Denver Catholic

26 MAY 16-22, 2015 | DENVER CATHOLIC W hat does it mean to be edu- cated? What do our children need before they graduate from high school? In my 22 years as an educator, these are two questions I have been trying to answer. For 20 of those years, I tried to fi nd the answer in the public schools with limited success. Through- out that time, I worked towards academic excellence and scored well on tests. I worked to maximize academic time, while at times sacrifi cing the opportunities for social and real-world opportunities of the students. I looked for every opportunity to improve the numbers (whatever numbers were important at that time). What I have come to realize is that there is more to being educated than what a number can show you. Now don't get me wrong, we are in the education business. Results matter and tests are one piece of that compo- nent. But there's more. Education truly is about forming our children in mind, body and soul. As an educational community we must educate the mind, but we cannot do this at the expense and the absence of the body and soul. Rather, the way to maximize the learning of the mind is to educate the whole child. The three elements cannot be separated. This is where, based upon my experience, Catholic education makes a diŸ erence. Through Catholic schools, students' minds, bodies and souls are formed so they are prepared to share the Gospel in whatever personal vocation they are called to in serving God. It's more than a number. It's more than what can be measured on a test. What number tells you whether a child is prepared to serve God and spread the Gospel? As parents, we are the primary edu- cators of our children. Catholic schools partner with parents on that journey. Instruction in a Catholic school is not contrary to what is being lived out or taught in a Catholic household. It is designed to support parents in what they are teaching and expecting as Catholic parents. Instruction cohesively brings together the teachings of our faith with the truth. Faith and reason are merged together. When we teach science in Catholic schools, students learn the same scientifi c facts as they would in any school. However, there is a huge diŸ erence—the teachings of the Gospel and the Church are also taught. For example, science helps students understand the concept of cloning, but in a Catholic school we can address why cloning humans is morally unaccept- able because it denigrates the dignity of the person. We thereby give our stu- dents the entire truth—faith and reason combined. Instruction is truly melding together the mind and soul, faith and reason. Students leave Catholic schools understanding the connection between knowledge and faith. In this way, our stu- dents go beyond a number on the test. In addition to educating the whole child in the classroom, Catholic schools incorporate the formation of mind, body and soul into all aspects of school programs. Prayer is incorporated throughout the day, within extracurric- ular activities, and on the athletic fi eld. Students actively participate in retreat programs and have regular access to the sacraments. So, what does it mean to be educated? To be educated means to form the mind, body and soul in truth. After many years of looking elsewhere, I found the answer to this question in Catholic schools. What does it mean to be educated? Perspectives O n September 2, 1939, the House of Commons debated the British government's response to the German invasion of Poland the previ- ous day. The ruling Conservative Party was badly divided between those demanding that Britain fulfi ll its obligations to Poland and those addicted to the habits of appeasement. "Party loyalty" was being invoked to drown out Conservative opposition to Conserva- tive prime minister Neville Chamberlain when the deputy leader of the opposi- tion Labour Party, Arthur Greenwood, rose to speak. Then, from the Tory back benches, came the voice of an anti-ap- peasement Conservative, Leo Amery, who cried, "Speak for England, Arthur!" Who speaks for country and princi- ple, not just for faction or party? It's a perennial question. I was reminded of it, and of Leo Amery, when my friend, Senator Henry M. Jackson, died in 1983, and one of his aides said, "We've just lost the last adult in the Senate." When I asked what that meant, he replied, "There was only one man here who, when a crisis was at hand and the country was at risk, had the personal authority to say, in eŸ ect, 'Close the door; let's get serious and get this set- tled.'" That's what the death of Scoop Jackson meant: the last reference point had left the scene. (And if you want a sense of that aide's prescience, look at the U.S. Senate today.) Legislative bodies with contending factions and ideas need that kind of leadership: they need someone—or, preferably, several someones—with the authority to speak for the common good and get others to think outside the narrow confi nes of their own con- cerns and interests. And so (if I may stretch an analogy just a bit) do bishops conferences. The death of Cardinal Francis George on April 17 opened a breach in the life and work of the United States Confer- ence of Catholic Bishops. Since Cardinal John O'Connor's death in 2000, Cardi- nal George played the role championed by Leo Amery and embodied by Scoop Jackson in another sphere of action: Cardinal George was the man with the authority, in this case, to "speak for the Church," and to get his brother bishops to bracket their diŸ erences and act as one for the good of the Church. He did it quietly, but he also did it eŸ ectively. And he could do it because of who he was: his character and insight made him the reference point when things were very serious. When Francis George was appointed archbishop of Chicago, an auxiliary bishop who will remain nameless said, "Oh no, he's the one who gets up at the meetings and uses those words the bishops don't understand." Well, His Nameless (and now deceased) Excellency may not have understood, but others did. And those who didn't necessarily have the same breadth of learning and culture as Fran- cis George nonetheless followed his lead because they knew him as a man of erudition and humility who thought things through, who had the courage to follow his convictions, and who could be trusted to speak for the Church, not just for his point of view or his "party." It was immensely important that the bishops elected Cardinal George their conference president in 2007. For it was his leadership that created the broad consensus about the Catholic future in America that led to the election of Cardinal Timothy Dolan as conference president in 2010—and that made possible the bishops' stalwart defense of religious freedom in the face of an administration determined to bend the Church and its work of healing, edu- cating and empowering the poor to the government's will. That contest is by no means over, for the modern state—whoever is in charge—seems to have an irresistible urge to expand its reach, shrinking the sphere of civil society in the process. This tendency is a direct challenge to the core Catholic social doctrine principle of sub- sidiarity. And it must be resisted, even as the Church works to marry subsidiarity to solidarity with the weakest among us. So: who will now "speak for the Church"? The di erence Cardinal George made George Weigel is a distinguished senior fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C. The Catholic Di¥ erence GEORGE WEIGEL Marc Nestorick is the principal of Bishop Machebeuf High School. He will be ordained to the diaconate June 20. Guest Column MARC NESTORICK Cardinal George was the man with the authority, in this case, to 'speak for the Church,' and to get his brother bishops to bracket their di‹ erences and act as one for the good of the Church." GEORGE WEIGEL " Students from Bishop Machebeuf High School at the 2015 March for Life in Washington D.C. Catholic schools aim to form students: mind, body and soul. PHOTO PROVIDED

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