Becoming Part of the Story - Holy Cross Institute

ecoming part of the
THE LEGACY OF HOLY CROSS EDUCATORS

Legacy,
to the family of Holy Cross, means many things. It is a
gift bequeathed to us, and our mission is to share it. This
inheritance takes the form of a story that expands with
each generation of Holy Cross educators and through our
relationships with each other.
It is also a means of self-discovery, as we find new strengths
in shared values. By working together to build respect, educate
hearts and minds, be a family, and bring hope, we become
part of the story of Holy Cross.
Cover: The Church of Notre Dame de Sainte-Croix, built by Basil Moreau in LeMans, France.
Adjoining this parish church was the site of the original College Notre Dame de Sainte-Croix.
Photograph by Stephen Scardina.

Table of Contents
History: Innovation and partnerships 3
Introduction: Some central themes of a 7
Holy Cross education
“We are learning that not only
do ‘we ourselves stand to learn
much from those whom we
are called to teach’ but also
from those with whom we
teach. From their long years
of steadfast and competent
service, we have come to
regard our lay colleagues as
closest neighbors, trustworthy
friends, brothers and sisters.
We celebrate their presence
and active participation as
a sign of great hope for
our future.”
Congregation’s General
Chapter of 1998
Building Respect 9
Our Mission at Work: Holy Cross School— 11
New Orleans
Educating Hearts and Minds 13
Our Mission at Work: St. Edward’s University 15
Being Family 17
Our Mission at Work: Notre Dame High School 19
Bringing Hope 21
Our Mission at Work: St. Francis High School 23
The Spirituality of Holy Cross 25
Father Basil Moreau: The resonance of his 28
vision with To Teach as Jesus Did
The Internationality of Holy Cross 32
Our Mission at Work: Moreau Catholic High School 34
Constitutions: A resource for integrated living 35
Sponsorship and the Holy Cross Institute at 43
St. Edward’s University: Initiatives for the future
The Mission Incarnate 44
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2
Father Basil Moreau’s papers

Father Basil Moreau
History
Innovation and partnerships
Founded by a pioneer in student-centered learning, curriculum
design, and religious organization, our Holy Cross
family has always shown great adaptability. Cookie-cutter
education is not our style. Just as we focus on individual needs,
student by student, each school applies the values we share in ways
that suit its location. The daily practice of these values gives us
stability and direction in times of change.
Our story begins in 19th-century France. During the French Republic, the
government had confiscated church properties, outlawed religious communities,
and closed schools. In the aftermath of so much political and social change, however,
the educational model remained the same. The Venerable Father Basil Moreau, a
charismatic priest and popular seminary professor, broke this mold. Adding to the
core subjects of literature and Latin, his Holy Cross teachers—lay and religious—
offered new courses in music, art, drama, science, and business. They involved
students’ families and offered co-curricular activities. The environment they created
nurtured their own gifts as well as those of their students.
Before reforming education for young people, Father Moreau began with adults.
He believed that if priests were to be effective ministers, they had to be prepared
for the developments and realities of the changing world. In 1828, he proposed a
plan for the formation of a society of priests whose education would expand beyond
philosophy and theology to include physics, political science, and economics. As
an educator, Father Moreau placed a high priority on an integrated education, and
in 1835 he introduced into the seminary curriculum the innovative requirement of
studying the physical sciences.
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From the beginning
Holy Cross has united
men and women, vowed
and religious, in apostolic
work that took equal
amounts of elbow grease
and spirited zeal.
Fifteen years earlier, Father Moreau had helped Father
James Dujarié organize the brothers of Holy Cross to
provide educators for villagers in the region. When Dujarié
retired in 1835, Father Moreau became the community’s
chief administrator.
Father Moreau’s model also created a legacy of thinking
globally and acting locally. In naming the Congregation of
Holy Cross, he turned to the neighborhood of Sainte-Croix,
or Holy Cross, in Le Mans, where the community first
settled. This choice presaged our tradition of adaptability.
Not only do our schools and ministries evolve to serve local
needs, but we must remain flexible as our student bodies
and communities change and grow. Adaptability guides our
mission, and it requires us to be attentive, creative, generous,
and resilient.
From the beginning Holy Cross has united men and
women, vowed and religious, in apostolic work that took
equal amounts of elbow grease and spirited zeal. When Father
Moreau opened his first school, Notre Dame de Sainte-
Croix, in 1837, influential men and women of the community
helped him accomplish this undertaking. When he began
an Association of St. Joseph, a group of laity organized for
their own spiritual formation as well as for charitable works,
he recognized their foundational work, saying, “The future is
entirely in the hands of the generation beginning today….” Their
spirit of collaboration continues in our work, as alumni and
donors serve as friends and patrons in our ministry.
Soon Father Moreau’s Gospel vision extended beyond the
borders of France. Focusing on education, parish assistance,
and foreign missions, Holy Cross reached out to the impoverished,
the illiterate, the sick, and the excluded. By 1842
Father Moreau had sent brothers and priests to Northern
Indiana and Algeria in North Africa, and soon members of
the Congregation were serving in the Bengal district of India
(today Bangladesh). We practice his Gospel vision today,
mindful of every student who could feel lost or estranged,
aware of every colleague who might be disenchanted or
suffering, and attentive to every parent.
Pioneers in rural education and the care of poor, abandoned
children, Holy Cross religious also brought an unusually
collaborative spirit to their schools and missions around
the world:
• In Notre Dame de Sainte-Croix, Holy Cross religious
founded the first of our schools in 1842. They continue
to serve at College Notre-Dame d’Orveau in Orveau and
College Saint-Michel de Picpus in Paris.
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• In 1842 Holy Cross religious traveled to northern Indiana
and founded a community that eventually became the
University of Notre Dame.
• In New Orleans, Holy Cross religious founded a home and
trade school for boys orphaned by the rampant yellow fever.
Today the brothers’ mission continues principally through the
work of lay colleagues and Board members at Holy Cross
School, a middle and high school for boys. Students, faculty,
and alumni also reach out to the neighbors in the Holy Cross
Historic District through community revitalization efforts and
service activities.
• In Austin, the roots of St. Edward’s University go back to
1878; its educational character derives from the brothers’
experience of “formation.” This time of reflection—
integral to each man’s exploration of his vocation—helps
each candidate discover his strengths, his fitness for community
life, and potential career paths. This focus on the individual
became a defining attribute of the University with its
emphasis on personalized education for an ever more diverse
undergraduate and graduate student population.
• In Chicago, Holy Cross brothers founded Holy Trinity High
School in 1910 to educate Polish immigrants. Today it serves
Latinos, African-Americans, and immigrants from Poland,
Ukraine, China, Ethiopia, and Somalia. These 400 students
come from throughout the city for a Holy Cross education.
Engaging their hearts and minds, dedicated faculty members
encourage 90 percent of the students to apply to college, and
95% percent of the applicants to enroll.
• Right after World War II, the number of Holy Cross schools
in the U.S. surged with openings in four states. In the next two
decades, eight more Holy Cross schools opened. Today, 16 high
schools and six colleges and universities operate nationwide.
• In 1951 brothers of Holy Cross went 500 miles up the
Amazon River in Brazil to take responsibility for the only
boys’ school available for miles. Today Colégio Dom Amando
educates 1,400 boys and girls, many of whom go on to
university studies. Brazilian brothers have assumed management
of the school. During the 1960s the brothers also
established Colégio Notre Dame in Campinas, São Paulo,
which continues today.
• In 1993 Holy Cross educators formed the Table, a collaboration
of leadership for mission. Twice a year the high school
principals and presidents, Board leaders, and other committed
lay and religious meet to discuss common issues and initiatives.
Serving as a model for ground-up growth and development,
the Table spearheaded the development of three collaborative
ventures: Holy Cross Mission Seminars for continuing education
in the Holy Cross mission and heritage, Holy Cross
Conference for Student Leaders, and social justice Immersion
experiences for students and faculty.
• Every summer faculty and students from each of our high
schools participate in the Holy Cross Conference for Student
Leaders. Held on the campus of St. Edward’s University, it
combines community service at local organizations, presentations
on mission and heritage, study of leadership as mission,
social justice, and leadership at each of the schools, and the
students’ formulation of a unified Leadership Code. The
students forge close bonds through this experiential learning,
and they develop a strong, shared vision of the Holy Cross
mission and heritage.
• Immersion, a collaborative service project for students and
faculty members from our sponsored Holy Cross high
schools, occurs annually. Our schools take turns hosting and
organizing this experience, which immerses us in five days
of service to people who need support. We dedicate the
evenings to shared reflection about what we have learned,
given, and received from those less fortunate—an experience
that, as much as our shared service, strengthens fellowship
among our Holy Cross educators. Individual schools sustain
this experience through their own service and social justice
programs throughout the year.
• The Mission Seminar gathers Holy Cross educators every
18 months to discuss what brought them to the teaching
profession and specifically to Holy Cross. Combining action
and contemplation, the Seminar usually features small-group
discussions, a school visit, and the creation of action plans by
school groups, balanced by a liturgy and individual reflections
on a theme. While the Mission Seminar has been designed
to meet the needs of the South-West Province, Holy Cross
educators from around the country and the world have been
invited to participate.
These are just a few examples of how our collective story
unfolds. The school profiles in this book single out a unique
way in which each institution puts the Holy Cross mission into
practice. These contributions, by no means a complete expression
of the schools’ commitment to our heritage, nevertheless
demonstrate how each institution in a very special way sets
forth a characteristic aspect of a Holy Cross education.
To learn more about the history of Father Moreau and
the Congregation, visit www.holycrosscongregation.org
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6
Holy Cross School, Louisiana

