NCEA president impressed by work of Catholic schools in New Orleans

Published: 2006-01-05

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- When Karen Ristau, president of the National Catholic Educational Association, went to New Orleans in December, she expected to be depressed by what she saw. Instead, she was inspired. She and Daniel Curtin, executive director of NCEA's department of chief administrators, were in New Orleans Dec. 8 to present $1.04 million that had been collected from Catholic schools and religious education programs for students in hurricane-impacted regions and schools or programs with large numbers of evacuee students. Ristau and Curtin stayed in the Gulf Coast region for two days, visiting Catholic schools in New Orleans and Mississippi and talking to students and faculty members. During her stay, she said, she was struck with the realization that people were coming back to New Orleans because the Catholic schools were open. At that time, only one public school was open, compared to the 66 Catholic schools that had opened, starting in October. A handful of public schools have since opened and more were slated to do so in January.

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