Denver Catholic

CATHOLIC LIFE I 3 DENVER CATHOLIC REGISTER I JUNE 5, 2013 eak Catholic schools instill academics and a lty love of Christ and his Church, parents say er wasBY WAYNE LAUGESEN adopte 1967, Some young boys in the glitzy ve beenVail Valley come home from 7 whenschool using curse words and ary Da-pretending to shoot each other on. in games like "cops and robbers." 's vic-Not the oldest boys of John and ed theElizabeth Labenski, who prefer unlap'sto pretend they are priests. urged "Sometimes they come home ies andfrom school and play Mass," John said of his boys, who are 8 tion ofand 6. "They get down our crucause Icifix and go through the whole vil withthing. One pretends he's a priest la said.and the other is choir director. It's ry per-cute." d every Their 4-year-old brother prepportu-tends he's a worshipper in the Christ,pews. the Fa- Labenski says the game reflects a love of Jesus and the debateCatholic Church instilled in his ersonalchildren by teachers at St. Clare ms said,of Assisi Catholic School in Edir faithwards, Colo. olence. "Our boys are not religious faAuroranatics, but they love their faith, e deaththey respect priests and they murder-absolutely love their school," fiancéeLabenski said. St. Clare is among 39 schools w wasoverseen by the Office of Cathma Cityolic Schools, an agency funded P Mur-by the Archbishop's Catholic . n 1995.Appeal, an annual drive to raise tch themoney to spread, teach, prof con-mote, reaffirm, safeguard and imothydeepen the faith. The ACA helps to fund 40-plus ministries in the suffer,"Denver Archdiocese. hal in- The archdiocese's Catholic ife. "Heschools range in size from 100 y of thestudents to 600. Some are in afd onesfluent areas, while others serve nd withcommunities in which 100 pere deathcent of students qualify for free at painor reduced lunch under federal income standards. "It's a very well-rounded learning environment and it was the best music curriculum we could find," John Labenski said. "Mostly we like the fact that God is allowed in the classroom. Faith should be an everyday thing, not just a Sunday thing." Richard Thompson grew up in an entrepreneurial family that owned resorts, gas stations, apartments and an array of small businesses. That background, he believes, has proved useful in running the Office of Catholic Schools as the archdiocesan e rld on. 013 oup, org. 2013 ARCHBISHOP'S CATHOLIC APPEAL What: Donations to support the archdiocesan Church Online: www.archden.org/ donate Mail: 1300 S. Steele St., Denver, CO 80210 Questions: Call 303-715-3111 or email joann.baca@archden.org superintendent of Catholic schools. Today, Thompson's in the business of helping children achieve two very important goals. "We help the child get into heaven, and into college. Both are important, but one is more important than the other," Thompson said, adding that ACA funding is vital to help his office support Catholic schools. The Lebenski's chose St. Clare School after researching a variety of institutions in a highly competitive educational market that's facilitated by Colorado's open enrollment law. Several of the public, public charter and private schools they looked at offered good academic curriculums. But something was missing. None had a crucifix on the wall or any other sign of Jesus. Students didn't pray and teachers seldom, if ever, mentioned God. Outside of the church and home, the children were already immersed in a secular world and the couple wanted an education that would help them catechize the kids. Look Who's Reading the CBS4 sportscaster Vic Lombardi sits in his office to read about the latest news in the Denver Catholic Register. Have you joined the Register's voluntary subscription campaign, Join the Mission, yet? If not, find out how to join on Page 20. PHOTO PROVIDED "Blessed as we are to live in this country, it's so secularized now that we feel it would be confusing to send our children to a school system where God is not welcome," Elizabeth said, as quoted in the Archdiocese of Denver Catholic Schools annual report for 2013. They wanted God in their children's lives 24 hours a day. It was important they "be able to pray and talk about their faith and be around other children who are able to love Jesus the same way," said Elizabeth, a former music teacher at Iowa State University. "As an educator, I see them growing spiritually, intellectually and socially," she said. Thompson often hears from people who think Catholic schools were important only around the turn of the 20th century, when Catholics were subjected to rampant bigotry and hostility from much of society. Today, Thompson said, children are subjected to sex education curriculums in public schools that try to normalize homosexuality and promiscuity. "A Catholic education is more essential now than ever," Thompson said, explaining that popular culture bombards children with secularist