Author Archives: Tereza Ma

Cardinal: clear response to abuse crisis urgently needed

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By Carol Glatz
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Responding quickly and appropriately to the problem of abuse must be a priority for the Catholic Church, said Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley, president of the Vatican’s Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors.
“Recent events in the church have us all focused on the urgent need for a clear response on the part of the church for the sexual abuse of minors” and vulnerable adults, he told Vatican News Sept. 9.
“Bringing the voice of survivors to leadership of the church is crucial if people are going to have an understanding of how important it is for the church to respond quickly and correctly anytime a situation of abuse may arise,” he said.
The cardinal, who is the archbishop of Boston, spoke at the end of the papal commission’s plenary assembly in Rome Sept. 7-9. Afterward, Cardinal O’Malley remained in Rome for the meeting Sept. 10-12 of Pope Francis’ international Council of Cardinals.
Cardinal O’Malley told Vatican News that in cases of abuse “if the church is unable to respond wholeheartedly and make this a priority, all of our other activities of evangelization, works of mercy, education are all going to suffer. This must be the priority that we concentrate on right now.”
The pontifical commission, he explained, is an advisory body set up to make recommendations to the pope and to develop and offer guidelines, best practices and formation to church leaders throughout the world, including bishops’ conferences, religious orders and offices in the Roman Curia.
The commission is not an investigative body and does not deal with past abuses or current allegations, but its expert-members try, through education, leadership training and advocacy, to “change the future so that it will not be a repeat of the sad history” the church has experienced, he said.
“There are other dicasteries of the Holy See that have the responsibility for dealing with the cases and dealing with individual circumstances of abuse or negligence on the part of authority, and our commission cannot be held accountable for their activities,” he said.
Most allegations of clerical sexual abuse are handled through the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
Commission members, however, have spoken with officials at various Vatican offices, including the doctrinal congregation. For those meetings, Cardinal O’Malley said he always brings a survivor with him “to talk to them about the church’s mission of safeguarding, and I think those (moments) have been very successful.”
Safeguarding training for bishops, priests and religious around the world is meant to help them become “aware of the seriousness” of abuse and negligence, “to be equipped to be able to respond” and to be able “to put the safeguarding of children and the pastoral care of victims as their priority,” said the cardinal.
A critical part of building awareness, he said, has been making the voice of survivors be heard directly by leadership. Every year when new bishops attend a course in Rome, the commission also addresses the group.

First day from across the Diocese’s Catholic schools

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COLUMBUS – Joseph Baumann, a second-grader at Annunciation School, August 6, gets right to work on the first day of class. All Catholic schools in the Diocese of Jackson are in session. In this back-to-school special edition, get updates on what's new for schools this year including improved curriculum, Catholic identity, character education in athletics and a service project idea that is still building momentum. Stories start on page 6. (Photo by Katie Fenstermacher)

MERIDIAN – Students in Melanie Pressly’s first grade class at St. Patrick School sing a song on their first day back to class. (Photo Virginia Pressly)

MADISON – St. Anthony students Sam Sosa and Campbell Stringer are happy to see each other the first day of school. (Photo courtesy Michele Warnock)

GREENVILLE – Middle school students work off some energy during the first Day of School at St. Joseph School. (Photo by Craig Mandolini)

MADISON – Sister Paula Blouin shows (l-r) Brandon Giuffria, Olanna Chima, Reed Hardy and Sydney Beard, students at Assisi Early Learning Center how to stir hot cheese grits to cool them off. (Photo courtesy of Sister Paula Blouin)

FLOWOOD – Students at St. Paul Early Learning Center find their faces on a classroom chart. (Photo courtesy Susan Irby)

MADISON – St. Joseph students get right to work. (Photo courtesy of Terry Casserino.)

