School Office

From the Bishops
Diocesan Synod
Diocesan News
Avance Católico
Parish News
Spiritual Life Center
Religious Orders
Kansas News
Catholic News Service
National and World News
News Briefs
Capsule Movie Reviews
Schools
Grade Schools
High Schools
Columnists
Fr. Carr
Know Your Faith
Ask Father
Into the Light
Rhonda Lohkamp
Additional Columnists
Diocesan Offices
Catholic Charities
Development
Missions
School
Natural Family Planning
Youth/Young Adults
Seminarians/Vocations
Miscellaneous
Calendar
Obituaries
Knights of Columbus
Serra Club
Scouting
Stewardship
Letters to the Advance
Father Kapaun
Chaplain Kapaun biography
25 years of Bishop Gerber
Advance advertising information
Links
Home

**Superintendent needs help in finding sisters of three orders

By Bob Voboril
Early in June, I invited readers of the Catholic Advance to tell me about some of the pioneer lay teachers who served in the Catholic schools, particularly in the period between 1955 and 1985.
Today I would like to ask your help in gaining more information about the Sisters who served in our schools for longer periods of time. Sister Susan Reeves of the Adorers of the Blood of Christ, Sister Arlys McDonald of the Sisters of St. Joseph, and Sister Eloise Hertel of the Dominican Sisters of Great Bend have been particularly helpful in gleaning some information about sisters from those three orders which were mainstays of the diocesan school system for at least seventy-five years.
So I need more help with three other orders who provided smaller numbers of teaching sisters -- the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary (BVMs) who served at Mount Carmel Academy and St. Joseph, Wichita; the Sisters of the Sorrowful Mother (SSM) who served Our Lady of Perpetual Help and Our Lady of Guadalupe in Wichita; and the Sisters of Mercy who primarily served in schools in Walnut and Fredonia. I have also listed four Dominican Sisters for whom we have limited information but who all gave lengthy service to the Diocese.
While we have been fortunate to have the services and memory of Sister Kathleen Gilbert, BVM, in learning more about the BVM Sisters who served at Mount Carmel Academy and Kapaun Mount Carmel, we know almost nothing about the BVM Sisters who served at St. Joseph.
Once again, we do have names, places, and dates of service for many of these Sisters, but little else. If you can share information with us please e-mail cso@cdowk.org or send mail to 424 N. Broadway, Wichita, Kansas 67212.
Here are the names:
Dominican Sisters of Great Bend
Dorothy Felder, O.P.
Markita Hoefling, O.P.
Carmelita Husmann, O.P.
Veronica Staudinger, O.P.
Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Gertruda Struble, BVM
Dorene Good, BVM
Helen Marie Hackett, BVM
Sisters of the Sorrowful Mother
Adele Hirt, SSM
Sisters of Mercy
Mary Joan Conway, RSM
Christina Wehner, RSM
Carmelita O’Halloran, RSM
(7/14/06)

**Balloting begins in June for inductions into Heritage Hall

Bob Voboril, Superintendent of Schools
For its 75th anniversary in 2003, the Catholic school system began an ongoing history project called Heritage of Service and Sacrifice. During that year we compiled biographies of dozens of our pioneers and inducted 20 into the Heritage Hall.
This summer we will induct four more in balloting that will begin in June. During this summer, I will be listing names of Catholic school pastors and educators who gave long service but about whom we have name, place, and duties but little biographical information.
As the Catholic Advance readers peruse these lists and find names of people they know, please feel free to write to me about them at 424 N. Broadway (Wichita, 67202), or e-mail me at cso@cdowk.org.
One of the groups that is conspicuously missing from our original group of honorees is lay teachers. Only one of the 20, Tom Seiler, is a lay teacher. From our meager diocesan records, which list only name, school, and year taught, we have culled the names of 14 lay teachers from the 1950’s to the 1970’s (see sidebar) who taught in Catholic schools for a long time.
If you are still living, we would like to hear from you and learn about your experiences. Former students may well be able to share recollections of these loyal teachers who served as much as fifty years ago. Former pastors and teachers who worked side-by-side with them might also share their memories. There is so much we don’t know, and so much we are eager to learn. Please help us.
Veteran Lay Teachers
Marie Bezdek 1956-81
Theresa Brake 1973-87
Patricia Dixon 1956-82
Ella May Ferry 1965-92
Dorothy Hayes 1973-91
Patricia Hupman 1958-76
Jean Ann Kimple 1963-86
Lois McKeever 1956-81
Mary Agnes Morley 1963-82
Liza Prudhomme 1956-77
Marjorie Schlee 1962-80
Mary Ellen Schreck 1970-91
Mary M. Schrufer 1965-84
Patricia Zimmerman 1956-74
(6/23/06)

