Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
Welcome back to another edition of our diocesan podcast, Big City Catholics, with Bishop Robert Brennan, the Diocesan Bishop of Brooklyn, and myself, Father Christopher Henry. Today we're joined with Katie Cavell, the assistant director of enrollment management of Catholic Schools here in the Diocese of Brooklyn. She'll join us in our conversation in just a moment. We begin in prayer. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. We ask our Blessed Mother's intercession upon us, upon our diocese, upon our schools, upon all the intentions that we bring to our hearts. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
[00:00:45] Speaker B: Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen.
[00:00:50] Speaker A: In the name of the Father and of the Son, of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Bishop we had Deacon Kevin McCormick here at the parish at the beginning of Catholic Schools Week, and he preached a homil and he quoted James Joyce. Here comes everybody in our schools, here comes everybody. But in our diocese, that diversity is still the same and you're living it.
[00:01:08] Speaker B: We certainly lived it a lot this weekend in wonderful ways. As I said last week we had a continuing celebration of Our lady of Alta Gracia. But also then I give you a lot of credit. Congratulations to you on a wonderful celebration of St. Bridget Day.
[00:01:23] Speaker A: Yeah, it became monstrous, really. We went from two buses to three buses to eight buses. The Cathedral of St James was standing room only. It just was unbelievable to see the amount of people that came out in support of it. And like we were talking about this last week at St. Patrick's Day, everybody is everywhere. We can't claim one day on St. Patrick's Day. We can't compete with St. Patrick's Cathedral. But this might be our diocesan celebration for the Irish Saint Bridget, the patroness of Ireland. And thanks for you being there and for supporting it. And a great homily as well. Great thoughtful reflection on the life of.
[00:02:02] Speaker B: St. Bridget and really how she's the saint for us today to draw us out of ourselves. She was one who really paid attention to the needs of others and paid attention to what God was doing. It was a nice confluence of different things. It was the 1500th anniversary of her death, so I called it a jubilee within a jubilee. And they had just concluded a year long celebration in Ireland.
[00:02:26] Speaker A: That's right.
[00:02:27] Speaker B: Of that celebration, the anniversary, but also Ireland has recaptured, thankfully.
[00:02:33] Speaker A: Yeah. The.
[00:02:33] Speaker B: The saint, Saint Bridget. So it's actually now they call it a Bank holiday.
[00:02:38] Speaker A: Yeah, that's right.
[00:02:40] Speaker B: I've been there in the summer when they have a bank holiday just because we're due for one.
It doesn't celebrate anything. But it's a bank holiday.
[00:02:49] Speaker A: It's a random Wednesday or something.
[00:02:52] Speaker B: But this was a bank holiday. But the idea is that she's being reclaimed as a saint. Now. The thing we have to keep careful of is there was also an element of trying to reclaim her, this neo paganism. And yet that pagan world in which she was born was a very cruel and harsh world. She really, with Patrick, as did Patrick, fight against that. She expelled a lot of that. She stood for human dignity in a society that was very much non observant.
[00:03:26] Speaker A: You said it. You said it in your homily and that received a lot of attention. And even when you mentioned the 1500 anniversary, there were like audible gasps. Yeah, there were gasps.
[00:03:37] Speaker B: And the other thing is that we wanted to do it on a Saturday and that the feast was on a Saturday. We're hoping to make this a regular Saturday celebration, maybe the first Saturday in February, but again, that it would start on this day. Many good things just came together. Yeah, but a lot of work on your part and on the part of the apostolate, you know, and all the.
[00:03:57] Speaker A: Priests that came out, it was. We filled the corona. We overflowed the corona and it was just really great.
[00:04:03] Speaker B: And it was a day of great joy. And then a lot of culture, the step dances, the music.
[00:04:08] Speaker A: I mentioned in my closing remarks, I said that you have a missionary heart. And I mentioned a little bit about Alta Gracia, the Dominican culture. And then I said, in the next day, Sunday, you are going to celebrate the Lunar New Year. How did that go?
