Three from diocese attend national education symposium

By RENEE WEBB, Globe editor
January 22, 2004

Three people from the Diocese of Sioux City were among the 250 invited participants from across the country to attend a national symposium to chart the future of Catholic education in the United States. This gathering was held as one of the centennial-year activities of the National Catholic Educational Association.

Kevin Vickery, superintendent of Catholic education; Sister Joan Stoffel, OSF, director of curriculum and instructional services; and Father Paul-Louis Arts, rector of the Cathedral of the Epiphany in Sioux City and a member of NCEA's national school board.

"The symposium was designed to celebrate a faithful past and a faith-filled future," said Father Arts.

As a member of the national board, Father Arts was asked to served on the NCEA's centennial committee which has helped to plan a year of activities that began last year with the convention in St. Louis and will culminate this spring in Boston. He has found the January symposium to be the highlight. He served as one of the six focus facilitators.

"The purpose of the symposium was to bring together people that could help create a document that will become the foundation of where we will take Catholic education into the next century," explained Vickery. "It was very much a working session. We worshipped, we learned, we shared and we celebrated over three-and-one-half days. It was very intense."

Father Arts pointed said it was a wonderful experience.

He added that participants ranged from teachers, school administrators, parents, bishops and those involved with parish religious education programs.

"This symposium was focused on creating a vision for the future in Catholic education. This was to be defined in its broadest sense that would include religious education programs, Catholic school programs, adult formation programs - everything," noted Sister Joan.

They pointed out that their main task as participants was to help shape belief and strategy statements.

During the symposium participants met in working sessions to discuss three major themes for Catholic education:

Identity - How to proclaim and continue the Catholic identity of schools and religious education programs.

Leadership - Where to seek and how to train the administrators, teachers and catechetical leaders of tomorrow.

Engagement - How Catholic schools and programs interact with other segments of society.

Prior to the symposium, the participants received a set a papers that were specially commissioned for the centennial to read ahead of time.

"They were written to help us understand where Catholic education is today," explained Sister Joan, who added that much of the information stressed the impact that one's Catholic education can have on the whole society. These same people also spoke on a panel discussion.

At the symposium, participants were assigned a table with about eight people and they worked on specific areas of the documents.

"We started with a draft document that had been complied from thousands of people from across the United States in various regional meetings," explained Vickery.

Father Arts added that in all there were over 100 of the regional meetings, smaller symposiums. He called it a true grassroots effort.

Common themes were pulled into belief statements. Those gathered at the January symposium started with a first draft and then they created a second draft in which work continues.

"Each time we came together and we molded them, it was amazing how they started to become more and more defined. More concise, more specific to the statements that will guide local, diocesan and national policies in Catholic education," explained Vickery. "After we had our last table discussions, the writers took all of our ideas and started the final format."

It is from these belief and strategy statements that diocesan systems and individual schools will develop action plans. The document will not be a how-to plan it is more of a why-plan with overriding strategies. Local levels must determine how to make the strategies work.

"I think this has value because it will allow us as individual local Catholic schools and as a diocese to understand where we fit into the national family of Catholic education," Vickery said. "If we create this document and people don't act on it, it would have served no other purpose than to be an academic experience. What we have to be challenged to is to take this document and breath life into it at the local schools and as a diocesan school community."

The event included several opportunities to celebrate in honor of the NCEA's centennial. One of the more profound experiences was a black tie party at the White House.

Vickery found it to be a surreal experience.

Two things that President Bush commented on stood out for Vickery. First, the president mentioned that "you prepare your students to follow Catholic virtue and compassion and sacrifice for the rest of their life." The other statement centered on the fact that Catholic schools are the model for all schools around the country.

Sister Joan agreed that the president had very much affirmed the Catholic schools.

"When he acknowledged that we have something to offer and that we bring compassion, I think he was truly sincere when he said that," she said.

Sister Joan found the participation in the symposium to be both an honor and a responsibility as an educator.

"We all have to be thinking about the future," she said. "We won't have a faith-filled future just because we say we will. We have to all be working on it."

Father Arts mentioned that next January he will become among the various board members who will meet in Dallas to finalize the statement.

"We wanted to develop some goals because we have great challenges ahead of us," he said. "Catholic education is here to stay and we want to make it the best possible education system."