Introduction
Some central themes of a
Holy Cross education
In spring 2004, the principals of St. Francis High School, Holy Cross School—
New Orleans, Notre Dame High School—Sherman Oaks, and Moreau Catholic
High School gave presentations on four themes: Building Respect, Educating
Hearts and Minds, Being Family, and Bringing Hope. Previously, they had identified
these themes as central to our Holy Cross communities and as the basis for a
sequential, four-year mission focus across all the schools. Beginning in fall 2004
with Building Respect, this focus serves as the inspiration for assemblies, small- and
large-group discussions, Board reflections, faculty retreats and formation experiences,
liturgies, and other events.
This experience is vital to our continuing spiritual formation and to our work
as lay partners and leaders in sustaining the traditions and values of Holy Cross.
Our founding congregation—one of many religious congregations in the Catholic
Church—followed the call of Vatican II in welcoming laypersons to administrative
and governance roles in our schools. In every decision and action, we strive to give
life to the mission by incarnating the spirit of Holy Cross.
These themes also help us serve increasingly diverse populations. As Catholic
schools, we view ourselves as part of the mission of our local diocesan Church and
live out that identity by teaching the Catholic faith, fostering Christian insight into
social problems, and engaging in Christian service. At the same time as growing
numbers of non-Catholics join our school communities, we must introduce them to
the Gospel values that set us apart as both Catholic and Holy Cross. Father Moreau
valued well-organized schools, but even more he emphasized the quality of persons
educating our students. By living out these themes, we can learn to fulfill our
mission as people of Holy Cross.
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8
St. Francis High School, California

“Seeing in all the image of God imprinted within them
like a sacred seal which you must preserve at all costs.”
Christian Education, Father Basil Moreau
Building Respect
Respect: spectare, to look + re, again
Respect can seem like a dusty relic of another age, but in Holy Cross schools,
the practice is alive and kicking. A performance of Aretha Franklin’s song,
R-E-S-P-E-C-T, by Sister Jodi Min, O.P.—with three male teachers as backup
singers—generated screams and cheers during a student assembly at St. Francis High
School. But it also turned an abstraction into an action. Pulsing with the rhythm of
a deep-seated need, this song takes respect off the shelf and puts it where it belongs:
between teacher and student, teacher and teacher, and student and student.
Rituals and celebrations are visible signs of our respect for the Holy Cross legacy.
Yet Father Moreau suggested we do more, by bringing traditional concepts alive in
every encounter. To make the connection with another person, we must look past the
distractions and “disconnects” that insulate us—taking a second look at the “problem
student” or a disgruntled colleague. Patti Tennant tells the story of a faculty member
who uses this technique: “I keep a picture of Christ in the back of my mind, and try to
look beyond the person’s behavior to the soul.”
Our ministry—like the congregation Father Moreau founded—is not leveraged on
authority, position, or status. It springs from relationships. Manners, rules, and empathy
foster our ability to see one another as individuals, and Father Moreau believes that
our success grows from nurturing one student at a time. Address the deepest longings in
your students’ hearts, he tells us. Building respect, relationship by relationship, is a way
of building a strong, tensile web of connectedness. When Holy Cross educators model
respectful relationships, students learn to align their words and actions with the greater
good of our community. As one Holy Cross student observes, It’s not what you get away
with that counts.
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“The key to respect is
to see the face of Christ
in every encounter.”
Patti Tennant, Principal
St. Francis High School
When we’re tired or overworked, Father Moreau’s statement,
education is a work of resurrection, might seem like a
rueful realization that relationships are never done. This
work of living Gospel values requires constantly taking
a second look at our needs and motivations, at “the
other,” and at the ways we thread our experience together.
It means we see teaching as our mission, not just a job.
It means not just “being like Jesus,” but being Jesus—
especially to those in whom Jesus, as Mother Teresa once
said, is in deep disguise.
As school communities, we must be willing to look
again and again at our ability to serve everyone, especially
the poor and disadvantaged. Holy Cross educators ask
themselves: Do we isolate campus ministry to a department, or
do we integrate social justice across our school Do our policies and
procedures support our commitment to build respect, or do they
build barriers In order to make people of different backgrounds
feel truly comfortable, are we willing to move out of our own
comfort zones If we measured our school by what is said in the
faculty room, how would it measure up
Building respect begins in the classroom and the faculty
room. It ripples out through extra-curricular activities
which include “something for everyone,” personal and
academic counseling and tutoring, alumni mentoring
programs, admissions and hiring policies, and faculty,
staff, and student orientation programs. It deepens
through faculty inservice, celebration of achievements,
and informal and formal employee recognition programs.
Ultimately, it returns us to the place where it begins: our
core of living, growing faith.
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Holy Cross School
New Orleans, Louisiana
“Our mission is the neighborhood;
the neighborhood is our mission.”
Board member, Holy Cross School
Our Mission at Work:
Holy Cross neighborhood
At Holy Cross School, the roots of our mission run
deep. The neighborhood that bears our name and
the people who live here are as much a part of our
mission as education. When we grappled with the possibility
of relocating in 1999, we looked to our roots—and decided
to stay.
Settled by canal workers, shipbuilders, and truck farmers
over 175 years ago, Holy Cross Historic District is one of
the oldest neighborhoods in New Orleans. The original residents
grew produce and sold it in the city’s French Market.
The construction of Jackson Barracks, Jourdan Brickyard,
and Crescent City Stockyards lured Irish, German, and
Italian immigrants looking for employment. Several African
American benevolent associations organized in the 1870s to
help freedmen settle here. Today it is home to a diverse, openminded
community whose spirit prevails despite the ups and
downs of life.
Since the Reynes plantation became our campus in 1879,
hardships have tested our community. Located less than four
miles downriver from New Orleans and separated from
it by the Industrial Canal, this neighborhood has suffered
neglect. After the real estate bust of the 1980s, the federal
repeal of renovation tax credits, and a dispute over widening
the Industrial Canal, our sense of unity declined along with
our properties. Yet milestone events during these same years
expressed our resilience. This spirit—shared by the School and
its neighbors—has fueled a revitalization of this district.
• In 1981 Brother John McLaughlin, the headmaster of Holy
Cross School, residents, and local business owners founded
the Holy Cross Neighborhood Association to create a
safer, cleaner, and more enjoyable community. In recent
years, our school faculty and students have joined HCNA
members in building the Delery Street Playground, painting
and repairing more than 60 homes, and leading the
Community-Based Mitigation Committee, which monitors
the impact of the Canal Lock Replacement Project.
• In 1986 our 60 city blocks were placed on the National
Register of Historic Places. Architectural treasures are luring
buyers in increasing numbers, who love the “village on the
edge of a large city.” The Holy Cross campus, with several
buildings on the Register and planted with centuries-old
live oaks, is a landmark.
• After considering relocation, the Board of Directors at Holy
Cross School in 1999 committed to stay on its historic
campus and help revitalize the neighborhood. As part of
that decision, the Board funded Moreau Scholarships for
deserving students from areas like our neighborhood who
otherwise could not afford to attend Holy Cross.
Today Holy Cross faculty and students continue to
participate in home renovation and community service, and
plans are under way to create an Alumni Service Corps.
Holy Cross representatives also serve on the Mitigation
Committee, which has committed federal funds for
numerous revitalization projects. One of our most recent
collaborations is with the Preservation Resource Center’s
Operation Comeback, which in 2003 began purchasing
blighted properties for rehabilitation.
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Notre dame High School, California

