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Catholic high schools partner with Catholic Relief Services

Archbishop Charles J. Chaput announced Thursday that all 18 high schools will join in a partnership with Catholic Relief Services by participating in its Global High School Program.

"Today we are bearing witness to our young people, embracing their duty to others through tangible acts of love," Chaput said during an event marking Catholic Schools Week at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Wynnewood.

"Our schools do much more than provide a quality education," he said. "They seek to foster the holistic formation of young men and women based on the values of the Gospel. They seek to create global citizens who imitate the love and compassion of Christ in all of their actions."

According to the archdiocese, the program will strengthen "Catholic identity in the schools through the encouragement of global citizenship and engaging the entire school community in the mission work of Catholic social teaching."

The program, which allows schools to select their level of commitment, provides curriculum,  videos, speakers, and training for teachers to help raise students' awareness of global needs and how the international arm of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops of the United States is working to help.

Sean Callahan,  president and CEO of Catholic Relief Services, said the high school program currently reaches 70,000 students, teachers, and administrators at 102 high schools in 28 states.

"The Archdiocese of Philadelphia is a leader with 18 Catholic high schools participating," said Callahan, who traveled from the organization's headquarters in Baltimore to attend the announcement.

He said the program's goal was raising students' awareness of international problems and of the church's work so they become globally responsive.

"We see it as part of their faith development," Callahan said.

Many Catholic schools already participate in Catholic Relief Service's Rice Bowl project, which collects donations for food each year during Lent. Sister Maureen Lawrence McDermott, superintendent for secondary schools in the archdiocese, said this program expands those ties.

"It is really a very unique educational opportunity, and a faith-in-action opportunity," she said. "I am thrilled our presidents and principals said yes."

Five years ago, when McDermott was principal of  Bishop Shanahan High School in Downingtown, that school began participating in the program.

"What I saw happen at Bishop Shanahan was that students delighted in the work, which was different from any other study they had," she said. "It gave them an opportunity to delve deeply into a country they may only know the name of, or a problem they may only have heard about.

McDermott said schools can select a theme for the year, such as peacemaking, water scarcity, or famine. "They were able to study, learn, and create a response," she said. "Sometimes they created a film."

One year Bishop Shanahan focused on vulnerable children, and students learned about child soldiers and children who were raising their siblings because they had lost their parents.

"Education goes beyond the textbook," McDermott said.  "Students have noble hearts. This teaches 15- and 16-year-olds that we are responsible for our brothers and sisters."

In conjunction with the announcement, 800 students at Catholic schools across the archdiocese were scheduled to package 50,000 nonperishable meals that will be sent to areas of the world where people are grappling with hunger.

Chaput called the meals project "a big first step for this partnership with Catholic Relief Services."