Archdiocese to celebrate Catholic Schools Week

ARCHDIOCESE — Catholic-school students, their teachers and their communities throughout the 19-county Archdiocese of Cincinnati will celebrate the 34th annual Catholic Schools Week Jan. 27 through Feb. 2, reminding the community that "Catholic Schools Light the Way."

COURTESY MUSKOFF

Students from St. Patrick School offer the Lord’s Prayer at last year’s Catholic Schools Week Mass at St. Benedict the Moor Church in Dayton.

"I am so proud of our principals and teachers who view Catholic education as a ministry where our faith is proclaimed, community is experienced, service is the norm and thanksgiving and worship of our God is cultivated. There is no higher calling than the formation of our young in the faith."

More than 1,000 representatives from Greater Cincinnati Catholic schools will participate on Jan. 30 as Father Rob Waller, pastor of St. Andrew Church in Milford, presides at a special 10 a.m. Catholic Schools Week Mass at the Cathedral of St. Peter in Chains in Cincinnati. Archbishop Daniel E. Pilarczyk will preside at a 10 a.m. Mass that day at St. Christopher Church in Vandalia for Catholic schools of the Miami Valley, with more than 600 students and their guests in attendance.

Pastors throughout the archdiocese are asked to ring their church bells at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, which is also National Appreciation Day for Catholic Schools.

The 117 Catholic elementary and high schools in the archdiocese will mark the week with special programs of their own, such as open houses for parents and grandparents, out-of-uniform days, service projects, Masses, talent shows, special decorations, games and entertainment.

The Archdiocese of Cincinnati is the 26th-largest Catholic diocese in the country, with almost 500,000 Catholics, and has the eighth-largest network of Catholic schools in terms of enrollment — 47,347 students for the 2007-2008 school year.