“Education is the art of helping young people
to completeness.”
Christian Education, Father Basil Moreau
Educating Hearts
and Minds
Art: ars, skill; arariskein, to fit together
Unlike the founders of some other congregations, Father Moreau did not
employ only religious to teach in his schools. He simply went out and
found the best educators, and since 1837 lay and vowed men and women
have worked side by side in Holy Cross institutions. This holistic approach dovetails
with his educational philosophy. By educating minds and hearts, he believed, we
could change a person’s life and thereby change society. This theme, then, most fully
expresses our mission.
Looking back at Moreau, we might say he “thought outside the box.” Yet he not
only envisioned an alternative form of education, he nurtured the kind of communities
where it could flourish. Science, music, and fencing were not subjects normally taught
in his day, especially to needy children. Yet his radical model of student-centered
education treated each student just as Jesus treated each individual he met: with respect
for their uniqueness and a willingness to step beyond the business he had planned.
“Mission in the image of Jesus,” says Father Thomas W. Smith, CSC, “is love
thrusting outward, breaking down the barriers of narrowness, comfort, and prejudice
that live within each of us.” [Basil Moreau: Spirituality of Mission]
Moreau’s pioneering vision is a call to action. By remaining flexible, we know when
to step away from our lesson plans and tend to a student who needs our attention.
By turning judgment into compassion, we live out of our hearts and liberate understanding
from intellect alone. By embodying our faith, we demonstrate how to face
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“Believing mission is
not enough. Teaching
mission is not enough.
We have to model it.”
Terry McGaha
Principal [1994—2004]
Holy Cross School
the ambiguities of life with spiritual courage. If we do all this,
our work as Holy Cross educators will reflect the ancient
meaning of the term art, to fit together, by integrating learning
and fostering wholeness in our students and ourselves.
Our educational environment is only a catalyst; if we
do our jobs right, our students will stretch us. Moreau
Catholic High School, for example, has designed its sophomore
retreat to foster an ownership of mission. When the
students return from working with the poor and homeless,
they sometimes come back angry—feeling the kind of anger
that galvanizes social justice, and that challenges the adults
around them to take to heart what they have learned. If we
model service as a formative experience, rather than simply
a fulfillment of requirements, our students will feel energized
by hope and committed to work for social change.
Our society, like Father Moreau’s, can seem chaotic and
fragmented, a place where standards of integrity, loyalty,
quality, and consequences are less and less clear. More than
ever, we need the qualities of resourcefulness and adaptability
that characterize Holy Cross, and the best source for
sustaining these qualities is the wellspring of inner wholeness.
Otherwise it would be easy to lose our way—the purpose
and meaning of our actions, and their impact on others.
Father Moreau realized that the formation of conscience is
a long-term process, and that it cannot flourish if we divide
mind and heart. Holy Cross educators ask themselves: Do we
integrate heart and mind as we manage our classrooms, discipline
behavior, admit students, hire employees, and safeguard academic
integrity How can we appeal to minds and hearts through engaging
and experiential learning How can we stretch this approach
beyond student retreats, peer ministry programs, and Christian
service to extracurricular programming, alumni mentoring, volunteer
and community-based learning, and even off-campus jobs Our
answers include building time for reflection into all these
activities. Our success depends on telling the stories of what
we have discovered, and how it has changed us. When we
have done all this, we will know why Father Moreau called
education the art of arts.
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St. Edward’s
University
Austin, Texas
Our Mission at Work: College Assistance
Migrant Program (CAMP)
Migrant workers must frequently uproot their
families to pursue employment and a better life.
The experience of Jacob Fraire, whose family
moved from the El Paso area to California every spring,
returning in summer or early fall, is not atypical. “I went
to more schools in California,” he often says, “than I have
fingers on my hands.”
St. Edward’s wanted to offer people like Jacob the opportunity
to earn a bachelor’s degree. In 1972 the University
partnered with the U.S. Department of Labor, becoming the
site of one of the country’s first CAMP initiatives. Since then,
CAMP has provided financial, academic, and personal support
to more than 2,100 students.
ABC News Tonight featured our CAMP program on
June 8, 2003. The broadcast included some compelling
statistics: 1 million migrant farm workers toil in the United
States and 60 percent of migrant farm workers drop out of
high schools. In contrast, our CAMP graduates have gone
on to earn graduate degrees, forge distinguished careers, and
give back to their communities:
Maria Barrientos Ramirez ’75 grew up in the fields of
Oregon, Montana, Washington, and Idaho. She spent long
hours weeding and harvesting, and lived in labor camps
or even train cars. In 1996 Colorado named her Bilingual
Teacher of the Year, and President Clinton subsequently
named her the National Bilingual Teacher of the Year.
“My spirit is continually hungry for knowledge so that I can serve
the people I come in contact with, especially disadvantaged people.”
When Rosa E. Valencia ’80 moved to Texas from Mexico,
she didn’t even know English. Her parents went to work in
the fields; Rosa studied the language on her own and then
enrolled in a High School Equivalency Program (HEP). In
October 1992 she became the owner of Homes of America,
her own mobile home company. She provides affordable
housing for people and supports various community education
initiatives. “I wouldn’t be who I am today if it wasn’t for
HEP and CAMP.”
Francisco Escareño ’03 and Narcisa Chavez ’03, who met as
farm laborers in the fields of New Mexico, appeared on the
ABC broadcast about CAMP. Both spoke about the great
physical strain and emotional hardship of migrant workers,
and how their education at St. Edward’s has opened doors
to a brand-new life for them. The couple, who married in
2002, are both embracing careers in teaching. Narcisa testified
to the change in their lives: “We never imagined we would
be where we are today, and we are so happy. I was determined to
do something with my life, and St. Edward’s made that possible.”
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St. Francis High School, California

“Union is the powerful lever with which we could move,
direct, and sanctify the whole world. . . ”
Christian Education, Father Basil Moreau
Being Family
Lever: levier, to raise, fr. levare, light in weight
Visit any Holy Cross school, and students are likely to tell you, “It feels like
a family.” That feeling is part of our legacy. In unifying brothers, priests,
and sisters, Father Moreau modeled the Congregation on the Holy Family,
and we sustain this family spirit in our schools by praying, playing, and celebrating
together. Ultimately, this spirit serves to leverage our collective talents and passion
for justice—and transform the world.
That family feeling begins at the front door. We are the hosts, and the power of
our invitation determines the character of our community. Holy Cross educators ask
themselves: How do people know they belong Do we contribute to faculty inservice and orientation
sessions, or do we just show up How do we create family in the classroom, reach out to
parents, or respond when a student is hurting Can we expect to nourish our students’ spiritual
growth if we don’t tend to our own
If these questions seem too much to ask—or the results too vague—remember
Joseph. Patron saint of the Holy Cross brothers, this homeless carpenter took responsibility
for another person’s child—and the compassion, hospitality, hope, and calm
listening Jesus expressed were all learned at his foster father’s knee. We aren’t just
teaching ideas; Holy Cross educators help students “connect the dots” between
what we say and do and who we are, to choose when to take risks and learn how to
remain faithful in difficult times.
Three of the qualities that distinguish a good teacher, Father Moreau wrote, concern
our mentoring. The core of our mission is to develop heart and soul, and reverence
helps us recognize each person’s gifts and cultivate our unity through mutual respect.
Through professional development, teachers can continually acquire new knowledge—
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and model a passion for learning. Meekness—the recognition
that the work is God’s work and therefore not all up to us—
helps breed love and respect between teachers and students.
Today reverence, knowledge, and meekness might seem
irrelevant. But consider the great witnesses of our time—
Nelson Mandela, Jimmy Carter, Mother Teresa—and those
qualities crystallize into flesh-and-blood leaders who found
their mission in the people they served. Paul VI’s statement
in 1974 still rings true today: “Modern men and women
listen more willingly to witnesses than to teachers; and if
they do listen to teachers, it is because they are witnesses.”
Because today’s students may not know how to “do
family,” we have a tremendous opportunity to model it. At
the same time, the growing diversity of our school families
requires us to stretch our definitions and learn new traditions
from our students. Yet healthy family systems also
establish good boundaries: consequences for actions, reasonable
expectations. By creating a trusting environment, we
can safeguard each other and constantly nourish ourselves.
To our educators, being a Holy Cross family is replenishing—and
a big part of our identity. In 2002, Brother
Joel Giallanza polled faculty and staff at our schools and
asked them, How do others see us in our mission as Holy Cross
educators The foremost response was family. This is a high
priority among the images we want to communicate to
others, and others see us practicing family spirit, especially
through respect for others.
That nourishment is part of the beauty of being a Holy
Cross family. Everyone needs to be involved, but no individual
is solely responsible. Working together, the “heavy
lifting” of education becomes lighter—and our synergy
becomes a catalyst for change far beyond the borders of
our campus.
“As family, we can
transform society.
We need each other
to accomplish that.”
Stevie Connelly, Principal
Notre Dame High School
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Notre Dame
High School
Sherman Oaks, California
Our Mission at Work: Respecting diversity
People feel part of a larger whole at Notre Dame—
a feeling that spreads through our diverse activities.
There is a place for every student to become
involved: 19 sports teams, such programs as the Academic
Decathlon, community service, the Equestrian Team and
other extracurricular activities, and 40 student clubs. These
clubs serve a wide range of interests, from boardriding to
cooking, Japanese animation, and Amnesty International.
Notre Dame’s breadth of programming enables students to
feel valued and respected, both in their similarities and their
differences. Experience and reflection across cultures has
been part of the Holy Cross tradition from the beginning,
and today multicultural understanding is fundamentally
important. Our student body includes Native Americans,
Filipinos, Asian/Pacific Islanders, African Americans, and
Hispanic/Latinos; 58 percent describe themselves as Other.
By celebrating diversity as a part of the Holy Cross tradition,
our students discover anew how God is present in every
person and culture.
Ultimately we cultivate unity through respect for the gifts
of each person. That respect ripples beyond our campus
through the service each student provides, totaling 90 hours
over four years, in the home, parish, school campus, and
community. With over 50 feeder parishes and 40 feeder
schools in our community, our students’ volunteer work
touches many lives. It also teaches them life skills. Service
is a part of our culture, and clubs like Students at Work and
Cross Cultures provide food, clothing, and helping hands to
those in need.
If inclusiveness is just an expression of political correctness,
it will never give rise to zeal. Faith in action is the
cornerstone of a Notre Dame education. Several years
ago, for example, our students learned that kidney dialysis
treatments prevented students in the San Fernando Valley
from attending their high school prom. Our youth swung
into action: soliciting the donation of dresses, organizing
music and decorations, and throwing what they dubbed the
Renal Prom. Now serving about 100 students, the Renal
Prom is an example of seeing past a disability or barrier. It
also, in the words of Brother Joel Giallanza, expresses zeal:
“that power, that grace, through which the convictions
of our hearts are translated into the actions of our hands
and directed toward love of others.” (A Reflection on Basil
Moreau’s Sense of Mission)
To connect diverse students these structured opportunities
are important, but the real magic happens as they share
their passion for sports or languages or giving. These kinds
of experiences, which flow from the heart, help us articulate
the lived experience that is at the heart of Holy Cross.
19

