The last days of January are collectively known as Catholic Schools Week across the nation’s 5,800 Catholic elementary and high school campuses that span 176 dioceses.
During the weeklong celebration — Jan. 25-31 this year — special Masses, assemblies, open houses, student showcases and other activities are planned. Locally, those celebrations will include a diocesan Catholic Schools Week Mass, Jan. 28 at St. Mary’s Basilica in downtown Phoenix, where student council members will fill the pews on behalf of their entire school, followed by a celebratory rally with hundreds of other students from the diocese’s seven Catholic high schools and 29 elementary schools.
At the campus level, each school has unique traditions including dress up days, salutes to special populations — such as veterans and grandparents — student versus staff volleyball games, door decorating contests and service projects. St. Mary’s High School in Phoenix is celebrating by holding its annual Eucharistic procession and all-school adoration to close out Catholic Schools Week.
All observances are designed to honor what makes Catholic schools not just different, but “stellar” — a word the National Catholic Educational Association used to sum up the unique pairing of faith across all academics that comes with Catholic education.
Among the “immense benefits” of Catholic education, the Diocese of Phoenix’s Superintendent Domonic Salce described in a letter to school families that Catholic schools “help prepare their children for successful, fulfilling lives, grounded in a living and active Catholic faith.” Salce is also the executive director of education and evangelization for the diocese.
“Every day, our children grow in faith and knowledge, embody Gospel values and build a strong, supportive community,” he said.
His letter segued well into this year’s Catholic Schools Week theme: “Catholic Schools: United in Faith and Community.”
Life-changing retreats
Forty upperclassmen at Notre Dame Preparatory High School in Scottsdale, Ariz., have a newfound experience of what it means to belong in a supportive community. They attended an optional Kairos retreat Jan. 20-23, one of five retreats Notre Dame offers throughout the school year. Kairos, meaning “God’s time,” is a three-and-a-half-day retreat giving students the opportunity to intentionally reflect on their relationships with God, family and friends. Originated in the 1970s, the Kairos retreat format is focused on personal spiritual growth and community building and has since spread globally. This marks the 15th year Notre Dame has coordinated Kairos retreats. Many of the other local diocesan Catholic high schools also run Kairos retreats for students annually.
Fr. Ian Wintering who is the chaplain at Seton Catholic Preparatory in Chandler, Ariz., himself a senior there in 2011, was a visiting member on the first Kairos retreat team at Notre Dame. The retreat, which played a role in his vocation to the priesthood, is a series of structured peer-led talks, meditations and activities followed by small group discussions.
“Everything really changed when I went on a Kairos retreat,” Fr. Wintering once said on The Bishop’s Hour, the Diocese of Phoenix’s weekly radio show. He described it as his first personal encounter with Christ in prayer. He remembered going by a lake during an hour of silence, thinking about the apostles who gave everything and pondering if he was willing to do the same.
At the time, he wasn’t. But God kept speaking to him through other people after graduation. A theology teacher he encountered during a parish pilgrimage encouraged him to remain open to God’s call, and more importantly the Lord’s timing. He entered seminary and was ordained to the priesthood on June 5, 2021.
A family of alumni
Lisa Soroko, a Human Resources benefits manager for the Diocese of Phoenix, can speak to Catholic education on three fronts: as an alumna, a mom whose kids completed preschool through high school in the diocese and a coach’s wife at St. Mary’s Catholic High School in Phoenix, the state’s oldest Catholic high school. Lisa was a fifth grader at St. Mary’s Elementary School in downtown Phoenix when it closed, then continued learning at St. Gregory Catholic School in Phoenix and Bourgade Catholic High School in Phoenix.
“I was taught to live with integrity, accountability and the importance of doing what is right, even when no one is watching. Those principles have guided my work ethic, leadership style and decision-making throughout my career,” Lisa said.
She also noted the strong spiritual foundation she received and wanted the same for her children. Her husband, Troy Soroko, grew up in public school, but when his eldest was in preschool at St. Gregory, he saw value in the teachings and sense of community. The Sorokos have made lifelong family friends as Catholic school parents, who they still attend Mass with.
Academic excellence
With their two children now grown, Troy will be the only Soroko who finds himself on a Catholic campus during Catholic Schools Week, as he is an assistant varsity basketball coach at St. Mary’s High School. His wife said he loves helping the players grow as athletes and as young men with confidence, discipline and character.
The Sorokos children both graduated from St. Mary’s High School and expressed gratitude for the academic discipline they found there. One is studying journalism with a minor in leadership and ethics at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. The other is studying architecture at the University of Arizona in Tucson, Ariz., and attends Mass at the university’s Newman Center.
Today’s Catholic school students continue to show academic capability as well. Top spellers from each elementary campus faced off at the annual Diocesan Spelling Bee, Jan. 21 at St. Mary’s High School in Phoenix. Sally Salloum from St. John Bosco Catholic School in Phoenix was the winner with the word “cornucopia.” The runner up was Christian Kaeft from Most Holy Trinity Catholic School in Phoenix. The two made it through 19 rounds.
St. Louis the King Catholic School students challenged themselves to go one step further. They competed in a nationwide online Vocabulary Bowl last fall. Fifth-grader Nathan Kil earned fifth place nationally by properly defining 5,471 words. His Glendale school earned second place among Arizona’s middle schools.
Catholic Schools Week provides the opportunity to step back and reflect on the ultimate purpose of Catholic schools: to form disciples of Jesus Christ.
“As the leader of the Catholic Schools Office, this is a week that renews my gratitude for our educators and families who choose this mission every day, and it fills me with hope because I see the Lord at work in our students,” said Salce.
“For our schools, it’s more than a celebration. It is a witness and an investment in the future. We’re not just teaching subjects, but forming saints, building communities of faith and sending young people into the world ready to love, serve and lead with Christ at the center.”
