A great gift

     As I have mentioned, we have entered into Catholic Schools Week in our diocese and in the nation.  It is a time of showcasing the work of this part of our mission as a Church.  Within our local area, we are a contributing part of Queen of Angels Regional Catholic School located in Irwin/North Huntingdon.

     At the outset of CSW, I want to share what I shared yesterday with the congregation - namely the fact that I was the grateful recipient of a Catholic School education ... from Kindergarten through theological grad school.  Except for a few supplemental summer courses at Penn State University / Fayette Campus, my entire academic experience was in Catholic schools.

     From Kindergarten through grade eight I attended our parish elementary school and was taught by the Sisters of the Holy Ghost whose congregation is in Pittsburgh.  We had four lay teachers in addition to the Religious who taught us. The school closed many years ago.  For high school I entered the minor seminary for the diocese of Greensburg, and was sent to Saint Vincent Prep School in Latrobe, run by the Benedictine monks.  There were a number of lay teachers who also shared in the teaching responsibilities.  For three of those years we lived at Saint Joseph Hall minor seminary residence, and travelled by bus to Saint Vincent.  The prep, which opened around 1847, closed its doors in the early 1970's.

     For the first part of my college years, the diocese sent me to Saint Pius X Seminary in Erlanger, Kentucky (near Cincinnati).  There we had the benefit of fine diocesan priests, as well as laity and Religious as part of the teaching and formation staff.  It was my first experience of being at a distance from home, but it was a rewarding time.  Pius closed a number of years later.  Then I was sent to Saint Francis Seminary in Loretto, PA, where I finished college and stayed on for my four years of theology.  Saint Francis is run by the Third Order Regular Franciscans (TOR).  The college now has university status and is doing fine (thank God, given my track record with schools), but the major seminary, after many years of preparing countless fine priests for many dioceses, is now closed and the building is, in fact, a maximum security prison (talk about irony).  My twenty years of Catholic schools were a gift to me from the Church and from those who cared about me.  Those years involved great sacrifices, but they were sacrifices that brought to me a great gift - and I am eternally grateful.  As I mentioned to the people yesterday, from Sister Veronica who taught me in Kindergarten (and my dad in first grade!) to the last professor of theology, all of these men and women - outstanding teachers and inspirations to many - have my profound gratitude.