Catholic teachers honored for
excellence and service

By Sean Gallagher

Nearly 400 people gathered in Indianapolis on Feb. 23 to honor teachers in Catholic schools across the archdiocese at the 2004 Tribute to Teachers.

The centerpiece of the banquet was the presentation of the Blessed Mother Theodore Guérin Excellence in Education Awards to 64 teachers. Also acknowledged were those who have taught in Catholic schools from 10 to 52 years.

Throughout the evening, the excellence of teachers in Catholic schools was highlighted by the people they serve: their students.

Among them was Erik Pfarr, a graduate of Our Lady of the Greenwood School in Greenwood and a freshman at Roncalli High School in Indianapolis. He praised the chance that Catholic schools have given him to “fully practice my Catholic faith as a matter of daily routine.”

But in particular, he paid tribute to an eighth-grade teacher at Our Lady of the Greenwood School, Paula Howard, for nurturing in him a love for his faith.

“Like most of my teachers, Mrs. Howard was clearly a person of faith,” Eric said. “But she seemed excited to be Catholic and she shared that enthusiasm with her students in a way that was new to me. … I left her class with a much better understanding of why a person would choose to be a Catholic.”

Annette “Mickey” Lentz, executive director for Catholic Education and Faith Formation, shared with those in attendance a paraphrase of 1 Cor 13:1 that she used when she was a teacher and later an administrator to explain what was at the root of the excellence of teachers in Catholic schools.

“‘If I could explain everything perfectly to my students, but did not love each one of them, I might as well be talking to an empty room,’ ” she said. “None of you here tonight are talking to empty rooms. As Catholic educators, we must remind ourselves that Jesus is truly our master teacher. Jesus is our mentor, our example of how we should live our lives.”

In his remarks that brought a close to the 2004 Tribute to Teachers, Archbishop Daniel M. Buechlein said that the high quality of the teachers in archdiocesan schools was demonstrated to the entire nation when the U.S. Department of Education designated six Catholic schools in central and southern Indiana in 2004 as No Child Left Behind Blue Ribbon Schools of Excellence—an honor that was given to only 50 private schools across the country.

Addressing the teachers honored throughout the night, Archbishop Buechlein explained that the merit of annual awards, whether given by the archdiocese or the federal government, are only a beginning of the praise that Catholic school teachers deserve for the eternal impact that they have on their students.

“You need to know that the work you do every day in the classroom—what you say, how you say it—is having an everlasting effect on the character of our youth and our young people,” he said.

Archbishop Buechlein ended his remarks by quoting Blessed Mother Theodore Guérin, the namesake for the evening’s awards and a founding figure for Catholic education in the archdiocese.

“She once wrote, ‘Ours is a preparation for the generation that will succeed us. An eminent good will be done this way by us,’ ” he said. “She wrote, ‘You may not live to see it, but you will have sown the seed.’ ” †