Once again the importance of a Catholic education to parents is evident in the enrollment of 15,052 students in Catholic Schools in the Diocese of Dallas. The enrollment data released by Sister Gloria Cain, Superintendent of Schools, on September 17 shows 11,981 students enrolled in 31 diocesan and parochial Catholic schools and 3,071 in private Catholic schools.

Catholic parents are to be admired and commended for making the sacrifices required to provide their children with a Catholic education. In the words of Pope Benedict: “In …Catholic schools, there is always a bigger picture over and above the individual subjects you study, the different skills you learn. All the work you do is placed in the context of growing in friendship with God, and all that flows from that friendship.”

Catholic education not only provides young men and women with a Faith strong enough to endure in an increasingly secularized society, but one that equips them to confront and change that society in light of the gospel message of Jesus Christ.

“The quest for the sacred”, in the Pope’s words, “does not devalue other fields of human enquiry. On the contrary, it places them in a context which magnifies their importance, as ways of responsibly exercising our stewardship over creation”.

A Catholic school must be more than a school that offers religion as a subject, it must be a functioning Christian community that nurtures and enhances the seeds of Faith planted by parents in a loving Christian family.