**Sometimes the last day of school is the last day forever

Bob Voboril, Superintendent of Schools
Last fall, 250 Catholic schools in the United States did not reopen. There will be a large number that will not reopen this fall. While the Diocese of Wichita has not had a school close since 1997, it could happen here if we lay people and our pastors become complacent about the value of Catholic education and the sacrifices required of everybody in the parish to make Catholic education successful.
A few weeks ago I read the parish history of St. Martin of Tours Parish, Piqua, where the parish school had to close due to legal challenges in 1972. The author is so elegant and poetic in describing what a precious gift Catholic education is (pages 81-96) that I decided to quote much of it here as a reminder to us all.
“On a clear fall day, the wind moans in the maples and cottonwoods flanking the little brick schoolhouse on the hilltop. Leaves, red and yellow, slant down in the breeze pinwheeling wave upon wave across the lawn. The flagpole stands at attention.
“Inside, musty odors betray the lack of recent use. Water spotted ceilings and cracked walls hint that this is no longer an important building. Yet for many Piqua people, walking down the halls still stirs a deep-rooted feeling of warmth, belonging, and well-being. This is the place where we spent much of our childhood; learned how to ... read and write, how to play baseball and basketball, how to make friends and be a friend, how to live as a Christian.
Glancing into a room, one might recall the ‘magic spot’ on the floor that Sister always jumped over (knowing that magic motivated her students). One might think of the even more impressive magic that she created of a mysterious substance called knowledge. For some it is easy to remember where our very own desk was situated. We might conjure up the feeling of pride and satisfaction we had when we earned a special sticker for a job well done on a particularly tough assignment. We might re-experience the feeling of embarrassment we had from dropping a book in a quiet room or having to give a report in front of the class. The green ‘blackboard’ might remind us of the math relays which, in turn, might set our thoughts to spelling bees and, then, on to tests that we took back then. The empty bookcases, to our mind’s eye, become magically alive with the characters we encountered in the books that used to sit on those shelves.
We know that there are many secrets that these walls hold -- that our parents still don’t know about us. We recognize this place as a change agent in our lives. We are aware that we would not be who we are today if this building had not been here when we were young. We have a special pride in saying, ‘This is where I went to school ... ’
... Education was a top priority in [Piqua] since its beginnings. Directly on the heels of the formation of the town of Piqua in 1882 came the first school, albeit a room in the upstairs of one of the town’s founding fathers ... It was a parochial school.
“Shortly after the present church was built on the hill, the school building was moved to be near it ... In 1923 ... Piqua Parish School expanded to include high school ... Students developed a school yell: ‘Martin Blue-wing, soar you high, Pilot skyward, Piqua High.’
The year following the closing of the high school (1933), on a cold February morning, while the students were attending Mass, the building caught fire from a defective flue and burned to the ground.” For the next seventeen years first the parish hall and then the parish rectory were a makeshift school. A 1940’s lawsuit required the school to be declared as a public school rather than a Catholic school.
In 1950, a new two-floored, brick building was constructed (by the parish) ... The first school lunch was served on the first Monday in December ... Bus service was established in 1956 ... In 1962, a gymnasium and two additional classrooms were added ... The boys were groomed for team competition by their basketball coaches ... against Catholic schools in the area. There was even a squad of cheerleaders. Indeed, the Piqua Grade School had moved with the times.”
However, in 1972, the local school district sued the parish for return of rent. When the district lost, they decided to cancel their lease of the parish facility. Piqua Parish School closed on May 31, 1972.
“It has been years since this building has served the purpose for which it was built. Infused with the feelings of warmth that a walk through the school might bring is a sense of loss -- loss of our childhood and innocence and loss for our children whom we feel have been denied the opportunity to share the atmosphere of a small country school taught by caring teachers.”
Unfortunately, the story of St. Martin’s in Piqua has been repeated too many times in our country. Let us redouble our efforts to make sure that as many children as possible have a chance to attend a Catholic school next August and in all the Augusts ahead.
In the meantime, have a safe, enjoyable, and blessed summer.
(6/09/06)

