U.S. bishops' education official departing after 17 years

Published: 2007-05-30

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Many things have come in threes for Father Bill Davis, an Oblate of St. Francis de Sales and interim education secretary for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, who is leaving his post at the end of June. During his 17 years with the U.S. bishops' education department, Father Davis, 73, has worked with three education secretaries and three different White House administrations, and his office has produced three major documents. But it would be impossible to put a figure on the number of phone calls and e-mails he has exchanged with school superintendents and diocesan directors or the number of meetings he attended with White House or congressional staff members in efforts to include Catholic schools in a variety of educational initiatives over the years. One thing is certain. Father Davis is committed to Catholic education and has seen it from all sides -- as a student, teacher, principal, school superintendent and education official. In his more recent role he has testified before Congress and worked behind the scenes on briefs filed with the Supreme Court for Catholic school students seeking access to remedial education. Even though he is not sure exactly what he'll be doing after his USCCB departure, one of his first assignments is to continue teaching, on a much smaller scale, as a novice master for an Oblate novitiate.

Copyright (c) 2007 Catholic News Service /U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The CNS news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed, including but not limited to such means as framing or any other digital copying or distribution method, in whole or in part without the prior written authority of Catholic News Service .