As you conclude the thirty-sixth annual Catholic Schools Week, hopefully a good deal of appreciation has come your way. As a teacher you deserve it.
But for a moment I’d ask you to pause and read the story of one Catholic High School Student from Cretin-Derham Hall High School in Minneapolis. His name is Michael Floyd. Because he is a highly skilled football player who has verbally accepted a full athletic scholarship to Notre Dame, his story has recently been publicized. In it, his mother, Theresa Romeo, gives a powerful witness to the benefits of a Catholic education along with great testimony to her own and her son’s dramatic work ethic.
She said of Cretin-Derham Hall: “It’s a fantastic school. They basically guarantee you that any child will do well there if they want to . . . The desire in my heart is that every kid in America have the chance to go to a school like that or something similar. We would have scientists and geniuses and somebody worth voting for.”
Catholic schools through the generations have prided themselves on offering all children a chance to reap the benefits of a total education as offered Michael Floyd at Cretin-Derham.
To that end, commendation is also due this week to the Our Sunday Visitor Board of Directors who awarded a $4 million dollar gift to four Catholic high schools in the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend with the intent on providing financial aid assistance to deserving students. Principal Mary Keefer of Bishop Luers High School expressed appreciation for the generous gift: “We have more than enough kids and families who want Catholic education for their children and just can’t afford it” Keefer said. “This is just such a blessing. We’re thrilled.”
According to ancient Jewish law, a woman who gave birth to a boy was unable to touch anything sacred or enter the Temple area until forty days after the birth of her son. The period of purification was observed by Mary, the Mother of God. The law prescribed that after the forty days the mother should offer a year-old lamb as a sin offering, or if she were poor, two turtledoves or two young pigeons. According to the Gospel, this ritual was followed by Joseph and Mary, who presented their son for purification at the Temple in Jerusalem.While there, Jesus' parents met a man named Simeon whom the Gospel describes as "righteous and devout" and as someone who was awaiting the time when salvation would come to God's people in Israel. When Simeon saw the infant Jesus he took him into his arms and said:"Now, Master, you may let your servant go in peace, according to your word,for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you prepared in sight of all the peoples,a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and flory for your people Israel" (Lk 2:29-32).The Feast of the Presentation of the Lord is traditionally celebrated on February 2, forty days after Christmas. In many places the day marks the end of the Christmas season. Christmas decorations are taken down and Christmas trees and plants are burned and mixed with the remaining ashes of the Yule log. These ashes are then spread over gardens and fields in the hope of a bountiful spring crop.From Simeon's words that Jesus would not only be the source of salvation for the Jews, but a "light of revelation to the Gentiles," the day also is called Candlemas. Sometimes blessed candles are handed out to celebrate the feast. In Latin America, statues of the baby Jesus are decorated in fine infant clothing. Cakes are shared with the figure of Jesus outlined in sugar.What is a lesson to be shared around this feast? First, we can remind students that Jesus' parents were pious Jews who followed religions laws. Second, they were poor, as they were unable to afford a year-old lamb for sacrifice. Also, we can remind students that many people waited in expectation for Jesus and that his birth was an open invitation to all people to share in the joy of salvation.Additional Lessons Research and present other names, traditions, and folklore associated with the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord, both locally and all over the world. Read and share the laws from the Hebrew Scripture on the period of purification (Lv 12:2-8) and the presentation of a newborn (Ex 13:1-2). Read Simeon's prophecy about Jesus' destiny (Lk 2:34-35). Discuss how the prophecy would eventually be fulfilled. Give each student a candle. Process to a church or chapel and offer a prayer to the infant Jesus for all children, especially the poor.Discussion Questions1. What is your earliest memory of being brought to church and attending Mass?2. What is the most amazing thing someone (teacher, neighbor, relative) ever said to your parents about you?3. What is something you hope to accomplish in your life that would bring you fulfillment?
The Doctrinal Elements of a Curriculum Framework for the Development of Catechetical Materials for Young People of High School Age approved by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops at their November meeting is now posted on their website in a pdf document. You can link to it right here.For more information on the Framework, please visit the National Framework label on this site.