[00:04:20] Speaker B: That was another great event. So it turns out. I'll talk more about the Feast of the Presentation in a moment. But it was the Feast of the Presentation, so there was a little bit of a challenge in, a good challenge to tie those events together. And of course, this celebration of the Lunar New Year comes within the context of our Holy year. And again, I picked up that theme of the pilgrimage. Mary and Joseph making the pilgrimage to present Jesus in the temple. But also also the pilgrimage, the daily pilgrimage that Anna and Simeon would make because they knew that they would see the glory of God. They had that promise and they believed that God would be faithful. So they went every single day. And so it was a great experience. A lot of, again, a lot of fun, beautiful celebration of the Holy Eucharist. Many of the prayers were said and sung by the people in Chinese. And there were cultural moments. There's a part at the end, it's a separate rite. It's after masses. Then there's a new entrance in. And it's ancestor veneration. That too could be claimed as sort of a pagan ritual, but it's not in the context of Catholicism. It's giving thanks for what's been. And we would talk about the communion of saints, how we say at awake service, the ties of friendship and affection which knit us together throughout do not unravel with death. Do not unravel with death. And so it's really that the gratitude continues. And that gratitude continues with the hope of eternal life. We're not just remembering, but we're giving thanks to people who are living. So we believe that they're living in the fullness of life with Christ in heaven.
[00:05:57] Speaker A: It sort of takes that which would be a pagan ritual and brings it into the Christianizes.
[00:06:02] Speaker B: Baptizes it.
[00:06:03] Speaker A: Right?
[00:06:03] Speaker B: Yeah, but so that was wonderful. And then a great dinner afterward. And again, all kinds of cultural experiences. Just. It was great.
[00:06:14] Speaker A: And then also this past week, and this could leads us perfectly, I think, into our conversation today with Katie as you had the religious brothers and sisters, the day of consecrated life.
[00:06:24] Speaker B: Right. Again, connected to the feast of the Presentation, which was another blessing this year. It happened on a Sunday. It's one of those few feasts that when it comes on a Sunday, we actually celebrate. And, you know, when you do it on a Sunday, it has a little more pizzazz.
[00:06:38] Speaker A: Absolutely.
[00:06:39] Speaker B: So I had the Mass at St. John James Cathedral, and that was just beautifully done with a certain solemnity. And then I was at the vigil with the religious, and they had a day. Dr. Julia Upton, a sister of mercy, led the day of reflection for them, talking about what to pack when you're going on the pilgrimage. And so this again, this holy of what to pack. And she brought out messages like hope and mercy. It was again, a jubilee celebration, but it was religious of Brooklyn Diocese and Rockville Center Diocese.
[00:07:11] Speaker A: Beautiful.
[00:07:12] Speaker B: So it encompassed a lot of old friends there and a lot of new friends, a lot of our new communities. They had a great turnout, too, and it was a great spirit. And an added bonus. I got to catch up our Shalom group. Our young adults were on retreat at St. John's same day, so I could pop in.
[00:07:27] Speaker A: That's great. That's great.
[00:07:29] Speaker B: A little bit. So, yeah, it was a rich, full weekend, which completed a very rich week. And talking about our religious who founded so many of our schools and Talking about our multicultural dimension. And here comes everybody. Boy, did we celebrate that in a big way during Catholic Schools Week.
[00:07:47] Speaker A: That's right. And I mentioned at the beginning of our podcast today when we had Deacon Kevin, he spoke about the nostalgia of the religious that were the teachers, the sisters, the brothers that filled our schools. But we are so blessed in the diocese with great schools. And so, Katie, thank you for joining us.
[00:08:05] Speaker C: Thank you for having me.
[00:08:06] Speaker A: You're very welcome. Katie, how was Catholic Schools Week for you? This is sort of a little bit of a recap. We couldn't get anyone during Catholic Schools Week because you were all visiting places.
[00:08:17] Speaker C: It's crazy chaos, organized chaos during Catholic Schools Week. But I do believe that it was truly a celebration of the education.
Our students, the teachers, the parish, the pastors, everyone comes together to really celebrate our young children and their formation.
[00:08:37] Speaker A: That's great. And so you visited, I'm sure, some of the schools of our diocese for Catholic Schools Week. Where did you go?