JACKSON – Suzan Cox washes Alan Garrison’s feet at the St. Richard sixth grade commissioning ceremony. The graduating class hears the gospel where Jesus washes the feet of his disciples. Teachers and administrators wash their feet and send them back to the school as servant leaders. (Photo by Wendi Shearer )

HOLLY SPRINGS – Holy Family principal Clara Isom high-fives students as they head for class with new backpacks. A Tunica business donated backpacks and school supplies to all the students. (Photo courtesy of Sandra Cirilli )

GREENWOOD – Students at St. Francis of Assisi School participated in the first school Mass of the year through liturgical dance and by acting out the gospel with celebrant Father Camillus Janas, OFM. (Photo by Jackie C. Lewis)

VICKSBURG – The Flashettes dance team and cheerleaders greet Kindergartener Kenneth and Pre-K student Allison Grogan as they walk into St Francis Xavier for their first day of school. (Photo by Kristi Smith)

JACKSON – Sister Thea Bowman students got right to work on their first day.(Photo by Deacon Denzil Lobo)

Curriculum review prompts revisions

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By Stephanie Brown
JACKSON – In the world of education, a teacher or professor’s curriculum serves as the road map for what will be taught in the classroom throughout the year. Curriculum standards outline goals for the year and dictate what a student should know and be able to do by the time they leave one grade to move onto the next. In recent years the topic of curriculum standards has gotten more attention with the emergence of Common Core, College and Career Readiness Standards, Next Generation National Science Standards, and several other sets of state and national standards. As the curriculum debate has grown, Catholic schools have been faced with a challenge. These schools need to both utilize standards that will academically prepare students for the future and more importantly develop a roadmap that is infused with Catholic identity, ensuring that Catholic schools are teaching the whole child by cultivating his or her academic, spiritual, emotional and physical growth.
Curriculum review is an ongoing process. And, when state and national standards are revised is prompts the Diocese to take an even closer look and consider if changes are necessary. In following the updates to the state curriculum standards, the Office of Education determined that it was time to revise and enhance the standards currently used in the Diocese of Jackson Catholic schools.
The evaluation of the current curriculum started at the local level last September. Administrators and teachers spent a professional development work day focusing on vertical alignment. A curriculum that is vertically aligned ensures that students are fully prepared to move from one grade to the next. It eliminates gaps or holes in the content covered, and eliminates any redundancies that may waste time unnecessarily repeating skills and topics covered during the previous year. While many skills require a certain amount of practice and maintenance from year to year, diocesan leadership wanted to ensure that the standards and skills continue to build on one another and dive deeper into critical thinking rather than simply implementing rote repetition.
Following this work day, all the information from each school was collected and reviewed. In February, educators from around the diocese came together to closely evaluate several state and national standards, data from students’ performance over the past three years and feedback from the professional development day in September.
Working in groups based on grade level and subjects, teachers made decisions regarding what to implement for students at each grade level. Teachers were given the freedom to look at the standards currently available and determine which standards they felt were both developmentally appropriate and rigorous enough to ensure students’ academic success.
Once an initial draft of curriculum standards was created for each grade and subject, the committees dove deeper into the standards seeking natural connections between the newly written standards and Catholic identity. The committees began identifying concrete ways to integrate Church teachings, scripture and overall spiritual development into other subjects.
The next meeting of the curriculum committees is scheduled for mid-September. The agenda for this meeting includes revisions of the first drafts, continued vertical planning and alignments and an even deeper focus on the integration of Catholic identity. The goal of this process is to provide Catholic school teachers, students and parents with a clear roadmap of learning that not only meets the academic standards of our public-school counterparts but exceeds the rigor of those programs. This roadmap is further enhanced with guidelines for the spiritual and emotional development of students.
Following our curriculum meetings in September, smaller committees will be used to “polish” the standards and begin crafting the final drafts to be used in the 2019-2020 school year. Many teachers have already begun the integration of these standards, and administrators look forward to a seamless transition from the current standards to the enhanced curriculum standards now under construction.
To help aid in this transition and improve the overall experience for our teachers and students, the Office of Education is looking into a variety of professional development opportunities. These events will help teachers fully understand the curriculum and discover fun and new ways to use them in their classrooms.
One initiative in the works is an inaugural STREAM (Science Technology Religion Engineering Art and Mathematics) Academy planned for teachers from across the diocese starting in the summer of 2019 and extending throughout the school year.

