The Catholic Spirit asked Archbishop Bernard Hebda to describe the Roadmap for Excellence in Catholic Education and to explain how he hopes it shapes Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. He shared his responses by email.
Q. What is the Roadmap for Catholic education?
A. It is essentially a tool that will guide and coordinate the strategic approach of the archdiocese over the next several years to the important work of Catholic schools.
Q. What is the goal?
A. Mothers and fathers need partners in the education of their children. Through a united effort across the archdiocese, parishes partner with families in making Catholic schools available and accessible. The Roadmap for Catholic Education will help the archdiocese sequence steps over the next several years in an effort to ensure that parents and parishes have support that they can count on in Catholic schools now and in the years ahead.
continue at The Catholic Spirit
Related:
St. Paul Seminary launches new Institute for Catholic School Leadership
The St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity has named Father Joseph Taphorn of Omaha, Nebraska, as its 15th rector.
He succeeds Msgr. Aloysius Callaghan, who served in the role for 13 years until his recent transition to emeritus status. The seminary board of trustees approved Archbishop Bernard Hebda’s appointment of Father Taphorn for the position, announcing it July 16.
Father Taphorn, 47, is the founding pastor and director of the St. John Paul II Newman Center at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, where he has served since 2016. He will begin his term as rector of the seminary Jan. 1, 2019. He plans to make extended visits to the seminary in the meantime to get to know seminarians, faculty, staff and leaders. Bishop Cozzens, a longtime friend of Father Taphorn, will serve as interim rector in the meanwhile.
continue at The Compass
Going door to door to tell strangers about Catholicism and his plan to become a priest had to be the most daunting assignment Neil Bakker had ever received.
The 34-year-old from Austin, Minn., had never done anything like it – never gone door to door to sell coupon books or magazine subscriptions, let alone the Catholic Church. Before he entered seminary, the self-described introvert had worked in IT.
Yet there he was, a broad-shouldered 6’6” with a youthful face and a neatly trimmed goatee, staring down a long block, sweating in the summer heat and feeling totally unprepared. It was Neil’s first week participating in “Evangelization in Action,” a new program of The Saint Paul Seminary School of Divinity in St. Paul, Minn., that enlists seminarians to study evangelization in the morning and practice it by evening. Neil and two other seminarians were asked to pound the pavement around a small parish in an old suburb, and they started on an adjacent street to the east.
The men took turns leading the conversation, a role that fell to Neil when they approached a red two-story house on the corner. A brunette Baby Boomer appeared, staying behind the screen door as she sized up the seminarians. She had been a member of the parish but was no longer Catholic, she said.
It almost sounded like a case-closed comment, but there was something in her voice that lacked finality. Neil stumbled through the script he’d been running in his mind until she interjected, signaling to the kitchen where she’d been making dinner.
“I’m forcing this,” he thought. He decided to ditch the script, look her in the eyes and ask why she’d left the church.
The question hung in the air a moment – honest, earnest. Decades ago the parish priest had made a comment she found offensive. It compelled her to leave the church.
continue at ArchMil
Image
