At Crisis there is a wonderful piece about the revival of a dying Catholic school through the application of – dare I say it – Catholic common sense. HERE
The school is attached to Sacred Heart parish in Grand Rapids, MI where Fr. Robert Sirico (also of Acton Institute) was pastor until his recent retirement.
When he arrived the school was moribund. When he retired it was thriving. They even opened a high school! People are moving there because of the school. Fr. Sirico talks about the changes they made.
Perhaps priests with parish schools and lay people involved in them should read this article and carefully weigh the implications.
Loading ...
With parents being investigated by the FBI for asking questions at school board meetings, the market for this sort of thing is only going to grow.
And Sacred Heart Academy is even better than it sounds here. The liberal arts/classical curriculum is key to grounding a fully Catholic culture. This parish also hosts Authenticum Lectures open to public with great Catholic speakers. They have First Friday/Saturday parish Holy Hours with fun, food, and family get-together beforehand. So . . . learning, education, catechesis, and community. Every Catholic parish should be so vibrant that a school is necessary just to keep up!
And Sacred Heart Academy is even better than it sounds here. The liberal arts/classical curriculum is key to grounding a fully Catholic culture. This parish also hosts Authenticum Lectures open to public with great Catholic speakers. They have First Friday/Saturday parish Holy Hours with fun, food, and family get-together beforehand. So . . . learning, education, catechesis, and community. Every Catholic parish should be so vibrant that a school is necessary just to keep up!
This is great, and a great comment from adriennep.
As the public schools actively push students out, I pray there are many excellent, truly Catholic schools popping up to welcome the talented, the virtuous and give them proper educations! Classical education is the best. And uniforms are smart. Stop dumbing the children down. No more Common Core! No more everyone wins. These kids have brains, get them debating and thinking!
And likewise with all the good people being pushed out of the workforce. What makes these people great employees (their values, work ethic, high standards) is now forcing them to leave their jobs because they refuse to be pushed around. A great loss for the businesses unless they smarten up. God made us free! God will provide!
I’ve visited this parish when in town for Acton Institute events and there are wonderful things happening there. Kudos to Fr. Sirico for all his hard work.
I’ve visited this parish when in town for Acton Institute events and there are wonderful things happening there. Kudos to Fr. Sirico for all his hard work.
I have visited this church and it is wonderful to see what they are doing. I currently teach at a Catholic School elsewhere in Michigan that recently made the switch to classical education. The new principal and priest, and, subsequently, new teachers, have made tremendous change to the school and the hearts of the students who attend. We have grown bigger each year and have a vibrant, faithful community. Very uplifting to see and be a part of!
I have visited this church and it is wonderful to see what they are doing. I currently teach at a Catholic School elsewhere in Michigan that recently made the switch to classical education. The new principal and priest, and, subsequently, new teachers, have made tremendous change to the school and the hearts of the students who attend. We have grown bigger each year and have a vibrant, faithful community. Very uplifting to see and be a part of!
I had to be in Grand Rapids for business that ran over the weekend, and searched around for a TLM mass that would be safe (knowing the reputation of dioceses in Michigan). I discovered that Sacred Heart had a mass, and that Fr. Sirico was the pastor. I knew his name from his work at the Acton Institute. I couldn’t make the TLM, but hit the later NO mass, which was beautiful, (and full), and Fr. Sirico’s homily was very solid. I was totally impressed with with what he had done with the parish.
Admittedly, one single priest cannot “do it all” by himself. But one priest who is a pastor, and is not TOO heavily interfered with by the bishop, can accomplish wonders (with grace, but then grace will be granted where prayers are offered and hard work is put in). And Fr. Sirico managed to do all this alongside of his active apostolate with the Acton Institute, which is impressive in its own right. This is the kind of productivity that we often see from saints who are “in the world” rather than in cloisters.
Pingback: Zap Big Pulpit – Big Pulpit
Did y’all know that Fr. Sirico is the brother of actor Tony Sirico (“Paulie” on The Sopranos)? Talented family.
Pingback: MONDAY EDITION – Big Pulpit
This is outstanding. Well done to Fr. Sirico and Veronica Nygaard.
“The visitor [to Sacred Heart Academy in Grand Rapids] said, “This is incredible. This is like looking into the past.”
“Fr. Robert Sirico, then the pastor of Sacred Heart Parish, replied, “No, what you’re looking at is the future.””
…
“Every day begins with Mass- this is the parish Mass…it’s a real Mass, not a kid’s Mass. There is silence with the Mass, and so beginning the day with that kind of prayer is very enriching. It sets the tone for the entire day.”
…
“”Know your community. It is important at the outset to know that you are building more than a school; you are building a culture.” Further, it’s important to find the right people to help you, “because you will need many different types of people with diverse talents.””
Thus, “Dads on Duty” at a school in Shreveport:
https://www.twitter.com/DudespostingWs/status/1452616626612883466
In our current predicament there are a myriad of details, errors and situations to be addressed- given our fallen nature some will never be fully addressed- but allow me to paraphrase Linus: “Praising God and Dad Jokes, that’s what a healthy civilization is all about, Charlie Brown.”
Thank you Fr. Z and commenters.
Last Friday the National School Boards Association issued a letter apologizing for previously slurring concerned parents as “domestic terrorists.”
All Glory be to God. We persist, so “that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom and government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
A buddy raises an interesting point: Edmund Burke and “little platoons.”
Edmund Burke wrote skeptically in 1790 about the bloody French Revolution which made an idol of the secular State.
“Little platoons” are voluntary associations of men and women at the local level. (Some observers emphasize that these little platoons are “families” or “social class”- regardless, they are, per Burke, a “portion of social arrangement”). Little platoons are an antidote to Statism and worship of the State. As Burke wrote, little platoons are a natural source of “public affections,” and an expression of both Charity and patriotism:
“To be attached to the subdivision, to love the little platoon we belong to in society, is the first principle (the germ, as it were) of public affections. It is the first link in the series by which we proceed towards a love to our country and to mankind. The interest of that portion of social arrangement is a trust in the hands of all those who compose it; and as none but bad men would justify it in abuse, none but traitors would barter it away for their own personal advantage.”
Edmund Burke was born to Catholic-Protestant parents. He was a Christian who recognized God as the foundation of civil society. Burke rejected atheism:
“We cannot be ignorant of the spirit of atheistical fanaticism, that is inspired by a multitude of writings dispersed with incredible assiduity and expense, and by sermons [i.e. zealous atheist agit-prop] delivered in all the streets and places of public resort in Paris. These writings and sermons have filled the populace with a black and savage atrocity of mind, which supersedes in them the common feelings of Nature, as well as all sentiments of morality and religion.”
I am not familiar with the faith of the men in the CBS Evening News video linked above, but that’s Ok. Their actions and dispositions are certainly comparable to a little platoon (or with seven or so men on duty at once, a squad- contrast that chivalrous squad with the “traitorous” Squad in Congress).
Interestingly, CBS, which almost exclusively “sermonizes” for the secular State, socialist politics, feminism (while denigrating femininity), costly social programs and against individual freedoms and the family, broadcast a positive account of chivalrous masculinity, a tax-free solution to a social problem, promoted a local initiative over a Big Government program, and highlighted the importance of fathers. Excellent.
In last year’s Espinoza vs Montana Dept. of Revenue the Supreme Court ruled under the Free Exercise Clause that states cannot discriminate against faith-based schools from participating in private school choice or charter programs.