(Stephanie Brown is the coordinator for school improvement for the Office of Education.)

Beatitudes anchor Catholic identity for academic year

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By Karla Luke
JACKSON – Educators in the Diocese of Jackson’s Catholic schools and early learning centers, partner with families to form students in their faith. Catholic educators are entrusted by parents and families to provide a rich Catholic Christian environment by developing their own Catholic Identity, as well as, that of students and families. Catholic identity goes deeper than attending to the physical environment of the school or classroom by strategically placing pictures, statues and prayer tables. Don’t misunderstand. Those are extremely important, but they are only part of an ongoing development and formation of students in faith. Catholic educators use the tangible sacramentals (prayer tables, rosaries, holy cards, etc.) and traditions to cultivate the intangible: love for Jesus, love for others and a desire for service.
The Office of Catholic Education supports the development of Catholic identity each year with a theme, days of reflection and support materials. Each school integrates this in a way best suited to each learning community, but maintains the overall unity of the theme across the diocese. In the past, the school community of administrators, faculty and staff have accomplished this by studying Papal documents such as Evangelii Gaudium, the Bull of indiction of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy as well as the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Catholic Social Teachings and our the Diocese of Jackson’s Pastoral Priorities.
This year, the Office of Catholic Education has chosen to use the Beatitudes in the Gospel of Matthew to explore faith more deeply. The resource material for this study comes from Dan R. Ebener’s Blessings for Leaders: Leadership Wisdom from the Beatitudes (2012) and Pope Francis’s Gaudete et Exsultate. Administrators, teachers and staff explored it at gatherings at each school at which teachers wrote a prayer based on what they learned. The Office of Education will continue to offer support for the theme throughout the year.
The help of the Holy Spirit is essential in living out the Beatitudes because, to be quite honest, at first glance they contradict everything society declares right and desirable. As Christians strive for a deeper understanding, they find that Jesus is teaching what God means when he says in Lev 11:45, “Be holy because I am holy.” Pope Francis writes in Gaudete et Exsultate “The Beatitudes are like a Christian’s identity card. So, if anyone asks: ‘What must one do to be a good Christian?’ The answer is clear. We have to do, each in our own way, what Jesus told us in the Sermon on the Mount. In the Beatitudes, we find a portrait of the Master, which we are called to reflect in our daily lives.”
The Beatitudes are countercultural. This should not surprise anyone who has looked at Jesus’s life and teachings. He spent time with the poor, sick, lonely and tax collectors rather than hanging out with the “church” crowd. That’s just for starters. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is teaching THE WAY. Where society urges people to spend their time and use their gifts to acquire wealth and power for security, Jesus says security should be in God alone for He alone can give eternal life, [Mt 5:3]. Society rewards ambition and reveres those in authority, but Jesus teaches that meekness and humility are desirable in God’s sight [Mt 5:5]. The world demands people grab short-lived rewards declaring “YOLO” (that’s “you only live once” for non-millennials). This can cause people to run away from problems or to turn a blind eye to sadness and suffering. Jesus teaches his followers to share in each other’s suffering. In this, Christians are able to show compassion, empathy and to comfort their brothers and sisters in Christ [Mt 5:4].
In Blessings for Leaders, Ebener equates each of the Beatitudes with character qualities necessary for good leadership. As principals lead teachers and teachers lead students, the diocesan leadership team thought this would be a meaningful approach to studying the Beatitudes and integrating leadership qualities with the Church’s teachings. Ebener’s book focuses on two major events in Mathew’s gospel: the great invitation and the great commission. In the great invitation, all are invited to become disciples of Christ; to come, see, learn and follow. In the great commission, all are challenged to become apostles of Christ; to go, tell, teach and lead. As teachers of any subject matter, educators must first learn the content before they can lead a class. Teachers are the ‘apostles’ of their classrooms and schools. They must use the knowledge of the Catholic faith, spirituality and faith experiences to call their students and families to a rich faith experience and a deeper relationship with Christ and the Church.

