This week we have celebrated National Catholic Schools Week.

Yes, I know we all get a bit fatigued by the annual cycle of national days or weeks or months dedicated to particular themes. But I hope that National Catholic Schools Week truly does stand out.

When Pope Benedict XVI made his Apostolic Visit to the United States in 2008, he made a point of meeting, at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., with teachers and administrators representing Catholic education. He wanted to underscore its importance to our young people who are receiving a Catholic education.

Similarly, Pope John Paul II, when visiting our country in 1995, went out of his way to stress the importance of Catholic education in the United States.

The attention even from the popes demonstrates that our system of Catholic schools in the United States is a subject of great interest and appreciation at the highest levels of the Church. In fact, having lived abroad for many years, I can attest to widespread marvel and pride generated by our system of Catholic education.

I have been visiting some of our parish grade schools to experience the joy and the sacrifices that have made those schools possible.

For example, recently I had the opportunity to offer an all-school Mass and visit the classrooms at St. Therese of Jesus Grade School in Aurora. It was a joy to meet with the students, the principal, the teachers and the parents.

They shared with me and with Father Michael Miller, MCS, their pastor, about their dedication and efforts to continue offering Catholic education to our children. I encouraged them and told them that I would like to come again next year to help support that good work.

I urged them, as I urge all Catholic parents, to consider strongly the advantages of sending their children to a Catholic school. The teaching of the faith and the formation in our Catholic heritage is a blessing for our youngsters. That is true for both grade school and high school.

And if attending a Catholic school is not possible, our parishes make great efforts to offer instruction and formation for our young people through our religious education programs.

Perhaps now, more than ever in the history of our country, Catholic education is of paramount value.

As we see constantly, there is a growing secularism in the world and in our society. We are witnessing a slow shifting from a shared Judeo-Christian foundation of our country to a growing exclusion of God from the public square (and so some seem to hope, from our private lives).

Most specifically, our children and young people are the primary targets of secularization. And, we must admit, society is having no small amount of success in drawing our young people away from a life based in God, prayer and moral virtues.

But that is what makes Catholic education all the more important. Our young people, and we ourselves, need to have that sense of confidence that flows from the knowledge and living of God’s presence and His teaching in the world.

The more we know Jesus personally and the more deeply we understand our Catholic faith, the more sense life and the world itself make to us. Catholic education, and Catholic schools, are an invaluable resource against the secularizing challenges of our time.

Many parishes struggle to keep their schools open. They take a lot of financial and personal resources. But given the importance of our young people and the challenges to their faith, the effort is worth it.

Thanks to all the parishes, individuals and families who work to keep our Catholic schools going. Thanks also to all the teachers and administrators. And thanks to all the priests and pastors who work in Catholic education in the Diocese of Rockford.

We remember all of you in our prayers during Catholic Schools Week!