Archdiocese's message to 2,000 teachers: Make classrooms training grounds for saints

Educators from Detroit-area Catholic schools hear message of hope during Archbishop's Catechetical Day for Teachers

DETROIT — Jesus Christ was called “rabbi,” or “teacher,” by his apostles.

It was this point that was emphasized to Catholic school teachers across Metro Detroit on Sept. 27 at the University of Detroit Mercy’s Calihan Hall.

Teaching the Gospel in the classroom is no different than teaching the Gospel in the world, speakers told nearly 2,000 teachers, principals and coaches from each of the Archdiocese of Detroit's 64 elementary schools and a majority of its high schools and independent religious order-sponsored schools during the 2019 Archbishop's Catechetical Day for Teachers.

“We’re the instruments of God,” said Fr. Charles Fox, director of graduate seminarians and director of liturgy at Sacred Heart Major Seminary, who addressed teachers during the morning session. “When the Word became flesh, he manifested himself as a teacher, speaking truth. You are called to that same calling, to teach truth to these kids.”

Recognizing Christ’s presence in the classroom was the theme throughout the day, as speakers including Auxiliary Bishop Gerard Battersby; Catholic schools superintendent Kevin Kijewski; and Fr. Stephen Pullis, director of the Archdiocese of Detroit's Department of Evangelization, Catechesis and Schools addressed teachers about the archdiocese's strategic initiative for Catholic education, “Unleashing Our Catholic Schools.”

Nearly 2,000 teachers and principals from the archdiocese's 64 Catholic grade schools, plus many of the 24 Catholic high schools in southeast Michigan, attended the conference.

Their talks were punctuated by addresses from Fr. John Belmonte, SJ, superintendent of schools for the Diocese of Joliet, Ill., and Sr. Elizabeth Anne Allen, OP, director of the Center for Catholic Education at Aquinas College in Nashville, Tenn.

Catholic school teachers face many challenges, Fr. Fox acknowledged, from limited resources to a shaking of public confidence in a Church that has seen its share of scandals. Yet, he said, it's nothing new for disciples of Jesus Christ.

“St. Paul tells us his own personal experience of being overwhelmed, being tested beyond the power of his natural talents,” Fr. Fox said. “We’re facing challenging times when it seems Jesus is asleep in the boat, and the storm just won’t stop. But the solution is to remember Jesus is with us,” Fr. Fox said. “God is in our schools, in our churches, in our tabernacles.”

For teachers to effectively share the message of Jesus Christ, they must first embrace their own missionary identity, Fr. Fox added.

“You can’t share what you don’t have, so in order to share Christ’s love, you need to recognized that Christ loves you first,” Fr. Fox said. “And this love has been given as a gift; no one earned it. Jesus loves you too much to leave you where you are now, to leave your students where they are now.”

In order to make Christ more fully known in the world, Catholic school educators have the all-important task of making him first known in the classroom, Fr. Fox said.

When teachers or students face challenges, Fr. Fox said, it's important to take a break and look at a crucifix, a reminder of how much God loves them and how much they are worth.

“Allow Jesus to speak through you in your classroom,” Fr. Fox said. “Encourage your children to love him. You teachers have that kind of influence. I know there are challenges, but we have the unconquerable hope in Jesus Christ.”

A new vision of hope

Bishop Battersby, moderator of the archdiocese’s South Region and chairman of the archdiocese's Unleash the Gospel Council, said teachers have an important role to play in the Church's future.

Bishop Battersby, himself a product of Detroit-area Catholic education, said “Unleashing Our Catholic Schools” isn’t about a new curriculum or teaching, but a reaffirmation of what makes Catholic schools stand out: that they are founded on Christ and his resurrection.

“Our witness needs to begin with us laying awake in the morning, saying, ‘I believe he has risen, and in the Lord’s mercy, I’m his herald,’” Bishop Battersby said. “By the grace of God, we have this mission, this identity of Christ, and as teachers, you have this special mission.”

Archbishop Allen H. Vigneron celebrates Mass for teachers, principals and coaches inside Calihan Hall.

