Student representatives from two Los Angeles archdiocesan elementary schools came to the Archdiocesan Catholic Center Jan. 28 for a special celebration honoring Fiorenza Courtright-Lucas, a founding member of the Catholic Education Foundation whose contributions have helped a generation of inner city schoolchildren attend Catholic schools.

Recently completing her commitment of donating $1 million, Courtright-Lucas was all smiles listening to CEF student recipients from Precious Blood and St. Thomas the Apostle Schools. The students had come with their respective principals to express thanks on behalf of all those who have received CEF tuition assistance since its founding by Cardinal Roger Mahony in 1987.

The cardinal, meeting with the group in his office at the ACC, complimented Courtright-Lucas for her "faithfulness year after year" donating to CEF. "Today's a celebration of crossing the goal line," said Cardinal Mahony.

After receiving tokens of appreciation from the children and their principals, including a large spiritual bouquet card and a student's handmade rosary, Courtright-Lucas said it was Cardinal Mahony's concern for the future of the archdiocese's children that prompted the establishment of CEF.

"Through the great wisdom and judgment of our cardinal, he instituted the archdiocesan Catholic Education Foundation. You are always on his mind," she told the children. She thanked Cardinal Mahony for inviting her to be a founding CEF board member and recounted her own story of being given the opportunity to attend Catholic school in Chicago during the Depression.

The youngest of six children growing up in Chicago, Courtright-Lucas was playing in front of her apartment with a friend when two nuns stopped their car to ask if she would like to attend St. Agatha's elementary school.

Knowing the $1 monthly tuition was too high for her widowed mother, she asked the pastor if he could reduce her fee to 25 cents if she swept the classroom floors and kept the blackboards clean.

"I worked my way through grammar school at 25 cents a month," said Courtright-Lucas. She elicited laughs when she looked over at her husband, former California State Supreme Court Chief Justice Malcolm Lucas, and shared that he likes to joke that his wife's tuition reduction was "the best investment the Catholic Church ever made: from 25 cents to $1 million."

"If it wasn't for my Catholic education as a child, I wouldn't be here today," Courtright-Lucas told the group, which included CEF board member Robert Smith and Kathleen Anderson, CEF director. Commenting on the contributions of Smith's father, the late Bob Smith who also made a $1 million CEF donation, Courtright-Lucas said "He has left a wonderful legacy in his Smith family members, who have set such an inspirational example of charity."

At a luncheon following the ceremony, Raymond Saborio, principal of St. Thomas, told The Tidings the generosity of CEF donors helps keep the doors of his Pico-Union school open.

"If we didn't have CEF funding, our school would be struggling. Many of our families would not be able to afford Catholic school. Our enrollment would slip," said Saborio, an almnus of St. Thomas who noted that 35 percent of students receive CEF tuition assistance. Overall, approximately 85 percent of school families receive financial aid through a combination of CEF funding and the school's own scholarship fund-raising efforts.

According to Saborio, the school parents at St. Thomas appreciate their children's Catholic education. "They can see that the teachers and staff do care," he said. "They like the discipline, the greater emphasis on academics and, above all else, they love the spiritual activities, spiritual nourishment and spiritual formation our school is totally devoted to."

Courtright-Lucas told The Tidings in an interview after the luncheon that, "the upbringing of a Catholic grammar school was imperative to my life." The mother of six grown children and Good Shepherd parishioner is a founding donor of the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels.

She is also a Dame of Malta, a Lady of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre and a Dame of the Constantinian Order of St. George. "Attending Catholic school was a wonderful gift of faith to me," said Courtright-Lucas, "and it has been the core of my life ever since."