messages that fly in the face of Catholic teachings. "Our schools are excellent academically, but we are giving a whole-child education that involves more than just academics," said Thompson, who came to the archdiocese 12 years ago. Along with educating and catechizing children, Thompson said Catholic schools help sustain the Church. "Children are the here and now of the Church, but they are also future leaders of the Church," Thompson said, explaining that proper catechization requires more than a weekly religious education course. Thompson's office—a lean bureaucracy composed of him, two associate superintendents and three support staff—provides the schools with policies, legal consultation, administrative oversight and marketing campaigns essential to educating the See Appeal, Page 6 REAL LIFE CATHOLIC CHRISTOPHER STEFANICK Who is St. Francis? Below is Part 1 of a two-column series on St. Francis of Assisi. Part 2 will run in the June 19 issue. Catholics the world over have statues of him holding birds in their gardens. No doubt, St. Francis paraphernalia has increased ten-fold with the election of our new pope. But who was this man? With many saint stories, myths have mixed with facts over the centuries. In the case of St. Francis' radical witness, what often sounds like a medieval fairytale is actually true! Francis' dad, a successful cloth merchant, had plenty of money, and Francis knew how to spend it. He was the life of the party. He loved to sing, wear the finest clothes, and eat the best food money could buy. But he wanted more. He wanted glory! That longing drove him to become a knight—a career move he failed at miserably. In a battle between Assisi and Perugia he was taken prisoner for more than a year. It was in that lonely prison where he began to be stripped of everything he had previously defined himself by. Notoriety, wealth, pleasure … gone. After being ransomed, he set out for another military journey but his dreams of glory were cut short again, this time by illness. Before he could regain his strength, he received a vision in a dream telling him to give up his adventure and go back home to Assisi. He rode home a defeated knight, but his journey to true glory had just begun. Back home he tried to join in the parties he had been the center of, but something had changed in him. He began to join in the revelry less and less, and retreated into silent prayer more and more, and he began to see everything he had previously lived for in a new light. It is said that he once turned upside down so he could look at the world as it really was. Upside down it looks like everything is fragile, hanging on a thread, about to fall into the abyss … the bigger, heavier, costlier things even more so. He wanted to be free of every precarious weight of this world. This man who had loved luxury began to fall in love with what he called "Lady Poverty." His heart was set on a new goal: to become poor and a servant of the poor. One day while passing by a leper, Francis overcame his repulsion and fear, jumped down from his horse, embraced him, and gave the man all the money he had. Then, on a pilgrimage to Rome, Francis dove deeper into poverty. He emptied his purse as a donation at St. Peter's Basilica, exchanged his nice clothes with a beggar, and spent time begging with the poor. After returning home, he was praying before a crucifix and heard the voice of Jesus speak from it, "Go, Francis, and rebuild my house, which is falling into ruin." He thought Jesus was talking about the little chapel where he was praying. He could never have imagined that Jesus was calling him, through his spirit of poverty and love of the Gospel, to be an agent of spiritual renewal for the whole Roman Catholic Church, which, in the early 1200s, had been entangled in political power and wealth. As impulsive as a holy man as he had been as a party animal, Francis sold his father's cloth to get building supplies. His father became infuriated with his son. He had failed to become a knight with all the armor he bought him, failed to become a businessman, was giving away his money, and by now his seemingly crazy behavior had made Francis the laughing stock of Assisi. He had Francis beaten, bound, and thrown into a dark cell. When his dad brought him before the bishop to be judged and to cut off his inheritance, Francis tore off his clothes and gave them to his father saying: "Pietro Bernardone is no longer my father. From now on I can say with complete freedom, 'Our Father who art in heaven.'" He now had complete freedom from any worldly tie. Not long afterward he was seen praying in ecstasy, simply repeating again and again, "My God and my all!" Visit speaker and author Christopher Stefanick at www. RealLifeCatholic.com. Stefanick's column is distributed by the Denver Catholic Register, the official newspaper of the Denver Archdiocese.

• Cover