Midway through the day, Archbishop Allen H. Vigneron celebrated Mass with the teachers and principals at Calihan Hall. The archbishop quipped that the athletic arena was an appropriate setting for him to “coach up” the educators on giving thanks to God for the year to come.

Celebrating on the feast of St. Vincent de Paul, Archbishop Vigneron likened the work of teachers to that of the missionary saint, who ministered to the materially poor.

“In my understanding, you are in service to the poor, serving a poverty that is in many ways more significant than a material poverty: a poverty of wisdom,” Archbishop Vigneron said. “Students are in poverty because they lack the wisdom of knowing what is important and what is trivial.”

Archbishop Vigneron said the wisdom students need comes from Christ, who leads others to a self-sacrificing life, a life that is a gift from God.

“It doesn’t mean we’re teaching catechism all the time, but it means that those who teach math, history, economics, science, have a meaning for that piece of education,” Archbishop Vigneron said. “It helps makes sense as part of a larger wisdom, to be God’s daughters and God’s sons. And when you know that truth, you will know what it means to serve.”

Teaching capital-T “Truth”

In the afternoon sessions, Fr. Belmonte and Sr. Allen spoke about the need for Catholic schools to teach a now almost counter-cultural belief in specific truth.

Fr. John Belmonte, SJ, superintendent of Catholic schools for the Diocese of Joliet, Ill., greets participants during the conference. Fr. Belmonte was one of the keynote speakers.

Fr. Belmonte related the successes and struggles of Catholic schools in the Diocese of Joliet, adding not much has changed since the first Catholic “schools” were founded along the banks of the Jordan River in the first century.

“The mission of the Church, to tell the world in every generation who the savior of the world is, hasn’t changed. As Catholic school educators, we get to do that every day,” Fr. Belmonte said. “If you want to see the mission of the Catholic Church lived out, go to a Catholic school.”

Fr. Belmonte said students are naturally curious about religion; they want to pray, to learn about the saints and to know who their Creator is. Society, however, discourages them from asking the “big questions” about life.

“We’re facing a crisis of values today, and in our schools, we’re meant to give (students) purpose, meaning and truth,” Fr. Belmonte said.

Instead, modern education has been reduced to “career readiness,” Fr. Belmonte said, a temptation against which Catholic schools must continually fight.

“We have a different view, and we should be proud of it,” Fr. Belmonte said. “We face a post-modern mentality, and it feels more important than ever to stress the Gospel truth to our students.”

That “capital-T Truth” is what parents are seeking from Catholic schools, Fr. Belmonte added.

“In a post-truth generation, we are about the Truth,” Fr. Belmonte said. “We do this as educators; we believe every day that we have the chance to develop full, devotional lives and creative leadership that will rebuild our culture.”

Archbishop Vigneron blesses a man during Mass at Calihan Hall as part of the Archbishop's Catechetical Day for Teachers.

The conference ended with Sr. Allen discussing what it means to establish a Catholic culture in schools, especially at a time when the number of women religious in Catholic schools has decreased from 120,000 in 1965 in 13,000 schools to 48,000 religious sisters in 2,571 schools nationwide today.

“Faith will grow in Catholics schools when it is known, loved and lived,” Sr. Allen said. “We are so accustomed to instant results, but the reality is, we won’t know how we did in our vocation until we get to heaven.”

In order to establish a Catholic identity in schools, teachers must ground their classrooms in a supernatural identity, Sr. Allen said.

“We’re all called to be Gospel-based, called to spread the Gospel message by words, but mostly how we act,” Sr. Allen said. “Or, as my pastor would say, ‘If your life was the only Scripture one could read, could they tell by looking at you what Jesus taught?’”

To that end, Sr. Allen said a successful Catholic education is measured not in SAT scores or college acceptance rates, but by the lives of the men and women formed by Catholic schools.

“Success is measured by kids who are living, loved by God, with a mission and a destiny that is immortal, students who know that love is eternal, that they have a life that is purposeful,” Sr. Allen said. “Teachers are the links in this chain of faith, building a culture we know will endure over time.”