Catholic schools surge in Ohio as Bishop urges action to form young people

By Karol Darmoros & Fr. Paweł Rytel-Andrianik 

Bishop Fernandes wrote “Catholic Education: An Act of Hope” at the start of a new school year, following the Jubilee of the World of Education and Pope Leo XIV’s Apostolic Letter “Drawing New Maps of Hope.”

Speaking to Vatican News, Bishop Earl K. Fernandes of Colombus said his diocese is experiencing what he calls “phenomenal growth” in its Catholic schools.

It is opening its first new elementary school in three decades and plans to build a new high school.

Bishop Fernandes said this growth creates a major missionary opportunity.

“The opportunity to educate and to form the hearts, minds, and souls of our young people is tremendous," he said. "We want to bring everyone the joy of the Gospel and to accompany young people on their journey of faith.”

A shared vocation

Bishops, pastors, principals, teachers and families all share responsibility for evangelizing the young, Bishop Fernandes stressed.

Parents are “the first educators of their children in the ways of faith,” while educators should understand their work as a vocation, he noted.

“Indeed, we are co-responsible for the evangelization of our young people,” he said.

Proposing Christ

With society changing rapidly, the Bishop calls for a firm response rooted not in violence or productivity, but in educating young people’s hearts so that they “grow to full stature in Christ.”

At the heart of his proposal is a clear conviction in the Christian vision of life.

“Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life," he said. "We cannot impose Him, but we must propose Christ and all the newness that He brings.”

He also presented the method of Msgr. Luigi Giussani, founder of Communion and Liberation, as particularly effective today.

Bishop Fernandes called the Catholic educational system “the best defense of the human person against the secularization and against the technocratic paradigm that is dominating society today.”

The answer to life’s problems, he concluded, is found in Jesus Christ, “who is the same yesterday, today and forever.”