David Fremo | President, Catholic Community Schools
Catholic Schools Week is celebrated January 25 – 31, 2026.
Catholic Schools Week is often described as a celebration, which it is, but it’s also a witness. In a culture that can be unsure what “formation” even means, Catholic schools continue to do what the Church has always done at her best: form young people to seek truth, goodness and service to others, in community. This year’s theme, “Catholic Schools: United in Faith and Community,” speaks clearly to that witness.
Catholic schools are a front porch for the Church — places of welcome, encounter and engagement with everyday life. Students and families experience Christ in learning, growth and relationships. Over time, that porch becomes something more: a sacred space of daily formation, where a steady rhythm of prayer, virtue, belonging and purpose helps the Gospel take root. Many families describe Catholic schools in exactly those terms, as anchors in faith for their children and for their home life.
This is one reason Catholic schools are such a force for good in our community. They don’t merely transmit information or maintain what was. They help shape a person, and through that person, a future. Catholic education asks the questions our world often avoids: Who is God? Who am I? What am I called to do? It forms the mind without shrinking the soul. It teaches students to pursue excellence without losing compassion, to seek and speak the truth with humility and respect and to care for others without prejudice.
Catholic schools also provide something that can be easy to miss until it is gone: they normalize the Gospel in ordinary life, learned through countless daily experiences. A student watches how adults repair conflict rather than escalate it. A family experiences a community that notices when someone is struggling. A teacher makes room for both rigor and dignity. Students grow up seeing that people are not disposable, relationships are worth repairing and faith has consequences for how we treat the vulnerable, welcome the stranger and seek the common good.
That formation becomes a true public good. National research has found measurable differences in how Catholic school graduates show up in civic life. Catholic school graduates are more likely to volunteer outside of religious settings — including in organizations serving youth, the poor and vulnerable and the elderly — and more likely to be registered to vote. Catholic schools cultivate habits of responsibility and engagement that strengthen communities.
This is also why Catholic schools matter for the Church’s social mission. Catholic schools don’t merely “add service hours.” They form a way of seeing. Students learn to recognize dignity, practice solidarity and understand that faith is lived as well as professed. In a fragmented society, Catholic schools help form a culture where service is not an occasional event but a durable instinct and lifelong way of being.
Catholic Schools Week arrives this year at a meaningful moment of discernment for our local Church as the Diocese of St. Cloud continues the All Things New pastoral planning process. In moments like this, the Church invites a posture that is both spiritual and practical: to listen, to attend, and to learn from lived experience. The late Pope Francis taught us, “A synodal Church is a listening Church.” That teaching is foundational to our schools as ministries of the Church. Catholic schools flourish when they are places of trust-building and dialogue — when families feel respected, educators feel supported and communication is honest and clear enough to build confidence, especially amid change.
In our local listening with CCS families and educators, several hopes rise consistently. Families want a clear Catholic “why” that is lived consistently — not as slogans, but as faith integrated into the day-to-day life of the school. They pointed to prayer that is real, virtue that is taught and adults who model faith through the way they lead, teach and care. For many, this steady rhythm doesn’t stay at school; it strengthens life at home. Teachers and staff want the resources and support that sustain their vocation and excellence. And families overwhelmingly want Catholic education to remain accessible — because a ministry of the Church and a public good cannot become a luxury reserved only for those with the easiest financial path.
National research aligns with these hopes. A recent major study commissioned by NCEA and FADICA found that quality education and moral formation are among the key drivers in parents’ school choices — two hallmarks that Catholic schools are uniquely positioned to offer. The same research also highlights a challenge we cannot ignore: many families remain unclear about what Catholic schools actually offer, and cost remains for many a significant barrier.
That combination should clarify the invitation of this moment. Catholic schools are a proven good for young people and for the common life of our communities, but they depend on shared commitment. If Catholic education is truly a ministry of the Church, then the burden cannot rest only on tuition-paying families. It calls for a broader circle of support: parishes, benefactors, alumni and all who care about the future of faith in our region.
If you do not currently have children in a Catholic school, Catholic Schools Week is still for you. Pray for our students and educators. Encourage a family you know. Thank a teacher. Support a scholarship. Share the good works of our schools in our communities. Help remove a barrier — financial, relational or cultural—that keeps Catholic education out of reach.
United in faith and community, Catholic schools help people to know and encounter Christ — offering a front porch of welcome where faith is formed, relationships deepen and the Gospel takes root close to home.
Above photo: Holy Family School students Addie Burg (right) and Liesl Brever sing along during Mass at Saint John’s Abbey Church in Collegeville in this archive photo from 2018. (Photo by Paul Middlestaedt)