Page 7 - Priorities #34 2006-July

International Benedictine Educators
Historically, Benedictines have been ‘rooted’ in their local communities.
With the growing shortage of monks, priests and nuns, Benedictine educators began about five years ago to develop national and international networks. International educators and youth conferences are now being scheduled every other year, respectively. Woodside Priory has been active in promoting both from the beginning.
Last November, six representative of the Priory attended the most recent international conference, at Delbarton School in New Jersey. An outcome of that conference was B-E-NET, the Benedictine Educators Network. B-e-net encourages members to spread their roots by sharing projects with partner schools. This article is the second of two, and it focuses on a few examples of these projects.
• Woodside Priory School formed a “sister school” relationship with St. Scholastica’s Priory, a school
of the Missionary Benedictine Sisters in Peramiho, Tanzania, as a result of the conference. Priory students heard about the Tanzanian school in morning Chapel, and they decided to send $4,000 in proceeds from the holiday food and funds drive to Sister Pia and her students. Sister Pia responded in a letter with several photos that the funds helped with much needed school supplies and books for science classes, art classes and the library.
• Sister John Mary did not attend the conference and is not Benedictine but discovered b-e-net online and joined because “I have a passion for the Benedictine charism. . . Being a teacher of high school students convinces me beyond any doubt
B-E-NET
Read more at b-e-net.org, a beautifully designed Web site.
Benedictine Letter
Benedictine Schools Are Reaching Out With
Sisters Pia (left) and Placida (right) pose here with their student guide at Saint Benedict School in Newark, New Jersey. They toured this very successful inner city Benedictine high school campus—which is also Father Martin’s alma mater—while attending the B-E-NET conference in New Jersey last fall.
that the Benedictine tradition helps young people not only to achieve the best quality education but also to grow up the right way.” She is spearheading travel opportunities among students in Uganda (where her school is located), Kenya and Tanzania for “exposure, sharing and comparative analysis.” The trip requires a family contribution which many are not able to make, and she encourages students to share the experience when they return with stories and videotapes.
• At Colegio Santo Americo in Brazil, two junior students are going to Germany for the month of July, and their German hosts will return for a month with host families and attending school at Colegio Santo Americo. Ten seniors participated at the first International Model United Nations in the region, held in Centro Escolar del Lago, Mexico City. Representatives from all of the participating schools were at the Delbarton conference.
• All Benedictine and Cistercian schools in Belgium, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Hungary will be invited to a regional conference in November 2006. B-e-net member schools from the first three nations are hosting and will encourage participation.
The global network encourages schools to spread their roots by sharing projects and ideas.
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