The Catholic Education Foundation (CEF) was established by Bishop Gerald Barnes to assist families in the Diocese of San Bernardino wishing to send their children to Catholic school. This new foundation is designed to breathe new life into struggling Catholic schools by raising more scholarship funding for students with the greatest financial need. Catholic schools have repeatedly demonstrated faith formation, high quality teaching, safety, character development and concern for others with the children entrusted to our care. Catholic students graduate and are accepted to college. The CEF’s desire is to spread this kind of success to as many people as possible.
Who benefits from Catholic School?
The truth is that the entire parish, the whole Diocese and the Universal Church benefit from Catholic schools in ways that keep communities strong. So all Catholics have a duty to support them. Reawakening a sense of common ownership of Catholic schools is one of the biggest challenges the Church faces in any revitalization effort ahead. Thus, we Catholics need to ask ourselves a risky question: Who needs Catholic schools, anyway?
The answer: We all do. Much of the research on Catholic education conducted over the last five decades has answered with a unanimous voice that, without a doubt, Catholic schools are an unquestioned success in every way: spiritually, academically and communally. More to the point, the graduates we produce emerge as lifelong practitioners of their faith. These Catholic graduates have been, are and will be our leaders in church and society.
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Austin Conley the Director of Advancement for the Office of Catholic Schools in the Diocese of San Bernardino.