Schools we can have faith in

	Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan
	Herald of Hope Herald of Hope is a weekly column started by former Milwaukee Archbishop Rembert G. Weakland in the Catholic Herald and written by the bishops of the Milwaukee Archdiocese. • past columns

I thought January was supposed to be a slow month after the Christmas holidays. No rest for any of us, though, as we get into such important observances as the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, Dr. Martin Luther King's Birthday, Vocations Awareness Week, and Catholic Schools Week.

It's the last one I want to consider today. Daily do I thank God for my own Catholic education. From first grade through graduate school, I have been blessed with a first-rate Catholic education. I thank God for my parents, my parish, my teachers, my home-archdiocese, and the people who sacrificed to keep those schools strong and effective. I am the person I am today, I am the priest and bishop I am today, only through the gift of Catholic schools.

And, since last August, daily do I thank God for the splendid system of Catholic education which is a real treasure in this archdiocese. Everywhere I meet parents who sacrifice, benefactors who share, teachers who love, priests and people who scrimp, save, and hope, and, most of all, children who learn, and who are formed into educated, faith-filled, generous, virtuous, responsible adults.

Not long ago, I had the privilege of meeting with a group of women religious from India. They were women of deep faith, who sadly recounted recent incidents of persecution of the church in their beloved country, where less than 1 percent of the population is Catholic. "How will the church survive, much less grow in a culture that seems inimical to it?" I asked the sisters.

"Through our Catholic schools," they responded, without hesitation. "Everyone in our country admires our schools, because we teach with conviction, morality, and faith. Even our enemies want their children in our schools, because they know that the church is the most effective teacher of all. The church transforms hearts, even hardened hearts, through her schools."

How true ... not only in India, but here. The verdict is in; all the self-doubt and constant doubting of a decade or so ago is over. Our schools are priceless gifts; when we lose one, we lose something irreplaceable. When we build, expand, or strengthen one, we make a sound investment. Not only do we Catholics admire our schools, all of society does.

Day care, kindergarten, elementary schools, high schools, colleges and universities -- this church in southeastern Wisconsin is blessed with them all. Those before us struggled to start them; we're so glad they did. Now we must keep them, strengthen them, expand them, so our children can say the same of us.

Are they expensive? You bet they are! Are they consuming of time and energy? No doubt about it. Do we at times wonder if they're worth it? Maybe. Do they demand sacrifice, generosity, devotion? Do they ever!

Are they worth it? This "Catholic Schools Week" we answer with a resounding yes. They are "Schools We Can Have Faith In!" Thank God for them. I thank you for them.