Valuing Catholic Education

Blog by Sr. Beata Tiboldi

This week is National Catholic Schools Week (CSW), celebrating Catholic education in parishes and communities; celebrating the students, families, faculty, staff, and volunteers, and recognizing the value of Catholic education. There is a daily theme for each. On our Facebook page, each day we shared something about our schools. Check it out here.

During CSW, today, Thursday, the theme is vocations (how fitting that I’m writing this blog today!) Therefore, I decided to dedicate this blog to Catholic education, since it was the experience at a Catholic school where God’s call was reignited in my heart and started to nudge me.”

Let’s travel back in time to summer of 2006. After finishing my Master’s Degree, I was ready to jump into the field of education. I interviewed for two jobs, then I went on for a vacation to San Francisco. One morning, when I woke up, I saw two voicemails—both messages were about offering me a job. One was in my (middle-class) neighborhood, and the other one was 35 miles away, but it was a Catholic school in an impoverished area. I was blaming God: “Really? Now I need to choose.” I chose to teach at the Catholic school.

Little did I know how that choice would change me. It unfolded day-by-day. The school’s theme was about living the beatitudes for all five years while I was teaching there. I challenged myself not only to expect students to live the beatitudes, but also myself. In the evenings, I prayed the examination of conscience with the beatitudes. However, praying with this prayer and living the Beatitudes more intentionally, I started to long for more: for a deeper relationship with God. At the same time, the recession hit our country and it especially hit the area where I was teaching. Many people lost their jobs and several became homeless as well. The combination of my being hungry for a deeper relationship with God and for being involved with social justice concerns reignited God’s call for vowed religious life that had been present for a long while. God ‘kept tapping on the door of my heart’ until one day while listening to a song by ABBA (Take a chance on me), I decided to give religious life a try. Being a Dominican, I learned how to use my voice for the voiceless. I’m proud to say, that using one’s voice is taught and encouraged in our schools.

When parents visit schools and try to narrow down which school to choose, they look at the school’s academic performance, its spiritual life, its mission and how it is lived out, and they look at the school’s sense of community. Sounds like the four pillars of Dominican life (prayer, study, community and ministry.)

Catholic Schools don’t just educate. They educate for life. Students study current events and learn to speak up for a more just world. The school community witnesses what following God and sharing in Jesus’ mission is about. That witness speaks louder than any teaching. It doesn’t just educate the mind but it leaves its mark on the heart. It is then no wonder that it was through Catholic education where God’s call for me was reignited.

If you attended a Catholic school, what are you most grateful for? If you wish you would have attended a Catholic school, what is it that you long for and how can those needs be met?

Whether you attended Catholic school or not, perhaps you are searching for something more in your life and are experiencing a call to vowed religious life.  One way you can check out this call is to participate in our free Come and See retreat that we are hosting at our Akron Motherhouse, March 15-17, 2019.  The retreat is really an excellent way to learn about religious life and to meet our sisters by joining us for prayer, meals and conversation.  For details about this retreat, please contact me at btiboldi@oppeace.org. Or, if you would like to talk with one of our Vocation Ministers to help you discern whether God may be calling you to be a religious sister, please click here for our contact information.

 

Posted in God Calling?, News

Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Sr. Theresa Fox, OP

In last week’s Gospel Jesus spoke to the people of Nazareth of his mission – “to proclaim liberty to captives…to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.” The people of Nazareth were awe struck at what he said. They had known him as he grew up, being a typical boy with all the other children in the village. They were amazed and thought he would do wonderful things in their village. But then when Jesus started talking about people being healed in other places – and not just Jewish people – their story changed. They were outraged. They wanted him to make them and their village great. So in their anger they decided to get rid of him. The last sentence reads; “But Jesus passed through the midst of them and went away.”

This reading makes me think of the way we often are. We knew someone in the past. Maybe we lived with them 20 or 30 years ago. We figured we knew them and what they were capable of doing. Now years later, we meet them or hear of things they are doing today. Sometimes the feelings of the past surface and we become indignant and think that that person doesn’t have the ability to do those things. We say, “Who does she think she is, putting herself out like that?”

Or we become jealous. Why have I been overlooked? Why was she picked when I have some those same skills?

That’s where today’s second reading comes in. Paul tells us to strive for a more excellent way. He says that “love is not jealous, it is not pompous, it is not inflated, it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests”.

Can we not rejoice with the accomplishments of others? Jesus was not looking for praise or recognition. He simply wanted God’s Word to be known to all. His mission was to “bring glad tidings to the poor…to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.” His word was open to all who wished to follow. He didn’t give special treatment to others just because they knew him. He came to serve and not to be served and taught his followers to do the same.

Jesus didn’t let their anger and their envy get to him. Like Jesus let us pass over the self-centered feelings that arise and rejoice in the gifts and goodness of others.

Posted in News, Weekly Word

Raising the Body of Christ

Sr. Nadine Buchanan, OP, addresses Columbus Catholic High School and Ohio Dominican University students.

The Gospel reading for Sunday, January 27 was perfect for the first day of Catholic Schools Week 2019.

From First Corinthians 12, the first verse was: For as with the human body which is a unity although it has many parts — all the parts of the body, though many, still making up one single body — so it is with Christ.

We all have a part to play in the continuation and the strength of our Catholic schools. Whether parents or teachers, students or volunteers, each of us contribute to the strength of each school, and to the value that each school’s education provides to our precious young people.

This past weekend I was blessed to see the body of the Church and of our Catholic Schools in action, as Columbus diocesan schools and our congregation’s sponsored University, Ohio Dominican University, came together to minister to the marginalized and share Christ’s peace.

