Catholic Education: A Beacon Of Light & Hope
By Camille Lewis Brown Ph.D.
 Catholic education in the African American Community has historically been valued as a beacon of light and hope. The traditions and heritage that belong to African Americans have enriched the education of faith offered by the Catholic Church. Through this joining of faith and culture, Catholic schools have been a source of evangelization as well as a vehicle for community and self improvement.
Parents have traditionally chosen Catholic schools for their children because of the discipline, academics and doctrine of faith. They have seen Catholic schools as a clear presence of the Gospel, alive and refreshing the communities of yesterday and today. These parents recognized that the sacrifices made to send their children to Catholic schools assisted their child on many levels. They counted on the schools to prepare their child academically, socially and spiritually for their lives as citizens of the world. In this light, the schools have fulfilled their mission to teach self control, reverence, respect, compassion, justice, perseverance and civil awareness. They continue to do so, even in these challenging times.
On their journey towards good human, academic and spiritual skills, students are challenged to embrace Gospel living. They see this behavior modeled in the teachers, administrators, pastors and other leaders within the faith community. These leaders are a sure sign of Jesus' command to "go and teach all nations", especially in many urban Catholic schools with large non-Catholic populations. For some leaders, these statistics of non-Catholics move them to question the validity of maintaining schools filled with non-Catholics. Other leaders understand that Jesus did not mean for us to teach only the baptized or only those already participating in the sacramental life of the Church. It seems that the implications of "all nations" meant every human being and in the case of Catholic Schools, all children (Catholic and non-Catholic). The directions seem clear, "to teach… to make disciples". What better place to exercise these tasks than Catholic Schools?
For those of us still committed to a values based education for every child, we will continue to embrace Bishop J. Terry Steib's most telling words, "we don't educate children because they are Catholic, we educate them because we are Catholic". It is only in this chant that we ultimately know that Christ's command to love and teach all nations is alive within us.
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