Anchored in prayer with Archbishop Bernard Hebda and Auxiliary Bishops Michael Izen and Joseph Williams, more than 100 Catholic school leaders from across the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis gathered in Stillwater April 18-19.

They attended an Archdiocesan Catholic School Leadership Convocation and took another step on the Roadmap for Excellence in Catholic Education that continues to be developed since it was implemented in 2019. Key components of the Roadmap include governance of Catholic schools and talent management.

Two days together offered an opportunity to dive more deeply into understanding a Catholic accreditation process introduced last year that has been completed by eight schools and will be used on a rotating basis by all 91 Catholic schools in the archdiocese, said Jason Slattery, director of Catholic education and superintendent of schools.

“Working on the Roadmap, the archbishop had a broad vision for Catholic schools” that takes time to develop, Slattery told the heads of school and principals. “We wanted to set up a change cycle that is predictable for school leaders, so it is not something new each month, but a cadence of change.”

Developed by the archdiocese’s Office for the Mission of Catholic Education (OMCE) working with the Lumen Accreditation program at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., the accreditation process is called the Catholic School Study. OMCE and Lumen officials work collaboratively with each school, moving forward through strengths and opportunities.

This is done through a Catholic lens that recognizes Christ’s love and his desire for every child to amass skills and learning, to serve and minister to others, speakers and leaders of the convocation said.

In his homily at the convocation’s opening Mass, Archbishop Hebda noted the first reading from the Acts of the Apostles, when Philip followed an angel’s prompting and found an Ethiopian eunuch reading the prophet Isaiah. Philip asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” and the Ethiopian replied, “How can I, unless someone instructs me?”

“We need people to teach us to understand the stories of the faith,” the archbishop said. “The Lord provides opportunities for us to understand and for us to share what we know with those we encounter. … So many young people in your schools, they can say, ‘How can I understand, unless someone instructs me?’”

Speakers following Mass included Daryl Hagan, director of Catholic University’s Institute for the Transformation of Catholic Education, which developed and runs the Lumen Accreditation program, and Andrew Kremer, director of the program.

Hagan noted that Lumen Accreditation addresses all aspects of education — spiritual, intellectual, cultural and operational priorities. The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis was the first diocese to adopt the accreditation, but now eight dioceses in six states and 280 Catholic schools are using the program, he said.

The process runs in six-year cycles, with invitation, preparation, visitation, proclamation and accompaniment, he said.

Tricia Menzhuber, principal of St. John Paul II Catholic School in Northeast Minneapolis, talked with The Catholic Spirit after Hagan and Kremer spoke and said she was impressed by the Catholic School Study as she worked through it with Lumen and the archdiocese.

Accreditation programs can consist largely of checking boxes in forms and receiving approval, she said. But officials with Lumen and the archdiocese followed up with questions and conversations that led her to trim her 14-page strategic plan to a more manageable several pages, Menzhuber said.

They also encouraged her to turn an annual community-building retreat for SJPII teachers and staff into an opportunity to explore the school’s mission of helping young people understand their dignity and development as children of God, she said.

As teachers return from summer break to attend the retreat to start a new school year, “we will focus on Christian humanism,” Menzhuber said. “It starts with formation of our staff.”

‘A convincing and compelling vision’

Catholic schools need to present “a convincing and compelling vision of a life in Christ,” said Mary Pat Donoghue, the evening speaker April 18 at the Archdiocesan Catholic School Leadership Convocation.

“What would it take to transmit something to children that they would find compelling and convincing and choose it for themselves into adulthood?” said Donoghue, executive director of the Secretariat of Catholic Education at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

“When we speak of vision, we’re not simply talking about seeing,” she said. “What we actually mean is a way of looking at, and understanding, reality itself. Now, we live in times in which reality is under attack. So, it’s critical that we form our kids in the fullest vision of reality, the vision that understands what’s at the heart of reality.

“And the heart is Jesus Christ, the logos, the ordering and organizing principle of all creation. … It’s a matter of thinking and visualizing as we’re teaching, as we’re leading our schools. The transmission of a vision of life in 2,000 years of culture will, though, involve every aspect of the school’s work, including its curriculum and pedagogy — what we teach and how we teach it.”

Recognizing this need comes at a critical time for the Church in the United States, which is undergoing “a rate of disaffiliation unseen before,” Donoghue said.

“Among those who do leave, 79% will be gone by age 25,” she said. “This problem of disaffiliation is not new, of course. We have seen Mass attendance plummet from a high of 55% attending Mass weekly in 1965 to 17% in 2022. Among millennials, that cohort that’s (ages) 25 to 40, the ones having children — or hopefully having children — that number is 7%. Things really are not OK.”

But Catholic schools can capture the hearts of children early in their lives, Donoghue said. “It matters, greatly, doesn’t it, how little children are formed? This is our opportunity. I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase said a lot these days: ‘We were born for such a time.’ I believe that’s true. I don’t think it’s accidental that we are among the group called to serve the mission of Catholic education at just this time. The good news is, if he (God) has called us, he will equip us.”