20
Moreau Catholic High School, California

“I have never lost hope in Providence or in your fidelity
to the sublime vocation which God has given you.”
Circular Letter 14, Father Basil Moreau
Bringing Hope
Trust: traust, tréowe, to place confidence
The hope of a Holy Cross educator is of sterner stuff than the preferred
dictionary definition of hope suggests: to wish for something with expectation
of its fulfillment. To understand Christian hope we must turn to the
second entry which is referred to as the archaic definition: to have confidence, trust.
Confidence comes from the Latin con+fides literally “with faith.” The Christian
anchor of hope is about trust not wishing.
When we hope, we’re vulnerable. It makes it impossible for us to dismiss, pigeonhole,
patronize, or rescue. At the point of impasse with an intractable student or
a fractured community, hope does not allow us to impose judgment. Instead it
empowers us to look for the gifts within the “problem” person or the truth within
the issue that can be the seed of transformation. Hope nourishes and protects this
kernel by helping us see the big picture, ask the right questions, and move out of the
comfortable back row and onto the exposed threshold. It challenges us to continue to
grow in relationship to our evolving community.
This challenge helps explain Father Moreau’s vision of the cross as “our only
hope.” The cross is a stark reminder of Jesus’ spiritual courage; hope calls us to stand
tall in the face of adversity and challenge. The cross bore the weight of profound
responsibility; hope draws forth our greatest competence: the ability to transform
lives. Holy Cross educators ask themselves: Do we create hope in the classroom by
performing brilliantly, or by encouraging students to take intellectual risks What do we risk
when we won’t give up on a difficult person, as opposed to when we do How can we connect
hope to our faith—and embody that faith in the moment at hand, wherever we find ourselves
21

Hope, like faith, is real to the extent that it is put into
action. Saint James writes, “faith without works is dead”
(James 2:26); the same can be said of hope. When we give
up on social issues that seem too enormous or people who
seem incorrigible, we don’t isolate the problem, we isolate
ourselves. In contrast, hope goads us into action, engagement,
connection. It builds up our resilience. And it gives
us a reverence for the complexity of our lives, breaking
down the compartments where it is easy to demonize
what we don’t understand. A teacher at Holy Cross School
in New Orleans recalls, “When we began to reclaim the
neighborhood around the school, I thought, ‘You’re hoping
for heaven here.’ But over seven years, we’ve gone from
being an island to being true neighbors.”
The redemptive power of hope depends on keeping our
feet under the table. Our trust is about staying connected and
staying the course—through service projects and immersion
programs, networking with other Holy Cross schools, and
outreach programs. By working in partnership, we bring the
hope that can transform the world person by person.
The Link Crew program at Moreau Catholic is one
example. By linking freshmen with upperclass students,
it teaches them that our mission is relational. It also lays a
foundation of trust, communication, and responsibility that
prepares students to lead, to participate in social justice, and
to minister to the poor and homeless. Ideally, they learn to
practice hope as spiritual discipline—understanding that
it does not insulate us from difficulties, but supports us
through them.
In the right environment, hope becomes a renewable
resource. We foster it by telling stories and becoming part
of the Holy Cross story—the community that stretches
back to 19th-century France and reaches around the world.
Our vocation as Holy Cross educators puts us in good
company. “The footsteps of those men who called us to
walk in their company left deep prints, as of men carrying
heavy burdens. But they did not trudge; they strode. For
they had the hope.” (Constitution 8: The Cross, Our Hope,
Congregation of Holy Cross) The educators who have gone
before us realized, as Constance Fitzgerald O.C.D. writes,
“Transfiguration does not happen at the end of the road; it
is in the making now.” (Living with Apocalypse)
Hope: not the
destination, but the
journey. In bringing
hope, we also learn to
draw hope forth from
those we serve. The
transformation cuts
both ways; as Father
Moreau put it: “If I
come out of myself
to do a little good, at
that very moment I
experience that I can
do nothing alone.”
22

St. Francis
High School
Mountain View, California
Our Mission at Work: Christian service
Participation in Christian service is a graduation
requirement at Saint Francis High School, but most
students do more than the hours required. As part of
their service, students meet and serve people of all ages and
all socio-economic levels, focusing on building relationships
with individuals. Freshmen work with the developmentally
disabled, sophomores with children, juniors with the elderly,
and seniors with the economically disadvantaged. All service
is one-to-one so that students learn to appreciate the gifts of
all people, no matter their economic or social status.
At Saint Francis, students are asked not only to serve but
to reflect on their service. In religion classes, students discuss
the many ways they have changed because of their experiences.
Students say that when they learn someone’s story and
share their lives with them, they more clearly understand
the Christian call to love one another and are filled with the
Holy Cross mission to serve the world.
Indeed, many of our students are transformed by their
experience and continue their service long after graduation.
Among our alums are Peace Corps, VISTA, Jesuit,
and Holy Cross volunteers. There is a Saint Francis alum on
the Doctors Beyond Borders team, and alums working in
Africa, South America, and southeast Asia in service to the
poor. Saint Francis alums are teachers in inner-city schools,
counselors for abused children and women, and lawyers for
youth at risk. This kind of apostolic service sustains the spirituality
of Father Moreau—a spirituality that is “in the doing.”
The goals of this service are based on our school’s Holy
Cross commitment to building a just society within the
world community. Our school motto, Educating Hearts and
Minds to Serve the World, is a reflection of this commitment
to live out the Holy Cross mission to serve others. Father
Moreau taught us that the world was in great need of people
of heart, and our service commitment is our way of living
out his vision. Our service goals reflect our Holy Cross
commitment to others:
• To give each student the opportunity to reflect on the
message of Jesus Christ to serve others;
• To provide a variety of ways for students to serve
disadvantaged people in order to clarify each person’s
gifts and talents;
• To emphasize the service mission of Saint Francis to
parents and students by putting service side-by-side with
academics as a graduation requirement;
• To give students the opportunity to reflect on their
service as a transformational experience;
• To provide students with ways to develop their personal
and social skills in working with people of all ages and all
walks of life.
23

24
St. Edward ’s University, Texas

“Without a doubt the gospel of Jesus Christ is quite
enough to serve as a rule of religious life.”
Father Basil Moreau
The Spirituality
of Holy Cross
Charism: special gift; service
Acharism, or special gift, distinguishes each Catholic religious congregation
and becomes the guiding spirit of its mission. For Holy Cross, this charism
is bringing hope. Today, vowed and lay, we live out our Catholic identity
by fulfilling the teaching mission of the Church as people with hope to bring.
This mission is bigger than any one institution. Cardinal Roger M. Mahoney
gives us a context for this when he says, “…the Church in every dimension of its
life is defined by mission. So central to its life is mission that we can say boldly: The
Church does not have a mission; the Mission has a Church.” (address to Eucharistic
Congress, published March 26, 2004)
Substitute “school” for “Church,” Brother Stephen Walsh has suggested, and we
begin to understand how our mission finds unique expression in each school, yet also
creates an overarching identity that unites us.
As bringers of hope, we have crossed borders of all sorts. Long ago we went to
the region now known as Bangladesh, where Holy Cross schools serve a population
which is predominantly Muslim. Today the service programs in our schools let us be
present to the poor, abused, and outcast. Yet teaching and service are only one aspect
of how we bring hope. Perhaps the most effective way we live mission is by being and
becoming Holy Cross men and women.
25

