Dear St. Catherine Parish Family, This week, the Church in the United States celebrates Catholic Schools Week. This is a week that we set aside to focus in particular way on the gift of our Catholic schools. As I mentioned in my homily this weekend, Catholic education is a unique blessing in that it strives to impart to our children a comprehensive education which allows them to see God's truth, goodness, and beauty in every subject, not just in religion classes. Additionally, our Catholic schools provide a wholesome environment for our children to grow in holiness and virtue and to develop critical skills needed to successfully combat many of the dangerous influences and ideologies they will encounter in the world. Often times, parents feel that Catholic education for their children may not be feasible due to the cost. However, I am committed to ensuring that our Catholic schools are accessible to any of our families who would like to send their children here. We offer generous tuition assistance based on need, and there are other scholarships that are available to families that qualify. In that regard, even for those who do not have children who are school age, you can support our Catholic schools through the Grace Scholars initiative which allows you to redirect a portion of your tax liability to our schools (this is an important initiative that I would ask everyone to consider as there is no cost to you and a significant benefit to our schools -- see gracescholars.org for more information). If you are interested in learning more about our schools, you can visit our websites (scspreschool.org for our preschool and scsiena.org for our K-8 grade school). Or you can contact our preschool director, Karen Pickens at karenp@stcatherinercc.org or our grade school principal, Kelly Wood at kwood@scsiena.org. Sincerely in Christ,
Fr. Neil
