Hello, Regis!

Last week, Regis celebrated Catholic Schools Week in tremendous fashion. We had a visit from Sr. Suzanne Cooke, RSCJ, the Provincial of the Society of the Sacred Heart for the United States and Canada, who joined us not only for our joint Mass with Duchesne Academy of the Sacred Heart to kick off the week, but also for a talks with parents and Trustees in both the Regis and Duchesne communities, visits to our classrooms, and conversations with our faculty and staff. The boys wrote letters to seminarians and RSCJ nuns in elder care, packaged hygiene kits for individuals in need of basic toiletries, and celebrated the birthday of St. John Francis Regis with a Friday Mass. In addition, Regis hosted a “Busy Person’s Retreat” for our faculty, staff, and Board, anchored by another RSCJ favorite, Sr. Mary Pat White. As I said above, we had a tremendous Catholic Schools Week. While this is a national celebration of Catholic education, celebrated by Catholic schools across the country, for us here at Regis, it’s also an important reminder that we aren’t just an independent school, we aren’t just an all-boys school, and we’re not even “just” a Sacred Heart School. We are a Catholic school—full stop. 

(From left to right: Mr. Steven R. Turner, Jr. (Regis Head of School), Sr. Sharon Karam, RSCJ, Sr. Suzanne Cooke, RSCJ (Provincial of the Society of the Sacred Heart for the United States and Canada), and Ms. Hillary Feerick-Hillenbrand (Duchesne Head of School)

In our beloved Goals and Criteria, Foundational Principle number one—our top core value—identifies that we, as Sacred Heart School, are “part of the Society’s mission in the Catholic Church.” Goal I, Criterion I says that a Sacred Heart School “identifies itself to the community as a Catholic…school,” and as “an embodiment of the mission of the Society of the Sacred Heart.” We are Catholic, y’all, but it’s also a good time to remind ourselves that we aren’t just any kind of Catholic. Schools that operate in the Catholic tradition, whether independent or attached to parishes, vary widely in how we are Catholic; at Regis, we are Sacred Heart Catholic, and we are loud and proud about that. To my way of thinking, that means we are both “big C” and “little C” Catholic. In being “big C” Catholic, we are unabashedly part of a faith tradition that goes back all the way to Jesus and to our first Pope, St. Peter. We uphold and practice doctrines and rituals that go back about two thousand years. We adhere to a creed, and we know when we are supposed to sit, stand, and kneel. None of this is unimportant, and the call to embrace the traditions, beliefs, and doctrines of the Catholic Church is one we certainly (and proudly) heed. But being Sacred Heart Catholic also means that we are about more than just the “smells and bells;” being Sacred Heart Catholic means that we embrace the “little C” as well. As a recovering Latin and Ancient Greek major, I can tell you that the word “Catholic” comes from a Greek word that means “universal.” This means that we are open to all. But being “universal” and “open to all” is about more than just being accepting of faith traditions outside the Catholic Church. It means that we embrace and celebrate these faith traditions and that we encourage our community members to deepen their faith, whether they are Catholic or not. This has been my experience of the Sacred Heart difference for as long as I have been acquainted with this Network of schools, which means that this has been my experience of the Sacred Heart difference for over a decade.

I am willing to bet that there are families who join us for Mass regularly who are not baptized Catholics, and I am so proud of that. I am proud to be part of a “brand” of Catholicism that is open to all, regardless of whether they are “officially” Catholic or not. Sacred Heart Schools feel that Sacred Heart values and Catholic Social Teaching are not something to be kept under lock and key, reserved only for those that are “members of the club.” Rather, the attitudes of the Heart of Jesus Christ as they are represented and understood in the Catholic faith are open to all, with no copyrights or trademarks. This is reflected in the Goals and Criteria, whose 50th anniversary we celebrate this year, but it is also part of a heritage that goes all the way back to 1800 when St. Madeleine Sophie Barat founded the Society. At Regis, we believe that the Heart of Christ and the attitudes of that Heart are for all of us, and that is truly wonderful news.

Catholic Schools Week offers us an annual opportunity to reflect on what it means to be a Catholic school and how it is that we do that. It’s a yearly call to double down on our mission as both a Catholic school and a Sacred Heart Catholic school. What a wonderful gift, and what an opportunity to renew our commitment to being the very best Catholic school we can be.