To be true to our calling
as compleat Holy Cross educators
we cannot excuse ourselves
from matters of the heart.
The heart does not know
the Pythagorean theorem,
the parts of speech, or plant phyla.
The heart knows love and its loss,
craves compassion,
and responds to hospitality.
The heart struggles with ambiguity,
weighs choices,
and considers consequences.
Brother Stephen Walsh, CSC
Rev. Arul Raj Gali, CSC puts it this way:
In our journey, many have asked us about the
spirituality of Holy Cross.
What is our answer to them
A simple answer, perhaps a smile.
What was there in that smile
The spirituality of Holy Cross is what you see
in our way of life:
the way we are with you,
the way we talk,
the way we tell stories
the way we are in the classroom
the way we celebrate,
and who we are.
This has been a special gift of God to the family of
Holy Cross. In short, the mission and charism of Holy
Cross are the same mission and charism of Jesus.
Our answer is similar to the answer given by Christ to
the followers of St. John the Baptist when they were sent
to discover the spirituality of Jesus. “Go and tell John what
you have heard and seen.”
In Moreau Spirituality William Mork OSB, writes:
“Father Moreau. . . saw himself as Christ, not Christ-like;
one with the Incarnate Son who, in order to let Christ live,
has to cooperate with the grace of God…”
This incarnational spirituality beckons forth what
Thomas Kelly calls “the amazing and dangerous seed of
Christ” present in each of us. “…if we rake this awakened
seed of Christ into the midst of the world’s suffering, it
will grow.” (The Eternal Promise) When we bring hope, we
incarnate that Spirit in our work and our relationships, and
it occurs as naturally as living the Gospel.
Father Moreau founded this Congregation to do what
needs to be done, and today Holy Cross educators keep
this mission alive. In fact, our tradition of vowed/lay partnership
and the synergy of our lay leadership provide an
innovative model for “being Christ.” Owning the mission
is part of our vocation and ministry as Holy Cross educators,
and Father Moreau remains alive through our work.
His living presence is a blessing in our lives. A Papal
Decree on April 12, 2003 declared Father Moreau
“Venerable,” a major step in the path toward sainthood.
This recognition acknowledges the meaningfulness of his
ideals and values—and his importance, not only to Holy
Cross, but to the entire Church.
William Mork OSB, Moreau Spirituality (Sisters of the Holy Cross, Saint
Mary’s, Notre Dame Indiana, 46556, 1973) Citations from pages 14 and 18.
26

Becoming Holy Cross women and men means
making our lives a blessing to others. Evelyn
Underhill expresses just how simple and difficult,
mundane yet powerful that transformation is. Her
life, often described as “quiet,” included daily visits to
her parents, work as a spiritual and retreat director, and
numerous social obligations. At the same time, she became
the most prolific female religious writer in English of the
early 20th century. In Mixed Pasture her words show us
how we can unleash our blessings. “When the concept
of God becomes a living all-penetrating reality and not a
theological statement, it requires of us a life which spends
itself in love and service to the world—a life moving
toward a goal where work and prayer become one thing.”
The truth of being a Holy Cross educator,
a daughter or son of Moreau,
in the fullest sense of the word
is that I live in the shadow of the Cross.
Hope is the characteristic virtue of
the Holy Cross educator
but it is always in the context of the cross.
Hence, Crux Spes Unica.
Faith is solid and Hope is malleable
[And by extension Charity is action.]
Hope is the middle child of the virtues:
thereby well suited for the in between times.
Hope is the testing and processing of
Faith tempered by the heat of the day.
Hope always bounces back
but only after it has been heated up
and made pliable through pain and suffering.
In the words of the former Czech president,
Vaclav Havel, “Hope is not the conviction
that something will turn out well,
but the certainty that something makes sense,
regardless of how it turns out.”
For Emily Dickinson,
“Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all.”
Yes, for the poet, “Hope springs eternal.”
There is more.
Hope floods the heart
melting boundaries
to stretch it and take it to new places
and it is “the power dammed up behind
our resistance to pain and suffering.”
Brother Stephen Walsh, CSC
27

Father Basil Moreau
The resonance of his vision with
To Teach as Jesus Did
When placed in
parallel the resonance…
is clearly apparent. A
Holy Cross education
is essentially a Catholic
education.
It is clear that for his time Basil Moreau was an innovative
educator introducing the arts and sciences to
the curriculum, placing an emphasis on experimental
learning, and introducing students to the Catholic social
teaching of his day—all in the context of gospel values.
What was new in 1856 when Moreau wrote Christian
Education, a handbook for Holy Cross educators, can be
seen as a distant mirror of the expected outcomes for a
Catholic education in our own time.
Nowhere are the current expectations for a Catholic
education more clearly articulated than in the 1972
American bishops’ pastoral message on Catholic Education:
To Teach as Jesus Did. Written against the background of
the Second Vatican Council’s Declaration on Christian
Education, the bishops outline the themes of message,
community, and service in this timeless statement. In order
to give form to the vision, the bishops discuss educational
ministry to people of all ages and encourage planning and
collaboration in developing educational programs.
When placed in parallel the resonance between the
teaching of the American bishops and the vision of Basil
is clearly apparent. A Holy Cross education is essentially a
Catholic education.
28

“Hurry then; take up this work of resurrection, never forgetting
that the special end of your Institute is, before all, to sanctify youth.
It is by this that you will contribute to prepare the world for better
times than ours; for these students who now attend your school are
the parents of the future, the parents of future generations, each one
of whom bears within self a family.”
Christian Education, Father Basil Moreau
Themes from To Teach as Jesus Did
Message
Only in a Catholic school can students experience
learning and living fully integrated in the light
of faith.
Here, therefore, students are instructed in human
knowledge and skills, valued indeed for their own
worth but seen simultaneously as deriving their
most profound significance from God’s plan for
His creation.
This integration of religious truth and values with
the rest of life is brought about…not only by its
unique curriculum but, more importantly by the presence
of teachers who express an integrated approach
to their private and professional lives.
Themes from the writings of Basil Moreau
Educating Hearts and Minds
We can state in a word the kind of teaching we hope
to impart. Even though we base our philosophy course
on the data of faith, no one needs fear that we shall
confine our teaching within narrow and unscientific
boundaries. No, we wish to accept science without
prejudice, and in a manner adapted to the needs of our
times. We do not want our students to be ignorant
of anything they should know. To this end, we shall
shrink from no sacrifice. But we shall never forget that
virtue, as Bacon puts it, is the “spice which preserves
science.” We shall always place education side by side
with instruction; the mind will not be cultivated at the
expense of the heart. While we prepare useful citizens
for society, we shall likewise do our utmost to prepare
citizens for heaven.
I have long believed that society has much greater
need of people of values than for scholars. (Christian
Education, Preface)
29

Themes from To Teach as Jesus Did
Service
More than any other program sponsored by the
Church, the Catholic school has the opportunity and
obligation to be unique, contemporary, and oriented
to Christian service: unique because it is distinguished
by its commitment to the threefold purpose and operation
which foster the integration of religion and the
rest of learning and living; contemporary because it
enables students to address with Christian insight the
multiple problems which face individuals and society;
oriented to Christian service because it helps students
acquire skills, virtues, and habits of heart and mind
required for effective service to others.
Thus one crucial measure of the success or failure
of the educational ministry is how well it enables men
and women to hear the message of hope contained in
the Gospel, to base their love and service of God upon
this message, to achieve a vital personal relationship
with Christ, and to share the Gospel’s realistic view of
the human condition which recognizes the fact of evil
and personal sin while affirming hope.
Christian hope is of special importance today when
many people express a naive optimism which fails to
admit the reality and effects of sin upon the individual
and society, and when many others, fully aware of
evil in themselves and society, are tempted to indulge
in crippling despair.
Themes from the writings of Basil Moreau
Holy Cross—Bringing Hope/
Building Respect
Our students are destined to live in the business and
problems of the world. So, they should not be made
to live a type of life that they would have to abandon
when they leave our institution. They should be
trained in such a way that they may be everywhere
what they were in school. We must never lose sight of
this principle.
If at times you show preference to any young
people, they should be the poor, those who have no
one else to show them preference, those who have the
least knowledge, those who lack skills and talent, and
those who are not Catholic or Christian. If you show
them greater care and concern, it must be because
their needs are greater and because it is only just to
give more to those who have less . . .seeing in all only
the image of God imprinted within them like a sacred
seal which you must preserve at all costs.
According to Bernard LaFreniere, CSC
During the summer students from Basil Moreau’s College
of Our Lady of Holy Cross in LeMans “went to visit the
slums to help the poor. This was another way of broadening
their hearts and minds. They began by sharing their knowledge
and teaching catechism, thereby answering a fundamental
need in society. But they also went to do the house
cleaning in the homes of the poor and the sick. All this action
originated from the College and the spiraling concern for the
actual needs of French society.
30