(Karla Luke is the assistant superintendent of Catholic schools for the diocese.)

System-wide accreditation, school improvement enhanced Catholic identity in the works for 2018/2019

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By Catherine Cook
JACKSON – Classes are underway in all schools across the Diocese of Jackson. In this edition of Mississippi Catholic, readers can find updates on school accreditation, character education through athletics, how Catholic identity is being enhanced in every school, improvements being made to curriculum, news on school expansions and new administrators.
In addition to new faces, new administrators and new construction, the Office of Catholic Education has begun a system-wide accreditation process to have all 13 Catholic schools accredited by AdvancED, the accrediting agency formed by the merger of the PreK-12 school division of Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) and North Central Association (NCA) Commissions on Accreditation and School Improvement in 2006 and later including the Northwest Accreditation Commission (NWAC) making it the largest association of educational professionals in the world. The Diocese of Jackson joins 52 (arch)dioceses and Catholic school systems from across the U.S. already accredited this way..
Stephanie Brown, coordinator of school improvement, is leading this process. Brown worked with the Office of Catholic Education last year on a part-time basis assisting with the ongoing curriculum review and initiating the AdvancED process and began in a full-time capacity in July. She comes to the education office from Madison St. Anthony School where she served as a teacher, the coordinator of religious education, and the assistant principal.
The diocese has a significant history with AdvancED through its affiliation with SACS. Many schools were accredited by SACS during the mid 1970s and 80’s. Natchez Cathedral, Madison St. Joseph and Vicksburg Catholic were accredited by SACS in 1975, Holly Springs Holy Family in 1978, Greenville St. Joseph in 1980, Columbus Annunciation in 1984, Southaven Sacred Heart and Jackson St. Richard in 2004, and Madison St. Anthony in 2012. The four remaining schools that have not been affiliated with AdvancED will be accredited through this system-wide process.
This accreditation process uses a set of rigorous research-based standards to examine individual schools, as well as, the diocese as a system to determine how well the schools and the diocese are meeting the needs of students. Continuous improvement is at the core of this process. All efforts in the accreditation review are directed toward examining data – surveys, achievement scores, classroom observation data, etc. for ongoing improvement of student outcomes. The standards are grouped within three domains: leadership capacity, learning capacity and resources capacity. Additionally, AdvancED partnered with the National Educational Association to incorporate the Catholic School Standards so that we can be assured that the uniqueness of Catholic education is recognized and supported.
The system-wide process began for Catholic schools here last spring with surveys sent to students, parents, and staff at each school.


The results of the surveys indicate that the parent ratings were slightly higher than the AdvancED network average, the middle/high school student ratings were slightly lower than the network average with staff and elementary student ratings slightly lower in some areas and slightly higher in other areas. While this is a cursory view of the diocese a deep dive into the data is available at each school location as reports provide ratings for each of the 53 questions within the five areas of focus. One report presents the five highest scoring items and the five lowest scoring items for each of the stakeholder groups. This data assists the diocese and each school in determining areas that need improvement and areas of strength on which to build. Principals and pastors have received a report of the survey results specific to their school. Once individual schools have determined their areas of focus for improvement we determine how the diocese can support those areas..
Another diocesan-wide effort is Play Like a Champion (PLAC) coordinated by Amy Lipovetsky who came to the diocese from Florida where she served as a district level athletic director. She and her family moved here in 2016, and she serves as youth director at Madison St. Francis of Assisi Parish and coaches middle school volleyball at Madison St. Joseph School. Lipovetsky works with all schools and parishes in our diocese that have athletic programs. Play Like a Champion Today: Character Education through Sports is rooted in Catholic teachings and traditions. The program places emphasis on coaching as a ministry and the role of sports in moral and spiritual development. PLAC provides resources for coaches, parents, and students including prayers and reflections, as well as, information bullying and hazing, handling failure and success and first aid, to name a few. Find out more at www.playlikeachampion.org.

