Memphis bishop wins NCEA award for reopening long-closed schools

Published: 2006-04-19

ATLANTA (CNS) -- Bishop J. Terry Steib of Memphis, Tenn., won the National Catholic Educational Association's 2006 John F. Meyers Award. The award is presented to someone who has supported Catholic education on a national level through such contributions as development, public relations, scholarship programs or government relations. He received a standing ovation April 18 from the 5,000 NCEA delegates in Atlanta for the NCEA's 103rd annual convention for reopening long-closed Catholic schools and establishing new ones in Memphis' inner city since 1999. Renamed "jubilee schools" because the Catholic Church was about to celebrate a jubilee year in 2000, the seven schools educate about 1,000 Memphis children. In January of this year, Bishop Steib announced an eighth school will be built and said the fund to support them had reached $44 million. "I'm here because of a lot of help," Bishop Steib said in accepting his award, citing the students, teachers, administrators and volunteers who make the jubilee schools work.

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