Achieving Teacher Witness in a Virtual World

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In one of her last letters, written to a former student, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton did what all teachers are called to do: she pointed to the Truth in love.

“God bless you, my loved child,” she wrote. “Remember Mother’s first and last lesson to you: seek God in all things… If you do this, you will live in his presence and will preserve the graces of your first communion.”

As a teacher, Mother Seton kept a large correspondence that demonstrated a wide capacity for friendship with others and friendship with the Truth, an affectionate relationality that extended to students, parents, and former students. Letter by letter, she continued to encourage, exhort, form, and instruct them far and wide, even though they were no longer together. Mother Seton understood that it is by way of the heart that a teacher reaches a student’s mind, and that all good teaching, whether in person, by letter, or online, is always first personal and relational.

Thus, it is the personal influence of the teacher, rooted in their intellectual, moral, and spiritual excellence, that can move students to desire to know, love, and serve Truth, Who is a Person. Saintly teachers, from  Augustine to John Henry Newman to Elizabeth Ann Seton, have provided the teaching, example, and inspiration as to how teachers today can draw students into deeper friendship with the Truth.

Each educational mode or setting, whether a traditional school setting or a nontraditional one such as a home school, a continuing education program, a night school, or an online program, faces challenges in witnessing to the transformative power of Truth. Some of these challenges are shared by all teachers regardless of setting, but some are specific to the nature of the particular mode or setting. St. Augustine noted the challenge of teaching night classes on doctrine to tired adults at the end of a long working day; Newman noted the opportunities and challenges in offering continuing education classes at his proposed university.

 

Nonetheless, the substance of good teaching remains the same, even as the accidents of mode or setting change. What is true about good teaching in a traditional setting is also true about good teaching in a nontraditional setting. Non-exhaustively:

  • A good teacher witnesses to the Truth through relationship, or what Newman called “catching force” of personal influence.
  • A good teacher doesn’t simply communicate information, they are engaged in the formation of students’ vision of reality by revealing an aspect of the Truth through a particular discipline or text.
  • A good teacher fosters growth in wisdom, or the ability to see the relations between things in order to grasp the whole of reality, and a desire to conform oneself to that reality.
  • A good teacher inspires students to love and delight in the Truth through their own obvious affection for it.

 

In order to do all these things, a teacher must first be all these things.

 

For those teaching in an online or nontraditional setting, the challenge is to first be all of these things that Seton, Augustine, and Newman exhort, and then to communicate it in a virtual mode. This means that teachers must be highly intentional about things that might naturally occur in a traditional classroom. I suggest seven basic habits of intentional (online) teaching:

  1. Smile. In videos or synchronous meetings, the teacher should convey visually their gaudium in veritate (joy in the Truth), the truth about the goodness of existence, and the goodness of knowledge pursued together. St. Augustine called this disposition hilaritas, or cheerfulness.  What we do as teachers comes from the heart of the Church, and there is deep joy in that!
  2. Growth in Intellectual Friendship. A classroom, whether physical or online, is a place where intellectual friendship in pursuit of the true, good, and beautiful ought to be fostered. For appropriate friendships to flourish, teachers need to provide a space for students to share who they are—their interests and questions—and to be received by the teacher and their classmates. At the beginning of the semester, ask students to record a video introducing themselves. Touch back on those interests frequently throughout the semester. Just as in a seminar, encourage students to ask questions of one another and to respond directly rather than to or through the teacher.
  3. Growth in Friendship with the Truth. Teachers should share and model evident love for the Truth as it is expressed in each discipline. Demonstrate to students how a particular course helps them understand the whole of reality by making connections with other disciplines and courses. This places a special responsibility on the teacher to know what is being taught in other courses. Get to know the other faculty and their interests and refer to them in class. Students want to be welcomed into a community of scholars who are friends in the Truth, and to do that, teachers must be friends with their colleagues.
  4. Be present, be responsive. Whenever possible, encourage synchronous meetings. Make time for office hours, open discussion in class, and calling out the good seen in a student intervention or in a discussion board. This communicates to students that their teacher is taking them and their work seriously and that they aren’t communicating into a void. Don’t be afraid to redirect a discussion, but do so cheerfully and with generosity of spirit.
  5. Encourage students to grow in wisdom. Ask them to make connections to other disciplines in order to help them “see the whole.” In discussion or assignments, ask students to make connections and/or integrate what they’ve learned in one course with what they’ve learned in other courses and with their experience in real life. Help them see that what they are learning matters for how they see themselves, the world, God, and others, and that it matters for how they live and for their sense of purpose.
  6. Encouraging students in virtue. Help them understand why timeliness, courtesy, and treating others with respect, honesty, and integrity matter not only in class but for relationships outside of class. Help them understand that education isn’t just about information but is ultimately a formation in becoming more human.
  7. Prayer for and with students. Open and close synchronous meetings with a short prayer like St. Thomas Aquinas’s Prayer Before Study or Prayer for Wisdom. Place this prayer in a prominent place in the online “classroom” and on the course syllabus. Let students know that their teacher is praying for them and for their needs. Pray that the human and intellectual formation provided by Catholic education leads to an inner transformation of vision so that students can understand Who and what they are made for.