(Catherine Cook is the superintendent of Catholic education for the diocese.)

Catholic Extension fact-finding mission highlights Hispanic ministry

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By Berta Mexidor
GREENWOOD – Catfish and zucchini have a common denominator in the southern cuisine: Latinos’ soul. Redemptorist Father Ted Dorcey noted this connection during a tour of farms he helped conduct for a group from Catholic Extension. There are four Redemptorists working with the Hispanic community in the Delta. Their ministry was one stop for the visitors who spent two days immersed in different aspects of Hispanic ministry in Mississippi.
The Redemptorists have been in this area for more than four years, serving Catholics in remote places, especially those working in industries with a schedule that might make it hard to attend Mass or receive sacraments.
During the encounter, Joe Boland, vice president of Catholic Extension explained the mission of their organization is to finance the best efforts of the Catholic church in U.S, as well as reaching out in special cases such as the Puerto Rico crisis, church construction in Cuba and seminarian support.
Timothy Muldoon, Director of Mission Education for Catholic Extension, explained that the purpose of this trip is provide a glimpse of the not well-known areas of the pastoral work. Muldoon is trying to connect, in this case, three priests from Chicago with the Mississippi Delta, from where African American families in Chicago came a generation ago.

INDIANOLA – (l-r) Father Ted Dorcey, Father Paul Seaman, Fran Lavelle, Father Sergio Romo; Joe Boland and Timothy Muldoon.in conversation with Adolfo Rojas. In the group photo also, Brother Ted Daush, Father Michael Mc Andrew and members of Catholic Extension team.(Photos by Berta Mexidor)

The priests, Fathers Sergio Romo from St Andrew, Paul Seaman of St. Clement and Francis Bitterman from St. Josaphat, all parishes in Chicago, were impressed by the circumstances and work of the Redemptorist mission in the Delta. Father Romo pointed out that there are great differences between his work in a metropolitan church in Chicago and an itinerant church with parishioners scattered throughout the Mississippi Delta.
Joining the members of the Catholic Extension team were representatives of the Diocese of Jackson including Fran Lavelle, Director Faith Formation, two Missionary Guadalupans of the Holy Spirit, Maria Elena Méndez and Maria Josefa García, who are both coordinators for Hispanic Ministry for the diocese, and Father Kevin Slattery, vicar general.
Lavelle noted that the diocese serves 95 parishes and missions in a state where Catholics are a minority are scattered throughout the territory. In the Delta the Redemptorist are reaching many Latino families but this is not enough. The diocese’s Hispanic ministry team is constantly on the road to support work in parishes and missions throughout the diocese.
As a part of the excursion, Father Dorcey invited the visitors to the zucchini harvest at one farm and a catfish plant, where many Mexicans are seasonal workers under the work visa program. All the visitors and guests witnessed in firsthand the labor conditions and motivation of young migrants and their families working in Mississippi.
Adolfo Rojas, supervisor of the farm workers answered questions from the visitors, who were impressed by the faith of all the workers who keep their link with the church even after long hours of work.
Catholic Extension’s Karla Ortiz, manager of mission programs, Natalie Donatello, manager of parish partnerships and Rich Kalonick, senior manager of creative, who was shooting video and photos, were also part of the delegation.
After their Delta tour, the group also visited Carthage, Camden and Forest.

