Now more than ever!

My whole life I have been involved in education.  For the last 20 years, I have been working with communities that have been marginalized.  Saint Martin de Porres High School, Cleveland's Cristo Rey School, came from a vision energized by God and a community of early adopters.  The first national meeting occurred in Chicago in a basement of a retreat center with 25 or so people.

When I came back from Chicago to Cleveland, I began talking about this new model of education.  People honestly thought I was losing it.  I was the principal of Saint Ignatius High School and worked with a  great leader, Fr. Bob Welsh, S.J.  Life was good.  What was I thinking?  I really wasn't thinking, I was acting on believing!  

As my wife taught me, God is always calling, it's just that we aren't always listening.  I listened then and quit my job and worked like there was no tomorrow for the next 15 years.  My role was actually to spread the Good News that God is calling us to change the world!!

Now, in the midst of the worst crisis this country has seen in my memory, I am called to yet another "impossible dream."  The strong Catholic communities that built and supported Catholic schools and parishes across the United States have relocated!  The churches and schools did not.  They became a beacon for new communities sharing what could be argued as the best education system in the United States.  Resources became scarcer and scarcer until now we are on the verge of closing this great asset.

I am here to announce once again, "This is not what God wants!"  The Gospel could not be clearer or more direct.  I am working feverishly with Partnership Schools NYC to replicate in Cleveland.  Despite all odds, we have received the go-ahead from the Diocese.  It was one of, if not the last, act of Bishop Perez to sign the agreement on February 13, 2020.

We now have the go-ahead to begin to manage St. Thomas Aquinas School and Archbishop Lyke for the 2020-21 school year and to bring on at least 4 more schools in the next few years.

To say nothing of  "A woman with money is no match against a woman on a mission!"  But there is, of course, the other saying that comes into play, "No money, no mission."  I recall my mentor, Fr. Welsh, S.J., saying more than once, "If money is the only problem, then we are in good shape!"

Jeremiah 20:4 "You duped me, O Lord, and I let myself be duped; you were too strong for me, and you triumphed. All the day I am an object of laughter; everyone mocks me."

I certainly identified with this passage 20 years ago, and now, more than ever, I hear it reverberating in my heart.  We need to raise $3M by June 1.  Most people I talk with say that that would be impossible given the present situation.  My response is again from the Gospel, "And looking at them Jesus said to them, "With people this is impossible, but with God all things are possible."