 

Mother Seton, St. John Henry Newman, and St. Augustine are three shining examples among a vast number of spiritual and educational witnesses who have repeatedly taught through the ages that it is through the cheerful, generous, and friendly heart of the teacher that students are drawn into friendship with Christ, who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Faithful witness can be accomplished in a nontraditional and virtual setting through thoughtful and intentional teaching practices that reinforce the personal and relational dimensions of education. In this way, teachers in any setting can witness to the catching force of the Truth.

Ep. 13: Finding Your Life’s Calling at Franciscan University with President, Fr. Dave Pivonka (Pt.1)

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In this episode, we are joined by Father Dave Pivonka, president of Franciscan University of Steubenville Ohio to discuss what sets Franciscan apart, the university’s success under his leadership, helping students find their life’s calling, and much more.

Ep. 12: From Fighter Pilot to Fighting for Faithful Catholic Education, Meet Walsh University President Tim Collins (Pt.2)

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Few guests have more passion than President Tim Collins of Walsh University! Join us for part two of our discussion about what sets Walsh University in North Canton, Ohio, apart from other colleges, and how they strive to have their students discover a sense of purpose.

Catholic College Graduate Guides Pilgrims Deeper in Faith Through ‘Eternal City’

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Joseph Long

While studying abroad in Rome, Italy, with a faithful Catholic college, the Catholic faith became “more alive” for Joseph Long. Now Long helps others experience the beauty of the Catholic faith through ProRome Tours, a company he founded that leads faith-filled tours and pilgrimages around the world.

Long chose to attend Christendom College in Front Royal, Va., which is recognized in The Newman Guide for its strong Catholic education, because he wanted to attend a college where he could practice his faith, surrounded by others who were also striving to do so. Christendom College’s Rome program was also very attractive to him.

During their junior year, many Christendom students spend their semester studying in Rome and living just 30 minutes from St. Peter’s Basilica. The experience impacted Long, especially seeing the succession of popes since St. Peter, and made him eager to “to share [his] love for the faith through experiences of Rome and throughout Italy.”

“Being in Rome, the faith just becomes something real to you,” explained Long. “You can put the pieces of the puzzle together in a textbook back home, but when you go and actually see it, it becomes part of your fiber. And once you see it, you can’t forget it. It helps you evangelize, and it helps you understand your own faith.”

Christendom College offered Long a whole Catholic outlook for his life—and his work.

“At Christendom, [we were taught] the notion that the center and the most important part of human history is Jesus Christ coming into this world. When Christ came, died, and rose again, that was the absolute apex of human history. All of history at Christendom was taught in this light,” Long explained.

“It is the worldview that a Catholic must have in order to understand everything properly,” Long continued.

After graduating from college, Long became an Italian citizen, worked on his Italian language in Rome, and earned his master’s degree in Church history from the Pontifical University of Santa Croce. In 2014, with a $10,000 loan and “a lot of energy,” he founded ProRome Tours, a faith-based travel business.

By 2019, ProRome Tours was garnering $1.5 million in sales and growing. Then, the pandemic of 2020 hit, pausing international trips, and Long had to switch gears to teaching Italian online. Amazingly, he was able keep ProRome alive and is back to serving more than 1,000 clients annually.

Long’s travel company focuses on providing meaningful trips. In a description of a summer program for high school students, ProRome advertises that the trip will help propel students “in the right direction, increase their confidence in the Catholic faith, and introduce them to good ideas and great friends.”

For those who are considering where to attend college, Long encourages students to “go somewhere that is Catholic, that is very Catholic and is proud of its Catholicism. Go somewhere that you’ll be able to nurture that Catholicism and be able to explore things that interest you.”

