Catholic Schools Week: Bishop Solis’s Message for Catholic Schools Week

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Greetings of Christ’s love and peace! Dioceses throughout the nation are celebrating the annual Catholic Schools Week from Jan. 28 to Feb. 3 this year. The theme is, “Catholic Schools: United in Faith and Community,” highlighting the significant role of our schools in the Church’s mission of evangelization. The core vision and mission of Catholic education is building a faith-filled community with Christ as its foundation.

A distinctive aspect of Catholic education is its focus on the holistic formation of our students, which is formation of the mind and transformation of the heart through their personal encounter with Christ in their lives and experiences at school. The integration of prayer and moral values as important components of their learning and living helps students gain knowledge and wisdom to become not only good and productive citizens but saints in the making.

The effective blending of faith, moral values and education not only equips our students to pursue good grades, it also prepares them for life, so that they can apply what they have experienced beyond their classrooms and share it with their family and greater community as a leaven of change and instrument of transformation in helping build a better world.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church states that, “The Eucharist is ‘the source and summit’ of the Christian life” (CCC 1324). The centrality and celebration of the Holy Mass is very important as the fountain of God’s blessings and foundation for our students as well as for our faculty, staff and school families. Hence, the Eucharist must be at the heart of Catholic education and of our identity.

Finally, with the Utah Fits All Scholarship Program initiated by the state legislature this year, God blesses us to be able to extend further the benefits of Catholic education, especially to low-income families. I ask all pastors to help guide parishioners to make our Catholic Schools as their other option or choice for their children’s education.

I am very grateful to all parents for your trust in sending your children to our Catholic Schools, and for its leaders – superintendents, principals, faculty and staff – for their diligent efforts, as well as the strong support of our pastors, parishioners and benefactors. Our unity as a community of faith makes this year’s Catholic Schools Week not only feasible as a dream but a reality.

Congratulations and prayerful wishes of a grace-filled Catholic Schools Week 2024. May our loving God continue to bless our mission to bear more fruit.