n this inspiring episode, global Catholic speaker Jonathan Doyle delves into the transformative power of community in a Catholic school, drawing insights from a profound text by Archbishop Michael Miller. Emphasizing the essence of the school as a community of faith, Jonathan explores how this alternative model challenges the prevailing individualistic society.
Archbishop Miller’s text highlights the communal dimension rooted in the social nature of human beings and the reality of the Church as “the home and the school of communion.” This perspective signifies a significant shift from viewing the Catholic school merely as an institution to recognizing it as a vibrant and genuine community.
Jonathan discusses how teamwork plays a pivotal role in creating a nurturing school climate that fosters trust, spontaneity, and a warm atmosphere akin to family life. Educators, both religious and lay, parents, and school-board members are encouraged to collaborate synergistically for the common good, promoting solidarity over competition and responsible participation over indifference.
The Holy See’s emphasis on involving parents closely in Catholic schools is highlighted, especially when addressing sensitive topics such as religious, moral, or sexual education and vocational guidance. Jonathan emphasizes the significance of this partnership based on faith, directing efforts not only towards academic challenges but also in planning and evaluating the effectiveness of the school’s mission.
Drawing on the enriching collaboration between consecrated men and women with the laity, Jonathan discusses how their witness and experience in community life make them experts in communion. Their presence acts as leaven, creating deep bonds of solidarity, mutual enhancement, and shared responsibility in the educational plan. Above all, they exemplify an explicit Christian testimony that influences the entire school community.
Join Jonathan Doyle as he explores the wisdom contained in Archbishop Michael Miller’s text, revealing the beauty and strength that emerge when a Catholic school embraces its identity as a vibrant and faith-filled community. Discover how the power of community can shape the lives of students, educators, parents, and all those involved, creating a lasting impact on the journey of faith and education.
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Transcript
Well, hello there.
Speaker:My friend, Jonathan Doyle, with you as always for the
Speaker:Catholic teacher daily podcast.
Speaker:Welcome back.
Speaker:I'm glad you are here.
Speaker:Wherever you are listening, you are very welcome.
Speaker:I'm pleased.
Speaker:You could find the time to check in and a.
Speaker:Be encouraged to be resourced, be inspired for your crucial
Speaker:work in Catholic education.
Speaker:Thank you so much for what you are doing every single day as you go about this
Speaker:crucial work, it really does matter.
Speaker:It makes a difference.
Speaker:I know you don't see it every single day.
Speaker:Sometimes you question it, but I can assure you that great teachers.
Speaker:That this difficult moment in history with the forces of darkness and wickedness.
Speaker:Uh, in ascendancy.
Speaker:In many areas of the world, many areas of our culture.
Speaker:It is people like you who can still make a great difference
Speaker:in advancing the kingdom of God.
Speaker:The good news is that the good guys win.
Speaker:That if you jump ahead in your Bible and you're not meant to read ahead,
Speaker:but if you jump ahead to the book of revelation, you will discover that we do.
Speaker:In fact, when I, well, we don't the lamb.
Speaker:Uh, of God wins triumphs, magnificently.
Speaker:Um, good triumphs over evil.
Speaker:Everything is restored to perfection.
Speaker:And we all get to live in heaven, fraternities.
Speaker:So that's the good news.
Speaker:But if you're paying attention at the moment in the world, it
Speaker:doesn't really look like that.
Speaker:So, You know, what is it?
Speaker:The chest and said the Catholic church is a perpetually defeated
Speaker:thing that remains victorious.
Speaker:That, uh, there is much for us to do.
Speaker:That almighty God himself has asked you you, yes, you listening right
Speaker:now to partner personally, in this great work of salvation that is
Speaker:being undertaken in cosmic history.
Speaker:So you may think you're walking into a classroom.
Speaker:I see you as a frontline special forces operative on the spiritual
Speaker:frontlines of reality itself.
Speaker:Whew.
Speaker:Now with that as an introduction, please make sure you've
Speaker:subscribed to the podcast.
Speaker:It does make a difference.
Speaker:If you could hit that subscribe button.
Speaker:So please make sure you've done that.
Speaker:And, um, while I moved my microphone, I got a little adjustment here.
Speaker:Today, we're talking about part three of Archbishop Miller's Michael Miller's
Speaker:five marks of a great Catholic school.
Speaker:So I started studying part three for you, and it's kind of in a.
Speaker:Yeah, I think he's cheated a bit, a little bit.
Speaker:These kind of part three has got a few parts.
Speaker:So it's like.
Speaker:I don't know, what do we do?
Speaker:We just going to, I just didn't feel that I wanted to.