Themes from To Teach as Jesus Did
Community
The goal is to make Catholic schools true communities
of faith …within such communities teachers and
pupils experience together what it means to have
a prayer life, personal responsibility, and freedom
reflective of Gospel values. Their fellowship helps
them grow in their commitment to service of God,
one another, the Church and the general community.
Building and living community must be prime,
explicit goals of the contemporary Catholic School.
Community is an especially critical need today
largely because natural communities of the past have
been weakened by many influences. Pressures on
the family, the basic unity of society…and urbanization
has radically changed the concept of neighborhood
community. Racial and ethnic tensions
and other conflict reflect an absence of local and
natural community.
Participation together in the liturgy and in paraliturgical
activities and spiritual exercises can effectively
foster community among faculty and students.
Themes from the writings of Basil Moreau
Holy Cross—Being Family/
Building Respect
If at times you show preference to any young people,
they should be the poor, those who have no one else to
show them preference, those who have the least knowledge,
those who lack skills and talent, and those who are
not Catholic or Christian. If you show them greater care
and concern, it must be because their needs are greater
and because it only just to give more to those who have
less. . . seeing in all only the image of God imprinted
within them like a sacred seal which you must preserve
at all costs.
Hurry then; take up this work of resurrection, never
forgetting that the special end of your Institute is,
before all, to sanctify youth. It is by this that you will
contribute to prepare the world for better times than
ours; for these students who now attend your school are
the parents of the future, the parents of future generations,
each one of whom bears within self a family.
Influence them, then by all the means of instruction and
sanctification which have just been explained. Then, and
only then you can hope to attain the end of your vocation
by the renewal of the Christian faith and piety
We are reminded of Basil Moreau’s vision to found a
congregation of men and women lay religious and clerics with
the Holy Family as the model for unity. Students often remark
on the enduring sense of family as a hallmark of their
Holy Cross education.
The Family of Holy Cross
Moreau’s zeal finds apt expression in his urgent message,
“Hurry then, take up this work of resurrection.” He
continues, “It is by this that you will contribute to prepare
the world for better times than ours; for these students
who now attend your school are the parents of the future,
the parents of future generations, each one of whom bears
within self a family.” For Basil Moreau the world will
be changed one student at a time always conveying to a
student that this education is not for self alone.
Moreau’s vision that within himself or herself each
student carries a family is enhanced by Paul VI in his
enduring 1975 exhortation entitled “On Evangelization
in the Modern World.” Paul VI writes, “One cannot fail
to stress the evangelizing action of the family…like the
Church, the family ought to be a place where the Gospel is
transmitted and from which the Gospel radiates. In a family
which is conscious of this mission all members evangelize
and are evangelized.”
In his Letter To Families, written in 1994 to celebrate
the United Nations Year of the Family, John Paul II writes,
“The educator is a person who “begets” in a spiritual sense.
From this point of view, raising children can be considered
a genuine apostolate. It is a living means of communication,
which not only creates a profound relationship between
the educator and the one being educated, but also makes
them both sharers in truth and love, that final goal to which
everyone is called by God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.”
31

The Internationality
We are connected across time and
space with pioneering educators,
who demonstrated great physical
and spiritual courage in their
ministries. “Mission happens
whenever we muster the spiritual
courage to move out of ourselves
in Gospel love and service across
borders—toward the stranger, the
outcast, the different, the poor.”
Rev. Thomas W. Smith, CSC
A Spirituality of Mission

of Holy Cross
University of Notre Dame, IN 1842
Canada 1847
New Orleans, LA 1849
Holy Cross School, LA 1879
Bangladesh and India 1853
Texas 1870
St. Edward’s University, TX 1885
University of Portland, OR 1902
Holy Trinity High School, IL 1910
Chile 1943
Brazil, Haiti 1944
Gilmour Academy, OH 1946
King’s College, PA 1946
Notre Dame High School, CT 1946
Notre Dame High School, CA 1947
Stonehill College, MA 1948
St. Edward’s High School, OH 1949
Archbishop Hoban High School, OH 1953
St. Francis High School, CA 1955
Holy Cross High School, NY 1955
Notre Dame High School, IL 1955
Ghana 1957
East Africa: Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania 1958
Holy Cross of San Antonio, TX 1958
St. Edmond’s Academy, DE 1959
Peru 1963
Bishop McNamara High School, MD 1964
Moreau Catholic High School, CA 1965
Holy Cross College, IN 1966
Holy Cross High School, CT 1968

Moreau Catholic
High School
Hayward, California
Our Mission at Work:
Fostering hospitality
At Moreau Catholic building relationships is a daily—
and intentional—practice. Faced with student apathy
toward the school community, as well as the increase
in new students who were struggling to meet our rigorous
curricular demands, we searched for new ways to foster a
culture of belonging and connectedness. In 2003-04 we
implemented Link Crew, a program that trains student leaders
to facilitate a yearlong community-building process.
After a spirited and interactive freshmen orientation,
monthly academic lessons and social activities enhance our
budding relationships. These experiences are formational.
Link Leaders find that it nurtures their responsibility for
others; many students related how they were able to influence
another student by showing kindness, providing tutorial
assistance, and supporting freshmen activities. They are
learning the importance of caring for one another and helping
each other in times of need—and the joy that comes from
watching people grow. These students have not only been
transformed, but they are also agents of transformation within
our school community.
We also invited faculty and staff to attend every event.
Those who were interested could participate, without making
anyone feel that their presence was mandated. Faculty also
nominated candidates for Link Leaders.
Within months of implementing Link Crew, the faculty
and staff began to realize that this program was affecting the
overall culture of Moreau Catholic. Shifting from a focus
solely on the success of the incoming students, Link Crew
was clearly fostering the development and growth of the
Link Leaders. New characteristics of maturity, discipline,
responsibility, and concern for others began to emerge and
permeate our community.
These characteristics are the hallmarks of hospitality—
a virtue that, as Kathleen Norris has pointed out, “grows…
only as one is at home in oneself.” Today many authors are
describing the immigrant’s search for belonging; it’s a search
that could ring true for our student body, which reflects
the cultural diversities of the San Francisco Bay Area. Yet
we know that all newcomers to a community need to find
a place where their gifts can develop and they can make a
contribution. The power of this invitation transforms both
guest and host.
We measure this transformation in part by the strength of
our community. During this first year, our school lost only
two students as compared to 16 the previous year. Moreover,
after only five months 81 percent of our freshmen reported
that they felt included in the Moreau community. Beyond
retention, we are empowering juniors and seniors to act
as role models, increasing academic success through peer
support, developing leadership skills, encouraging successful
older students to pass on positive traditions to younger
students, and helping to create a compassionate culture.
In the process, our students come to feel at home as hosts
and begin to own the mission of Holy Cross. They inspire
all of us to take the initiative to put into practice, every day,
the enduring values of Basil Moreau. The experience has
transformed our school—and we believe it will galvanize our
students to go forth and transform the global community.
34

“It was a call that came to us from without, but also
one that rose up within us, as from his Spirit.”
(Constitution 1)
Constitutions:
A resource for integrated living
God’s Call. Mission. Prayer. The Cross, our Hope. The titles of four
Constitutions of the Congregation of Holy Cross, these are also the hallmarks
of a Holy Cross educator’s life. The constitutions contain rights and
responsibilities that govern the lives of Holy Cross religious and provide spiritual
guidance for how we live and work together. An expression of our spirituality, this
rule of life has much to offer all men and women, vowed and lay. Ours is a life lived
inside and out—the interior world of contemplation, and the apostolic work of our
vocation. Our commitment to bridge inner life and outer action helps us become
persons of wholeness.
Today this kind of integrated life is no easy task. Our mission is not only to draw
forth the gifts of our students, but to help them discover the deep longing each
person has for a connection with the sacred. Father Moreau wrote: “An education
that is complete is one in which the hands and heart are engaged as much as
the mind. We want to let our students try their learning in the world and so make
prayers of their education.” By putting our hearts into our teaching as well as our
minds, we too will make our work a prayer.
These constitutions serve as a spiritual guide for how the brothers live and work
together; may their presence here also serve as a resource to all Holy Cross educators.
35

Constitution 1—God’s Call
1. “Come. Follow me.” It was the Lord Jesus calling us.
2. We were already his, for we bore the name of Christians.
We had already been initiated into his church. We had
been washed in baptism and confirmed in our belief and
given the eucharistic nourishment in memory of him.
But there seemed to come a time when the Lord was
calling us to take some further step.
3. We heard a summons to give over our lives in a more
explicit way. It was a call to serve all people, believers
and unbelievers alike. We would serve them out of our
own faith that the Lord had loved us and died for us and
risen for us and that he offers us a share in his life, a life
more powerful and enduring than any sin or death.
4. It was a call that came to us from without, but also one
that arose up within us, as from his Spirit.
This Christian symbol for hope,
which appears on our various school
seals, is taken from the seal of
Congregation of Holy Cross.
The double anchor and the cross
illustrates the Congregation’s motto,
Crux Spes Unica: The Cross
our only hope. It is taken from
Vexilla Regis Prodeunt, an
ancient liturgical hymn sung at
vespers on feasts celebrating the cross
and during Passiontide.
5. We asked how we might follow, and we found many
footprints on the road. A great band of men had passed
this way, men who had made and lived by their vows,
men who had walked side by side in their following of
the Lord. They beckoned us to fall in step with them.
We wanted to be part of the family they formed in order
to share in their life and work.
6. This family is the Congregation of Holy Cross, founded
by Basil Anthony Moreau. We are a community of
pontifical right: men living and working under the
approbation and authority of the successor of Peter. We
are a religious congregation composed of two distinct
societies of clerics and of laymen bound together in one
indivisible brotherhood. Ours is a common founder,
tradition, rule, government, way of life and mission.
7. Our commitment is an invitation for our fellow
Christians to fulfill their vocation, and for ourselves it is
a concrete way of working with them for the spread of
the gospel and with all for the development of a more just
and human society.
8. We wished to abandon all to follow Christ. We learned
in time that we still had it within ourselves to hold back.
We wish to be wholehearted yet we are hesitant. Still,
like the first disciples we know that he will draw us
along and reinforce our loyalties if we yield to him.
36