**Single women are the new religious order in Catholic schools

Bob Voboril, Superintendent of Schools
Some years ago, researcher William McCready concluded that there was a new religious order sustaining Catholic schools in the wake of the declining number of teaching religious and clergy. This new religious order, McCready wrote, was composed of young single women.
These young women are just as dedicated as the teaching sisters of old, the research revealed, but for a shorter period of time, five to ten years instead of fifty years. Without these dedicated women, McCready surmised, Catholic schools would be up the proverbial creek without a paddle.
I had some time to think about this recently while participating in the National Catholic Educational Association convention in Atlanta, April 17-21. At the convention, I attended the banquet sponsored by the Department of Elementary Schools at which Kathleen Patterson, Principal of All Saints Catholic School in Wichita, was honored as one of twelve 2006 Distinguished principals in the United States.
Kathleen is single. She is one of 114 single female educators currently serving in the Catholic schools, and one of four single administrators.
The daughter of Mike and Margaret Patterson of Parsons, Kathleen graduated from St. Patrick’s School in Parsons, and, because the Catholic high school had closed, she attended Parsons Public High School. She attended Benedictine College in Atchison, and paid her way through a combination of work-study, grants, scholarships, and summer jobs. A brother, Mike, was hydrocephalic and died when Kathleen was seven, and her brother Scott is deaf; so she completed degrees in both special education and elementary education. Her first teaching job was at the Parsons State Hospital.
Kathleen came to Wichita to teach first grade at St. Patrick and earned two master’s degrees in elementary education and educational administration. During her twelve years at St. Patrick’s, she witnessed such a major shift in demographics from middle-class Anglo to a diverse ethnic and socio-economic population that her administrative internship project was on diversity.
In 1997, she became Principal of St. James, Augusta, and since 2001, she has been the Principal at All Saints. While at All Saints, she and her pastor, Fr. Dwight Birket, co-authored an excellent program on “The 3 Catholic R’s” -- now in use in nine diocesan schools. All Saints is the diocese’s current Banner School, and now Kathleen has been named a national distinguished principal. She will be the commencement speaker this spring at Wichita State University’s graduation ceremony for the College of Education. During that time she has served on the Diocesan Curriculum Council and the Superintendent’s Council. She has coordinated the Catholic School Academic Activities program, and has completed yet another postgraduate degree to qualify as district-level administrator.
As our banner school principal, last summer Kathleen accompanied me to Boston, where our Catholic schools were recognized by NCEA as one of nine exemplary programs in the nation for the last decade. What impressed Kathleen most was how well known and how well respected the Diocese of Wichita’s Catholic schools are. “Whenever we spoke,” she told me, “everybody listened so that they could learn more about our success.”
Kathleen would be the first to tell you that her recognition reflects greatly on our entire Diocese and that her honor belongs to all the parishioners and staff who support the excellent school at All Saints, as well as to all our dedicated principals. And while we should all celebrate Kathleen’s success, let us give thanks for our single Catholic educators who give so much so that our children can know Jesus.
(5/12/06)

