In an article titled, “Five Essential Marks of Catholic Schools,” Archbishop J. Michael Miller quotes Michael J. Guerra, former president of the National Catholic Educational Association, who once remarked, "The first and most important task for Catholic schools is to maintain and continually strengthen their Catholic identity" (2006). In an attempt to analyze the state of faith leadership in my school, Omaha Mercy High School, I interviewed three non-religion teachers: Heather Newville (science), Josh Riesberg (history), and Paul Tschudin (technology). As an English teacher, I chose to interview faculty members outside of my department in order to see the spiritual dimension of our school through the eyes of those whose experiences and opinions
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We all believe that Mercy’s identity, as rooted in our mission, is strong: “Mercy High School is a diverse educational community, founded by the Sisters of Mercy, focusing on academic excellence and inspiring young girls to become confident women of Mercy who embody faith, knowledge and compassionate service.” The three pillars of faith, knowledge, and compassionate service unite us as a community, one with a strong identity apart from the other Catholic high schools in Omaha. Riesberg, in particular, noted the richness of Mercy’s faith tradition. He explained that he is able to “buy-in” to it because it envelopes everything we do within the walls of our school, “It is real. It is genuine. You just feel it.” For him, Mercy offers a robust foundation of faith, but that “the struggle is getting it to the students.” This is reminiscent of our class discussions on catechizing and evangelizing students. He agrees with me that we need to meet students where they are, using whatever tools necessary (including social media, television, film, music, artwork, etc.), to get the students to “buy-in” to the Catholic faith. We discussed the importance of continuous reflection and revision to our student retreat program; we also agreed that the current approach to mass and prayer services has grown stale. Mercy should consider increasing and varying current, student opportunities for …show more content…
However, she expressed concern that faith formation is lacking for faculty and staff members: “We provide our students opportunities to grow in their faith, but we don’t involve them in the creation of these opportunities. But at least they have opportunities. It’s unfortunate that we, as teachers, aren’t given the same ones.” She explained that time is a factor, but that “we sometimes get caught up in the red tape, so we lose sight of what we’re meant to do as Catholic school teachers.” Newville believes that a rich personal faith is important to our jobs as educators, but that we also need on-going formation. This is something I, too, believe and have previously expressed during class discussions. Like me, Newville sees our role as Catholic educators not just as teachers of particular subjects, but as models and mentors in spiritual growth: “The school should encourage us to grow in our [personal] faith so that we can best help students grow into theirs.” We discussed a revised faculty retreat experience, the implementation of prayer circles, and increased opportunities for non-religion teachers to plan and participate in liturgies as possible solutions to this problem. As noted by Pope John Paul II, our roles as witnesses to the faith are
We all believe that Mercy’s identity, as rooted in our mission, is strong: “Mercy High School is a diverse educational community, founded by the Sisters of Mercy, focusing on academic excellence and inspiring young girls to become confident women of Mercy who embody faith, knowledge and compassionate service.” The three pillars of faith, knowledge, and compassionate service unite us as a community, one with a strong identity apart from the other Catholic high schools in Omaha. Riesberg, in particular, noted the richness of Mercy’s faith tradition. He explained that he is able to “buy-in” to it because it envelopes everything we do within the walls of our school, “It is real. It is genuine. You just feel it.” For him, Mercy offers a robust foundation of faith, but that “the struggle is getting it to the students.” This is reminiscent of our class discussions on catechizing and evangelizing students. He agrees with me that we need to meet students where they are, using whatever tools necessary (including social media, television, film, music, artwork, etc.), to get the students to “buy-in” to the Catholic faith. We discussed the importance of continuous reflection and revision to our student retreat program; we also agreed that the current approach to mass and prayer services has grown stale. Mercy should consider increasing and varying current, student opportunities for …show more content…
However, she expressed concern that faith formation is lacking for faculty and staff members: “We provide our students opportunities to grow in their faith, but we don’t involve them in the creation of these opportunities. But at least they have opportunities. It’s unfortunate that we, as teachers, aren’t given the same ones.” She explained that time is a factor, but that “we sometimes get caught up in the red tape, so we lose sight of what we’re meant to do as Catholic school teachers.” Newville believes that a rich personal faith is important to our jobs as educators, but that we also need on-going formation. This is something I, too, believe and have previously expressed during class discussions. Like me, Newville sees our role as Catholic educators not just as teachers of particular subjects, but as models and mentors in spiritual growth: “The school should encourage us to grow in our [personal] faith so that we can best help students grow into theirs.” We discussed a revised faculty retreat experience, the implementation of prayer circles, and increased opportunities for non-religion teachers to plan and participate in liturgies as possible solutions to this problem. As noted by Pope John Paul II, our roles as witnesses to the faith are