Bulletin Board with News and Events

 Holy Name Cathedral parish is going to put 10 kids through Catholic school this coming season. Although the 10 are fictional students, our real money will pay the tuition for 10 Frances Xavier Warde School children. To give this appeal a face, I had some of my youngest friends draw portraits; we will rename those masterpieces; we will feature them at the 9:30am Mass on Sunday, September 9; and I will ask all those who identify with Holy Name to give 10 Cathedral kids a Catholic education. I hope we can do it.

 A veteran parishioner recently asked me to explain the relationship between Holy Name Cathedral and the Frances Xavier Warde School. FXW is not directly part of our parish. FXW is governed by a Board of Trustees. I am on that Board. However, it is the Board that hires the Head of School, the Board who sets policy, the Board that sets tuition, the Board that pays the salaries, and the Board that assures the Catholic nature of the school. The Board answers to an Assembly of the Christian Faithful, an association of Catholic lay people who sponsor the school and who serve as the connection to the Catholic School’s Office which is an agency of the Archdiocese assisting Cardinal George in that aspect of his role as our Bishop. Confused? I do not blame you. This will be the first year for the Assembly of the Faithful, a new model of Catholic education. In the same way a religious community (e.g. Jesuits) or a parish (e.g. St. Clement) is responsible for a Catholic School they sponsor, FXW’s Assembly of the Christian Faithful is responsible for FXW. Holy Name and Old St. Pat’s are included in this unique role in that we are the locations for the FXW campuses, and we have dedicated our support to FXW in order to fulfill our parish mandate to give kids a Catholic education. That is where our September 9 second collection comes in. 

That same veteran parishioner challenged my calling FXW a “Catholic School.” She protested that if the pastor did not have the final word, FXW is not a part of the Church’s hierarchical structure. I asked her if she was baptized. Of course she was. By virtue of her baptism and mine, too, we both have authority as Christ’s chosen ones to carry out the mission to make disciples of all nations. The Assembly of the Faithful has a birthmark because of baptism. Catholic education is not only the priest’s job. My friend continued to object. “I hear that a third of the children are not Catholic.” True; the school insists on diversity even in religion. FXW reflects the City. They seem to use that diversity as a tool of strength in helping the students mature quickly. “I hear the non-Catholic kids do not have to go to religion class.” Not really true. They do not receive the depth of Catholic education the FXW Catholic kids get; but they do learn to appreciate our faith and their own. “Are all the teachers Catholic?” No; the faculty, too, reflects diversity. However, everyone who teaches a Catholic religion class is a Catholic and meets the standards of the Archdiocese. “Catholic FXW students are called ‘Moonbeams’; and non-Catholic students are called ‘Shooting-Stars’. Why not call a Catholic a Catholic?”  Good point; I cannot say I agree with the politically correct gimmick that was decided long before I rode into town. By the way, whenever the children are at Mass or whenever I visit a classroom or an assembly at FXW, I never use “Moonbeams” and “Shooting Stars.” I use the word “Catholic” proudly. At FXW, no one tells me to do otherwise. I also say MERRY CHRISTMAS…never HAPPY HOLIDAYS. “Is there a statue of the Blessed Mother?” Yes. “A May Crowning?” Yes. “A Cross in every classroom?” Yes. “Lent and Advent confessions?” Yes.

 I insist - Frances Xavier Warde School has a stronger Catholic identity today than it did when I met FXW in 2002. I can point to five reasons. (1) TEACHERS. FXW is loaded with talented teachers of various faiths. However, I have gotten to know a number of the Catholic teachers, and I am impressed. They practice their own faith. They tell me teaching at FXW is a ministry today. I believe them. (2) SACRAMENTAL PREPARATION. I would match the quality of FXW’s preparation of Catholic children for the Sacraments with that of any Catholic school in Chicago. I am most familiar with the Confirmation program which begins in 7^th grade, continues into the fall of 8^th grade, and is celebrated at Mass on All Saints Day. At Confirmation, an FXW kid understands that life changes when she or he is sealed with the Holy Spirit. Although I have no direct experience of the preparation for Communion and Reconciliation at Old St. Pat’s where the younger boys and girls go to class, I see and hear the results when I travel to OSP on the days of 1^st Confessions and 1^st Communion. Those students are ready. (3) INTERFAITH PRAYER. I still look forward to the day when the whole student body will come to the Cathedral regularly for all the Masses that the Catholic kids celebrate across the year. However, beginning with the prayers on the eve of Pope John Paul’s death, FXW gradually has accepted the fact that there is nothing wrong with a kid of another faith joining his or her Catholic classmates at Mass especially in a Catholic school’s Cathedral. As recently as two years ago it was possible for a child to graduate from FXW without ever having set foot in Holy Name Cathedral; that’s not true any more. (4) PRIESTS. On the Cathedral campus, most students will see a priest every day they go to school. I may just be passing through at lunch; I may be outside at dismissal; I may be teaching a class or participating in prayer; or I may just be watching touch-football. A graduate of FXW will know who a priest is. (5) THE WORD “CATHOLIC” IN THE MISSION STATEMENT. It seems basic; it only became a reality last school year. Now, FXW proudly declares it is a Catholic School. That’s a victory! That was not true in 2002.

 Let’s have Holy Name put 10 kids through Catholic school this year. I nominate FXW as that Catholic school. Make your donation on September 9 in the second basket. I can guarantee you that you will be sending Cathedral kids to a Catholic school.

This week Holy Name Cathedral reverently remembers two former pastors on the anniversaries of their deaths. Bishop Cletus O’Donnell passed away on August 31, 1993. He briefly served as Holy Name’s rector from 1966-1967. He brought Bishop Timothy Lyne with him as parish administrator. Bishop O’Donnell also confirmed me. Msgr. Patrick Hayes died on September 1, 1978. He led the Cathedral elegantly from 1946-1966. He built buildings that now house FXW, the Parish Center, and Casa Jesus; he bought our parking lot; he began the televised Christmas Midnight Mass. Both men ministered and preached to thousands. Both men were great priests, friends of our parish in yesteryear. Pray for my famous predecessors on Friday and Saturday.  

Fr. Dan Mayall