[00:08:43] Speaker C: I did. I visited multiple bishop and I started at St. Ephraim with Mass on Sunday. I got to go out to the Far Rockaways to Saint Rose of Lima where they did a wonderful service project for the local homeless shelter. I got to attend a Glow party with 3, 4 and 5 year olds at St Patrick's the children were learning about light, so we had a black light party where they learned how chalk reacts on black paper and highlighters react on white paper and balloons and music and just so much fun. And you sometimes you get so bogged down in the day to day work that getting a chance to get in the school and get with the kids and see how they're learning in such different ways than we ever did as kids is just amazing to me.
[00:09:29] Speaker A: Yeah. When I was at Holy Child Jesus, we had the school across the street. And if I ever had. And thank God we had that great academy there. If I ever had a day that was just filled with like the, you know, the administrative, the minutia, I'd just go over and just visit the first and second graders and just sit with them for a minute. And I realized, like, this is where I found my peace. And they were cute, the kids that they say the craziest things.
[00:09:53] Speaker C: The craziest things.
[00:09:54] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:09:55] Speaker C: You never know. The older kids are generally too cool for school.
[00:09:59] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:09:59] Speaker C: But the little ones, you're never sure what's gonna. They're brutally honest to a T. I.
[00:10:04] Speaker A: Remember walking past one of the pre K rooms and someone, one of the kids said, God, God just walked by the classroom. They didn't. I said, I'm not God. It's just Father Christopher. But that was their way of describing me. Now, Katie, how are things going in our Catholic schools?
[00:10:23] Speaker C: Things are going well. Things are going really well. We've kicked off registration for all of our schools. My boss Ted and I have worked with all of the schools to really work on setting forward goals. It's no secret that for years the population has been decreasing in our Catholic schools. But we really feel like we have an amazing team with our principals and their boards and then we can turn things into a positive light.
[00:10:51] Speaker B: And it's not just the numbers. The numbers are so important. Enrollment is key, but it really is quality. And one of the great things about Catholic School Week is we get to see up close the quality of our schools. And I'm telling you, we can be mighty proud of what our academies and schools are doing with the administration and the faculty. We see the love that they have for the children who are entrusted to their care. And in that spirit of love, they provide a top notch education.
[00:11:23] Speaker C: They do. We actually. This is hitting the national news within the week. Our test scores outscored everyone in the city and the state and nationally. Catholic schools test higher than everyone.
[00:11:37] Speaker A: That's great. There's some articles in this week's tablet and even last week had the Catholic Schools edition. But this week continues with articles even in our Catholic high schools. The Mary Lewis Academy is highlighted in this week's tablet of just how higher standards for graduation. I think in New York public schools are changing even their standards. You don't even have to pass the regents to graduate. I remember when I was in high school, that was a major deal. You had to pass the Regents. Now just take it. There are other ways in which you can qualify for graduation in public schools. Yet we maintain our standards in our Catholic schools and our children are graduating. I'm sure the statistics of them going off college is as high in our schools than compared to.
[00:12:22] Speaker C: Absolutely. I don't know the exact number, but I know it's super high of choice going into colleges and especially even Ivy League things and sports scholarships.
I would say our Catholic high schools are beyond competitive to any of the high end private schools, far beyond the public schools.
[00:12:40] Speaker A: In a recent edition of the New York Times, Cardinal Dolan actually wrote an article on op ed, a letter to President Trump petitioning for schools choice. Bishop, did you get a chance to read that and what are your thoughts on it?
[00:12:53] Speaker B: I did. And that is an important theme for us. I Served for a couple of years in a state where they have school choice, where there are vouchers that are given to the parents. This is not about school aid for Catholic schools. This is about giving parents the tools they need, a kind of a share of what would be spent on the child. So it's giving parents the opportunity to make choices here. I see that to an extent, the public schools, that in the high schools, there were some very fine public schools that have special programs they're hard enough to get into. But you can see the value of choice, that when people have a choice, they're very serious about the education.
[00:13:37] Speaker A: Sure.
