By Gretchen Keiser

The 11-year period in which Sister Roberta Schmidt, CSJ, presided over the education ministry of the archdiocese has been a time of coping with rapid growth of the Catholic population and strengthening critical elements of the three-pronged department.

First hired as superintendent of Catholic schools, the former college president and academic dean later was given the post of Secretary for Education. In that role, she oversaw Catholic schools, Office of Religious Education and Catholic campus ministry.

Some of the important accomplishments of the office over the years were outlined by Sister Schmidt in a recent interview. She declined to comment on the change in her position being implemented.

The major milestones for Catholic schools include the accreditation of Our Lady of Lourdes School and later St. John Neumann Regional School by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. St. John Neumann School was also the first new elementary school to open in the archdiocese in over 20 years. All Catholic schools are now accredited.

However, Sister Schmidt singled out the implementation of a development program in every Catholic school in the archdiocese as the most lasting contribution. “The development program means the survival of the schools,” she said.

A year of training in development for school principals was followed by contracted specialists visiting each school over three years, working with each individually to set financial goals and strengthen their ability to win support for the school.

All now have newsletters and an annual appeal for the school that supplements other sources of income, she said. “Some are now into endowment… Most have development directors either full- or part-time.”

“I think we are one of the few dioceses where the schools have approached (development) as a diocesan effort,” Sister Schmidt said.

“I think we’ve come a long way. It has been with her concern,” said Sister Dawn Gear, GNSH, principal of St. John Neumann and member of the archdiocesan Board of Education. “The Catholic schools went through hard times. We are a little better now. There has been a lot accomplished.”

Maureen Kane, superintendent of Catholic Schools, noted that Sister Schmidt had served on a variety of national or Georgia educational advisory groups, including the executive committee of the national Chief Administrators of Catholic Education, and is past president of the Georgia Private Education Council and the Atlanta Area Association of Independent Schools (AAAIS).

One accomplishment she values at AAAIS, Sister Schmidt said, is the sharing of Catholic resource material on education with other independent schools. A statement of ethics and an AIDS curriculum developed by the National Catholic Educational Association were made available to other private schools that did not have national resources like NCEA.

Significant developments that have occurred in campus ministry in the last decade include the construction of a new Catholic Center at Georgia Tech and the addition of full-time campus ministers at Atlanta University and Georgia State University.

“She was great with us and had a handle on (campus ministry). She was a good manager, she had faith and confidence and trust in all of us to do what we needed to do,” said Father Mario DiLella, OFM, campus minister at Tech.

At the direction of Archbishop Eugene A. Marino, SSJ, the Education Office assumed direction of the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA). For many years prior the Atlanta Forum on the Catechumenate, a network of parish people working with RCIA, had been the primary support group. Now the Forum works in conjunction with Office of Religious Education, with consultant Carol Hamill as the primary link.

Sister Schmidt “provided the soil, the climate for the bridge to be made between the Atlanta Forum and the office,” Mrs. Hamill said. “Her concern was that the directives of the archbishop be followed in the most pastoral Christ-like way.”

Mrs. Hamill, who worked in parish religious education since 1972 and joined the archdiocesan staff in 1989, was brought on, in part, because of her extensive parish experience with RCIA.

She praised her superior’s capacity to oversee a broad range of areas of ministry, including those in which her staff are more knowledgeable, “She trusted the expertise of her staff,” Mrs. Hamill said.

Noteworthy accomplishments during her tenure in the area of Religious Education cited by Sister Schmidt and her staff were eighty-four graduates in the last decade of the Loyola University Ministry Extension Program. This program has provided an opportunity for religious educators to receive master’s degrees or certificates through a Catholic university without leaving the archdiocese.

Initiated by a former ORE staff member Jim Sendalbach, Sister Schmidt said the program “is a gift to the diocese because it has put master catechists into the parishes.” A November 1992 survey mailed to 68 LIMEX graduates showed 30 were employed in parish, school or archdiocesan offices and six were parish volunteers. A new class has since graduated.

“A lot of people see Roberta as Catholic schools, but she understands the dynamics of religious education and she was able to take care of the office for all of us while we were out in the field,” said Annette Kulasa, consultant for children’s catechesis a the ORE.

A reception for Sister Schmidt is being held at St. Pius X High School June 9. The 5-7:30 p.m. reception is open to the public.