Speaker:Do it all in one big hit.
Speaker:So we're just going to break part three up into a few separate little mini
Speaker:episodes, but it's really good stuff.
Speaker:And it is.
Speaker:The concept that a Catholic school.
Speaker:Is animated by communion and community.
Speaker:And there are four marks of it.
Speaker:And I'll just tell you what those are quickly.
Speaker:They are.
Speaker:Teamwork among all those involved cooperation between educators and bishops,
Speaker:the interaction of students with teachers and the schools, physical environment.
Speaker:So that's what we're going to talk about over the next few
Speaker:days, because I will break it up.
Speaker:Today, we're simply going to talk a little bit about teamwork, but as
Speaker:a way of an introduction, why are we even talking about this at all?
Speaker:How does this relate to.
Speaker:I guess what it means to be a Catholic school and to have Catholic identity.
Speaker:I really like this idea of community and communion.
Speaker:And I liked the way he expresses it.
Speaker:Let me just share with you the sort of opening couple of lines here,
Speaker:because this puts it in context.
Speaker:He says a third mark.
Speaker:A third mark of Catholic city.
Speaker:Is the emphasis on the school as a community.
Speaker:A community of persons and even more to the point, a genuine community of faith.
Speaker:Such an emphasis.
Speaker:This is a really important sentence.
Speaker:Pay attention to this such an emphasis proposes an alternative
Speaker:model for Catholic schools.
Speaker:To that of an individualistic society.
Speaker:So, what this is getting at is something I think really important
Speaker:is I teach frequently that we live in this radically atomized society.
Speaker:I think the elites that run our culture.
Speaker:Uh, desperate to divide us.
Speaker:They're desperate to divide us across lines of.
Speaker:Um, biological sex and wealth and education and ethnicity and race
Speaker:and all these different things, because the more divided we are.
Speaker:The easier we are to rule over.
Speaker:So you've got that aspect of the elite project, but then you've
Speaker:got stuff like, uh, the advent of secularism, secularism and consumerism.
Speaker:Which means that we are perceived by corporations as individual
Speaker:atomized, autonomous units that are basically purchasing units.
Speaker:So of all of this sounds pretty fancy.
Speaker:It's just my way of saying that.
Speaker:We've gone from being a culture that was extremely family tribe
Speaker:and community based for survival to being a radically atomized culture,
Speaker:broken into individualistic, atoms.
Speaker:So why Bishop Miller, Archbishop Miller is talking about this?
Speaker:I think it's a really good point.
Speaker:He's saying that.
Speaker:So many young people grow up with this radically individualistic ethos.
Speaker:And a Catholic school can present them, immerse them in something.
Speaker:Present to them and immerse them in something radically different.
Speaker:They community.
Speaker:A place of communion and community.
Speaker:He goes on to say this communal dimension is rooted in both the
Speaker:social nature of the human person.
Speaker:We are incredibly social species.
Speaker:And the reality of the church as the home and the school of
Speaker:communion, so that the church.
Speaker:You know, John of the cross used to say that the Catholic church
Speaker:is the great mother that keeps the children together on the journey.
Speaker:So as the human family travels throughout history, the Catholic church
Speaker:is like this mother that keeps the children all together on the road.
Speaker:So this idea of community and communion, I think is really important because it
Speaker:can be a very healing and crucial thing.
Speaker:For both our individual students, but also for culture widely, because.
Speaker:Would you not agree that there are more than a few students these days who come
Speaker:from very compromised family situations?
Speaker:So a lot of the basic community skills or communal skills that were once for
Speaker:essential to the human experience.
Speaker:I beginning to be lost.
Speaker:In terms of selfishness and aggression and all these sorts of things
Speaker:that used to get worked out in bigger family and tribal settings.
Speaker:And now not getting worked out.
Speaker:So.
Speaker:There's a paradox here, because in some sense, it's, it's a good
Speaker:thing that the school can be a place of community for these people.
Speaker:But it's also challenging because often, obviously the kids coming in.
Speaker:Without that sort of formation.
Speaker:So.
Speaker:I just want to say to you today that the community aspect of your
Speaker:school is incredibly important.
Speaker:So the first mark of this community, there's just the one
Speaker:we'll touch on today's teamwork.
Speaker:And it talks about creating a school climate that
Speaker:reproduces as far as possible.
Speaker:The warm and intimate atmosphere of family life.
Speaker:Though.
Speaker:So it says here that those responsible will do everything they can to promote a
Speaker:common spirit of trust and spontaneity.
Speaker:A willingness to collaborate amongst themselves.
Speaker:Teaches religious lifestyle.
Speaker:Um, parents school board members are to work as a team for the schools.