[00:13:37] Speaker B: And the quality of the education and the work that they're willing to do to invest in the return on the choice that they've made. And so I think what we're asking is to give people the fullness of that choice. And in the schools in Ohio, particularly in the Diocese of Columbus, I could see that what it did is it didn't make Catholic schools more private.
It made them more available, and it leveled the playing field.
[00:14:07] Speaker A: Sure.
[00:14:07] Speaker B: And even there, people had to make tremendous sacrifices to send their kids to the Catholic schools. But that difference of the choice, the vouchers, it brought somebody over the fence. It made it a little bit possible here. Thank God. And thank heavens for all the people who are so generous and committed to our Catholic education, particularly through futures. Yeah, Futures and education futures in education, where we are in a position to give assistance to families who make that choice, to give people the opportunities that in other places would be really reserved for the richer folks among us here. We can spread that out through the goodness and the generosity of people. But again, when we're talking about a legislative fix, we're talking about the fact that this is, in a sense, doing justice, not doing charity.
[00:15:03] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:15:04] Speaker B: This is giving families what they deserve and the power to make those choices. If that could be addressed on a federal level, that would be wonderful. And again, it's all about the families. Do they give us a certain stability when we know that we have families can come? Yeah, absolutely. But it's not about charity to the schools.
It's about justice for the family.
[00:15:27] Speaker A: That's a great gift. Yeah. I mean, it's so foreign to us in New York, the idea of a school's choice voucher. And when you were in Ohio, that's a great gift. And as you say, and I mentioned this now three times when we had Deacon Kevin, and at the end of the Mass, I petitioned the folks that Watch us on NetTV. If anyone would like to support Catholic schools. Please send your gift via the CO Cathedral. And we've received over $5,000, which has been able to now be funneled into different local Catholic schools in our neighborhood to help parents. And Katie, I know that you deal a lot with enrollment management. What have been some experiences in your life regarding that? The joys of helping a family come to a Catholic school or the difficulties, the challenges in finding assistance?
[00:16:14] Speaker C: Absolutely. For us, it's actually become a lot of displacing myths or rumors. A lot of people think Catholic school's not for me or that we can't handle a child with special needs. And iesp we're growing just as fast, if not faster, than the schools around us in that, you know, we now have specialization in all of our classes that can help a child who's learning divergent. We can help. One of the most asked questions of me, is there scholarship? Is there something that can help? So letting them know that there is ways that we can work with you and families, they've had a bad experience in another school or dealt with bullying or things like that. And us being able to say, you know what, we've got, you let me find you the right fit with a really familiar sort of place. And we do something that. I had a conversation with a parent the other day, and they were worried that the school talking about diversity earlier would be too white. And I said, please come and take a tour. Our schools are so diverse. They welcome everyone. And even we have non Catholic children that attend and do. Some eventually become Catholic. Yes. Some don't, but they just really love what is offered at our schools.
[00:17:30] Speaker A: Yeah, I can attest to that, too. At Holy Child in Richmond Hill, there were folks from other faiths that just knew this would be the right school for their children. And it was a private education. It was a wonderful environment and where the children learn. And we celebrated that learning.
[00:17:48] Speaker B: Exactly. And yet we don't run away from affairs. Faith.
[00:17:51] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:17:51] Speaker B: We're very clear about who we are and what we believe. And that gives people who aren't Catholic. Most of our schools are majority Catholic, but for those who are not Catholic, even if they don't choose to convert to the Catholic faith, Just a positive experience.
[00:18:06] Speaker C: Absolutely.
[00:18:07] Speaker B: Catholicism and an understanding of Catholicism in the world. You know, sometimes I would be asked, and especially in a week like last week when you get interviewed, what makes a Catholic school distinct? And I said that really, we're about educating the whole person.
[00:18:21] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:18:22] Speaker B: So it is a strong academic formation, but there's also A strong human formation, trying to learn the skills of socializing with people and living decently and living according to values and all of that. But it also involves that spiritual formation, that profound experience of friendship with Jesus Christ. And to know Jesus, to love him, and then through that love of Jesus, to really try to understand what that means, to live Jesus in the context of faith in the Catholic Church. And it's just an encouraging thing to see our young people formed in the faith. I had Mass in one place and then an assembly in the other. And I often say this, and I experienced it this week. I don't know that there's a more beautiful sound in the world than first graders saying the Our Father.
