" -- The Message -- for Cath(
New elements were "
celebrations at many churches
Evansville during Holy Week
son.
At St. Anthony Church,
upper left, new members
be baptized during the
Saturday. Father John E
Robinson. ::
Steven Burch and Jessica
take part in a hand-washing €
Supper involving sixth-grac
students at St. John Church,
Ministers of Sacred
tion of Sherri Haas, enact
John Church,
ticipants include Mary
ter, Alissa Halter, Jeff Wedng;
Julie Haas, Sarah Haas and
Complex,
volving Grace Arvin
Shirley Jeffers Ji
Catherine Larman,
Top right,
emontary
Catholic edu cators praised, challenged at annual NCEA coy
, By:CAROL ZlMMERMANN
: : i'Catholic News Service
PHILADELPHIA (CNS)
Themore than 17,000 Catholic
educators who met in Philadel-
phia April 9-12 for the National
Catholic Educational Associa-
"tion o'nvention were praised
for putting their faith into ac-
tion and challenged not to rest
on their laurels.
During the opening day of
"the 93rd annual convention,
NCEA delegates who braved
Philadelphia's unexpected cold
rain and snow were urged to
draw on their own faith to help
their students•
Norbertine Father Alfred
McBride, an educator, lecturer
and author, said students must
not only come to see faith as a
personal relationship with God,
but as something that makes
them part of a great chain of
believers."
"Faith is belief in the mes-
sage of Christ and his church,"
he said in the keynote address.
"It is not an either/or action.
Faith embraces both belief in
the person of Jesus and belief
in the message of Jesus."
Former U.S. Surgeon Gen-
eral Antonia Novello, the
keynote speaker April 10, fo-
cused on the need t0 bring
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today's students up to speed
with the rest of the world.
• She noted that the majority
of young people today are un-
able to compete on a global
market because so many of
them do not know basic skills
such as calculating fractions or
reading a map.
Educators can change this,
she said, if they "aggressively
prepare students for a new
global world and the needs of a
new age."
She acknowledged that
today's teachers encounter
more demands than ever be-
fore. They not only have to deal
with gang violence and teen
pregnancies, she said, but they
also must "parent and police
their students, which detracts
from their teaching•"
In the face of such chal-
lenges, she urged Catholic edu-
cators to "keep up the momen-
tum" and not to "fall prey to
complacency."
Cokie Roberts, ABC News
corresPondent, who had 12
years of Catholic education,
also warned the conventmn del-
egates not to be too self-satis-
fied with their work.
During the April 11 general
session she told the educators
they had "every reason to con-
gratulate themselves and be
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proud of their work," but she
also warned about the "danger
of getting smug and thinking
that the way you do things is
the only way."
"We always have to learn
while we teach," she said,
pointing out that reporters are
teachers too.
She described her own edu-
cation as "truly wonderful" not
only due to its "intellectual
rigor," but primarily because
the sisters who taught her were
"women in the '50s who took
women seriously."
"They believed we could be
anything we wanted to be, ex-
cept priests, and instilled in us
a strong sense of duty to
achieve," she said.
The legacy of these women
and the sisters who founded re-
ligious orders continues in
Catholic schools today, she
said, ."especially in inner cities,
where Catholic schools take up
the slack in enormous fashion•"
And the work of Catholic
schools does not go unnoticed
either. "The whole conversation
today about values in education
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ing in Catholic schools," she
added.
But even if Catholic schools
are on the cutting edge with
their values-based education,
they can never be popular and
still remain integrally Catholic,
said Christian Brother Patrick
Ellis, president of The Catholic
University of America in Wash-
ington.
Brother Ellis, who delivered
the closing address at the con-
vention, said any hope for
Catholicism to gain popularity
in the larger society diminished
in the '60s and then all but dis-
appeared with the 1973 U.S.
Supreme Court decision legal-
izing abortion.
With the Roe vs. Wade deci-
sion, in particular, Catholic
schools had to "start taking po-
sitions that were against popu-
lar opinion," he said.
But the •college president
said the unique distinction of
Catholic schools provides them
with special opportunities. For
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