My dear brothers and sisters in the Lord,
We begin another school year and welcome back our students in Catholic and public schools for another year of learning. Learning is a difficult process and we must sometimes convince our young people that it is worth the effort. The educational enterprise is certainly at the heart of the mission of the Catholic Church and our diocese.
I look forward to the coming year. The prospects look brighter than they have in the past. Our network of over 17 academies form the backbone of strong schools will, with God’s help, endure into the future. More than 90 parochial schools are also being assisted in developing strategic, financial and academic plans that will assure their success and long-term viability.
It is important to realize that our educational network is just that. It is not a centralized system, but is decentralized in every way possible. Each school is the responsibility of an individual parish, or in the case of the academies, several parishes that are sponsoring the school.
The Office of the Superintendent is a support system for our network of schools, to ensure Catholic identity, academic excellence, and to assist in the numerous administrative tasks that are a part of running any school.
The process of implementing Preserving the Vision is one that has gone well to date, thanks to the leadership of Bishop Frank Caggiano, our Vicar General, who oversees the process; Sister Angela Gannon, C.S.J., Secretary for Catholic Education and Formation, who ensures that the mission of Catholic education is evident throughout the process; and Dr. Tom Chadzutko and his staff who are responsible for implementing it.
Our goal over the next few years will be to completely revamp our network so that it will be sustainable well into the future, preserving the vision of Catholic education.
Let us remember that the majority of our Catholic students are not educated in our Catholic elementary or high schools, but rather in the public schools of the City of New York. Most recently some disturbing information has been released that a full-fledged curriculum of sex education, which seems to include the distribution of condoms, is going to be mandated for all schools. We are in the process of trying to obtain and evaluate the proposed curriculum. At the same time, as has already been announced, we are ready to assist our public school parents in asserting their parental rights in informing their own children about sexual behavior and its moral implications. The diocese stands ready to organize our public schools parents, most especially those who we have already contacted us through our religious educations programs, to influence the implementation of the sex education curriculum.
As we all know, the educational effort is one in which each person puts out into the deep trying to gain what they do not know, namely, knowledge. Knowledge cannot stand alone. Knowledge must be accompanied by a value system that integrates what is known, with the human qualities necessary for true human growth with respect to dignity of the human person. Please join me in praying for our students that they will have a successful academic year as well as one which brings them closer to the Lord.