Mark Kennedy: “I grew up as a minority; not in the traditional sense, but as an Irish Catholic in the land of Scandinavian Lutherans.…”

“I grew up as a minority; not in the traditional sense, but as an Irish Catholic in the land of Scandinavian Lutherans. The option of attending Catholic schools was not really available to my family, until we attended college. When that time came, my parents sent all seven of their children to the nearby Catholic Benedictine schools of St. John's University and the College of St. Benedict, a formidable feat given my father's salary from the local small-town insurance agency. My first real encounter with Catholic elementary and secondary students was my interactions with the graduates from Catholic schools that I went to school with at St. John's. I was universally impressed by the quality of these students. They were not only well prepared for college, but they were friendly to a country hick like me. They were courteous, kind, respectful, caring. They say that you can tell a tree by its fruits. By this measure, I assumed Catholic schools must be great. Then I sat in on a conversation in a dorm room with three graduates of Catholic high schools reminiscing on their high school experience. One of these students was so cynical about his Catholic education that I resolved never to send my children to Catholic school. Well, it turns out the cynical student became a priest, and so I changed my mind. Catholic schools really do nurture one's faith.”