Diocesan educators gather for in-service

More than 370 realize it was not ‘you who chose me but I who chose you . . . to bear fruit that will remain’

By Dan McWilliams

Virtually every Catholic school teacher, principal, and counselor in East Tennessee attended the annual Diocesan Professional Development Day—aka in-service—on Feb. 18 at All Saints Church and Knoxville Catholic High School.

The day began with Mass at All Saints celebrated by Bishop Mark Beckman and continued at the high school with a keynote talk, lunch, and breakout sessions.

Concelebrating the Mass were Father Randy Stice of KCHS; Father Ray Powell, pastor of St. Mary Parish in Oak Ridge; Father Michael Cummins, pastor of St. Dominic Parish in Kingsport; Father Chris Michelson, president of St. Joseph School in Knoxville and special adviser to the president of KCHS, Father Jorge Mejia, an associate pastor of All Saints; and Father Ron Nuzzi, the keynote speaker, a priest of the Diocese of Youngstown, Ohio, and a veteran educator.

The parishes of Father Powell and Father Cummins have schools, St. Mary in Oak Ridge and St. Dominic in Kingsport.

Deacon Joe Stackhouse was deacon of the Word at Mass, and Deacon David Lucheon was deacon of the altar.

“It is so good to be together to celebrate as educators the gift of the faith the Lord has given us as we hand that faith on to the next generation,” Bishop Beckman said at the start of Mass. “I want to welcome all of you this morning as we gather for a day of in-service and also want to thank the people of All Saints who are joining us for the regular daily Mass for welcoming so many of us extra folks this morning.”

‘Still learning from the Lord’

The bishop referred in his homily to the day’s Gospel from Mark 8:14-21. The disciples were with Jesus in a boat, and they were worried because they had brought no bread—despite already having seen Jesus feed thousands on two occasions.

“He asks them a couple of questions: ‘do you have eyes and you don’t see and ears and you don’t hear?” Bishop Beckman said. “I wonder how many of you all have been in a classroom where you’ve given instructions to your students, and afterward you think, ‘do you have eyes and you don’t see and ears and you don’t hear?’ The experience of not understanding—a teacher knows that experience, don’t you? And sometimes you’re told a week later, ‘well, you told us last week dot-dot-dot,’ and you know good and well you did not say, ‘dot-dot-dot’ last week, right? It was something else you had said to them.”

The bishop said he was “struck by the fact that the disciples, like all of us, have to go through a process of learning, and what they are learning unfolds slowly over time, doesn’t it?”

“‘You’ve been with me all of this time, and still you don’t understand.’ They’re afraid that they didn’t bring enough bread with them,” Bishop Beckman said. “And Jesus has fed thousands, not once in the Gospel of Mark but already twice by this point. And they’re in the boat and still don’t understand that the Lord will indeed take care of them, but they do not need to worry about such things.

“All of us throughout our entire life know that we are still learning from the Lord. Our situations in the boat may be different than the original Twelve, but we have to rediscover when we meet those moments in our own lives, when fear or anxiety overcomes us, that we trust the Lord, that He will indeed provide for us, that we are not alone in the boat.”

That is “why our Catholic schools are so important,” the bishop said.

“You all are beginning this lifelong journey with our pre-K kids all the way through high school, to help them to begin to discover not only the important knowledge that they need to be successful in this life but also to become the kinds of persons that God created them to be,” he said. “Those skills that are apt for a good disciple of the Lord, and the foundation for all of those skills is trusting the Lord. If we don’t trust Him, then we can’t follow Him very well, and if we don’t follow Him, we can’t hear what He’s saying to us, and if we don’t hear what He’s saying to us, we can’t put it into practice. We need the Lord at every moment of the way.

“One of the most profound experiences that our young people have is that gift of learning that they are created by a God who is caring for them at every step of the way and is also giving them what they need to become the persons He created them to be.”

Bishop Beckman asked his listeners at All Saints to do a little reflection.