Catholic high school students are well aware of issues surrounding prejudice, often associated with racism. This week’s Martin Luther King Jr. holiday is an occasion that allows for sensitivity to this issue.
For the most part Catholics living since the 1950s have not faced the outright prejudice for being Catholic that their ancestors who immigrated to the United States once experienced.
Nothing like the early twentieth century when anti-Catholic legislation was introduced to limit the increasing numbers of immigrants from southern and eastern Europe. The Ku Klux Klan was a nativist group not only opposed to African Americans, but also to Catholics and Jews. Bigotry helped defeat the first Catholic candidate for president, Al Smith in 1920. Rumors were circulated that if Smith won the Pope would take up residence in the White House and Protestants would lose their citizenship. A recently published book on Church history, This Is Our Church, tells some of this story.
However, today, prejudice against Catholics has been called “the last tolerated form of prejudice.” Consider what happened a couple of weeks ago at a roast of two ESPN radio personalities, Mike Golic and Mike Greenberg. One of their colleagues, Dana Jacobson, came to the podium and made disparaging remarks not only about Golic’s alma mater, the University of Notre Dame, but also about Jesus himself.
Remember, this event happened nearly two weeks ago. It is only now being told in the mainstream media. You may ask your teens to compare how this type of reporting of the incident compares to those when members of particular races or other religions were treated in this fashion.
Philip Jenkins, author of The New Anti-Catholicism: The Last Acceptable Prejudice claims that “The American media, usually painstaking in their efforts to offend members of no racial, religious or gender category, consistently make one major exception-the Roman Catholic Church.”
What do your students think? Is prejudice against Catholics really the last tolerated form of prejudice in the United States? Reserve some class time to explore this issue.
The topic of relationships is always of particular interest with teenagers. They are constantly looking for friends, trying to keep friends and sometimes losing friends. They want to understand love, experience love and be loved. They are also often in search of someone with whom they can have a more in depth boyfriend-girlfriend relationship. At the same time though it’s great to see their desire for wholesome, authentic relationships, for respect, for real freedom, for purity, for true love. And I see more and more everyday that this is truly what they are looking for.
I have visited and discussed the following website with my students various times and found it to be quite useful. Perhaps the site and the following ideas can be an activity for your class. Life Athleteswebsite is a guide to having good, authentic relationships. It’s especially geared toward young people. It’s about athletes who have made a choice about living their sexuality and their relationships and can therefore be good role models, especially for young athletes today.
Show them some of the athletes who are members. It helps them to see that people are really serious about true relationships. If the students follow sports, they may recognize some and be able to relate to them.
Present the Life Athletes Commitment:
1) I will try to do what is right even when it is difficult
2) I will give myself only to the special person whom I marry as my partner for life.
3) I will respect the lives of others, especially the unborn and the aged.
4) I will not quit or make excuses when I fail. I will try again.
Encourage them to make the pledge (at least in their heart)
Have them get together in groups and discuss how they understand them and how they could live them. This has often given rise to in-depth discussions where the students see their own strengths and are therefore encouraged, but also their weaknesses.
Quotes for Thought
“The best anyone can do for another is always what he is for the other.”
Adalbert Stifter
“The characteristic of Christian friendship is that it is not closed. It deepens in the measure in which it opens itself ever more widely to whoever is in need of love.”
Bernhard Haring
“Love wants nothing from the other but wants everything for the other.”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
“True friendship is experienced when everything around us disappears.”
Anonymous
In his "I Have a Dream" speech, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said that black people were "still languishing in the corners of American society" and were "exiles in their own land."
Jesus understood the pain of racism. He preached and gathered to himself the outcasts of society. He called these people the anawim, or poor in spirit. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God."