Constitution 2—Mission
9. God so loved the world that he sent his only Son that we
might have life and have it abundantly. In the fullness of
time the Lord Jesus came among us anointed by the Spirit
to inaugurate a kingdom of justice, love and peace. His
rule would be no mere earthly regime: it would initiate a
new creation in every land. His power would be within
and without, rescuing us from the injustice we suffer and
also from the injustice we inflict.
10. This was the good news that many misunderstood and
many rejected. The Lord Jesus was crucified. But the
Father raised him to glory, and Christ breathed his
Spirit into his people, the church. Dying and rising with
him in baptism, his followers are sent to continue his
mission, to hasten along the kingdom.
“His power would be
within and without,
rescuing us from the
injustice we suffer and
also from the injustice
we inflict.”
(Constitution 2)
11. The same Spirit moved Father Moreau to found the
community of Holy Cross in which we have responded
to the call to serve Christ. We live and work as priests
and brothers together. Our mutual respect and shared
undertaking should be a hopeful sign of the kingdom,
and they are when others can behold how we love
one another.
12. As disciples of Jesus we stand side by side with all
people. Like them we are burdened by the same struggles
and beset by the same weaknesses; like them we are
made new by the same Lord’s love; like them we hope
for a world where justice and love prevail. Thus, wherever
through its superiors the congregation sends us we
go as educators in the faith to those whose lot we share,
supporting men and women of grace and goodwill
everywhere in their efforts to form communities of the
coming kingdom.
13. Christ was anointed to bring good news to the poor,
release for prisoners, sight for the blind, restoration for
every broken victim. Our efforts, which are his, reach
out to the afflicted and in a preferential way to the
poor and the oppressed. We come not just as servants
but as their neighbors, to be with them and of them. It
is not that we take sides against sinful enemies; before
the Lord all of us are sinners and none is an enemy. We
stand with the poor and the afflicted because only from
there can we appeal as Jesus did for the conversion and
the deliverance of all.
37

14. The mission is not simple, for the impoverishments we
would relieve are not simple. There are networks of
privilege, prejudice and power so commonplace that
often neither oppressors nor victims are aware of them.
We must be aware and also understanding by reason
of fellowship with the impoverished and by reason
of patient learning. For the kingdom to come in this
world, disciples must have the competence to see and
the courage to act.
15. Our concern for the dignity of every human being as
God’s cherished child directs our care to victims of
every injury: prejudice, famine, warfare, ignorance,
infidelity, abuse, natural calamity....
16. For many of us in Holy Cross, mission expresses itself in
the education of youth in schools, colleges and universities.
For others, our mission as educators takes place in
parishes and other ministries. Wherever we work we
assist others not only to recognize and develop their
own gifts but also to discover the deepest longing in
their lives. And, as in every work of our mission, we
find that we ourselves stand to learn much from those
whom we are called to teach.
17.Our mission sends us across borders of every sort. Often
we must make ourselves at home among more than one
people or culture, reminding us again that the farther
we go in giving the more we stand to receive. Our
broader experience allows both the appreciation and
the critique of every culture and the disclosure that no
culture of this world can be our abiding home.
18. All of us are involved in the mission: those who go out
to work and those whose labors sustain the community
itself, those in the fullness of their strength and
those held back by sickness or by age, those who abide
in the companionship of a local house and those sent
to live and work by themselves, those in their active
assignments and those who are still in training. All of
us as a single brotherhood are joined in one communal
response to the Lord’s mission.
19. Periodically we review how well our ministries fulfill
our mission. We must evaluate the quality, forms and
priorities of our commitments as to how effectively they
serve the needs of the church and the world.
20. Our mission is the Lord’s and so is the strength for it.
We turn to him in prayer that he will clasp us more
firmly to himself and use our hands and wits to do the
work that only he can do. Then our work itself becomes
a prayer: a service that speaks to the Lord who works
through us.
38

Constitution 3—Prayer
21. God has breathed his very breath into us. We speak
to God with the yearning and the words of sons to a
Father because the Spirit has made us adopted children
in Christ. The same Spirit who provides us with the
energy and impetus to follow after the Lord and to
accept his mission also give us the desire and the
utterance for prayer.
22. Our thoughts are not easily God’s thought, nor our
wills his will. But as we listen to him and converse with
him, our minds will be given to understand him and
his designs. The more we come through prayer to relish
what is right, the better we shall work in our mission
for the realization of the kingdom.
23. We pray with the church, we pray in community and
we pray in solitude. Prayer is our faith attending to the
Lord, and in that faith we meet him individually, yet we
also stand in the company of others who know God as
their Father.
24. Before the Lord we learn what is his will to be done,
we ask that no one lack daily bread, we dare to match
forgiveness for forgiveness and we plead to survive
the test. We desire that his name be praised, that his
kingdom come and that we be his faithful servants in
the planting of it.
“It is not merely we
who pray, but his Spirit
who prayers in us. And
we who busy ourselves
in announcing the
Lord’s kingdom need
to come back often
enough and sit at his
feet and listen still
more closely.”
(Constitution 3)
25. We find prayer no less a struggle than did the first disciples,
who wearied of their watch. Even our ministry can
offer itself as a convincing excuse to be neglectful, since
our exertions for the kingdom tempt us to imagine that
our work may supply for our prayer. But without prayer
we drift, and our work is no longer for him. To serve
him honestly we must pray always and not give up. He
will bless us in his time and lighten our burdens and
befriend our loneliness.
26. When we do serve him faithfully, it is our work that
rouses us to prayer. The abundance of his gifts, dismay
over our ingratitude and the crying needs of our neighbors—all
this is brought home to us in our ministry and
it draws us into prayer.
39

27. There can be no Christian community which does not
gather in worship and in prayer. It is true of the church
and true as well of Holy Cross. The Lord’s supper is the
church’s foremost gathering for prayer. It is our duty and
need to break that bread and share that cup every day
unless prevented by serious cause. We are fortified for
the journey on which he has sent us. We find ourselves
especially close as a brotherhood when we share this
greatest of all table fellowships.
28. Though we are an apostolic congregation with attachments
and responsibilities that draw us into other
worshipping communities, we in Holy Cross also
have the need, in some regular rhythm resolved upon
in each house, to pray and worship together. It is
especially fitting that we join in the two chief hours
of the church’s daily worship, morning prayer and
evening prayer, and that we all free ourselves to take
part. Beside the church’s formal prayers we also have
the benefit of sound popular devotions like those to
the Mother of God.
29. The feasts of the liturgical year will unite some of us
as a community but call others away. Our own feasts,
however, should give all of us the occasions as a family
to pray and celebrate together. Chief among these
is the solemnity of Our Lady of Sorrows, the day of
remembrance in the entire congregation, for she is the
patroness of us all. We celebrate also the solemnities
of the Sacred Heart and of Saint Joseph, the principal
feasts of the priests and the brothers. There are as well
the feasts of our saintly predecessors in Holy Cross. As
a congregation we have our own cycle of observances
when we gather for professions, ordinations, jubilees
and funerals.
30. Beyond the liturgy that convokes us into church and
congregation, there is the prayer we each must offer to
the Father quietly and alone. We contemplate the living
God, offering ourselves to be drawn into his love and
learning to take that same love to heart. We enter thus
into the mystery of the God who chose to dwell in
the midst of his people. His eucharistic presence is the
pledge of that. It is especially appropriate then for us to
pray in the presence of the reserved Eucharist. Each of
us needs the nourishment of at least one half-hour of
quiet prayer daily. We need as well to assimilate sacred
scripture and reflectively to read books on the spiritual
life. Members of Holy Cross will regularly meditate on
these constitutions, which are a rule for their lives.
31. Each of us has the need to draw aside from his occupations
and preoccupations every year for a retreat of
several days’ undisturbed prayer and reflection. In that
pause we aim at being solely attentive to the movement
of the Spirit. We may see our life and our work
in a fresh and brilliant light; we may find the conviction
to respond to the Spirit and to change the course
into which habit and convenience may have settled us.
Prolonged prayer such as this can be intense enough
to rekindle our love for the commitment to the Lord,
which have a way of burning low. Likewise periodic
days of recollection refresh our dedication.
32. It is not merely we who pray, but his Spirit who prays
in us. And we who busy ourselves in announcing the
Lord’s kingdom need to come back often enough and
sit at his feet and listen still more closely.
“If we would be
faithful to the Gospel
we must take up
our cross daily and
follow him.”
(Constitution 8)
40

