From the photo on our cover of the first day back to class for Notre Dame High School students, to our special Back to the Classroom section and our reporting of summer events throughout the Diocese, this issue is bursting with lots of fresh, happy faces. We are often happy to recall the great experiences of one season as we embrace the season to come and all it will offer and ask of us.
With his decades of ministry in Catholic education, Bishop David M. O’Connell, C.M., firmly believes that most people observe an academic calendar, whether they attend school, have children in school or haven’t stepped foot in a school for 40 years. This issue of The Monitor Magazine bears that out, as our team reports on everyone’s return to class, ministry, advocacy and service. It is an annual exercise that unfolds in our parishes, schools, social service agencies … basically everywhere that we are connected as part of our experience of Church.
Our nearly 30-page IN FOCUS section on the return to the classroom offers readers a glimpse of what they can expect from the new school year as some 45,000 youngsters return to Catholic school and parish religious education classes across the four counties of the Diocese. Look for messages from our Superintendent of Schools and from our Director of Religious Education, profiles on new principals and parish catechetical leaders, previews on milestones for the coming year and much more.
