Dear Faithful,
Beginning in late 2023 and during the early months of 2024, I held several meetings with our Principals (of parochial, diocesan, and private Catholic Schools), and the Pastors that oversee our parochial Catholic Schools; and after hearing their concerns about the many challenges that our beloved Catholic Schools are facing, contracted with Partners in Mission (PIM), to offer us a Strategic Assessment of the Catholic Schools of the CDOM.
I formed a Steering Committee of Pastors and Principals to assist in this analysis. The members of the Steering Committee: Fathers Keith Stewart, V.G. (St. Louis), Carl Hood (St. Francis) and Francisco Franquiz (soon, at St. Paul); Sister Mary Lawrence, O.P. (St. Paul), Sondra Morris (SBA), Darren Mullis (HR), John Goode (CBHS); and Dave Archer (CBU).
The Steering Committee received the completed March 2024 PIM Limited Institutional Assessment: Report and Recommendations; and after lengthy discussions, recommended the report to me, with their own insights and recommendations.
The essential insight gleaned from the Assessment was the need to re-organize the Office of Catholic Schools; and rather than seeking a new Superintendent for the Office, to look for a President (CEO) to oversee a newly created structuring of Catholic Schools in West Tennessee. The Assessment invites us to look for a new relationship between the parochial, diocesan, and private Catholic Schools in Memphis and Jackson, along with the creation of a new governing model for our parochial schools and diocesan high school. I have accepted this need to re-organize our Office of Catholic Schools.
To begin this process of re-organization, I have hired an Interim President-CEO for the Office. Dr. Chris M. Fay will assist me as he works with PIM and our Principals and Pastors, to re-fashion the structure of the Office of Catholic Schools.
I have known Chris Fay since 2019 and have brought him into this process of overseeing the re-organization of the Office of Catholic Schools, with every confidence in his abilities and his integrity and his faithfulness.
Our Catholic Schools are jewels, cherished communities of Catholic formation. We must do everything we are able to do, to strengthen our Catholic Schools, as they assist our parents in forming our children and teens with a longing for health and holiness, as disciples of the Lord. May our schools thrive in the Lord, for years and years to come!
Bishop David P. Talley