“I want all of you for a moment just to think back to your own experience of high school or in grade school or elementary school. You think back to the memories of your teachers, your coaches, the administrators in your school,” he said. “It’s probably not some specific lesson that you remember the most about those people, but it’s probably the kind of person they were that impacted you throughout the entire year or years that they were your teacher or your coach or the administrator in your school. All of us are invited to become the kinds of persons that shape young people in a way that brings the light of Christ to their hearts so that that light can radiate out to the world.”

The bishop again repeated Christ’s words.

“Do you have eyes to see and ears to hear? Do you have a heart of understanding? All of us are still disciples,” he said. “We’re still learning from the Lord daily, but if we do, then the Lord will use us as channels to touch the lives of our students.”

In his first few months as shepherd of the Church in East Tennessee, Bishop Beckman visited all eight elementary schools and both high schools in the diocese.

“I will say, having had the opportunity now to visit all of the schools in the diocese, how deeply moved I am about what I’ve witnessed so far. You all are a beautiful community of educators that is really making a profound impact in the world today. Thank you for what you are doing,” he said. “Continue to let the Lord use you. Continue to say yes to that great and noble call. All of us, individually and as a community of faith, have the opportunity—with God’s grace—to do great good for God, so may the Lord who has begun this good work in us bring it to its fulfillment.”

‘Jailers throughout’

George Valadie, interim superintendent of Catholic schools in the diocese, led a round of applause at the end of Mass for Bishop Beckman, the priests, deacons, and musicians.

Moments later, as he spoke in the St. Gregory the Great Auditorium at KCHS, Mr. Valadie said the quiet part out loud as to why the gathering of educators was there.

“I want to thank you all for coming. I don’t know why I said that—we made you come,” he said to laughter.

Mr. Valadie asked principals and assistant principals to raise their hands.

“Everybody look around—see, we’ve stationed the jailers throughout the compound,” he said.

The interim superintendent began his assignment last July 1.

“One of the things that gave me pause when I was considering this position was knowing that I would be responsible for planning this day, and that all of you would be here and you would be judging,” Mr. Valadie said. “I’ve attended the day often and spoken at it once, but I’ve never organized it.

“There’s one quote that has been constantly rolling through my head that one of my teachers sent me a few years ago. It says, ‘The irony of professional development is that most of it is facilitated by people who left the classroom because they were tired of things like professional development.’”

All kidding aside, Mr. Valadie said, “I do appreciate you being here. Thanks for investing some of yourself in the day, and especially of course thanks for what you do every single day. This is the part of the day where we would normally begin with prayer, but I’m not even going to try to compete with Bishop’s homily, so how about if I just said, ‘Dear God, thank you for our new bishop.’ Can I get an amen?”

Mr. Valadie welcomed teachers from the Chesterton Academy of St. Margaret Clitherow in Knoxville, the newest diocesan school (see story that begins on page B1).

The superintendent thanked the faculty and staff of Knoxville Catholic “who will allow us to invade their space, go into their classrooms, and touch their things—you know how you all hate that!”

Before the in-service, teachers and staff were sent the verse from John 15:16.

“I’m hoping the day will allow you to ponder the verse from Scripture: ‘it is not you who chose me but I who chose you . . . to bear fruit that will remain,’” Mr. Valadie said.

The woman at the well

He then spoke of the popular Christian TV series “The Chosen.” One episode depicted Jesus meeting the woman at Jacob’s Well, then flashed back to the time of Jacob, when he was looking for water on a mountaintop and a skeptical stranger came along.

The stranger said. “Of all the gods you could choose from, you pick one who’s invisible, whose promises take generations to come true, one with no temple, one who causes you to live the life of a sojourner, causing you to wander into strange places like this. He is your God? That’s a strange choice, my friend,’” Mr. Valadie quoted. “And Jacob replies, ‘We did not choose Him.’ And right then, his sons holler out, ‘Father!’ They have struck water on top of the mountain. . . . Jacob smiles, looks at the stranger, and says, ‘We did not choose Him. He chose us.’”

Everyone has “met the stranger,” Mr. Valadie said, “the person who doesn’t understand us, the person with all the questions. Now, the stranger may have looked like your mother or your father or your grandparents, maybe a neighbor or a college classmate.

