By Michael Motes

Although the official title rings with the prestige of “chief educational administrator of the Catholic Church in North Georgia,” the Reverend Richard A. Kieran, secretary for education of the archdiocese of Atlanta, simply states, “I consider myself basically a teacher and enjoy all opportunities to teach.”

In his job Father Kieran’s opportunities to teach are practically endless. He is responsible for planning, supervising and coordinating all archdiocesan education programs for schools, religious education for children and adults, continuing education for the ministry and campus ministry.

But the amiable Irishman jokingly comments, “I am not the super chief of education. I must rely on all those in the Office of Catholic Schools, the Office of Religious Education, the Office of Campus Ministry, the members of the boards of education on both archdiocesan and parish levels and so forth for help in carrying out our goal of total Catholic education.”

In an address to the chairpersons of parish education boards earlier this month, Father Kieran explained the concept of “total Catholic education” and discussed the document which forms its basis.

“The bishops’ pastoral, ‘To Teach as Jesus Did,’ challenges boards of education with a new vision of their responsibility,” he said. “No longer are they ‘school boards’ or ‘school of religion boards’ – they are total education boards. We must now face our responsibility for total Catholic education in North Georgia.”

In “To Teach As Jesus Did,” the bishops define total Catholic education by stating, “Catholic education is an expression of the mission entrusted by Jesus to the Church he founded.”

“In other words,” says Father Kieran, “it is an essential ministry within the total mission of the Church. In total Catholic education we are concerned with every education program in the life of the Church – from homilies to schools and from social awareness to evangelism – and its relationship to the attainment of the Church’s mission in the world.”

The administrator continued, “In total Catholic education our overriding concern in policy making is how better we can further the mission of the Church – how, through education, we can help the Church to be what Jesus intended it to be.

“It is not sufficient for the Church to live by the Gospel. We are called to proclaim the Lordship of Jesus of Nazareth to our world and that the Kingdom of God has been inaugurated in Him. We are to strive to bring about the Kingdom in our society. The Church is to present itself as a model of what the Kingdom is and should be like.

“The basic question, therefore, for those concerned with total Catholic education is, how our educational ministry is contributing to the establishment of the Kingdom of God in our parishes and throughout North Georgia. Our bishops call us to accountability for this when they state, “Through education the Church seeks to prepare its members to proclaim the Good News and to translate the proclamation into action.”

“Total Catholic education has several dimensions. It is total by serving the entire mission of the Church, not favoring one aspect over another. To emphasize this our bishops spoke of the educational mission of the Church as ‘an integrated ministry embracing three interlocking dimensions: the message revealed by God which the Church proclaims; fellowship in the life of the Holy Spirit; service to the Christian community and the entire human community.”

To determine how parish boards of education can effectively carry out this three-fold educational ministry, Father Kieran states: “When we refer to message or revealed truth in the context of educational ministry, it is as the basis of life and not as abstract doctrine. As has been repeatedly emphasized by Church leaders in recent years, there is an urgent need to call young and old to saving faith and progressive conversion. Therefore, boards of education must ask how effectively we are proclaiming and explaining the Good News so as to bring our people to faith and conversion, whether it can be in our schools, religious education, homilies, adult education or any other educational program in the Church.”

The community is needed as “the environment in which it is possible to live as Christians and in which we are supported in doing so. Therefore, community is at the heart of total Catholic education, not simply as a concept to be taught, but as a reality to be lived.”

The reality of the Christian community thus leads to service, the third dimension. Again citing “To Teach as Jesus Did,” Father Kieran explains that “the ministry of education must work with other agencies in the Christian community in seeking solutions to a host of complex problems, such as war, poverty, racism and environmental pollution which undermine community within and among nations.”

Father Kieran often uses such basic teaching methods as charts, diagrams and study outlines in his work.

He produced a diagram explaining the breakdown of the educational hierarchy in the archdiocese.

Goal setting is the duty of the Pastoral Council, which is the principal advisory body to the archbishop. Evaluation of goals is the responsibility of Archbishop Donnellan.

Once education goals are approved, policies to implement them are coordinated by the archbishop and the total education board.

Program designing and administration is the responsibility of the chief administrator of total education, in this case Father Kieran as secretary of education, and his staff.

Three additional administrators are appointed to supervise education in the schools (Sister Madeline Roddenbury, superintendent of schools), religious education (Father Robert L. Kinast, religious education director), and campus ministry (currently Father Edward Howard, S.J., serves as acting director of the Office of Campus Ministry.)

On the individual parish level, Father Kieran’s diagram begins with the Parish Council, which sets and evaluates goals with the pastor. Policy coordination rests with the pastor and the parish board.

Father Kieran suggests that there be a chief administrator of total education in each parish and the larger parishes might use such administrators on a full-time basis.

“However,” he say, “I suspect that the best arrangement for most of our parishes is that the various directors of education (principal, director of the school of religious, director of youth ministry) select one of their number to coordinate their efforts with the parish board of education.”

The four basic functions of both archdiocesan and parish boards of education are: 1.) to establish the objectives of the total educational program. 2.) to select policies that will guide the administrative staff in working toward those established objectives. 3.) to review the decisions made by the administrative staff in carrying out the board’s policies. 4.) to evaluate the effect of the board’s policy decisions in achieving the board’s objectives.

Apart from the various rules and regulations governing the boards of education, Father Kieran has his own view of what education should be. He says: “I see education, as the bishops talk about it, as a ministry in the Church. Education is a vital part of the total Church ministry and through education we are helping the Church to accomplish its mission in the world.”

Since assuming his position, Father Kieran has set several top priorities. “There are many things we would like to do, but we must concentrate on those areas that contribute most directly to the fulfillment of the Church’s mission.”

His first few months in office have been spent working to become familiar with all phases of education. He feels that the archdiocesan Board of Education is becoming a strong body in exercising the shared responsibility in the Church given by the 1966 Synod of Bishops.

Speaking to members of the archdiocesan Board of Education on its function last September, Father Kieran stated:

“The Synod opened up the possibility of shared responsibility in the Church by giving our people the opportunity to share in the decision-making process.

“However, our experience of shared responsibility through the Board of Education has not been as fruitful as it might be. While the Board has been active in the decision-making process to some degree, it has not given, in my opinion, sufficient creative leadership in the educational ministry of the archdiocese.

“I do not say this to criticize in any way those who have served before us on this Board. They performed excellently at a time when there was no experience of Catholic boards of education upon which they could draw.

“I believe that now our reluctance in participating fully in shared responsibility is fading and that we are entering upon an era in which the sharing of responsibility through councils, boards and commissions will be a decisive factor in determining the priorities in the mission of the Church.”

Again relying on a basic teaching concept, Father Kieran used the diagram method: “As we serve on the archdiocesan Board of Education, we need to understand that we work within the hierarchical structure of the Church. The Second Vatican Council calls upon our bishops to serve the people of God and the by-laws of this board states: “In conjunction with the Ordinary, the purpose of this Board of Education is to formulate the educational policy in the Archdiocese of Atlanta…”

In addition to serving as Secretary for Education, Father Kieran is principal of St. Joseph High School. His workweek is divided into two days in his office in the Catholic Center and three days at the school.

He is finishing out his term as president of the archdiocesan Senate of Priests and continues his active role in the Cursillo Movement.

A good example of this educator’s constant pursuit of knowledge is that when there was no one available in the archdiocese to work with the Spanish-speaking in the Cursillo Movement, Father Kieran learned Spanish to fill this void. Cursillo activities occupy an average of two nights a week and two weekends a month in his busy schedule.

But, as he says, “I consider myself basically a teacher…”