Learning for life
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Peter’s Church in lower Manhattan founded a school for 100 students — six years before the city’s first public school.
Forty years later, the Jesuit order opened the city’s first Catholic secondary school, Fordham Prep, in The Bronx. When St. Francis Preparatory School in Queens welcomed its first students in 1858, the Diocese of Brooklyn got a high school as well.
Today, more than 250 parochial elementary schools serve nearly 85,000 children in the Archdiocese of New York (which comprises Manhattan, The Bronx, Staten Island, Westchester and northern counties) and the Diocese of Brooklyn (which also includes Queens). Many go on to attend one of the 46 Catholic high schools in New York’s five boroughs, in which nearly 30,000 students are enrolled.
Multiple studies have found that, as they grow to adulthood, Catholic school graduates benefit the city and the wider world in myriad ways: They’re much more likely to serve as community volunteers, more likely to vote and make charitable donations, and more likely to perform roles in public service.
“It’s because we offer a real values-based education,” Cassato said.
Every school has its own unique flavor, or charism, said Dougherty. “Catholic identity is who we are, mission is what we do and who we serve, and charism is a spiritual asset which further defines our identity.”
In the past, a school’s charism was typically linked to the religious community of nuns or priests that founded and served it. Today, it defines what makes a Catholic school distinctive.
“Sometimes it relates to the history of the school, if it’s an older parish with long-standing traditions,” Dougherty said. “Sometimes it’s a focus on the school’s patron saint and the work that saint is known for. Other schools emphasize the diversity of languages or cultures in the communities they serve.”
A welcome for all
St. Mark Catholic Academy in Sheepshead Bay has found its charism in the virtue of hospitality, welcoming in a stream of refugee children from Ukraine and Eastern Europe.
“That’s happening in the moment,” said principal Mark Wilson. “Just the other day, a family got here from Ukraine on Sunday, and they’re in my office on Monday to enroll their child. We have other students here who haven’t seen their parents in months.”
Children and teachers have welcomed the newcomers “so quickly and so benevolently that you’d think they’ve been here forever,” Wilson said. “We have a number of other Ukrainian and Eastern European students here, so the teachers will pair them up and some students will translate for others in the classroom.”
When it’s time to give a test, teachers “are going the extra mile to put their questions through a translation program so students can take assessments in their native language,” Wilson said.
“That speaks to their vocation as Catholic educators,” he added, “taking that extra step.”
The school has hired several parents as classroom aides who double as translators.
“We can only hope that the camaraderie and the love and the respect our families have for each other here trickles out to the world outside these walls,” said Wilson.
A sense of belonging
In Elmhurst, the students and parents of St. Bartholomew Catholic Academy strive to embody brotherly love.
“We try to always be mindful of our mission, which is basically to minister to all our students regardless of their race, their national origin or creed,” said principal Lisandro Peña. “We try to bring out the values that identify us as Catholics, as people who are universal, as people who are welcoming, as people who are able to see life every day with happiness, with joy.”
The school and parish are about 85% Latino, with many Spanish speakers, including Peña himself, who grew up in Ecuador and was educated in Rome. But an influx of Asian residents in the neighborhood has spurred the church to offer a weekly Chinese-language Mass. “The members of the Asian community haven’t always received the support they need,” said Peña. “Now, they are also eager to bring their children to our school.”
Chinese-speaking parents are coming on board to boost his outreach efforts, which include computer-literacy assistance for recent immigrants of all backgrounds.
“Our schools are a mosaic of this city,” Cassato said. “I’m 50 years a priest, and for all those 50 years, I have met people from every religion and every nationality and have seen how they’ve always been welcomed into our schools. It’s a beautiful experience.”