**A whippersnapper wises up to become an old codger

Bob Voboril, Superintendent of Schools
When I was just a whippersnapper superintendent, the Diocesan Catholic School Council was reviewing diocesan policies, and Msgr. Charles W. Regan, who served 32 years on the Council, asked that a simple phrase be inserted into policies that required all diocesan employees to live in a manner consistent with Catholic teaching.
“The Pope is the authentic teacher of the Faith in the Universal Church,” he proposed, and “The Bishop is the authentic teacher of the Faith in the Diocese.” The Council approved Monsignor’s recommendation, but I must admit that I shrugged it off because I considered it to be unnecessary.
Now that the whippersnapper is an old codger, I can admit that I was wrong.
Time after time during the last 13 years, when my own educational experience and analysis would lead me to a decision different from the bishop’s, I have come to appreciate why we Catholics believe that the bishop, and not the individual Christian, is guided by the Holy Spirit to be the chief teacher in his diocese.
The most recent example was a decision approved by Bishop Jackels on Nov. 2, 2005, about the Kansas immunization statutes.
Like most states, Kansas has a required schedule of immunizations that all children must complete in order to attend school. Kansas statute provides for two exemptions: medical and religious.
A physician or osteopath may exempt a child from immunizations for serious medical reasons. Individuals may also claim an exemption if they belong to a religion that is opposed to inoculations. Since the teachings of the Catholic Church are not opposed to immunizations, Catholics cannot claim a religious exemption.
However, some individuals with deep and sincere pro-life convictions are opposed to the only rubella vaccine approved for use in the United States because it was originally developed from the cell lines of aborted fetal tissues. Since no Catholic wants to be complicit in abortion in any way, these individuals argue that the Church should permit a personal religious exemption from such vaccines on the grounds of freedom and the duty to follow one’s conscience.
In the summer of 2005, however, the Pontifical Council for Life, with the support of then Cardinal Ratzinger and the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, said that the Church could not grant a religious exemption from immunizations because the protection of the health of not only one’s child but also the health conditions of the entire population, especially pregnant women, through vaccination is a greater moral good than expressing one’s disapproval of an immoral action that took place over 40 years ago.
The letter from the Pontifical Council went so far as to say that if an unborn child was infected, disabled, and aborted after contracting the Rubella virus carried by an unimmunized person, the parents of the unimmunized child are responsible for the harm done to the unborn child.
Those words are strong and unequivocal. With this definitive guidance from Rome, Bishop Jackels then directed me, through the pastors and principals, to pursue universal compliance with the Kansas immunization statutes for the sake of the common good, in particular for children in the womb, those who are immune compromised, and those who are not inoculated.
He also designated me to meet with anyone who had concerns about the decision. Six months later, I have communicated with several dozen individuals about the Bishop’s decision. Every single person I have spoken to has been polite, conscientious, and persistent.
Some have been unyielding, but most have been fair. Regarding the medical details of immunizations, I have been fortunate to have the assistance of Dr. Jerry Brungardt. Together, we have made clear that we respect every person’s right to agree or disagree, but the Catholic schools will follow our bishop and obey the law.
In the end, however, any parent’s decision to respect the bishop’s decision comes down to trust, not medicine. Unlike almost any other Christian Church, we Catholics believe that there is a universal teaching authority in which the bishop, in communion with Pope Benedict XVI, possesses the ordinary authority to act in the name of Jesus Christ. Thus, we sometimes say, “Peter has spoken.”
There is a story of a revered Vietnamese bishop who was honored in Rome after many years of brutal captivity including months at a time in solitary confinement. He was asked how he could defy his captors who taunted him and his Church at every turn. In response, he began to sing to the Holy Father in Latin, “You Are Peter.”
It is said that John Paul II wept openly.
So the Catholic schools will be enforcing the state immunization statutes for every child, including pre-kindergarten, and I will continue to meet with any person who disagrees with our policy. For our bishop has spoken, and that is enough for the Catholic schools of this diocese.
(5/05/06)

