Catholic leaders hope new program encourages families to start, continue religious education
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The principal of a New Kensington Catholic elementary school hopes an effort to keep children in religious education after eighth grade will make others more inclined to start one.
The Diocese of Greensburg announced a joint program with the Diocese of Pittsburgh called “Building a Bridge,” intended to connect grade-school students in the Alle-Kiski Valley to a high school in the region but in a different diocese.
The program will give students at Mary Queen of Apostles Catholic School in New Kensington in the Greensburg Diocese the ability to attend a Catholic high school at St. Joseph High School in Harrison, part of the Diocese of Pittsburgh, or at Greensburg Central Catholic in the Greensburg Diocese.
“It’s more of a partnership between the two dioceses to encourage Catholic education throughout the grades,” said Cliff Gorski, spokesman for the Diocese of Greensburg. “It’s very difficult after eighth grade to continue to go to a Catholic school, and now this makes it very easy for parents and guardians to have a choice whether it’s St. Joseph or Greensburg Central Catholic.”
Mary Queen of Apostles has 241 students in prekindergarten through eighth grade, said Principal Cathy Collett, who has served in that role since 2002.
Upon finishing eighth grade, she said about two-thirds of her school’s students continue in a Catholic high school, with most opting for St. Joseph because it’s closer than Greensburg Central Catholic.
The new effort “is making people aware that there is an option to go to St. Joseph, but there is also an option to start at Mary Queen of Apostles,” she said. “If you are living in Highlands and there is no Catholic school in your neighborhood, Mary Queen of Apostles is a viable option for you.”
The Diocese of Pittsburgh closed Our Lady of the Most Blessed Sacrament, an elementary school in Harrison, in 2020.
While Mary Queen of Apostles students have been moving on to St. Joseph, with students going from a school in the Greensburg diocese to the Pittsburgh one, Collett said the reverse has not been happening because students were staying in Catholic schools in their own diocese.
“We’ve been promoting and working with St. Joseph’s at Mary Queen of Apostles because our diocese has always considered St. Joseph a viable option for Mary Queen of Apostles,” she said.
In the announcement, the dioceses said a cornerstone of the program is the removal of financial barriers for parents considering one of the two high schools.
Funded by an anonymous donor, tuition help is available to families in the Diocese of Greensburg from the St. John Paul II Tuition Opportunity Partnership. For families in the Diocese of Pittsburgh, tuition assistance is available from the St. John Paul II Student Tuition Assistance Resource program.
“Tuition assistance is driven by diocese, and we wanted to make sure there is a seamless transition when students went from a school in one diocese to a school in another diocese,” Gorski said. “These programs are funded in both dioceses by the same generous donors who want to provide the same stellar education and formation that they benefited from for current students and in the decades ahead.”
To celebrate the start of the Building a Bridge program, students in fourth through eighth grades at Mary Queen of Apostles, along with more than 20 students from Divine Redeemer Catholic School in Ford City, have been invited to an event Thursday at St. Joseph High School.