Catholic Celebration: Bishop Robert Barron visits Pacelli during Catholic Schools Week
Published 6:37 pm Tuesday, January 30, 2024
Bishop Robert Barron looks over Pacelli Catholic Schools Montisorri students as they attempt to point out to him where the pope lives during a visit ot the school Tuesday. Eric Johnson/photodesk@austindailyherald.com
Bishop Robert Barron greets Pacelli Catholic Schools students after conducting a mass Tuesday morning. Barron was visiting Pacelli as part of Catholic Schools Week. Eric Johnson/photodesk@austindailyherald.com
Bishop Robert Barron wraps up mass Tuesday morning during a visit for Catholic Schools Week. Eric Johnson/photodesk@austindailyherald.com
Bishop Robert Barron waves to students as he walks through St. Augustine’s Catholic Church following mass Tuesday morning. Eric Johnson/photodesk@austindailyherald.com
Bishop Robert Barron ws in Austin, visiting Pacelli Catholic Schools as part of Catholic Schools Week. He conducted mass for students from Pacelli and Sacred Heart School in Adams at St. Augustine’s Catholic Church. Eric Johnson/photodesk@austindailyherald.com
Bishop Robert Barron addresses students during a mass Tuesday as part of a visit to Austin and Pacelli Catholic Schools as part of Catholic Schools Week. Eric Johnson/photodesk@austindailyherald.com
|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Winona-Rochester Diocese’s Bishop Robert Barron leaned over and carefully listened as Montessori preschool students at Pacelli Catholic Schools Tuesday morning, using a map, tried to answer his question as to where the pope was located.
With a little bit of help they were able to show Barron, who smiled down at the students joyfully, all of them eager to give their own two cents to the little pop quiz.
The stop at Pacelli Catholic Schools was part of Catholic Schools Week and is just one stop of a tour the bishop is currently on in celebration of the week.
“I love Catholic Schools Week and I go all over the place,” Barron said following a mass Tuesday for students at both Pacelli and Sacred Heart School in Adams. “This year I’ll do the same thing and I can’t think of anything more important really than forming these young people in the Catholic faith.”
The hour-long mass was an important step for students to better understand their Catholic world in real time.
Barron said that the positive experience of a mass can have a long-lasting impact on the students as they carry their faith forward.
“I just keep seeing the future,” he said. “I just think how fast time goes and this is the future of the church. What I love to do with the kids is bring out the incense. That’s why I brought the crozier out to show them.”
Assistant Principal Jean McDermott echoed this positivity of faith and the building blocks it can impart on the students.
“It helps them to understand maybe that they have their faith in their family. They have their faith in their school and they have this community by bringing in Sacred Heart,” she said. “They know there’s these important people.”
This is the 50th year of Catholic Schools Week, but it’s the first time a bishop has given mass in Austin during the week.
McDermott added that it’s an exciting moment for the students and that in the end her hope is they draw special meaning from what they experienced.
“I hope they take away a deeper sense of what that faith is and what it means to them,” she said. “They can get that feeling of awe that we’re in this presence, this holy place. How important and mighty our God is.”
Barron echoed that statement by saying: “It’s my joy to be here. I love this church. It’s especially beautiful in Austin. I love being with these kids.”