Greenwood community celebrates 70 years of Franciscans

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By Maureen Smith
GREENWOOD – St. Francis of Assisi Parish and School is celebrating the 70th anniversary of the arrival of the Franciscan Friars this year. The community hosted two celebratory Masses, one at Immaculate Heart of Mary, which the Franciscans are placing back in the care of a diocesan priest, and a second at St. Francis of Assisi.
“Throughout our lives, there are many anniversaries. Today, we celebrate the anniversary of the arrival of the first friars coming to Greenwood. Each time we come to an anniversary, we are called to remember, to celebrate and give thanks,” said Brother Patrick McCormack, OFM, in his homily at the Mass at St. Francis on Sunday, August 5.
He went on to set the stage- commenting that the Civil Rights Movement was years from making its way to the Mississippi Delta when Fathers Bonaventure and Crysostom pulled into town in their 1947 station wagon. “In 1954 the landmark case Brown vs. Board of Education would find educational segregation to be unconstitutional. The term separate but equal was a way of life – though equality was nonexistent,” he said.
The lack of quality education was the first issue the Franciscans tackled. “The friars came here to establish a mission and out of that came the school first and then the parish. Whereas a lot of Catholic churches the church comes first and then the school to take care of the children of the parish- that’s not what happened here- just the opposite because the reality here was different,” Fraciscan Father Jachim explained. Many students became Catholic after their exposure to the friars and the Sisters of St. Joseph who first taught there.

GREENWOOD – Father. Camillus Janas, OFM, Parochial Vicar, Mrs. Sara Frances Swindoll and Rylie Grace Collette. (Photos by Tereza Ma)

Fater Camillus Janas, OFM

Brother Patrick McCormack, OFM, who works in development and teaches art at the school, delivered the homily.

Dora Mae Hollie and Sister Judy Norwick, OSF, enjoying feast after Mass.

In fact, the school has educated generations of students in Greenwood. Dora Mae Hollie remembers coming into the church on Dec. 24, 1964. “I had five children go through this school and then four grandchildren go through this school and now I have three great grand-children going through this school — so this school has been a part of our life for a long time,” said the 83-year-old still-active member of the community.
The friars were very active in the Civil Rights Movement in Greenwood. They went on to partner with local lay people to help found Pax Christi, a group of lay people who worked in education and outreach.
Diane Jones, a graduate of the school, said she and fellow students admired all the hard work the Franciscan community put into education. “They were gifts to the Delta and to Greenwood. I left and went off to college and a lot of the morals and values the nuns instilled into us stuck with me and when I came home, I instill them into my children, who attended here also,” said Jones.
Franciscan Sister of Charity Annette Kurey is in her ninth year of teaching at St. Francis. She said her community of two other sisters and the friars continue to love their work. “It’s very important to be here with the friars. Their Franciscan spirit- and our Franciscan spirit- there is a commonality and a beautiful blossoming, and we seem to enjoy and understand the same things. To me, working with the Franciscans is a blessing,” she said.
For Sister Kurey and her colleagues and Fr. Studwell and his partners, the core of the mission remains the same – to go into the margins and serve. “There are a lot of people her in this area who have no church affiliation, so we are trying to do outreach. Most of the children who come to school here are not Catholic – and that’s not a problem. We don’t proselytize, we don’t try to make you Catholic, we invite people.”
(Tereza Ma contributed to this story)

