Religious Order Recruits Male Teachers for Schools

ST. LOUIS – The Midwest province of the Christian Brothers has begun a program to combat the growing shortage of male teachers.

The province offers the Lasallian Teacher Immersion Program at universities run by the religious community to provide male college students with classroom teaching experience and opportunities to serve those in need while earning college credit.

“(The program) is, in many ways, a return to our original mission,” said Christian Brother Patrick Conway, the province’s director of formation and director of the teacher immersion program.

St. John Baptist de La Salle began his educational mission in the late 1600s with a teacher-training program, preparing laymen to serve the Church as teachers, explained Brother Patrick, a longtime educator and former university vice president.

“This is my 35th year in education. One thing I’ve noticed is the shrinking pool of male teachers, particularly as related to theology and religion teachers,” he told the St. Louis Review, the archdiocesan newspaper.

“In the United States today, 19% of all Catholic school teachers are men. In public schools it’s 21% ... and 40% of children are growing up without a biological father in the house. Couple those things together and there is a real need,” he said.

Catholic-Jewish Relations: Bumps Won’t Slow Journey

VATICAN CITY – Summer brought a few bumps in the road of generally good Catholic-Jewish relations, bumps almost certainly caused inadvertently.

In a further example of how internal Church matters can negatively impact the Church’s external relations, Pope Benedict XVI’s July decision to widen access to the Tridentine Mass and his brief encounter Aug. 5 with Redemptorist Father Tadeusz Rydzyk, a Polish priest accused of anti-Semitism, led to expressions of concern by several Jewish groups.

On both occasions, the Vatican responded with statements reaffirming the Catholic Church’s commitment to the teaching of the Second Vatican Council and the completely new chapter the council opened in Jewish-Catholic relations.

Despite the hiccups, Oded Ben-Hur, the Israeli ambassador to the Vatican, said, “Officially and institutionally, relations are constantly improving.”

The ambassador added: “Sometimes the mishaps, which look terrible at the beginning, can strengthen us by forcing us to clarify them. Trial and error is a form of education.”

English Bishop Resigns From Amnesty Over Abortion

LONDON – An English bishop has resigned from Amnesty International after the human rights group adopted a policy to fight for the decriminalization of abortion around the world.

Bishop Michael Evans of East Anglia announced that he was leaving Amnesty after 31 years of active membership to protest the abortion policy adopted at a meeting of Amnesty leaders in Cocoyoc, Mexico, Aug. 11-17.

The organization’s International Council – more than 400 delegates from 75 countries – approved the proposals as part of Amnesty’s Stop Violence Against Women campaign.

The council voted to “support the decriminalization of abortion, to ensure women have access to health care when complications arise from abortion, and to defend women’s access to abortion, within reasonable gestational limits, when their health or human rights are in danger.”

But Bishop Evans said that the policy made it “very difficult for Catholics to remain members of Amnesty or to give it any financial support.”

Bishop Evans was an Amnesty member for 31 years; in the 1980s, he served on the British Section Council and its Religious Bodies Liaison Panel.

The bishop said that the Catholic Church shared Amnesty’s strong commitment to oppose violence against women but said that “appalling violence must not be answered by violence against the most vulnerable and defenseless form of human life in a woman’s womb.”

“Catholics would want to show practical compassion for such women and ensure for them all the medical and spiritual care and support they need,” he added. “But there is no human right to access to abortion, and Amnesty should not involve itself even in such extreme cases.”

If First-Grader Isn’t Reading, Tuition Will Be Refunded

DETROIT – Our Lady of La Salette Catholic School in the Detroit suburb of Berkley is making a guarantee: First-graders will be reading at a second-grade level by the end of the year. If not, parents can ask for a full tuition refund.

It’s an idea that came to Principal Carol Smith while she was brainstorming for the coming school year.

Her first-grade class was looking a little small for the upcoming year, a bit of an oddity for a school with an enrollment of nearly 200 students in preschool through eighth grade. She believes her teachers are top-notch, and thought it would be a shame if more students weren’t getting the benefit of a La Salette education.
Yearly tuition for a student who is not a parishioner is $5,080.

There’s no catch, but there is a commitment required. Parents must sign a contract promising to spend at least 15 minutes – a time recommended by most educators – reading with their child every day.

The first-grader must be new to the school, and he or she will take a test to make sure he or she is ready to learn and has no learning disabilities. At the end of the school year, the child will be given a standardized third-party test to be sure he or she is at a second-grade reading level. If not, parents may request a refund.

Pope’s Visit to Austria Will Encourage Evangelization

VATICAN CITY – Catholic leaders in Austria hope the pope’s Sept. 7-9 visit there will strengthen people’s faith in God and encourage Catholics to evangelize, said Austrian Cardinal Christoph Schonborn of Vienna.

“The biggest challenge today is mission” and taking the Gospel message to others, the cardinal told Vatican Radio.

Pope Benedict XVI met with Cardinal Schonborn, president of the Austrian bishops’ conference, and Bishop Egon Kapellari of Graz-Seckau, Austria, at the papal summer residence in Castel Gandolfo, Italy, Aug. 18.