“But someone along the way has asked you a very similar question, probably sounded liked this, ‘Let me get this straight. Of all the jobs you could have picked, you picked one with crappy pay, endless hours, duties you could have never imagined, working with crazy kids, nuttier parents, a job where it takes years to see the fruits of your labor, this job that expects so much of you—you picked this job? That is a strange choice, my friend.’”

“Has anyone ever said that to you? Absolutely,” Mr. Valadie added. “They said it to me. My wife said it to me multiple times! And though it feels awkward probably to say it out loud, and I doubt maybe that you’ve ever said it out loud, but you know this as much as anything you’ve ever known in your whole life. Our answer is Jacob’s answer: ‘We did not choose this. He chose us.’”

In-service day may have had one advantage the teachers would not admit to their young charges.

“Let me ask this: how many, when you woke up this morning, thought to yourself, ‘I’m not excited to go to this thing, but at least it’s a day we don’t have kids,” Mr. Valadie said. “And when you thought that thought, which is everybody, be honest—it wasn’t all the kids who popped into your mind. It was just ‘those two.’ It sounded crass to say it to yourself, even: ‘I don’t really want to go to this thing, but at least I don’t have “those two” kids today.’ It just sounds bad.

“You know the two I’m talking about, but you also know this: those two hellions are one of the main reasons He chose you. And the kids who hang out at your desk. They find you between classes. They seek you out on the playground. The ones you can’t get rid of. The ones who believe they have no gifts, no skills, no talent. The awkward ones unable to connect, with hardly any friends at all. They are the reasons God called you.”

Before the keynote talk, Mr. Valadie recognized diocesan school teachers, principals, and staff with 25 or more years of service (see photos and caption on page B5). Bishop Beckman presented their awards to them.

‘This Snowman Is Holy’

Father Nuzzi, the keynoter, has a doctorate in education administration and has served much of his priesthood in assignments in education at a number of institutions, including the University of Notre Dame.

“It’s so good to be with you. It’s great to share in your professional development day and pray with you,” Father Nuzzi began. “I was very happy to accept George’s invitation to share a little today and contribute some ideas that I hope will bolster and support your ministry here in Knoxville and in the 10 Catholic schools that are yours. I’ve playfully called what I’d like to contribute today ‘This Snowman Is Holy: Incarnational Aspects of Catholic Education.’”

Father Nuzzi said he would end his talk by discussing snow, something South Bend, Ind., the area he lives in, receives an average of 120 inches of annually.

The keynoter admitted he likes August and October in-services as well as Advent retreats more than February in-services.

“February, I don’t know. . . . But I have to say, all things considered, having been with you for Mass and a little brunch and seeing you now, you look pretty good . . . most of you,” he said.

Father Nuzzi said he “loves the rhythm of the academic calendar. I’ve always told my students that the ups and downs of the school year are ways of dying and rising with Christ. And February—well, you know, it’s the Wednesday of the months. You sort of have to get through it, right?”

Before getting into the heart of his talk, Father Nuzzi unveiled his “teacher identification instrument,” which he described as “a tool to determine in a random group of people if there are any teachers present.”

Father Nuzzi’s audience assisted him by saying, “you know you are a teacher if,” before each of his statements. A teacher can be ID’ed if he or she “wants to hurt the next person who says to you, ‘must be nice working 8 to 2:30 and having summers free,’” Father Nuzzi said, or if teachers “can tell there’s a full moon without looking outside,” “believe that caffeine in all of its forms—chocolate, coffee, cola—is a major food group,” “laugh uncontrollably when visitors to the building, including parents, call the faculty room ‘the lounge’ and (teachers) will eat just about anything left in that lounge,” “grade papers in the car, during commercials, sitting up in bed, even during in-service days,” “snap your fingers in public at kids you don’t even know,” “have difficulty naming your own children,” and “at home you offer encouragement to your spouse by saying, ‘Aren’t you a good helper?’”

The teacher-identification instrument isn’t just “to make you laugh, although it’s good to hear you laugh,” Father Nuzzi said. “I begin with the teacher-identification instrument just to remind you of who you are, the important work that you do, and the important ministry that we share.