Long credits his faithful Catholic education with giving him the tools he needed to start his own business—a business that is a blessing for him and those he serves. “Going to Christendom not only gave me incredible friends and reinforced my faith, but it also gave me incredible education that allowed me to think freely think for myself and challenge the status quo.”

Can We Be Frank About the Catholic School Crisis?

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The National Catholic Education Association (NCEA) shared their latest numbers on the state of Catholic education. Patrick Reilly, founder of The Cardinal Newman Society, expounds on these numbers and says claims of stabilization after decades of loss and decay are premature.

Read his full story here.

 

 

Ep. 11: From Fighter Pilot to Fighting for Faithful Catholic Education, Meet Walsh University President Tim Collins

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In this episode, we are joined by Walsh University’s president Dr. Tim Collins to discuss his rich background from being an Air Force fighter pilot to now advancing the 200-year-old charism of Walsh University’s mission to inspire students to become the nation’s next generation of leaders. 

Swords Up!

Newman Guide School Embraces Students with Special Needs

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A faithful Newman Guide Recommended school in Tyler, Tex., is inviting parents and educators to learn about its approach to educating students with complex communication needs, part of the school’s commitment to serving a wider variety of children and families.

“Be it known that Jesus Christ is the reason for our school!” said Principal John Kimec of Bishop T.K. Gorman Catholic School.

“Bishop Gorman is a community that is vibrant and will accept students from all walks of life and of all abilities—from the gifted to the disabled—and recognizes what each can contribute in their own unique way,” Kimec continued. “All are called to sainthood and to be educated in a manner commensurate with their abilities.”

In fall 2023, Bishop Gorman opened a small program for five students of varying ages with special needs. The Culture of Life Foundation, which was founded by John’s wife Lindsay, provided grants to hire a teacher and aides, cover tuition for the five students, and convert a classroom into a sensory and therapeutic center.

The teacher and aides utilize the Pragmatic Organization Dynamic Display (PODD) approach to helping students with complex communication needs. Bishop Gorman will host training in this PODD approach in March 2024 for Catholic parents and educators.

“It has been wonderful to see the impact of the program almost immediately,” said Lindsay Kimec. “The Bishop Gorman school community has truly embraced the students and program, and we are extremely grateful.”

“Teachers have volunteered to help create artwork and music breaks [with the students], and several teachers and parents have commented that they’re ‘seeing a whole new side to their students and love it!’” she continued.

The Cardinal Newman Society’s Kelly Salomon, vice president of Newman Guide programs, recently caught up with Lindsay Kimec to learn more about how Catholic schools across the country can embrace students with special needs.

In fall 2023, Bishop Gorman opened a small program for five students of varying ages with special needs.

Q: What has been your experience of students with special needs being included in Catholic schools?

A: Over the past several years, we have begun to experience an increased openness—and in some cases, desire—to include those with special needs in Catholic education and participation in the fullness of the sacraments and life of the Church. But there is still much work to be done!

We have had the great privilege of meeting some truly amazing families and individuals with special needs and exceptional abilities in different parts of the nation over the years, and for most of them, the only option for education is the public school system or homeschooling. We have found that this is due to many reasons—one simple one being that this is simply how it’s been done, and many have gotten used to thinking that individuals with special needs and their families are cared for by public education.

The great news is that we may be at one of those pivotal points in Catholic education. Many are waking up to the state of the culture, Church, and the state in our hearts. Our son, Michael, has been a conduit of God’s mercy for our family to begin to see things anew, and I firmly believe that he and others like him with special needs and exceptional abilities have so much to offer—not just for our families, but for our Church and world! I believe if we work towards and fully embrace individuals with special needs and their unique gifts into our Catholic schools and sacramental preparation, more of God’s mercy and love would be poured into our hearts, schools, Church, and world.

Q: What steps can Catholic schools take to welcome students with special needs and their families? Why is this important?

A: I think the first word that comes to mind is “proactive.” As Christians we must continue to encourage one another to be proactive—never tire of running the race that lies before us. I love the quote from Our Lady of Good Help to Sr. Adele, “Gather the children in this wild country and teach them what they need to know for their salvation.” Let’s be proactive in finding more ways to love and serve each child and to teach them the Faith.

Many families of children with special needs are perpetually advocating for their child or children, so if we can step into that breach and say through our actions, “rest awhile, you’re safe here. There is room in the inn here. We love and need your child’s unique person and gifts,” then this itself is like a miracle for many families. There are just not many outreaches for children with special needs and their families who are Catholic. There is a lot of work to do!

