Kit and Caboodle

When they say it, I know they don’t mean it as I hear it. 

But words shape our thinking, and I find that development professionals use this phrase often. In advising us how to set up a successful campaign, for example, they might say: “We need to get the ‘Catholic piece’’ just right.”

Let me suggest the first step in getting the “Catholic piece” just right is to forever ban that phrase in discussing our schools. Unwittingly, the phrase suggests that the Catholic faith is a component part of our operations, a box to be checked, literally, a “piece” we must attend to. In fact, creating a dynamic, creative Catholic culture that leads our students to become disciples of Jesus Christ is our essential mission, our raison d'être, the whole ‘kit and caboodle.’ Yes, I believe we also have other obligations: to be excellent academically, to offer good athletic and fine arts programs, to help kids become physically and mentally healthy, etc. But if we aren’t not building a vibrant Catholic culture as the context within which all these other things are happening, we may as well simply call ourselves another private school.

I have the same objection to characterizing the faith as one of the “pillars” of the school, alongside the other “pillars” such as academics, the arts, athletics or fill-in-the-blank. Again, this implies that faith is one of the component pieces, albeit an important one. But if we’re using metaphors, faith is not one of the pillars; it’s the very foundation upon which all other pillars stand. 

What a vibrant Catholic school offers its students and families is an alternative culture wherein the faith is practiced in a way that is “normalized” for its students. Through the authentic witness of its teachers, coaches and staff, students are invited to participate in this alt-culture— praying, worshipping, learning and serving —practices that become so integral to their daily lives that they almost don’t notice. This is the great blessing of our schools: that the life of faith is NOT an extraordinary add-on, not a retreat nor just a Sunday thing, but something natural, everyday, the air that we breathe. That “air” then elevates everything else, creating an optimism for excellence, buoyed by the transforming power of God’s grace active in the life of our students.