“You know, when neighbors and relatives and family members say outrageous things like ‘oh, God, it must be nice working 8 to 2:30 and having your summers free,’ they say that—if I may use an educational term—out of ignorance. They don’t say that out of malice—they just don’t know. They haven’t been in a vocation or a job that demands that you be present day after day, week after week. Even other professions don’t work this way, where on Monday morning you have a standing appointment with 25 people. They leave on Monday, but then on Tuesday they come back again, the same people.

“Unless you’ve been in the school, in the classroom, on the field, on the court, day after day, week after week, hour after hour, with all the many demands that teaching and students place on us—well, it’s just impossible to know.”

Father Nuzzi said he wanted to share “‘food for the journey’ from my own experience in Catholic education from my own part of the world, not too far from Knoxville that, I hope, will bless your practice in some small way.”

The keynote speaker lives a few miles from the Notre Dame campus in a nearly all-Catholic neighborhood that has numerous young couples with many children who attend Catholic schools—and one unchurched neighbor.

Father Nuzzi’s neighborhood, Bridlewood, was historically a horse farm and features gates with images of horses on them, as he showed his audience on a screen in the KCHS auditorium.

“I’m telling you that because my last name, “Nuzzi,” or “noot-zi” in Italian, is an Italian name. I’m an Italian American, I’m showing you a picture of a horse’s head,” which drew laughter. “Oh, you watch movies. I just don’t want you to get the wrong idea.”

His neighbors frequently socialize, Father Nuzzi said, mentioning a Memorial Day weekend party. A young couple who had just bought a conversion van, which allowed them to tailgate at the party, asked the priest to bless the vehicle.

“I don’t know if you know this or not, but there isn’t a ritual blessing for a van. There’s no book. I’ve got to make this up as I go along, but, you know, it’s OK,” Father Nuzzi said.

The couple wrapped their arms around their two sons as the priest prayed for safe travels in all their journeys to school and sports practices and such.

“When I said those words, I noticed they squeezed, they hugged the boys. It was a little thing, and it was Memorial Day weekend, but when I went to bed that night I thanked God” for the couple, “who took the opportunity of having a new vehicle in their family to teach their boys and show their boys that all good gifts come from God. What great parents,” Father Nuzzi said.

Father Nuzzi was also asked to say a blessing for a young neighbor’s dog that had died (“I don’t know if you know this or not, but there’s no ritual blessing for . . .” he repeated). His neighbors even brought him food when Pope John Paul II died, as if the Holy Father was a family member of Father Nuzzi.

“We had a glorious celebration together,” he said. “Now having told you all that, I ask you, what is it about our faith that makes this behavior intelligible? I mean, you understand, you chuckle but you agree, you knew exactly what I was doing when I blessed the van or buried a dog or had a meal—what we call a mercy luncheon—about the pope. What is it about our faith that all of this makes sense? I submit to you that the deepest conviction of our faith that gives all of these behaviors meaning is the Incarnation, not just that Jesus became flesh but that through the flesh today, through ordinary activities, the daily events and relationships of our lives, speak to us of God’s presence and power and animate that spirit that moves through our lives.”

“Our Catholic beliefs,” Father Nuzzi continued “of the Incarnation say that because of Jesus, creation—the flesh, the earth—is sacred, it’s holy. And when we celebrate the Eucharist, as we did this morning, we experience an abiding Incarnation—Christ present with us in the bread and wine of the Eucharist, which becomes His body and blood. We celebrate not the transcendence of God but the utter immanence of God. . . . Because in the ordinary, everyday events of our lives—in a wedding, in a celebration, in a mercy luncheon—we believe because Jesus was incarnate, God’s presence and power and Jesus’ presence is with us in the ordinary things.”

A Church document on education and the Incarnation states that “if you understand the Incarnation, if you understand that the flesh is holy and that everything God made is good, if you understand that God can speak through the ordinary, everyday events of our lives, there’s really no such thing as a secular subject,” Father Nuzzi said. “All teaching, all learning, points us to the goodness and gracious mystery that is at the heart of creation, to God’s love. There’s no such thing as a secular subject, or as one of my colleagues likes to say, ‘We’re all religion teachers.’”

