Schools mark Catholic Schools Week

By Margaret M. Russell | The Catholic Free Press

WEBSTER – Education and migration, Olympics and ethnic foods, all mixed together Sunday to provide a festive opening to Catholic Schools Week for St. Joseph Elementary School. Schools around the diocese held special activities all week.
Dressed in native costumes, students processed into St. Joseph Basilica carrying the flags of nearly two dozen countries, which they placed on each side of the sanctuary.
Msgr. Anthony S. Czarnecki, pastor, welcomed a full church to the annual Mass that also marks National Migration Week. He noted that for 125 years St. Joseph’s has been providing a Catholic education to students from 42 different countries.
Friends and family, faculty, staff and administrators gathered for the morning Mass celebrated by Bishop McManus.  
Following Mass, the school was open to visitors. Each classroom was filled with student projects about the upcoming Winter Olympics, where athletes from many nations compete in sporting events. Msgr. Czarnecki and Principal Michael F. Hackenson gave Bishop McManus and David Perda, diocesan superintendent of Catholic schools, a guided tour of the classrooms where they spoke to teachers and listened as children excitedly explained their projects. At noontime, ethic foods were available for tasting in the cafeteria.
In his homily, Bishop McManus tied the day’s themes together.
“One hundred and twenty-five years ago, when the Poles came to this country ... and settled here in Webster, no doubt the first thing they did was to build a church in order that they could offer worship to God - the God who led them from their native country to the United States of America to a new life. But then they decided to build a Catholic school, for two purposes: to pass on the faith of their Church in their Polish tradition and culture, but also to provide a basis though which young Polish children could become good American citizens. For 125 years that has happened,” the bishop said congratulating the community.
“The motto for this Catholic Schools Week is ‘Learn. Serve. Lead. Succeed.’ These four words sum up the purpose of a Catholic school education,” he noted. “We learn about the love of God and neighbor so as to serve our brothers and sisters, especially those less fortunate than ourselves. And we lead others by serving them. And the success that we want to achieve in this life, ultimately, is the success in returning to our Father’s house in heaven,” he said.
Bishop McManus pointed out that one of the most divisive issues in the United States today is the issue of migration, but that the Church provides an example for others to follow.  
“We hear over and over and over about the importance of diversity in our society and culture. And that’s true. My dear friends, look at these flags. These flags represent the nationalities that have come through St. Joseph School who have received a Catholic school education.”
The Church was diverse before it became politically correct to appeal to diversity, he said, “and we should be proud of that. And our diversity in our Catholic schools (is)  an example to our country that we can all live together.”
“This nation is a nation of immigrants, unless of course you are a native American, … and I am absolutely confounded when people say ‘no more immigrants let them stay in their own country and take care of themselves.’ Where would we be? Where would we be if our parents and grandparents did not come from the old country in search of a better life?
“And often they came in order to practice in freedom our Catholic faith.
“Catholic schools have survived in the United States of America at great sacrifice. The sisters, the brothers, the priests who taught us for almost nothing year after year after year, passed on great information and great love of the faith. This is what we celebrate today. We celebrate the service that they gave to us and our responsibility now is to serve others, especially our young people, to pass on the faith of the Church,” he concluded.
St. Joseph’s has a tradition of honoring employees who do just that, pass on the faith to their students. Bishop McManus presented St. Joseph’s Partners in Education awards to two teachers, Mary Ann Weaver and Donna Recko, both of whom have been with the school for more than 35 years.
Mrs. Recko said that St. Joseph’s School is her second family.  And that she hopes to “promote Catholic educations for many years to come.”


See album of photo at http://www.catholicfreepress.org/photoalbums/catholic-schools-week