This past week, our 600+ full time teachers gathered for our biannual Education Convention. Featuring Holy Mass with Bishop Schlert and our high school chaplains, we then spent the balance of the morning focusing on one topic: gender ideology.

Our keynote speaker, Mary Rice Hassan of the Person and Identity Project, shared both the facts and features of gender ideology. The facts were outlined in order to help us understand the magnitude of gender ideology as well as Pope Francis’ clear statements against it. The features were shared in order to help us apply her insights to our particular campuses.

Training like this is difficult. It’s not easy to find a speaker who has both competency and compassion. Additionally, it’s hard to hear about the cultural forces trying to impact our children. In the end, we walked away with the encouragement needed to return to our individual schools.