2015 Catholic Schools Week, January 23, 2015

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CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO Newspaper of the Archdiocese of San Francisco

SERVING SAN FRANCISCO, MARIN & SAN MATEO COUNTIES

www.catholic-sf.org

JANUARY 23, 2015

$1.00 | VOL. 17 NO. 2

Communities of Faith, Knowledge & Service (PHOTO COURTESY ARCHBISHOP RIORDAN HIGH SCHOOL)

Why did God make me? Catholic schools exist to help children learn and live the answer ARCHBISHOP SALVATORE J. CORDILEONE

O

ne of the highlights in my ministry as a bishop is to visit our Catholic schools and interact with our children and young people. Invariably I find eager learners who ask good (and sometimes surprising!) questions, and teachers who clearly love their students and what they do for them. It’s always a “reality check” for me, in that it helps me to keep focused on why Jesus founded the Church in the first place, and why he promised to stay with her through the guidance of the Holy Spirit until his return at the end of time. The theme for this year’s Catholic Schools Week, “Catholic Schools: Communities of Faith, Knowledge and Service,” contains in it the very reason why the Church exists. The theme suggests the answer given to one of the first catechism questions Catholic children memorized in bygone eras: “Why did God make me?” Our Catholic schools are one very concrete realization of the mission of the Church to assist her members to grow in an ever deeper knowledge and love of God through a vibrant life of faith that expresses itself in prayer and service. Yes, God made each one of us to know, love and serve Him in this life so that we may be happy with Him in the next, and our Catholic schools exist to help our children learn and live this answer to this most important question in life. But there is another word in the theme for this year’s Catholic Schools Week equally instructive as to what our Catholic schools are all about: that all-important first word, “community.” We know from our Catholic theology that the Church is not simply a collection of like-minded people who share certain beliefs and prac-

The theme for this year’s Catholic Schools Week, ‘Catholic Schools: Communities of Faith, Knowledge and Service,’ contains in it the very reason why the Church exists.

SEE CATHOLIC SCHOOLS, PAGE CSW3

(PHOTO BY VALERIE SCHMALZ/CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO)

National Catholic Schools Week 2015 From top: Archbishop Riordan High School students; Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone with Our Lady of the Visitacion students Dec. 5; St. Charles Borromeo kindergarten teacher helps a student with writing skills; St. Raymond first graders share an umbrella; A Marin Catholic High School student in a moment of quiet.

(PHOTO BY VALERIE SCHMALZ/CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO)

(PHOTO COURTESY ST. RAYMOND SCHOOL)

(PHOTO COURTESY MARIN CATHOLIC HIGH SCHOOL)


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