**Happy birthday, Apple; you’ve changed education

Bob Voboril, Superintendent of Schools
This month, Apple Computer Corporation of Silicon Valley turns 30 years old. Only veteran Catholic school curmudgeons like myself can remember the pre-computer world of teaching when high technology meant having one overhead projector and one black and white television that roamed the halls of the school on mobile carts. Little did we know then . . .
I don’t know which computer came first, although I vaguely remember Radio Shack’s TRS-80, the Vic 20, Commodore, Atari, and Franklins. They sound like the old Hudsons, Ramblers and Studebakers my dad and his friends used to reminisce about.
The first Apple was a build-it-yourself kit created by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak in 1976. A year later the Apple II microcomputer was born. While it wasn’t the first, the Apple II is credited as the pioneer in the personal computer revolution. The first Apple Macintosh in 1984 pioneered desktop publishing with its icon and mouse-based interface that replaced text-bound systems. (I confess that I did not get rid of my 1988 Macintosh until 2004 because its Appleworks spreadsheets were so easy to use.)
More importantly, Apple was the first computer company to take Catholic education seriously. Those early Apple II’s were virtually indestructible, easy to use, easy to buy, and easy to navigate, and Apple provided floods of 5.25 inch floppy disks with drill-and-kill software for teachers to use. I’ll bet that 95% of the computers in Catholic schools in the 1980’s were Apple IIe’s. They were ubiquitous.
Along the way, school leaders became convinced by non-school types that the business world would not hire students trained on Apple computers, and slowly schools began to limit their purchases to DOS-based IBM PC’s and later to platforms for Microsoft Windows software. Today fewer than 10% of the computers in our Catholic schools are Apple computers.
But Apple products are making a comeback. Our PowerSchool student information management system is powered by an Apple G-5 server. Apple’s iPod and iTunes products have powered the concept of music and video-on-the-go as well as the modern explosion of podcasting, whatever that is. Apple brand names are considered hip and innovative.
Today of course, computers, video streaming, and handheld technologies are so much a part of education that someone who chooses not to use them is akin to a teacher thirty years after the invention of the printing press refusing to use books as a teaching tool. He might still be a very fine teacher, but his students would not know how to learn from him because his language would seem like “Greek” to them.
Many of us oldsters will never know what to make of computers, but there is no doubt that schools owe a great debt to Apple for making computers easy to use for children, teens, and troglodytes alike. So, Happy 30th Birthday, Apple. You have changed education forever -- and for the better.
(4/21/06)

**Getting serious about our temples of the Holy Spirit

Bob Voboril, Superintendent of Schools
My generation has been the most privileged in history because we are the largest. We could also be called the generation in denial because we think that the laws of nature don’t apply to us. As youngsters we lived as though there were no tomorrow -- believing we could experiment with drugs and not get hurt; be sexually active and no one would get pregnant; party all night and expect someone to give us college credit for our escapades and experiments. We sat in, we marched, we boycotted, and we rebelled.
Today we have the most, we consume the most, and we want (and expect) more. We couch potatoes are overweight because we eat too much fat and sugar; we exercise too infrequently; and yet we think that because modern medicine can reduce our blood pressure and cholesterol, we can ignore the inevitable law of nature that bad health habits lead to bad health. We not only don’t believe we’ll ever die; we don’t think we’ll ever get old. If I had hair, you know that I’d probably dye it.
As a result, our children now have the title of being the most obese children in history. Our children are more likely to have allergies, diabetes, and chronic ailments because they are imitating their parents’ foolish habits.
Your diocesan superintendent is a prime specimen. I’m all for alcohol-free and tobacco-free buildings because I don’t smoke and don’t have time to drink. But because I can outwork anyone, I excuse my junk food diet, my two caffeinated soft drinks a day, and my daily chocolate fix -- and the 50-pound spare tire I wear around my middle. And my sons eat just as foolishly as their dad does.
It’s time for all of us to get serious about wellness.
Within the last two years, the United States Congress reauthorized the National School Lunch Act on the condition that each state adopt a wellness policy from which each school district would develop its own wellness policy to take effect July 1, 2006. On March 11, the Diocesan Catholic School Council completed work on the diocesan wellness policy. Principals have been providing input on the implementation guidelines for several months, and some of them, which are required in the state guidelines, will surprise you.
The sale or vending of “foods of minimum nutritional value” (FMNV) will be prohibited during the lunch period. Portion sizes of foods, beverages, and entrees are regulated. Students must have a minimum of 15 minutes sitting down to eat lunch.
No foods and beverages offered at school-sponsored activities and events can be FMNVs. This includes Valentine’s Day parties, Christmas parties, and celebration/reward events. Snacks served to the younger children and to latchkey students must meet regulations for portion-size and exclude FMNVs. Adults may not bring in purchased meals for students.
Students are to receive a minimum of 60 minutes of physical education and/or organized recess each week.
And here is my personal favorite: Each school is to develop a staff wellness plan and implement activities that improve staff wellness. With all the things schools are asked to do these days, a wellness policy would seem to be the last thing educators need. However, healthier teachers would be more productive and would miss fewer days of work. What’s good for the children is good for us adults.
To be honest, all I need to do is look at my own waistline to know that it is time to make schools healthier places to eat and to learn. Was it not St. Paul who asked the Corinthians, “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you?” (Corinthians 6:19). I don’t know about you, but my temple could use a lot of work.
(4/14/06)