A favorite theologian of Father Nuzzi, Michael Himes, “said it this way, refashioning the words of St. Iranaeus—Iranaeus, who said the glory of God is the human person fully alive. Michael Himes says, ‘Whatever humanizes, divinizes.’ It’s just a three-word sentence, but it’s probably the most packed three-word sentence I’ve ever heard in English,” Father Nuzzi said. “Whatever humanizes, divinizes. Whatever helps a person to grow and blossom advances them on the path to holiness. Whatever helps your God-given gifts come forth advances you on the road to sanctification. All human learning, all human knowledge, all human growth is divinizing, it’s sanctifying, it makes us holy.”

Father Nuzzi gave his educators in the audience a reading assignment: look up a document from the Canadian Council of Catholic School Trustees titled “Build Bethlehem Everywhere.”

“It’s one of the best documents I’ve ever read on Catholic education,” he said. “It’s a few years old now, but I love the image in the document, and it’s almost poetical, and as you can tell from the title, the theme of the document is ‘a good model for a Catholic school is Bethlehem, that is, a place where Jesus is born.’

“And the document argues, again in a very poetic fashion, that our classrooms, our schools, our teams, our homes, need to be a Bethlehem, need to be a place where Christ is born, where a light shines in the darkness. It’s a beautiful image. And you know as well as I do, for many young people today, if they don’t have an experience of Christ when they’re with us, when they’re in our school, in our classes, they may not have an experience of Christ’s love that day or that week. Thinking of ourselves and our classrooms and our classes and our homes and our schools as a Bethlehem is a great inspiration.”

That “is our Catholic worldview,” Father Nuzzi said. “It’s incarnational, it’s sacramental, it’s inclusive, it’s universal, it looks at anyone and everything, it looks at all subjects and opportunities, it looks at all staff and sports and extracurriculars and says that God’s presence and power can be found in these ordinary, everyday experiences. That’s what we celebrate in Catholic education. That’s what we lift up today as both our summit and source of our goodness.”

The keynoter recalled one winter when South Bend received 48 inches of snow, and his neighborhood’s kids held a contest to build bigger and bigger snowmen. One of those kids is a boy named Stan.

“Stan says to me, ‘Father, will you bless my snowman?’ You probably don’t know this,” Father Nuzzi said to laughter, “but there is no ritual blessing for a snowman, and this one’s tricky because it’s going to melt eventually, and we’re going to have holy water on our hands.

“Stan calls everyone together for a blessing, tells them to take a knee because ‘Father is going to bless the snowman.’ My poor unchurched neighbor, he’s got to be thinking ‘the golden calf,’ right? They’re all out there kneeling in front of the snowman. The parents, too—they listened to Stan—they’re all on their knees.”

Then the blessing of the snowman began.

“‘Lord, we praise and thank you for the gift of these snow days that allow us to enjoy one another’s company and to have such fun building these snowmen. We ask you, Lord, that when spring comes, as we know it will, and these snowmen melt and return to the earth and give life to a new spring, help us forever to live in your love and remember the joy that we had in being together on these snow days. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, amen,’” Father Nuzzi recalled. “Stan jumps up before everyone else and gets everybody’s attention and says a sentence I’ve never heard before or since in English: he says, ‘hey everybody, this snowman is holy.’”

That drew laughs both from his South Bend and Knoxville Catholic audiences.

“People chuckled like you did, but then it got quiet like you did,” Father Nuzzi said. “Everyone was just silent for a few seconds because he was right. My little theologian was right: there was a holiness in the moment. There was a sanctity in the moment, all these neighbors together, multigenerational, who worked together, played together, and dragged their priest into this nonsense. There was a beauty to it. It was, shall I say, incarnational.”

Father Nuzzi earlier said that the Hebrew language has no comparatives or superlatives, so that when the angels say, “holy, holy, holy,” they mean “holy, holier, holiest.”

“I did want you to know, in my neighborhood anyway, we’re not just a bunch of Catholics. We are Catholic, Catholic, Catholic. And I hope and pray, in your own way, in your own neighborhood, in your own home and school and classroom, you’ll find ways to do the same. God bless you,” Father Nuzzi concluded.

