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Catholic Schools Week
Mass celebrates treasure of Catholic education

Joe Kohn of The Michigan Catholic
Published February 9, 2007

Photos by Joe Kohn Cardinal Adam Maida greets students from various schools across the Archdiocese of Detroit following a Jan. 31 Mass at the Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament in honor of Catholic Schools Week.

Detroit — Hundreds of students from Catholic schools throughout the area filled the Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament last week to hear an important message:

"You students are our gifts of great price. You are our treasure. You're worth every cent of (tuition), and every ounce of our time."

The words came from Sr. Mary Gehringer, OSM, superintendent for schools in the Archdiocese of Detroit. She spoke at the end of Mass on Jan. 31 on behalf of educators and parents, to students representing more than half of the archdiocese's 116 elementary and high schools.

The Mass was to mark National Catholic Schools Appreciation Day, celebrated each year across the country. Cardinal Adam Maida concelebrated the liturgy with 17 other local priests.

Anthony Arrigoni, a second-grader at Holy Cross School in Marine City, prays during the Catholic Schools Week liturgy.

Students from 10 schools brought the gifts up to Cardinal Adam Maida during the offertory.

Choirs from University of Detroit High School and Ladywood High School lead the congregation of hundreds of Detroit-area Catholic school students in song.

Students also took part in the Mass. Choirs from University of Detroit High School and Ladywood High School in Livonia led the congregation in music. And representatives of various schools were altar servers and lectors, and brought up the gifts for Mass.

In his homily, Cardinal Maida had several important messages for those gathered.

"I'm going to be 77 years old in another few weeks," the cardinal said candidly. "But I can still remember my first-grade teacher, my second-grade teacher, my third-grade teacher — all the way up. Why do I remember them? I remember them because they were so important in forming me as a young person, searching for the journey that I would take in my life."

Cardinal Maida told the students that they were in the critical years of their formation, that their formation begins in their homes, and that they were meant to grow and mature as parts of a Christian community.

He spoke of outreach, stressing that Catholic education should help make caring for those in need a regular part of their lives.

"The gifts that God has given you, you have to share and give back and reach out … to those who are poor and in need of help," the cardinal said.

He also encouraged them to look deep into their hearts to realize their vocation, and to consider whether Christ is calling them to serve as a representative of the Church in a religious order or as a priest.

Some students at the Mass appreciated the unity of having many schools worship together — especially since the schools can be competitive with one another in sports and academics.

Sarah Bailey, a student at St. Hugo of the Hills in Bloomfield Hills, kneels during the liturgy of the Eucharist at the Catholic Schools Week Mass Jan. 31.

At the end of Mass, Cardinal Maida addresses the students from in front of the Cathedral's altar.

"It was nice, amid all the rivalries and competitions, for the schools to all realize that we're all from the same foundation of Catholic education," said Juliette Lacombe, a junior at Marian High School in Bloomfield Hills.

For many, it was an honor to be in the pews for the Mass. Since there are 38,232 students in Detroit-area Catholic schools, most schools sent only a handful of students to represent them.

"My teacher only picked four or five people to come," said Steven Beschamps, an eighth-grader at St. Alfred School in Taylor. "So when he picked me, I was very happy,"

His classmate, Garrett Emmons, said he was impressed by his first visit to the cathedral.

"To me it felt like an opportunity to deepen my faith and find out how they do these things," Garrett said. "I've never been to a big Mass like this. It was quite an honor and it was very nice to be able to see how they do all the things inside the Mass."

 Having such a diverse contingent of students praying together may have helped Cardinal Maida make another point that he raised in his homily — that the students, thanks to Christ's sacrifice, would never be alone.

"None of us walks alone," the cardinal said. "All of us walk with one another in our journey as brothers and sisters in the faith, together with Jesus the Lord showing us the way."