Archbishop

For Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, the second son and third of four children born into a Sicilian working-class family of fishermen and farmers and schooled in the public system through his freshman year in college, Catholic education holds top priority as a transformative tool for forming faith, building bonds, constructing communities and strengthening society.

Can you imagine the American Catholic Church today without Catholic schools? I certainly cannot. Since 1727, when the Ursuline sisters founded their academy in New Orleans, Catholic schools have taught America’s children. The schools educated the sons and daughters of immigrants.

" ... it is silence that makes room for God, and so keeps us focused on worship of the one true God, and not of the many contemporary idols that are vying for our loyalty," Archbishop Cordileone said.

During Advent, take Paul's counsel to heed the "contrast between night and day, darkness and light." No less now than in Paul's day, living out our baptism means embracing virtue and resisting the vices of the age.