West Point student earns national honor

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By Maureen Smith
WEST POINT – Corgan Elliot made history on her summer break. The Fifth Street Junior High seventh-grader competed at National History Day Competition in Washington, DC. Elliot, a member of Immaculate Conception Parish, where she is an altar server, won the state essay competition last year, making her eligible for the national finals. When she wrote the essay she was attending Central elementary School.
National History Day is non-profit organization based in College Park, Maryland, that operates an annual project-based contest for students in grades 6-12. Last year, the theme was conflict and compromise. Students could write an essay or complete another project to explore the theme.
Elliot wrote an essay about Lucy Maude Montgomery, author of the famed Anne of Green Gables books. She examined how Montgomery had to face conflicts and come up with compromises in her life as a orphan and a woman who wanted to be a professional.
“Montgomery was special because she had different labors and problems, and she had the courage to be a female author and take on those additional struggles. She also had the courage to be known as a female author. Some female authors of her time wrote books under a male name, hiding their identity of being a female author in order for their pieces to have a better chance of being published,” wrote Elliot in her essay.
Her mother, Penny, said while Corgan did not bring home a trophy, the trip to the national competition was well worth the effort. “The competition was great. Corgan met a lot of students from around the world. She competed against over 100 students from around the US and world from grades 5-8. She did not place, but it was a wonderful learning experience. She enjoyed meeting other students with her interest in history. She is already planning for this year’s competition,” wrote Penny Elliot in an email to Mississippi Catholic.
The theme for 2018-2019 is triumph and tragedy in history.

St. Mother Teresa inspires Vicksburg youth to start ongoing service projects

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By Joan Thornton
VICKSBURG – During the summer, Vicksburg Catholic School, in partnership with Families First for Mississippi, developed a program entitled ‘Mother Teresa Tuesday.’ Each week student and adult volunteers worked at various locations such as Vicksburg

VICKSBURG – Taylor Chewning and Natalie Burke participate in Mother Theresa Tuesday service for Vicksburg Catholic School students during the summer. (Photos by Joan Thornton)

Community Garden, Good Shepherd Community Center and Warren County Humane Society. Groups even traveled to Blair E. Batson Children’s Hospital in Jackson and Our Daily Bread Mississippi located in Canton. There were weeks when 40 volunteers went out on projects.
At the hospital, volunteers participated in the Adopt-A-Floor Program, which provides snacks free of charge for the family members of patients. Groups collected approximately $3,000 worth of snacks which they delivered July 11.
The goal at Our Daily Bread “Bring awareness of healthy eating and to aid in hunger relief in our local communities through God, good works, and deeds.” Student and adult volunteers prepared and served about 90 hot meals for the needy in the community of Canton as well as unloading delivery trucks and organizing their pantry.
Students plan to continue Mother Teresa Tuesdays throughout the school year and encourage all members of the community to join them as together they build up the Kingdom of God through service.

(Joan Thornton is the head of the theology program for Vicksburg Catholic Schools)

Cathedral alumna to lead elementary school

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By Sabrina Simms
NATCHEZ – Cathedral School’s new elementary principal and assistant administrator in Kimberly Burkley has a familiar face. As a 1998 graduate of Cathedral, Burkely said working at the school is like coming home.

Kimberly Burkley (Photo courtesy Natchez Democrat)

“It’s exciting to be a part of Cathedral again,” Burkley said. “They’ve added a middle school wing … but most of it is the same.” Burkley said she grew up in Natchez and later pursued her undergraduate degree at the University of Mississippi and graduate degree at the University of Louisiana at Monroe.
Before coming to Cathedral, Burkley worked in Concordia Parish Schools, both as a speech and language pathologist from 2005 until last year and as an administrative intern at Concordia Parish Academy for two years.
Burkley said she worked in education for nearly 13 years and enjoys helping students succeed.”The thing I like most is the opportunity to make a difference in children and students’ lives,” Burkley said.
Even though she has worked across the river, Burkley said she never left Natchez. She commuted from Natchez each day and let her children go to her alma mater at Cathedral. Burkley said most of her students and colleagues knew her already as a friend or neighbor. As a professional, Burkley said she has great expectations for the more than 400 students in prekindergarten through fifth grade at Cathedral who will be in her care this school year.
“I’m professional, focused on the academics of students and supportive of faculty and staff,” Burkley said. “Cathedral is an amazing school. As an elementary principal, I will maintain the positive culture and high expectations. I will be visible and available to parents, students and teachers, and I’m looking forward to being a part of the Cathedral family.”

(Reprinted with permission from The Natchez Democrat.)