Speaker:Common.
Speaker:Good.
Speaker:They're communion fosters appreciation.
Speaker:Of the various charisms and vocations.
Speaker:That build up a genuine school community and strengthen Scholastic scholar.
Speaker:Derrida's solidarity.
Speaker:I like this because it says here, this idea of building up the various
Speaker:carrot, charisms and vocations.
Speaker:Because this is great.
Speaker:This is saying we don't have to have this homogenous approach to everything.
Speaker:That a community is going to have all these different people that are doing
Speaker:different things with different skillsets.
Speaker:That's so important, right?
Speaker:Because, you know, obviously we can fall into this trap of thinking.
Speaker:We ought to think exactly the same way and do things exactly the same way.
Speaker:And it's got to be regimented and.
Speaker:So the good news is that your individual specific gifts helped
Speaker:to build up this kind of diverse.
Speaker:Healthy functioning commune.
Speaker:Community.
Speaker:There's a book.
Speaker:I think it's called emotionally healthy spirituality.
Speaker:I've got a copy of it.
Speaker:I haven't read about it.
Speaker:I know.
Speaker:A lot of the times in.
Speaker:At the moment in the Protestant churches, this book is crucial.
Speaker:Um, emotionally healthy spirituality.
Speaker:And I think there's some offshoot books from it.
Speaker:Like a Muslim, emotionally healthy churches.
Speaker:And I mentioned this to you because I was at a really big conference recently
Speaker:and there was some Protestant pastors.
Speaker:Talking about how much they're using this program.
Speaker:And they were alluding to the fact that it's very, that they had fallen,
Speaker:I guess, into a trap over time of.
Speaker:Because churches are full of humans.
Speaker:Often in leadership that, you know, Leaders can start to act
Speaker:poorly and make poor decisions.
Speaker:And this community breaks down.
Speaker:And so they're all kind of reading this book and using this program.
Speaker:And it was, I think it's a good thing too, to remind themselves what a
Speaker:healthy community looks like, what a functioning community looks like,
Speaker:not a community with power bases and.
Speaker:And all sorts of politics being played out and ambition and
Speaker:backstabbing and all these problems.
Speaker:I mean, this is human stuff, right?
Speaker:You look at some of Paul's epistles, like he's writing to
Speaker:these churches going sorted out.
Speaker:People like, come on seriously.
Speaker:You can't do this, or you need to do this, or this needs to change or
Speaker:fix this because he was trying to get them to, to understand and to
Speaker:realize they had to build a community United in love and United in Christ.
Speaker:So this teamwork matters so if you're in leadership listening to this you
Speaker:you've really got to model Emotionally psychologically healthy leadership
Speaker:you've got to encourage this family sense this communal sense All right.
Speaker:a couple of other things here Um, Corporation with a family of course close
Speaker:cooperation with the family is especially important When treating sensitive
Speaker:issues such as religious moral or sexual education Orientation toward a profession
Speaker:or a choice of one's vocation in life It is not a question of convenience but
Speaker:a partnership based on faith so there's this teamwork aspect between staff between
Speaker:school and parents Constantly trying to strengthen each other to encourage each
Speaker:other to value each other And then it goes on to talk about the role of lay staff as
Speaker:well So we're looking for this teamwork.
Speaker:we're looking for this.
Speaker:this pushback against this atomized individualistic culture so i guess what i
Speaker:want to say is be proud of your catholic school Be really proud of it be proud of
Speaker:its ability to be really counter-cultural at the moment To be a place where kids
Speaker:feel actually genuinely safe and cared for an injured people are interested in
Speaker:them and Want them to do well and hope that they're going well So these are some
Speaker:of the key things we want to be thinking about this communion and community so Let
Speaker:me know what you think um please make sure you subscribe to the podcast it is friday
Speaker:when you're hearing this or friday when i'm recording this i'm going to take a
Speaker:break over the weekend And we're going to come back on a monday the next episode And
Speaker:talk about sort of just the relationship between the school and bishops it's really
Speaker:worth understanding that whether you're a school teacher or someone in leadership
Speaker:we're going to get into that and then a whole bunch more good stuff coming your
Speaker:way but let me finish where i started thank you for what you are doing every
Speaker:single day it is making a difference God knows exactly what you are doing He has
Speaker:placed you there you are his person in the right place at the right time And as
Speaker:they says it says in the book of esther You were born for such a time as this
Speaker:you have been placed exactly where you are for a purpose my friend god bless you
Speaker:my name is jonathan doyle this has been the catholic teacher daily podcast you
Speaker:and i are going to talk again tomorrow I mean monday have a good weekend See.
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