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9 DENVER CATHOLIC | OCTOBER 24-NOVEMBER 13, 2015 458 Uinta Way ∙ Denver, CO 80230 www.machebeuf.org ∙ (303) 344-0082 x117 Bishop Machebeuf is awarding up to ten full tuition scholarships to high performing students for the 2016-2017 school year! Students must sign up for the High School Placement by November 2. Testing will be held on November 11 & 12 at 4pm. MACHEBEUF Bishop Machebeuf High School an academic community of faith talk honored support growing should have school hardworking in need scale," Mesko has been hoping families to choose of them, Rachel national Hope's e„ orts Hispanic education." Evening of the Brown downtown D o our Catholic schools form stu- dents to be authentic followers of Christ? That is the question being posed by a team of visitors to the six Catholic high schools in the Archdiocese of Denver this month as part of a visitation asked for by Archbishop Samuel J. Aquila. The archbishop announced the visits to evaluate the Catholic identity of the secondary schools earlier this month at a two-day symposium to address the future direction of Catholic schools in northern Colorado. Kevin Kijewski, the superintendent of Archdiocese of Denver Catholic Schools since July 1, answers some questions about the visitation below. Q: Why conduct the visitation now? Kijewski: At our school symposium held in early October, Archbishop Aquila made the point that Catholic schools should be the greatest possible support for parents in transmitting the Catholic faith to our youth. What makes our schools valuable and unique is that they help our children to have authentic encounters with Jesus Christ. To that end, he charged the O¨ ce of Catholic Schools with assessing the Catholic faith in our high schools and helping them strengthen their ability to transmit the faith. Q: Which high schools will be evaluated? Kijewski: Our two archdiocesan high schools, Bishop Machebeuf and Holy Family, will be evaluated. Also, our four independent high schools will be eval- uated—Regis Jesuit, Mullen, Arrupe Jesuit, and St. Mary's Academy. We expect each school to be individually excellent in promoting the Catholic faith. Q: Who will be conducting the visitations? Kijewski: Our o¨ ce has worked with the Augustine Institute to formulate a meth- odology and protocol to carry out the evaluation. The Augustine Institute and our o¨ ce also formulated a team made up of people that have a variety of rele- vant and practical experience to conduct the evaluations: theology professors, superintendents, former Catholic high school principals and priests. Q: How will the Catholic faith be evaluated in the high schools? Kijewski: The visiting team will use the methodology developed by Archbishop J. Michael Miller, former Secretary for the Vatican's Congregation for Catholic Education. He published a brief docu- ment titled"The Holy See's Teaching on Catholic Schools." In his work, Arch- bishop Miller asserted that there are fi ve essential marks that make a school Catholic, and so the team will be exam- ining if those are visibly present in all six of our Catholic high schools. 1. Inspired by a supernatural vision: Schools are about preparing students for Heaven. 2. Founded on a Christian anthropol- ogy: Specifi cally, our schools work toward "perfection of children as images of God." 3. Animated by communion and com- munity: Schools should promote an environment that "safe-guards the priority of the person" in the Catholic intellectual tradition. 4. Imbued with the Catholic world- view across the curriculum: Schools should "transform the way we see reality" and help students approach problems of the secular world in con- formity to the Church's Magisterium. 5. A place where committed Catholics teach: Catholic teachers must be "witnesses for Christ" and serve as role models for the children they are helping to form in the faith. Q: When will the high schools be evaluated? Also, what will be the outcome of the evaluation? Kijewski: All high schools in the arch- diocese will be evaluated by the visiting team between October and December. After the visits, the team will formulate reports regarding the strengths and opportunities for growth in Catholic faith formation for each school. Our o¨ ce will review and share the fi ndings with the archbishop. Catholic identity a priority for school visitation BY DENVER CATHOLIC 303-715-3230 | denvercatholic@archden.org www.twitter.com/DenverCatholic DENVER CATHOLIC FILE PHOTO BY ANDREW WRIGHT St., natalie.mesko@tcfalliance.org