'Listen To Them; They Can Teach Us'

In his homily during the Feb. 3 Mass to celebrate Catholic Schools Week, Bishops Charles C. Thompson mentioned comments from Pope Francis about what we all must do in reaching out to help those most in need – including the homeless and others “in the margins.” He included the following quote from our Holy Father: “Listen to them; they can teach us.”

Those “in the margins” aren’t the only group with the ability to teach us. Another was represented in the full sanctuary of St. Benedict Cathedral in Evansville that morning. Let us all listen to the students in the classrooms of our 26 Catholic schools. Without question, they also can teach us – maybe more than we realize.

Comments I read in reporter Megan Erbacher’s story on the Mass for Evansville’s Courier & Press prompted this column. Among others, Erbacher talked to Ava St. Pere, an eighth-grader at Annunciation School who attends classes at the Christ the King Campus.

“We’ve done a lot of reflecting on what it means to be Catholic,” St. Pere said. “And why our education is so much more important and special than it would be if we were just at a public school.

“We can talk about it,” St. Pere said of having her Catholic faith as a classroom focus. “And we can learn more about it.”

Do you have children in one (or more) of our Catholic schools? Do you have grandchildren, or maybe nieces and nephews? If you answered any of those yes, would you indulge a request?

Sometime soon, in a casual setting – maybe over dinner or on a drive to some event – ask those students to talk about something they have learned about their faith that they find important or special.

I don’t have any idea what they’ll say; but whatever it is, I’m guessing you’ll learn something from their response. You may hear about some tenet of our faith that you haven’t thought about in a long time. You may hear about a prayer you pray often, or a devotion that is special to you.

No matter the answer, you will learn from those school students. They can help all of us rediscover our lovely Catholic beliefs from a new viewpoint – that of someone who has grown up in the most “connected” generation in the history of civilization.

Our school-aged students have more ways to spend time that any generation before them. They have more technology – literally at their fingertips – than any previous generation. They have more opportunities to avoid their faith than anyone who preceded them.

St. Pere, however, is not unique. Spend some time in any of our Catholic schools, and you’ll see that first-hand. Our school families are raising men and women who will, by and large, continue to be engaged in Catholicism and grow closer to God – day after day.

We really would do well to listen to them because they can teach us how to recapture that important spark of faith.