Constitution 8—The Cross,
Our Hope
112. The Lord Jesus loved us and gave up his life for us.
Few of us will be called to die the way he died. Yet all
of us must lay down our lives with him and for him.
If we would be faithful to the gospel we must take up
our cross daily and follow him.
113. The cross was constantly before the eyes of Basil
Moreau, whose motto for his congregation was Spes
Unica. The cross was to be “Our Only Hope.”
114. Jesus entered into the pain and death that sin inflicts.
He accepted the torment but gave us joy in return. We
whom he has sent to minister amid the same sin and
pain must know that we too shall find the cross and
the hope it promises. The face of every human being
who suffers is for us the face of Jesus who mounted the
cross to take the sting out of death. Ours must be the
same cross and the same hope.
115. To struggle for justice and meet only stubbornness,
to try to rally those who have despaired, to stand by
the side of misery we cannot relieve, to preach the
Lord to those who have little faith or do not wish to
hear of him ... our ministry will hint to us of Jesus’
suffering for us.
116. To spend ourselves and be spent for the needs of neighbors;
to be available and cheerful as a friend in Holy
Cross and to give witness while others hesitate; to
stand by duty when it has become all burden and no
delight ... community too can draw us nearer Calvary.
117. Whether it be unfair treatment, fatigue or frustration at
work, a lapse of health, tasks beyond talents, seasons of
loneliness, bleakness in prayer, the aloofness of friends;
or whether it be the sadness of our having inflicted any
of this on others ... there will be dying to do on our
way to the Father.
118. But we do not grieve as men without hope, for Christ
the Lord has risen to die no more. He has taken us
into the mystery and the grace of this life that springs
up from death. If we, like him encounter and accept
suffering in our discipleship, we will move without
awkwardness among others who suffer. We must
be men with hope to bring. There is no failure the
Lord’s love cannot reverse, no humiliation he cannot
exchange for blessing, no anger he cannot dissolve,
no routine he cannot transfigure. All is swallowed
up in victory. He has nothing but gifts to offer. It
remains only for us to find how even the cross can be
borne as a gift.
119. Resurrection for us is a daily event. We have stood
watch with persons dying in peace; we have witnessed
wonderful reconciliations; we have known the forgiveness
of those who misuse their neighbor; we have seen
heartbreak and defeat lead to a transformed life; we
have heard the conscience of an entire church stir; we
have marveled at the insurrection of justice. We know
that we walk by Easter’s first light, and it makes us
long for its fullness.
120. There stood by the cross of Jesus his mother Mary,
who knew grief and was a lady of Sorrows. She is
our special patroness, a woman who bore much she
could not understand and who stood fast. To her
many sons and daughters, whose devotions ought to
bring them often to her side, she tells much of this
daily cross and its daily hope.
121. If we drink the cup each of us is poured and given,
we servants will fare no better than our master. But if
we shirk the cross, gone too will be our hope. It is in
fidelity to what we once pledged that we will find the
dying and the rising equally assured.
122. The footsteps of those men who called us to walk in
their company left deep prints, as of men carrying
heavy burdens. But they did no trudge; they strode.
For they had the hope.
123. It is the Lord Jesus calling us. “Come. Follow me.”
41

42
Statue of Father Basil Moreau, France

Sponsorship and
The Holy Cross Institute
at St. Edward’s University:
Initiatives for the future
The concept of sponsorship has resulted from the
continuing evolution of the relationship between
the South-West Province and the schools associated
with it. It represents a new stage both of partnership and
of empowerment. There was a time when the schools were
spoken of as “owned by” or “conducted by” the brothers of
Holy Cross. Now we speak in terms of sponsorship.
In this relationship the Province and each school have
distinct responsibilities. The Province has agreed to stand
with the Boards in the effort to define and implement an
education which is truly Catholic and truly Holy Cross.
Part of the Province’s responsibility is to assist each school
in providing formation for Boards, administrations, faculty,
and students in Catholic and Holy Cross education. The
Boards have agreed to support the mission of Holy Cross
within each school community through the educational
program of the school.
This partnership has taken life in the work schools and
the Province have undertaken together: the Table, Student
Leadership Conferences, Holy Cross Mission Seminars,
Holy Cross Immersion for justice. The latest effort to serve
the needs of Holy Cross educators has been the establishment
of the Holy Cross Institute at St. Edward’s University,
an effort sponsored jointly by St. Edward’s University and
the three Provinces of brothers of Holy Cross in the
United States.
This Institute, established in 2004, is a joint initiative
of the University and the Congregation. Its purpose is to
ensure, through research and reflection, the continued
vitality of the legacy and mission of Holy Cross education
despite the diminished presence of priests and brothers.
With the support of an endowment, the Institute will create
resources and programs that articulate this legacy for the
2lst century by serving the continuing formation needs
of Board members, administrators, faculty, and students
in 16 secondary schools and six colleges or universities
from California to Connecticut. Distinguished by its
commitment to developing willing and complementary
partners between religious and lay educators, the Institute
is emerging as a unique and creative model in American
Catholic education.
People across the country collaborated on the plan for
this Institute, and they describe it as “a hub of energy” and
“a catalyst for change.” This initiative will enable experienced
educators to continue their spiritual development and
nurture their leadership capabilities. It will support Board
members in expanding their mission-based decision making.
Holy Cross students will come together here for leadership
conferences and shared service ministries. Above all, people
in different regions can learn from and collaborate with
each other—stimulating reflection and evaluation of institutions
in the Holy Cross tradition worldwide. “Through the
Institute,” St. Edward’s President George Martin wrote in
2004, “the conversation started in France 167 years ago by
our Holy Cross benefactors and brothers will continue.”
43

The Mission Incarnate
When we sometimes
encounter what others
call hopeless, we call
that our mission.
Because, as Father
Moreau said, “Holy
Cross is not a human
work, but God’s
very own.”
Although each school speaks the mission in a distinct
voice, sponsorship also upholds the constituent
elements of a Holy Cross education. Communally,
these include an understanding of and relationship to the
local civic and church community and a collaborative effort
with various local churches. Educationally, these include
a commitment to the education of the whole person, a
student-centered environment, and an experiential learning
style. Spiritually, it ensures that faith development breaks the
bounds of narrow sectarianism, unfolding in an atmosphere
of loving acceptance.
Educating men and women of wholeness—ourselves as
much as our students—is the Holy Cross way of living
the Gospel. Our commitment becomes a sign of hope to
others—a visible sign that Jesus is not confined to history,
and the kingdom is a work in progress. Christ’s death on
the cross defies notions of past and present, geographic and
cultural borders, ideas of “us” and “them.” His suffering
reaches forward in time as well as back to encompass the
world. He teaches us, at the point of cosmic suffering, that
redemption is a work of imagination and hope. For us, too,
the “crosses we bear” can become a crucible—testing and
processing our faith, stretching our hope through daily trials,
empowering us again and again: to embrace the difficult
child, reply kindly to harshness, meet indifference with zeal.
We work to build the kingdom in our classrooms, parent
meetings, Board sessions, student advising, and service
ministries. When we sometimes encounter what others call
hopeless, we call that our mission. Because, as Father Moreau
said, “Holy Cross is not a human work, but God’s very own.”
44

TO SHARE THE MISSION,
WE TELL THE STORY.
To understand the guiding spirit of any organization,
we must discover the answers to two key questions:
Who tells the story and, How does the story get told
For the first 150 years of the Congregation, the members
literally told the story of the legacy of Holy Cross. They might
have been too busy to write down the early history. While the
French Revolution raged, an entire generation had lost their
chance at an education, and Holy Cross men and women had
their work cut out for them.
It was not until the late 1980s that brothers of Holy Cross
translated Father Moreau’s Christian Pedagogy into English. It
gave us the language to express what we have done all along:
“We will not educate the mind at the expense of the heart.”
Today lay people are expanding this story as educators,
Board members, and administrators.
This is a book for everyone—women, men, those who
take vows and those who do not—who shares in the
Holy Cross mission. Together, we tell the story of our work,
and the spirit behind it.
Acknowledgments
Becoming Part of the Story: The Legacy of Holy Cross Educators is a publication of the South-West Province,
Congregation of Holy Cross. Conceived in consultation with the administrators of province-sponsored schools,
it supplants a 1996 publication entitled Heritage and Mission: A Guide to Schools in the Holy Cross Tradition.
Writing: Gail Tyson. Design: Zehno Cross Media Communications. Photography: Kathy Anderson, Steven Scardina, and Lee Thomas.
Additional copies may be purchased from the South-West Province, Congregation of Holy Cross
1101 St. Edward’s University, Austin, TX 78704 www.holycross-sw.org
45

Holy Cross schools in
the South-West Province
St. Francis High School
www.sfhs.com
Holy Cross School
www.holycrosstigers.com
Holy Cross of San Antonio
www.holycross-sa.org
Moreau Catholic High School
www.moreaucatholic.org
Notre Dame High School
www.ndhs.org
St. Edward’s University
www.stedwards.edu
Colégio Dom Amando
Santarem, PA, Brazil
Colégio Notre Dame
Campinas, SP, Brazil
For information about becoming
a Holy Cross Brother,
visit www.holycross-sw.org
Congregation of Holy Cross
South-West Province
1101 St. Edward’s Drive
Austin, Texas 78704-6512
In addition to the presentations by four Holy Cross principals, the writings
of Brother Donald Baluvelt, CSC, Rev. Thomas W. Smith, CSC, and
Brother Stephen Walsh, CSC have inspired, guided, and enhanced the
writing of this book. Many thanks to Patricia Geister and Sister Donna
Jurick, SND for their cogent comments on the manuscript.
46