Some simple things that can be done are to try to talk to individuals with special needs and their families after Mass. We’ve also talked to priests about our son’s journey with the sacraments and our own spiritual needs. I often say that with the intensity of life, we need that much more intense spiritual help/life—and believe me, we need it! And so do individuals with special needs. They have daily physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual battles too—some much more than any of us can fathom. Finally, we have also organized open gyms at the local Catholic school that begin with a priest offering a reflection, blessing, and prayer, and it all ends with refreshments. This has been a fun way to enable people to enjoy some community and prayer in more of an informal environment, and it gives us and volunteers more of an opportunity to see and understand a bit more of the needs among us.

The second word that comes to mind is to become “equipped.” Any proactive parent who has a child with special needs seeks to educate themselves to offer the best medical help, therapies, opportunities, and experiences for their child. School personnel can also equip themselves to best reach any child through continuing education, but most importantly listening to parents and what they’ve learned. Many things the parents learn from doctors and therapists have to be replicable in the home without specialized degrees or credentials, so then these practices and routines can also be learned by interested personnel in a school community.

Q: What inspired you to establish the Culture of Life Foundation?

A: I think the inspiration grew with different events in my life as well as people that seemed to be placed at just the right time throughout the years, so I think it’s probably been a passion placed in my heart by God from the beginning,

I would like to recognize my mom’s work in all this, as she planted a big seed in my heart. She has a great, magnanimous heart for seeing those in need and attending to this need in a most dignified way. Some of my earliest memories are of her sewing beautiful matching dresses for me and another little girl in my Kindergarten class so that the girl could have a dress and a new friend.

Also, my youngest sister, Kyra, was born with Down Syndrome. She is absolutely amazing, and I got to watch and learn so much from my mom. My mom had a dream when Kyra was in the second or third grade that one day there would be a Culture of Life school where anyone could receive a Catholic education.

Over the years, different events in my life fanned this seed into flame, and after going to the Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help in Wisconsin and hearing of Sister Adele’s story and her response to Our Lady’s call to catechize the children, I simply took the next step—a Novena to Our Lady of Good Help—and with permission from my mom, incorporated the Foundation in Minnesota in 2011.

Then, this was placed on hold for the next 11 years as we had our beautiful son, Michael, who happens to have Pierpont Syndrome. My husband has been my greatest support and encourager of continuing steps to work on the foundation when possible, and when we moved to Tyler, Tex., in 2022 all doors opened under Bishop Strickland’s prayers and love and understanding for the sanctity of life.

 

(Editor’s Note: Kelly Salomon’s brother-in-law is Linsday Kimec’s brother.)

Ep. 10: The 5 Principles of Catholic Identity with Dan Guernsey (Continued)

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We continue our discussion of The 5 Principles of Catholic Identity in Education—those benchmarks the Church expects to find in every Catholic school.

Ep. 9: The 5 Principles of Catholic Identity with Dan Guernsey

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Dan Guernsey, a 30-year veteran of faithful Catholic education, shares The 5 Principles of Catholic Identity—those benchmarks the Church expects to find in every Catholic school. Whether you’re a parent or educator, you can use these principles as a guide and inspiration for evaluating all educational efforts.

Catholic College Graduate Builds Strong Marriages

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The world today is facing a crisis in the family, but one graduate of a faithful Catholic college is working to change that. Mary Rose Verret, together with her husband Ryan, founded the ministry Witness to Love, which partners with more than 500 parishes in four countries and provides marriage preparation through virtue-based mentorship.

While a student at Christendom College in Front Royal, Va., which is recommended in The Newman Guide, Verret experienced community like she “never had before.” Much of the Witness to Love program was inspired by “trying to figure out how to invite newly engaged couples have that similar experience and community life.” In 2024, Ryan and Mary Rose were honored to be named as consultants to the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life for their work building up strong Catholic marriages. 

In Witness to Love, couples are mentored by a married couple of their choosing from within their parish community. These mentors undergo training and then walk with the engaged couple throughout their engagement and beyond the altar, providing a model of marriage renewal and a connection to the parish. By providing couples with a strong witness to a living Catholic relationship and a strong tie to parish life, couples are encouraged to integrate themselves into parish life, form deep friendships and live out a virtuous marriage.

The results are staggering: “over the past five years, the divorce rate in parishes who have implemented Witness to Love has decreased by double digits and participation in parish life by newlyweds has increased from 10 percent to as high as 70-90 percent,” states Witness to Love’s Case for Support.