The relationship between Jews and Samaritans at the time of Jesus approximates contemporary examples of racism. Many of the people of Samaria were Jews who had intermarried with Gentiles during the Assyrian captivity. Jews bypassed the region altogether as they traveled between Galilee and Judea. With your students, cite Gospel passages that refer to this strained relationship: Luke 9:52-54; Luke 10:25-37; Luke 17:11-19; John 9:48. Next, read Jesus' response to this behavior: his healing of a Samaritan leper (Lk 17:11-19), the conversation with the Samaritan women at the well (Jn 4:4-42), and the telling of the parable of the Good Samaritan (Lk 10:30-37).
Discussion Questions
1. Why do you think people of different races have trouble getting along?
2. How do you respond when someone makes a racist statement?
3. Tell about a time you were excluded from an activity for no good reason?
Extending the Lesson
Ask an adult who grew up in the 1950s and 1960s to give a short presentation detailing society's (and his or her own) changing attitudes from then to now.
With presidential politics and primaries in full swing and the feast day of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, the first American born saint recently celebrated, consider the following lesson icebreaker on the theme of the Catholic Church in America.
Clear out some open space in the front of the classroom. Set up three chairs facing the students. Place a desk size wastebasket about eight feet in front of the middle chair. Call three students to sit in the chairs. Give the student in the middle chair a spongy ball or something similar. Have the rest of the students move to one side of the classroom. This side designates that they are “in” the game. (The other side of the classroom will be for students who are “knocked out” of the game.) Then say to the class:
The focus of this lesson is the Catholic Church in the United States. Let’s find out what we already know about the topic by playing a game of “knock out.” The person in the middle chair gets a chance to knock out the competition before the round robin gets underway. All the person has to do is throw this spongy ball into the wastebasket. If it lands inside without coming out, the people in the two side chairs are out of the game and have to sit on this side (point to the elimination side) of the room. If the throw misses, the thrower is still in the game and sits with the people on this side of the room (point to the side where the classmates who are still in the game are seated). The side chair people then face off in a game of question and answer. I will ask a question related to our topic. They will confer and decide on one answer. If they are right, they get to sit with the people still in the game. If they are wrong, they are knocked out and sit on the elimination side.
Play the game. Allow the person in the middle chair to throw the ball. If the thrower misses, ask questions on American Catholicism like those on the list below. Choose new players for each round. Don’t allow a person to throw twice until everyone has had the chance to throw. Play the game until there is one champion. Move the wastebasket closer if you need to eliminate players more quickly.
Game Questions
• What American city is named for St. Francis? (San Francisco)
• Name the Franciscan missionary who founded the California missions. (Junipero Serra)
• Who was the first American bishop (John Carroll)
• What natural disaster spurred the immigration of thousands of Irish Catholics to the United States in the nineteenth century (the Potato Famine)
• Who was the first Catholic nominated for President of the United States? (Alfred E. Smith)
• Which of the following is nota Catholic college: Portland, Seton Hall, Pepperdine, or Dayton (Pepperdine)
• Who was the only Catholic President and what year was he elected? (John F. Kennedy, 1960)
• Who was the founder of the Catholic Workernewspaper?
• Who was the only Catholic singer of the Declaration of Independence (Charles Carroll)
• Who was the Italian-born founder of may Catholic schools who was also the first American citizen canonized? ( St. Frances Cabrini)
• A Texas city is named Corpus Christi. What does Corpus Christi mean? (Body of Christ)
• In what state is the University of Notre Dame located? (Indiana)
• Who was the first American born saint? (St. Elizabeth Ann Seton)
• What is the feast day of Elizabeth Ann Seton? (January 4)
• Who was the first American-born pope? (Trick question: there has never been an American-born pope)
Continue with a lesson based on historical issues of American Catholicism. (See, for example, This Is Our Church, Chapter 8.) As a transition to the rest of the lesson, say:
.
In the game we just played, you were either in or out. In some ways, this has been the story for American Catholics. For much of the Church’s history in the United States, Catholics were an excluded group that faced prejudice and discrimination. Since about World War II, this has changed and American Catholics haven been fully assimilated into American culture and have taken their place in the mainstream. Today, however, several life issues (abortion, euthanasia, capital punishment) and other social dilemmas around secularism and consumerism have again put Catholics in debate with common American beliefs and practices and among themselves. Let’s examine in more depth how American Catholics are both in and out of the mainstream.
