Editor's Note
Learning to Know, Worship and Serve the Lord
As we celebrate the centennials of Sacred Heart Parochial School and Cardinal Gibbons High School, and conclude Catholic Schools Week, I’m reminded of this fact: The overwhelming majority of Catholic children in the Diocese of Raleigh attend public schools. Fortunately, almost 20,000 of them learn to know, worship and serve the Lord through parish faith formation programs, where they are taught by nearly 3000 catechists, most of them volunteers.
Sister Rose Adams, IHM, Diocesan Director of Evangelization and Catechesis, explained that the goal of these programs is to form and eventually transform the whole person of each participant. Religious education begins by imparting basic knowledge of the faith and the meaning of the liturgy and the sacraments. It provides moral formation and an understanding of how to pray. Finally, the students learn to participate in the life and mission of the Church and to live as Catholics in the wider community.
Equipped with the religious education they receive through the dedicated catechists in their parishes, children who attend public schools in turn become Catholic educators, by word and example, to their peers of other faiths. This is particularly true in North Carolina, where the Catholic faith is still misunderstood or distrusted by many.
In discussing faith formation, I would be remiss if I omitted home schooling families, who take it largely upon themselves to impart the fullness of the faith to their children. And the truth is, no matter what school a Catholic child attends, "It is particularly in the Christian family, enriched by the grace of the sacrament of matrimony, that children should be taught to have a knowledge of God, to worship Him and to love their neighbor." (Vatican II Declaration on Christian Education, 1965, # 12)
One more Catholic school story: It’s about a non-Catholic boy, born in Raleigh, whose loving education by IHM Sisters resulted not only in his joining the Catholic Church but in discerning a call to the priesthood. He was ordained in Rome 50 years ago and has served the Diocese faithfully and energetically ever since. Among his many activities, he still finds time to write a column for each issue of this magazine. NCC congratulates Msgr. Thomas P. Hadden.
Thank you for your comments and advice! You can write me at 715 Nazareth Street, Raleigh, NC 27606 or reece@raldioc.org.