Verret explains that the ministry is so successful, because it invites the engaged couple into their Church community, similarly to how she was invited into the Catholic community at Christendom College.

Mary Rose Verret

The Verret family with Fr. Thomas Vander Woude. Photo via Mary Rose Verret.

Her first experience of Christendom was in high school via a local priest, Fr. Thomas Vander Woude, who is a Christendom alumnus. She describes him as “the first priest I’d ever met who was cheerful and reverent and sincere and was definitely a witness of Christ.” At his encouragement, she attended a week-long Christendom Summer camp.

“It was the first experience in my life of being around a lot of amazing Catholics,” explains Verret. “Because where I lived, the Catholics I knew weren’t really different from the rest of the culture. At Christendom I was in a really intense, concentrated, really impactful witness of the students and teachers. I got to experience being in a community where everyone is focused on the same goal of getting to heaven and understanding the faith and learning together.”

After the summer program, Verret was determined to go to school there, even if it meant working multiple jobs. “I was all in,” she explains, “and it all started with Fr. Vander Woude and his witness… It was that personal connection with somebody who loved Christ and had also been impacted by that college.”

While at school, she formed deep bonds with the professors and their families. She explained, “That experience of being with the families, being with the professors, was more impactful than any other part of going to Christendom College, the witness of the professors and their wives and the family and being a part of that.”

She describes how the professors at Christendom invited students over for dinner and would share meals with them on campus. It was impactful for her to see her professors praying in the chapel and bringing their families to daily Mass.

Being around these professors, “you really get to experience a family life.” Verret explains how important this was for her, especially since her parents were divorced. “For someone who really wants something very different for themselves and their marriage, you should consider going to a small college like Christendom where you do have the ability to be part of the families of the faculty.”

God worked in her heart through those years and planted the seed for her ministry during a World Youth Day trip. She explains, “Even though I went to college, I still wasn’t really even at a point where I even believed in the Eucharist. I was going there because, I guess it was grace. It was Fr. Vander Woude’s suggestion, it was grace. I fell in love with the college, but I was still in need of evangelization, and definitely received it there. But World Youth Day was a turning point.”

While working on campus during the summer after her sophomore year at Christendom, a group of religious sisters who were staying on campus asked Verret to help them chaperone a trip to World Youth Day in Toronto, Canada. They left that day, and one night that week under the stars she heard Pope John Paul II say, “you are not the sum of your fears and failures, but you’re the sum of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Father’s love for you.” She describes that moment as a turning point in her life. She says found out later that her future husband Ryan was also at that World Youth Day, soaking in the same lessons about what it means to live a life as the sum of the Father’s love.

It was at that World Youth Day that Pope John Paul II declared that the world needs witnesses to God’s love. This inspired Verret: “The name ‘Witness to Love’ really came from that, that we need to be witnesses of God’s love in the world, and the mentor couples really are that witness. Because people today who have been away from church don’t just show up like, ‘I love Jesus, I love God, God loves me.’ Somebody leads them to Jesus, somebody loves them, somebody witnesses to them, somebody brings them to the church, just as the professors at Christendom were witnesses to me of God’s love.”

It wasn’t until she graduated and was working in the Marriage and Family Life Office in the Diocese of Lafayette—after doing the same work for three years in the Diocese of Arlington—that her calling became clear. In 2011 Verret left working for the Diocese of Lafayette, La., and began working at a parish. Working so closely with families and engaged couples, she saw the disconnect between couples who go through normal marriage preparations, yet they don’t stay married or continue going to Church.

“This whole marriage prep system is just broken, because most couples either come from divorced parents, parents who don’t go to Church, or parents who aren’t happily married. So they don’t really have a witness of what marriage looks like,” she explains. “Just like I didn’t. And not everybody is able to go to a college like Christendom, so they don’t all have that witness.”

The Verrets began the ministry in 2012, and word of this ministry spread, from pastor to pastor, bishop to bishop, couple to couple. She explained that many “marriage champions” stepped forward, wanting to assist in the mission.

Now the program has spread to 500+ parishes in the United States, Canada, France and Mexico. Their materials have been translated into Spanish and French. Witness to Love also offers a program version for civilly married couples who are seeking to have a sacramental marriage, and the ministry has created an interdenominational version for non-Catholics. The ministry offers its complete marriage formation, including its Be More Retreat, in-person at partnering parishes or online! 

Editor’s Note: This article was originally published in 2019 and was updated in 2024.