Most Reverend Rembert G. Weakland, O.S.B.

Archbishop of Milwaukee

Catholic Schools Dinner

Marquette University Alumni Memorial Union

Milwaukee, Wisconsin

February 23, 1998

In considering the purpose of Catholic education, I would first like to make three important points and then put forth three challenges.

First of all, the purposes. Why do we put so much money and effort into our school system? I ask the question not just in our archdiocese now as we head toward the year 2000, but as part of the Church's tradition for centuries. I still think it is because we feel there is no such thing as knowledge out there that somehow is not very precious to our faith and to the eyes of God. We feel the faith we have touches every aspect of life and, therefore, should be reflected in all aspects of education.

We are proud as Catholics for the fact that we try to educate the whole person - the intellect, the will, the body, the spirit. And I hope that aspect of Catholic education, that wholeness of the person, would certainly survive into the future. I become increasingly worried as I visit schools and find kids spending all day long staring at computers. There is more to life than technology. The wholeness of the human person has to be cared for - body, spirit, intellect, will, everything - and I would not want us to lost that in our competitiveness to get more and more technology into our schools.

Secondly, I believe it is important to train leaders in our Catholic schools with values for the society of tomorrow. I say leaders with values. This is why I have always been fond of PAVE (Partners Advancing Values in Education) as an acronym. I think the values element is very important. We need not just people who know how to lead, but people who also articulate values that are so needed in our society. We want to educate leaders who can articulate those values and be persuasive.

The third purpose I see for Catholic schools is larger, and that is to be able to contribute to the whole society. This is one reason why we have never said that Catholic schools are only for Catholic pupils. In fact, if you look at many of our schools in the Central City or near the Central City, you will find many of those students are not Catholic.

That's not what is important to us. We want to contribute to society the expertise and experience in education we have developed over so many centuries. Our purpose is not just training Catholics to be leaders in society, but to make a contribution to the whole of society by training all those who come to us.

I also have three challenges. I didn't want this evening to pass with just talking about our glories. We do that at Catholic Schools Dinners, and that's all right; we should also take advantage of this moment to rev up our morale a bit. On the other hand, we also need to look at the challenges facing us into the future.

The first very important challenge for all of us is how we are going to be able to serve, and serve well, the very diverse population - diversity of races, ethnicity, sociological and economic status. I always have the fear that, as we move into the future, we could end up educating only the upper middle class and the wealthy, that we don't have the money for the poor. We must make sure we continue to education everyone.

It is not always easy to educate a group that is ethnically so diverse as we have now. John Norquist cited a school such as St. Anthony's on the south side where we have an Anglo population, a Spanish population, a Vietnamese population - they are all God's children and all have to be educated and educated well. That is the first challenge we must keep before us.

My second challenge might surprise you. This is the challenge of how we are going to be able to pay all of our teachers as they should be paid. I would like to make sure we keep before us, as we move into the future, the need for adequate salaries for all those who work in our Catholic schools. This challenge could be true of anything in the Catholic Church, but tonight it's the school system we are talking about. We have to do more for our teachers. It is probably only now we are beginning to appreciate how much the Sisters did for us in those old days. I won't say "good old days," just old days. We all relied on the Sisters and took for granted all they did, assuming they would always be there.

In the 20 years I have been in the archdiocese, we have gone from a school system that had so many Sisters to a school system that is now staffed almost totally by laity. It means we have to learn to pay adequate salaries to these lay people and at the same time help them continue to carry on our great Catholic tradition. There is no reason lay people cannot continue that tradition. But they must have the wherewithal to do so, and they must be able to continue their own education in that tradition. That's my second challenge; it is mostly to deal with faculty. I think you would all agree the quality of the school depends greatly on the quality of its teachers, and we want the very best in terms of those teachers.

My third challenge is the one of funding - providing adequate funding for all of this enterprise. I am speaking tonight about schools because I think that is essential for whom and what we are as a Church today. I could also talk about adequate funding in regard to many other projects in which we are involved, but schools require an enormous amount of funding. It is important that every Catholic see the schools and all our institutions as sacred trusts for the whole community.

I don't think there is such a thing as a parish without a school. Any parish that has people must have some kind of educational outlets and opportunities and has to be responsible for all the kids in all of these schools. We do this in public life. We pay our taxes even thought we might not use all of those facilities we pay for. It is taken for granted as a part of being a citizen. And, as a part of being a citizen of the Church, it means we take care of our sacred trusts. Schools are certainly one of these. So it is the responsibility of the whole Church to look after institutions such as our schools and to keep them adequately funded.

In doing this we know that often we cannot do it ourselves. Therefore, we have to make sure we do it in collaboration with the larger civic community. Again, I want to thank all those who have been involved in helping us raise money to keep those schools going and keep them in high quality. I thank the members of the civic community for being so close to us in that endeavor.

Lastly, of course, in that same area - funding. We continue to ask that the wall between the Church and State not be interpreted to mean we cannot have the funding we need for our parents to pick the school they want for educating their children. So we will continue. I am sure, to push for choice in education.

So, my three challenges are these: How we are going to be able to care for the diverse population and make sure we are educating all in that wonderful ethnic variety that has made us so important in the past and continues to do so; how we are going to be able to reach all of those students? Secondly, how are we going to be able to help our staffs constantly become more knowledgeable about the Catholic tradition, and how will we pay them adequately? And the third challenge is to find the funding we need to care for all this into the future.

I don't want to end, though, on a note of funding. Pastors never like to do that. It's not a good sign when the last thing you talk about is money, even though that might be the most important thing on your mind at the time. Instead I want to say how important it is for everyone present - not just those in our schools, but everyone present - to make sure the faith we received in our Catholic school education becomes exemplified in our lives.

I talk about preparing leaders for the future, but the future is with us. You are that future as well as that present, so it means you and I, all of us, have to model this kind of society right here and now. It means you and I have to be especially concerned about the least in our society, those who aren't making it, those who have the most needs. They are the ones we have to reach out to in every way and especially in education. I am proud of our tradition. I am proud of the tradition here in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, and I hope that tradition will continue. I pray that tradition will continue into the future. I know I can count on you to make it happen.