Additional Lessons
• Trace the family line and accomplishments of the Carroll family of Maryland, focusing on Charles, Daniel, and John Carroll.
• Examine Catholicism from the perspective of various eras of United States history (e.g., Irish immigration, Ku Klux Klan, Alfred E. Smith, John F. Kennedy, today)
• Brainstorm a list of famous contemporary Catholics. Have the student write letters to these Catholics that ask them to explain the importance of faith in their lives.
• Research the life of Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker movement.
• Read and comment on President George Bush's
recent trip to the Holy Land.
Note: The game of “knock out” can be used to introduce many other topics. Recreate the game using a different theme of questions (e.g., Old Testament, Sacraments, Ten Commandments).
Even though the Christmas season ends on Sunday, the week is also about new beginnings as you know from your return to school and the impending start of a new semester.The end of Christmas also celebrates the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry with his baptism by John the Baptist in the Jordan River.The occasion lets us know that God the Father had special plans for his son. Jesus was anointed by the Father to “bring light and God’s promise of hope” to everyone.Encourage and remind your students that they, too, have been chosen by God to do something special and unique with their lives.Sometimes teenagers feel cramped by the expectations that their parents and other well-meaning adults have for them.Most of your students will be expected to go to college. They will be expected to marry and raise a family (or in some cases choose a religious vocation). Most of all their parents and Catholic high school teachers hope that they will continue to practice their Catholic faith and deepen their relationship with God.Have your students consider the expectations that have been placed on them for the future? Which do they consider fair expectations? Which coincide with their own dreams?Share with your students the story of baseball player Mike Piazza, a good antidote these days to reports of other star players training with illegal steroids. When Mike was a teenager most people told him he would never make it in baseball. In fact, he was the 1,390th player picked in the baseball draft. Mike credits his Catholic faith for helping him to progress all the way to a hall of fame career: A Catholic Digest article questioned Mike about the subject:
Did anyone try to tell you that you couldn’t make it as a major-league player?Mike Piazza: Oh, yeah, I’ll never forget when I was 12 or 13 years old – which is a little young as far as evaluation – [my dad] brought out a scout from, I think, the [St. Louis] Cardinals. He was a very esteemed and recognized major league scout. He saw me play, and he said to my dad, “Vince, tell this kid to go to school.” But you know, I always like people being honest with me. You may not like what they have to say, but it’s better than patronizing you. In a way it wasn’t really an insult. It just gave me more fuel.As you worked your way from the 62nd-round draft pick to 1993 National League Rookie of the Year, did your Catholic faith play a part in your progress?Mike Piazza: No question about it. It was probably the most important thing for me. My mom, thank God, she kept us focused on our faith. I just remember everywhere I went, I tried to find a local church where I could go to Mass. Once I started doing research into the history of the Catholic Church I became more and more proud to be Catholic.When Jesus was anointed at his baptism, the sky opened and his Father’s voice could be heard: “You are my own dear Son, and I am pleased with you.” Take some time to communicate to your students the pleasure God takes in them. Remind them that the same God who loved Jesus also loves them.Discussion Questions1. What is one expectation your parents have for you? Is this mostly a fair expectation? Why?2. What is a goal you have for yourself? How can your Catholic faith help you to succeed at that goal?3. Imagine it is the end of your life. You look back on all your years and realize that there was one accomplishment that stood about above all the rest. What is this accomplishment?4. John the Baptist was a humble friend of the Lord, saying he was “not good enough to even untie his sandals.” Jesus’ ministry was based on humble service of others. What does humility mean to you? When was a time you did something humbly?Additional Lessons• Share and play the DVD, “Champions of Faith,” that features Mike Piazza and other athletes who share the relationship between the ideals of sports and the practice of faith.• Have each student prepare an individual time capsule to be opened on the date of high school graduation. The “capsule” can be an empty two-liter soda bottle. Have the students fill out papers writing down what they hope to accomplish through the rest of their time in high school. Have them print on the outside of the bottle: “Not to be opened until June 20__.