**Learning to be a family from a hometown family

By Bob Voboril
John Paul II liked to say that “with God there are no coincidences.” He was right.
If you are a music aﬁcionado, you might know that Antonin Dvorak completed his New World Symphony in the Czech village of Spillville, in northeast Iowa.
Folk artists may be aware of Spillville’s other claim to fame. On a farm north of Spillville, two bachelor farmers, brothers Joe and Frank Bily, used their winter months to carve some of the most impressive clocks ever made. Today thousands ﬂock to Spillville to enjoy the Bily Brothers Clock Museum.
The Bilys were an unusual family. Joe and Frank, their sister Anna, and their brother John never married. The lived their entire lives with their parents as family, rarely going even as far as Spillville, seemingly closed off from the world to protect a disabled brother and to take care of each other. Yet they still produced remarkable art that has stood the test of time.
About ten years ago, Duane Hutchinson captured their story in a book called “The Bily Brothers.” I bought it as a Christmas present for a family even more wonderful than the Bilys -- the Bauer family of Omaha.
Like the Bilys, none of the Bauer children -- Marie, Betty, Ann, Joe, and Josephine -- ever married, and, except for Joe’s World War II stint, never lived away from each other. Now all in their 80s, they may seem to be relics of some other age, but even now they continue to teach the Voborils, eight chiefs and no Indians, how to be a family.
I ﬁrst met the Bauers when I joined St. Wenceslaus Parish in Omaha in 1975. When we started to have children, Pam’s mother had already passed away and my mother was a widow still raising three teenagers of her own. So the Bauers took us under their wing. Joe was Katie’s godfather; Betty is godmother to her namesake. Whenever our unruly tribe would descend upon the Bauers’ genteel home, out would come snacks, games, treats, and above all else, warmth and graciousness. You see, the Bauers loved us without condition. Just like God.
The Bauers also loved St. Wenceslaus Parish and their Czech heritage. They helped organize the parish centennial in 1977. Josephine and Betty edited my ﬁrst book, the parish history. Joe and I were the parish trustees who engineered the relocation of the parish from its downtown neighborhood to Omaha’s booming west side where today it boasts the largest Catholic grade school in Nebraska. For decades they were generous to their alma maters, especially Mercy High School.
The four sisters are elegant ladies. Their home and their ﬂower gardens are showpieces. They baked us Christmas cookies with ingredients from Neiman Marcus. They always had their hair done and wore dresses and nylons, even in the middle of the week. They ate from china with real silverware. They taught us Czech hymns and prayers.
Our girls admired their Kròje, native Czech dresses. The boys were fascinated with Joe’s shortwave radio from which he tracked daily events on Wall Street, as well as his dress shoes that he still wore from his days in the Navy.
On Feb. 16, Marie died at the age of 88. The remaining four are in their 80s. Hard decisions about selling their home and ﬁnding affordable care for their twilight years are now on the immediate horizon. It was Joe who taught me to “plan your work and then work your plan.” Now their plan is to go to a place where they can be together and take care of each other.
If Pam and I had our way, we would live next door so Pam, a nurse, could care for them as they took care of us. The Bauer family taught us how to be family, and in so doing they became family to us. We love them, and as John Paul II would agree, that is no coincidence. It is a gift of the heart that has stood the test of time.
(3/17/06)

