Launching Task Force for Eucharistic Education
In support of the U.S. bishops’ three-year Eucharistic Revival, The Cardinal Newman Society is collaborating with Catholic educators nationwide to launch the Task Force for Eucharistic Education—an initiative to help solicit, identify, and promote inspiring efforts by Catholic schools, homeschools, colleges, and individuals to help revive:
- Eucharistic literacy – teaching young people the truth of the Real Presence in the Eucharist
- Eucharistic liturgy – improving music, prayer, and reverence in school and college liturgies
- Eucharistic devotion – increasing prayer and adoration among young people
- Eucharistic living – helping students live according to the reality of Christ within them
The project was announced today at Sacra Liturgia, an international conference on the liturgy that was supported in part by The Cardinal Newman Society and featured Society President Patrick Reilly’s public interview with Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco on the renewal of faithful Catholic education. Several prominent Catholics and leaders of national education associations have agreed to help promote the Task Force and serve on its steering committee (see list below).
“Catholic education is the Church’s primary means of evangelization, and it is key to the success of the Eucharistic Revival,” said Patrick Reilly, president of The Cardinal Newman Society. “Americans’ lack of belief in the Real Presence is a crisis of education, not dissent. Young Catholics are confused and need faithful Catholic education, not just flashy events and youth programs amid a culture that disdains religious belief and morals.”
The Task Force invites educators, parents, and students to sign up at EucharisticEducation.org and identify projects including academic conferences, research, publications, formative student programs, liturgies, prayer, and more—anything that strengthens understanding and devotion to the Eucharist within Catholic schools, homeschools, or colleges.
The Cardinal Newman Society will highlight and promote Task Force members and their projects through the Society’s magazine Our Catholic Mission—which is mailed to Catholic education leaders and bishops nationwide—and in Catholic media.
Already the Task Force includes many of America’s most faithful Catholic schools and colleges among its inaugural members. “We hope for an explosion of inspiring projects that help renew faithful Catholic education and form a new generation of young people deeply in love with Jesus Christ,” said Reilly.
For more information on The Cardinal Newman Society and how you can join the Task Force, go to EucharisticEducation.org
Steering Committee of Task Force for Eucharistic Education
- Mary Pat Donoghue, Executive Director, Secretariat for Catholic Education, U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops
- Deacon Keith Fournier, Dean, Catholic Online School
- Charlie McKinney, President, Sophia Institute Press
- Father David Pivonka, T.O.R., President, Franciscan University of Steubenville
- Dr. Robert Royal, President, Faith and Reason Institute
- Dr. Michael St. Pierre, Executive Director, Catholic Campus Ministry Association
- Patrick Reilly, President, The Cardinal Newman Society
- Monsignor James Shea, President, University of Mary
- Lincoln Snyder, President, National Catholic Educational Association
- Father Peter Stravinskas, President, Catholic Education Foundation
- sister Cecilia Anne Wanner, O.P., President, Aquinas College (Nashville)
- Academy of Our Lady (Marrero, La.)
- Ave Maria University (Ave Maria, Fla.)
- Beckman Catholic High School (Dyersville, Iowa)
- Belmont Abbey College (Belmont, N.C.)
- Benedictine College (Atchison, Kan.)
- Christendom College (Front Royal, Va.)
- Father Gabriel Richard High School (Ann Arbor, Mich.)
- Holy Apostles College & Seminary (Cromwell, Conn.)
- Holy Child Catholic School (Tijeras, N.M.)
- Holy Rosary Academy (Anchorage, Alaska)
- John Paul the Great Catholic University (Escondido, Calif.)
- Magdalen College of the Liberal Arts (Warner, N.H.)
- Maur Hill-Mount Academy (Atchison, Kan.)
- Our Lady of the Sacred Heart School Coraopolis, Pa.)
- Regina Pacis Academy (Norwalk, Conn.)
- Rhodora Donahue Academy of Ave Maria (Ave Maria, Fla.)
- Seton School (Manassas, Va.)
- St. John Vianney High School (St. Louis, Mo.)
- St. Theresa Catholic School (Sugar Land, Tex.)
- Thomas More College of Liberal Arts (Merrimack, N.H.)
- University of Dallas (Irving, Tex.)
- University of St. Thomas (Houston, Tex.)
- Walsh University (North Canton, Ohio)
- Wyoming Catholic College (Lander, Wyo.)