It all started in spring 2018 when Ohio Dominican University hosted Catholic Schools Day. Students from the local high schools toured the university, then accepted a special challenge – to create a social justice project that would make a positive impact in the Central Ohio community.

Human Trafficking survivor April Thacker.

Students from Fisher Catholic in Lancaster, OH, created a plan to provide much-needed clothing, food, and personal items to trafficked women in Columbus, OH. Andy White, Director for the Center for Student Involvement at Ohio Dominican and Sharon Reed, Dean of Student Life & Associate Vice President for Enrollment and Student Success, offered $1000 in seed money and the “Not For Sale: Coming Together to End Human Trafficking”  community service event became a reality on January 27, 2019.

I had the opportunity to introduce the Catholic high school and Ohio Dominican students to my dear friend April Thacker, a brave survivor of human trafficking. April’s presentation put the work of the day into context, as students packaged newly purchased hoodies, food, and personal items to be distributed to homeless and trafficked women on the streets of west Columbus.

Among the students was Allie Sarff from St. Francis DeSales High School. She recently donated many beautiful handmade blankets for the homeless women here in Columbus. When she heard about the “Not for Sale” event, she collected more than $2000 from students and teachers at the Columbus High School to buy hoodies and other items to donate to the event.

In total, the event brought in 150 new hoodies, 50 $5 McDonald gift cards donated by Andy White and the ODU Center for Student Involvement, hundreds of hygiene items collected by ODU staff, and nearly $1500 for the Dominican Sisters of Peace’s ministry with homeless and trafficked women.  In addition, 50 packages of hygiene and food items were packaged into bags to be distributed to women living in abandoned homes and on the street.

All of the Dominican Sisters of Peace are proud of the students and teachers at our sponsored schools, but this week, my heart is full of gratitude as Ohio Dominican students and staff helped our high school students begin a life of preaching peace and serving the people of God.

150 bags of food and personal hygiene items were packed at the “Not for Sale” event.
Columbus-area Catholic High School and Ohio Dominican students pack items for to distributed to trafficked women in Columbus, OH.
Students from St. Francis DeSales collected money to buy hoodies.
Posted in News, Weekly Word

Feeling Superior

Blog by Sr. Barbara Kane, OP, Justice Promoter

I can’t seem to get the picture of the young man from Covington Catholic looking at Native American Nathan Phillips out of my head.  I truly hope that the expression on that young man’s face was “Holy moly, what have I gotten myself into!” but unfortunately, to me it looked like disrespect and smugness.  It seems to be just another occurrence of one person feeling superior over another.

Seeing oneself as superior has been happening since the beginning of time. Did the original farmers look down on the hunter-gatherers?  We know the conquering countries felt superior to those conquered and enslaved.  In our reading from St. Paul on Sunday, he seems to rank the value of the various gifts to the church – apostles, prophets, teachers, etc. Are they superior to others?   It happens in the workplace also – we rank jobs (and the people in them) based on how much money we pay for that work.

Having a more important job or higher ranking is not a bad thing unless that person considers himself/herself superior to everyone else.  When this happens a priest/pastor feels that he/she has a right to take advantage of a child…. a boss feels he/she can demand sexual favors of an employee…. a person is forced into sex or labor slavery…. and a president thinks it’s good to build a wall or enforce a ban on people who speak a different language or practice a different religion. It can even be seen in a teenager’s face.

Let us remember that believing that one is superior is damaging for the person feeling superior and those whom he/she feels superior to. It is often the cause of most of the injustice that takes place in our world today. Take a minute to reflect on your attitude toward others.  Are you guilty of feeling superior?

 

Posted in News, Peace & Justice Blog

Dominican Sister of Peace Clara Bauman

Sister Clara Bauman, OP

Dominican Sister of Peace Clara (Irenaeus) Bauman, 88, died at the Mohun Care Center in Columbus, OH, on January 22, 2019.

Sister Clara was born in 1930 in Columbus, OH, the daughter of Victoria Trapp and John Bauman. She entered religious life in 1949 after graduating from the St. Mary of the Springs Academy in Columbus, OH, in 1949.

Sr. Clara earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Elementary Education from the College of St. Mary of the Springs, now Ohio Dominican University, in Columbus, OH. She earned a Masters of Arts in Elementary Education from Duquesne University and a Master of Arts in Religious Studies from the Incarnate Word University in San Antonio.

Sr. Clara ministered as an elementary school teacher and administrator in Pennsylvania, New Mexico, and Ohio, including in the Columbus diocese at St. Francis, Holy Spirit, Our Lady of Peace Columbus, at Holy Trinity, Somerset and at Sacred Heart, Coshocton.

After receiving her Master of Arts in Religious Studies in 1985, Sr. Clara served as Director of Religious Education at St. John the Baptist in McHenry, IL, from 1987 to 2000, and as Pastoral Minister at St. James the Less in Columbus from 2001 to 2012.

Even after her health required her to retire, she remained a pleasant and caring presence among her Sisters at the Mohun Health Care Center.

Sr. Clara was preceded in death by her parents John C. Bauman and Victoria Trapp Bauman, her sister Dorothy and her brother Irwin. She is survived by her sister, Bernadine Bauman; and nieces and nephews.

A Vigil of Remembrance Service was held on January 29, 2019, at the Dominican Sisters of Peace Motherhouse Chapel, Columbus, OH. The funeral liturgy was held at the Dominican Sisters of Peace Motherhouse Chapel on January 30, 2019, followed by burial at St. Joseph Cemetery in Columbus, OH.

Memorial gifts in Sr. Clara’s memory may be sent to the Dominican Sisters of Peace, Office of Mission Advancement, 2320 Airport Dr., Columbus, OH 43219 or submitted securely at oppeace.org.

To download a printable version of this memorial, please click here.

Posted in Obituaries