey, the Diocese of Corpus Christi has begun a partnership with Partners in Mission. The first information session was held on Sept. 16 at the St. Juliana Family Center of Most Precious Blood Parish. Seventy participants representing Catholic schools attended the session led by Partners in Mission facilitator Steven Virgadamo.

Partners in Mission is a counseling and professional education team that focuses exclusively on developing Catholic school advancement and leadership excellence. This partnership will assemble a task force that will help lead our schools into the future.  

Those in attendance included the Educational Schools Advisory Council members from each school board, Sisters from the Incarnate Word and Blessed Sacrament, all principals, presidents, pastors of parish schools, Office of Catholic Schools staff, members of the diocesan Catholic school’s advisory council and diocesan staff.

Bishop Michael Mulvey opened the session with prayer, and Dr. Rosemary Henry, superintendent of Catholic Schools for the Diocese of Corpus Christi, welcomed attendees.

Dr. Henry said she is excited the diocese is embarking on this new course. “Partners in Mission will guide us through a visioning and planning process to study Catholic education in our diocese,” said Dr. Henry. “This is an important time for us to explore possibilities to strengthen and to fortify our schools.  

“As we continually strive to improve programs, services and models to benefit the students entrusted to our care, we are committed to adapting and identifying changes needed to ensure long term sustainability of Catholic schools. This is an opportunity for all to strategize, dream and to be open in mind and heart while embracing the Lord’s grace to work within us,” she said. “The ultimate goal of this process is to more effectively meet the needs of our Church, diocese, parishes, and expectations of our families, students and community members in 2022 and beyond.”

According to Dr. Henry, there will be a two-phase visioning process, followed by a timeline, process, formation and membership of a task force to lead the visioning efforts. The membership of the task force will be selected to include people representing our diocese who have a vast array of experience and expertise. The task force membership is currently in its early stages of development. 

Virgadamo asked those in attendance to “re-imagine” their diocese. Picture that you have no Catholic schools. What if there wasn’t a system of Catholic schools in our diocese? How might we design our Catholic schools for its most effective operational management, services, programs, buildings and plants, financial landscape, governing models, etc.?  

The essential question, Dr. Henry said, “is how do we ensure a bright future so that students will continue their important formation in faith, knowledge and service?”

Virgadamo said that parish schools have changed from when he went to Catholic school. The most significant change occurred in 1972, when the U.S. bishops wrote a pastoral letter on Catholic education. The 1972 pastoral letter affirmed the importance of Catholic education while giving the parents the option to choose. In paragraph 101 of the letter, entitled “To Teach, as Jesus Did, it reads:
 
Virgadamo said this created a “paradigm shift” from the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore, written in 1884, recommending that pastors teach Christian doctrine to the young people in their parishes. Also, every parish should establish a Catholic school, and that every Catholic child must be in a Catholic school. “As a result, we saw tremendous growth of Catholic schools in the late 1800s, probably until the 1960s.  Catholics were expected to go to Catholic school, and it was accessible. In time Catholic schools became more accessible to more people.

“That paradigm shift changed the underlying assumptions of which we operate our schools and in many ways that underlie the change. The one assumption has contributed to the decline in enrollment in schools because we kept operating as if we were in the 1884 model as opposed to the model of today, the 21st century,” Virgadamo said.

“I say this because if you look around, there are many millennial parents that identify themselves as ‘fallen away Catholics’ – meaning they’re no longer practicing. Catholics choose to enroll their children in our schools because they believe it’s a better, safer environment. Now, it’s not the reason we want them to enroll – we want them for the faith formation. But once they come, the Holy Spirit is giving us another chance to evangelize,” Virgadamo said.