Salt Lake diocese celebrates Catholic Schools Week

Friday, Feb. 05, 2016

SALT LAKE CITY — National Catholic Schools Week was celebrated throughout the United States from Jan. 31 to Feb. 6.

With the theme “Catholic Schools: Communities of Faith, Knowledge and Service,” the 16 Catholic schools in the Diocese of Salt Lake City celebrated the week with Masses, open houses and other activities for students, families, parishioners and community members.

“Most of our schools used that theme and emphasized those three things,” said Mark Longe, superintendent of Utah Catholic Schools.

Through different events schools focused on the value that Catholic education provides to young people, and its contributions to the local Church and communities.

“We have approximately 55,000 students enrolled in our Catholics schools [in Utah]; if they were in a public system it would cost around $35 million to educate those kids,” said Longe, adding that the Catholics schools provide unique services.

“We do provide a quality education, but more important we have a mission. … We have mandate from our Church to assist parents in the Catholic formation of the children – that is first and foremost our first goal, but of course part of that healthy formation is providing them with the best possible academic and social experience that they can have as well,” said Longe.

All of the Catholic schools in Utah are affiliated with the  National Catholic Education Association, which released some statistics; for example, nationally,  graduation rates for secondary Catholic schools are 99 percent, while for public schools it is 78.2 percent. 

The rates spike even more for those who go on to attend college: Catholic school graduates attend college at a 85.7 percent rate compared to 39.5 percent from the public school system. (The data does not include community colleges, technical schools or those enlisted in the armed forces).

There are three Catholic high schools, 13 Catholic elementary/middle schools and five Catholic pre-schools in Utah. Catholic Schools Week was an opportunity to celebrate all of them as well to “celebrate within our community the gift of Catholic education,” said Longe.

Throughout the week the local Catholic school students, faculty and families celebrated in their parishes and in the community.

“We celebrated and tried to get the word out to the general community in which our schools are located,” said Longe.

Throughout the week schools celebrated Mass with the community, donated goods for programs such as the Good Samaritan and the food banks, prayed together for vocations and for teachers and teacher aides. Also, parents ate lunch with their kids at the schools, among other activities.