[00:19:16] Speaker C: I love that sound. It is the cutest.
[00:19:18] Speaker B: They're going with you through the whole Mass and then all of a sudden they get to the Our Father and it's familiar.
[00:19:24] Speaker A: They know it.
[00:19:25] Speaker C: They know that part.
[00:19:26] Speaker B: They belt it out every, everyone. It's without fail in any school, whether you're at church or in an assembly. And they all jump right in.
[00:19:35] Speaker A: I know this prayer. This is the one I always taught.
[00:19:38] Speaker C: Exactly.
[00:19:39] Speaker B: And you always have to remember, pause, because let them say it at their speed, but you don't want to roll over.
It's so encouraging.
[00:19:49] Speaker A: You know the gospel when Jesus teaches the disciples how to pray. And I remember having the kids in front of me at Mass one day and saying, and Jesus said, teaching the disciples how to pray, Our Father who art in Heaven. And they. All the kids start saying it in the midst of the Gospel. I'm like, no, this is not the part.
[00:20:08] Speaker C: That's the part they know, Father.
[00:20:10] Speaker B: And then, of course, it always ends.
[00:20:11] Speaker A: With the good, strong Amen.
Exactly.
Well, it's a great gift, certainly. And we have great schools in our diocese, both on the grammar school level and in our high schools. And we just hope the people who listen to us here on Big City Catholic can support them first and foremost through their prayers, to keep supporting Catholic education, to support the families through their prayers and the children, the teachers and the principals, the boards and all the staff at the superintendent's office, and certainly to help, if they can, financially through futures in Education and all the rest.
[00:20:47] Speaker B: We have a great gift, Father, hen you. We have some tasks among us. We spoke about the formation of the children, all that. And part of that comes out in Service. Katie mentioned St. Rose and the service projects. That's the other thing we saw. We see just tremendous service project. But we have a little bit of competition, Father Henyu, and I think we have a task ahead of us because one of the schools I went to has a podcast, a regular podcast, and I made a commitment at that school. I'll tell you. It's Divine wisdom academy at St. Anastasia parish, and they have a regular podcast. So I think we're going to have to put it this way. I have to go as a guest on their podcast and then that'll be our podcast for them.
[00:21:28] Speaker A: Am I losing my co host job here?
Am I being replaced? I very well may. He's not saying no.
[00:21:35] Speaker C: No, he didn't say no.
[00:21:38] Speaker A: That's awesome. It's great. And actually speaking of podcasts too, Father Dwayne Davis at St Thomas is also starting a podcast. So there's a great amount of evangelization through this means. So we. Yeah, well, you know what?
[00:21:50] Speaker B: Look, we've seen the power of podcast in political life. Yeah. This is a great tool and we're glad that we have the chance to do it. And I appreciate your help and the help of desales Media in being able to produce this and get it out. I've mentioned before, my experience with this goes back to really a radio program that we started during the pandemic. It was just a way to communicate with people when we didn't have a lot of the other means to communicate. We didn't have a TV station like DeSales, but there was a Catholic radio station in the area.
[00:22:22] Speaker A: Sure.
[00:22:22] Speaker B: And it was a daily update, became a weekly update, and then it became this faith update. And that what we continue here is very. Just simply a way to communicate with one another here. So thank you for joining us this week. For big city Catholics, let's ask the Lord's blessing.
[00:22:42] Speaker A: The Lord be with you and with your spirit.
[00:22:44] Speaker B: May the Lord bless you and keep you. May his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. May he look upon you with kindness and grant you his peace. And may the blessing of Almighty God, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit descend upon you and remain with you forever and ever.
[00:22:58] Speaker A: Amen. Katie Kevl, thank you for joining us today. And we thank all of those who listen to our podcast each and every week. Thank you again for joining us. We'll be with you again next week. God bless.