President and principals reflect

After their midday meal, the educators were spread among some 29 breakout sessions geared toward the grade levels they teach or their areas of expertise such as math, science, religion, or music.

Following a quick break, all teachers gathered in the KCHS auditorium for a second breakout: a Zoom presentation on AI presented by Father Nate Wills, CSC, of the University of Notre Dame. At the same time, counselors and assistant principals attended a presentation by Julie Emory-Johnson and Whitney Stovall of Friendzy, a social-emotional character development program for teachers.

Dickie Sompayrac, president of Knoxville Catholic High School, talked about his Chattanooga background and what the in-service day means for teachers and principals.

“I think it’s a time for us to come together. For me, having worked at two schools in our diocese, Notre Dame and now Knoxville Catholic and having attended St. Jude’s, it’s especially meaningful for me because I get to see so many people from across our diocese who I have a long history with,” he said. “I always feel like this day, regardless of the speaker or the program, is really a chance for us to come together as Catholic educators, get energized, and know that we share a common purpose with all these people.”

The St. Gregory the Great Auditorium had not an empty seat for the keynote talk and the second breakout session.

“Our auditorium holds about 370. We filled it up and then some,” Mr. Sompayrac said. “These are all the educators of our diocese.”

Beginning the in-service with Mass was “a great way to start your day, having the bishop here to say Mass. It’s an awesome way to start your day for sure,” Mr. Sompayrac said.

Caroline Carlin, principal of Our Lady of Perpetual Help School in Chattanooga, attended the in-service.

“It’s always wonderful to be able to get teachers together, to be able to talk about their passions,” she said. “Iron sharpens iron, so when you have this degree of professional community coming together, everybody leaves with something that’s going to help them improve their craft.”

She also enjoyed starting the day with Mass with Bishop Beckman.

“What the bishop brings is an authentic spirituality that really harnesses and captivates our educational community and helps us know that deep within the reason why we’re all here,” she said.

Andy Zengel, principal of St. Joseph School in Knoxville, said “the in-service was a big hit this year.”

“The keynote speech by Father Ron Nuzzi focused on recognizing that our Catholic faith is incarnational. The truths of the faith can come to us in the ordinary aspects and rhythms of life—if we, as the Gospel of the day proclaimed, ‘have eyes to see and ears to hear,’” Mr. Zengel said. “Catholic schools and Catholic school teachers are well-equipped to help students and their families view the world through the lens of faith so that all genuine learning leads us to Christ.”

Father Nuzzi met with administrators later in the day on Feb. 18 “and reflected on the doctrine of the Trinity and implications for leadership. Since God is a relationship of love, humanity—made in His image—reflects Him best in our healthy relationships,” Mr. Zengel said. “It is the duty of school administrators to encourage human flourishing by protecting, nurturing, and healing the relationships in the communities our Lord has already built.”

The in-service, from Mass with the bishop to lunch to the breakout sessions, was incarnational and trinitarian, Mr. Zengel observed.

“Educators from 10 schools across the diocese were able to meet together in the flesh, strengthen relationships, enjoy each other’s company, share good ideas, and receive God’s grace in the Holy Eucharist,” he said. “Part of our morning was spent recognizing those who had served in schools for 25 years or more. It was a testament to Mr. Valadie’s message: ‘it was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain,’ that once God calls you, He never lets go.”

“Many thanks to Bishop Beckman for his presence and support of our schools, to George Valadie and the Schools Office team for organizing the day, and to Dickie Sompayrac and the staff of Knoxville Catholic for hosting us. Our diocese is truly blessed,” Mr. Zengel added.

Mr. Valadie thought back on the in-service several days later.

“I thought it was a great day. The three people who did speaking during the day, which were the bishop’s homily, Father Nuzzi, and Father Nate Wills, I thought all struck chords that are valuable for teachers to hear, but they did so in three different ways,” he said. “Some were inspiring, some were educational, some were both, but that’s sort of what you want out of a day like that.”

Being around all of his colleagues in diocesan Catholic schools “is always a fun time,” Mr. Valadie said.

“But sadly it only happens once a year. . . . Having everybody there creates a camaraderie and energy and the sort of culture we like to have in a Catholic-school setting,” he said.