**Collaboration at the intersections and crossroads of life

By Bob Voboril
During a recent series of meetings with legislators in Topeka, I concluded that we have reached a dangerous intersection in the journey of Catholic schools in the State of Kansas. Since 1955, our bishops have committed us to state accreditation and to meeting the same standards as public schools without any of the resources that public schools have available. With this year’s court-ordered injection of $750 million on top of the $3-4 billion already spent on public education each year, the competition is no longer fair.
There are two options. We can withdraw from state accreditation and the challenging standards it upholds. Or we can start demanding fairer treatment from state policymakers. It seems to me that it is time for Catholics to get up off their collective backsides and choose option 2.
Bishop Jackels is onto something. Ever since he arrived eleven months ago, he has made “collaboration” a priority for all diocesan services. I serve on a teaching team with the directors of the Office of Religious Education, Youth and Young Adult Ministries, Totus Tuus, and the Spiritual Life Center. The diocesan chancellor, Father John Brungardt, is our moderator. All the other diocesan agencies are similarly organized.
I have been in the Diocese long enough to know what the offices on my team are supposed to be doing, but by meeting and reporting to each other monthly, we can discuss common challenges, find ways to support each other, and understand each other’s perspective. Bishop Jackels’ encouragement of collaboration can only serve the people of the Diocese well.
In mid-February, I visited St. Anastasia Parish in Waukegan, Ill., one of Chicago’s northern suburbs. St. Anastasia’s was once an Irish Catholic parish, but today serves an increasing number of Mexican, Filipino, and middle-income Anglo families. The pastor is Filipino; the associate pastor is Vietnamese. Yet somewhere in that polyglot mix, the people of St. “Annie’s” are finding ways to work together -- to collaborate.
This was my fifth visit to the Archdiocese of Chicago, but even though the school situation there is desperate financially, I am struck that there, as well as everywhere else I go in the United States, Catholics want to grow in their faith; they want their parishes to get stronger; they want their schools to be better. They also want to learn from our diocese. As Cardinal George told Bishop Gerber just after my first visit to Chicago two years ago, “Chicago now listens to Wichita.”
On my flight back to Wichita from Chicago, I discovered that I was seated in the middle of a delegation of nine Kapaun Mount Carmel students returning from Washington, D.C. You can imagine how thrilled senior Tyler Manson of Church of the Magdalen Parish must have been to know he would be riding 683 miles seated next to his diocesan superintendent!
These Crusaders are classy young people who represent their school well. Tyler wants to attend Belmont University in Nashville and study music business administration. Cooper Lewis, who was sitting in front of me, is interested in the directing side of theater, and is looking at schools on the West Coast.
All the students were thrilled that the Kapaun Mount Carmel boys’ basketball team had defeated their archrivals (Bishop Carroll) and were hoping for the same outcome against their next-door neighbors (Wichita Collegiate). Thanks to modern electronics, they already seemed to know that Bishop Carroll and Kapaun Mount Carmel had finished 1-2 in the state Scholars’ Bowl competition a few hours earlier.
It heartened me that Cooper was so complimentary of the Carroll team (a Carroll team member whose house I live in also had only good things to say about Kapaun Mount Carmel). Maybe if all the parents and alumni of the two schools could be as respectful of each other as are our outstanding high school students, the high school climate in Wichita could always be deserving of the name Catholic.
As I reflected on the weekend’s events, starting in Topeka on Thursday and culminating in a delayed late night flight from Chicago to Wichita, I realized how astute Bishop Jackels is. Collaboration at the intersections and crossroads of life is no longer an ideal; it is an obligation and a blessing.
(3/03/06)

**Catholic Diocese of Wichita home page