Catholic School Week

This past Wednesday we bussed the K-8 students of All Saints Academy here to St. Alphonsus Church for our annual Catholic School Week Mass. Each year we bring them here during Catholic Schools Week as we feel it is important for them at least once a year to come to St. Alphonsus, just like we bus them to St. Isidore Church each year when we celebrate the school's patronal feast day on All Saints Day. Fr. Pat Grile always seemed to enjoy hosting the students and sharing with them stories from his youth when he sat in the same pews in which they were sitting and told them of his experiences here at St. Alphonsus School.

Hopefully you remember that the purpose of the Catholic school is to assist parents in carrying out their baptismal promises for their children to raise those children in the faith of Christ. In 30 hours a week we can provide much more assistance than in an hour or so a week in the parish religious education program. We have to remember that one of the most important points is that whether the child is a student in the religious education program or the Catholic school, education and formation in the faith has to begin at home from the parents or whatever assistance we attempt to give will not be as fruitful as it could possibly be. I am sometimes asked why having gone to a public school as a child I now work to support a Catholic school and my answer is that just because I personally didn't have the opportunity to attend a Catholic school doesn't mean that I don't think that a Catholic school is a good thing. We don't compare Catholic schools to public schools to say that the Catholic school is better or worse -- we just say that it is different. The possibility of what we can offer a child in the Catholic school, Coopersville Public Schools wasn't able to offer to me when I was a child in attendance there -- i.e., an education in the daily context of my Catholic faith - teaching me that everything I will do in my life I will do with God at my side. So during this Catholic Schools Week each year we celebrate the success of Catholic schools, work to improve upon what we already have and do in Catholic schools, and pray for those same schools - teachers, students, and families - that we may be as successful as possible in passing on the faith of Jesus.

If you, a family member, or anyone you know might be interested in a Catholic School education please feel free to contact the All Saints Academy School office to learn about the school programs, curriculum, financial assistance, or answers to any questions they might have.

Fr. George Darling