The "awesome, awesome undertaking" of how local Catholic schools can help implement the initiatives of the archdiocesan Synod was tackled by some 100 educators and church leaders Dec. 2 in downtown Los Angeles.

"In your professional lives as educators working with youth, are you not evangelizers?" asked Deacon David Estrada, Office of Synod Implementation director. "Are you not daily evangelizing the children whom you come into contact with?

"Synod is asking you to embrace that calling and go even further with it --- integrating not only your own personal and professional lives into the spirit of evangelization, but also looking at the dimension from the whole parish life and also from the viewpoint of the archdiocese."

Estrada said Catholic school teachers and administrators were already doing a "great deal of this," but probably didn't even realize it. The crucial issue, he said, is how these efforts can be linked into what is happening at the parish, regional and archdiocesan level. He asked the educators to think about how that convergence might be accomplished.

"There's just been an awesome, awesome undertaking as we envision further into the future what Synod can really do for us as an archdiocese," he said. "Because it's the voice of all of God's people who have responded locally to identifying the needs and then following through by implementing them."

With the growing shortage of priests, he observed, who will step up to take their place? Who will bring all that they currently do for God's people? He said Cardinal Roger Mahony had put his finger on the answer by calling for a "new sense of discipleship."

"Each and every one of us is asked to implement the Synod," Estrada declared. "And the six initiatives of the Synod are only the beginning. But if we truly embrace these initiatives and truly take on all that they require us to do, I feel that our local church in Los Angeles will be a model for the rest of the nation and, certainly, one that we will truly, truly enjoy being part of."

Small group processing

Participants broke up into a dozen groups at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels' Conference Center to hash out how the Synod initiatives (evangelization, shared participation and accountability, ongoing education and formation, enhanced leadership, sacramental grace and social justice in action) could converge with six strategic plan themes for Catholic schools: Christ-centeredness/mission/ evangelization, shared governance, Catholicity of schools, leadership, adequate resources and justice in action.

Results, which were written and posted, included accepting the cultural challenge of educating children in a complex society; setting up local school councils; acknowledging a school's call to greater participation in a parish; and giving priority to hiring and training committed principals and teachers "who are imbued with the spirit of Christ."

Table seven thought students should be asked not only what they wanted to be when they grow up, but also what vocation or ministry they wanted to pursue in the church.

"We built on the concept of biblical justice that's founded on relationships and action to serve the poor and to transform unjust social structures," reported Neil Quinly, supervisor of elementary schools, Our Lady of the Angels Region, for table 11. "We thought that our Catholic schools are challenged to be learning communities where they develop an awareness of the needs of others, both locally and globally, and to come up with a specific plant to address those needs."

A number of educators stressed that although Catholic schools were vital to the future of the church in Southern California, they weren't receiving adequate funding. "As a priority ministry in the archdiocese, we must be financially supported through a more equitable distribution of resources so that we can provide a quality Catholic education that will encompass more students," proclaimed table 12, drawing loud applause.

Pat Livingston, archdiocesan superintendent of elementary schools, said the symposium brought together the "best and brightest" area leaders of education, who came up with many excellent concrete suggestions on how to converge the spirit of the Synod with the spirit of the strategic plan for Catholic schools.

"The Synod came out the same time as our plan," she told The Tidings. "We loved the Synod, and it was just amazing how it converged with our themes for schools. We wanted people, pastors, bishops and the cardinal to see how we're working for a convergence of the two documents.

"The priorities of the Synod, we feel, can be implemented in our parish schools and also in the high schools," added the former teacher and principal, "so that they just become part of the spirit of the archdiocese."