Over the course of the summer, there is always a lot of quiet work being carried out in the diocese. I am thinking particularly of the efforts of our Catholic schools to prepare for the coming school year. Plans for classes, finalizing staffing, cleaning and renovating buildings … all of these are part of the efforts to be ready when the bell rings to start the next semester.

Catholic education has been one of the defining elements of the life of the Catholic Church in the United States for nearly 200 years. Pope Benedict XVI, speaking in May to a group of visiting bishops from the United States, highlighted the Catholic schools in the United States calling them, “an essential resource for the new evangelization.” And he went on to say, to the bishops, “providing young people with a sound education in the faith represents the most urgent internal challenge facing the Catholic community in your country.”

As usual, there is much wisdom in what the Holy Father had to say. Individuals, families, parishes and dioceses make great efforts to support the instruction of our young people in the Catholic faith. If a parish does not have a school, it almost certainly sponsors a religious education program. This underscores one of the primary duties of faith for each generation; that is the preservation and the passing on in complete fidelity of the belief and teaching of the Catholic Church entrusted to us by Christ and continually guided by the Holy Spirit.

That gets to the heart of Catholic education and to why we put such emphasis and expend so many resources on our Catholic schools. Before anything else, we are to make Christ known and loved. The Church that he established ensures our union with Jesus. By teaching our young people the Catholic faith, we prepare them well for the greatest final exam; the one that takes place when Christ calls us to himself and asks us how we have loved him.

Catholic education also gives a foundation and support for understanding and responding to the challenges of the modern world. One of the common methods of attack that tries to draw our young people away from the faith is to say that world is now modern and that faith, and especially the Catholic faith, is out of date, unable to keep up with the world of today. This argument is used especially to sow doubts about Catholic moral teaching.

But the more we study and understand our Catholic faith, the more we understand its origins, its wisdom, and why it teaches us as it does. With that understanding we can more ably and confidently testify to the world. Catholic education helps form our young people to remain faithful to Christ, and to contribute to the world as well.

This element of Catholic identity is a hallmark of Catholic education. It is what separates the schools related to the Catholic Church from other excellent schools that are simply private. If we are not instilling in our Catholic young people a love for the Church and for their Catholic identity, our Catholic school system would be a failure, no matter how well its students would master “reading and writing and ’rithmatic.”

I am proud of our Catholic schools and the history of support for them in the Diocese of Rockford and I look forward to working to strengthen Catholic education. Please join me in praying for and supporting our students, teachers, administrators and staff as they help to prepare our young people to pass the one great Final Exam.