ARTICLES

Unabashedly Catholic

FAITHFUL TO MAGISTERIUM, NAPA SCHOOL FLOURISHES

By George Neumayr

Looking for an orthodox Catholic school at the primary and secondary level? Noted Catholic author Fr. George Rutler recommends Trinity Grammar and Prep in Napa: "With American schools virtually in meltdown, the Trinity model is not an option. It is a necessity."

Now in its third year, the school is prospering from such endorsements, enrolling 113 students (95% Catholic). Though most students come from Napa county, some parents "drive as far as 50 or 60 miles to put their kids into our school [from] San Francisco, Santa Rosa, Marin County, Vacaville," says Trinity co-founder Tony Ryan.

An independent, largely parent-run school with an affordable tuition ($2400 for first child, $1700 for second, $1100 for third, and free for fourth),Trinity is forthrightly Catholic. Religion courses, most of which are taught by Fr. Gary Sumpter, Trinity's chaplain (with the blessing of Santa Rosa Bishop Patrick Ziemann), are based on the Catechism of the Catholic Church and other orthodox catechetical materials like Ignatius Press's Faith and Life series. The teachers, all Catholics with the exception of a math teacher and a PE teacher, take a pledge of loyalty to the magisterium of the Church.

Daily mass is now a requirement. Confessions are always available ("Father will hear confession anytime a kid might come to him," says headmaster Jack Kersting.) A retreat for vocations has been conducted. Pope John Paul II is described in a piece of Trinity literature as "Our Boss." Parents are urged not to let their children indulge in R-rated culture, for if a student "is using a lot of language he wouldn't be [here] long," says Kersting. (Kersting says he has not had to expel any students yet.) An apologetics course, featuring Peter Kreeft's Handbook on Apologetics, is required. Trinity's Board of Advisors reads like a Who's Who of orthodox Catholic leaders in America, including, among others, Fr. Joseph Fessio, S.J., John Galten, Donna Steichen, Helen Hitchcock, James Hitchcock, Thomas Howard, Ralph McInerny, Charles Rice, Fr. George Rutler, and Fr. James Schall, S.J.

"We want to be a very good school, first of all in terms of our spiritual and catechetical formation of the kids so that the Catholic faith is central," says Jack Kersting. "We want them to defend and spread the faith....know a lot of things by heart, understand the creed, know the four cornerstones of the faith--apostles' creed, the Lord's prayer, the commandments, the sacraments."

Kersting has significant experience in Catholic education. After receiving his masters in Religious Studies from the Notre Dame Insitute, an orthodox graduate program in Virginia, and teaching religion at the Heights, an Opus Dei primary and secondary school in Maryland, Kersting worked at the Kolbe Academy, from which Trinity spun off, as a teacher and assistant principal. (The Kolbe Academy is located about a mile from Trinity. It has 35 students in its grade 1-12 day school and 1600 in its home schooling program, which offers parents syllabi, week-by-week course plans, teacher's guides, answer keys, proctoring and record-keeping services.)

Kersting's teachers have a strong Catholic background, too. "Most of the time what we are looking for is a good Catholic who is practicing his faith, is faithful to the magisterium, who can sign a pledge of loyalty to the magisterium, who has a sense of what we are trying to do," says Kersting. "We look to get them from Christendom or Steubenville or TAC [Thomas Aquinas College] or the [St. Ignatius] Institute....We would like to have a few veteran teachers and a few rookies. We can't really afford to have an all-veteran [faculty]....Fortunately, we have as the head of our literature and language program a very experienced teacher, matter of fact, he has his doctorate--Tom Riley."

Based on a "classical curriculum," Trinity is strong in academics, eschewing modern dumbed-down texts in favor of traditional materials.

Says Kersting: "The faith is at the center of it and the other subjects around it are all taught in a way that is open to God the creator who made these subjects, who made these realities. But also taught in a way that each of these courses have their own autonomy....We have what you would call an integrated curriculum....We like to use the Great Books; we like to use primary sources...."

Trinity's high school reading list, for example, includes: Shakespeare's Hamlet (9th grade), Conrad's Lord Jim (9th grade), St. Augustine's Confessions (10th grade), Austen's Emma (11th grade), Ovid's Metamorphoses (11th grade), Plato's Symposium (11th grade), Vergil's The Aeneid (12th grade), Tolstoy's War and Peace (12th grade), Kipling's Poems (12th grade). Students also take Latin and Greek in the middle grades and Spanish in high school, along with general courses in science and math. Higher math, astronomy and chemistry can be taken for credit at a local junior college, and an Honors classical language course is offered in which students read Caesar: History of Gallic Wars in Latin and Gospel of Luke and Acts of the Apostles in Greek. Music and art are stressed, too, emphasizes Kersting:

"We want aesthetic excellence. We want the kids to really appreciate fine music, the great works of art and also be able to produce art and music...The Holy Father, when he came over here a few years ago, one of the questions he asked America was: Where is your art? We are in an age [when] the stuff that passes for music is just unbelievable....We have a high school choir, a grade school choir....We want to have a drama department."

Kersting also encourages the students to participate in volunteer groups, such as the Knights of Columbus Squires and the local pro-life association. In addition, since the school "seeks to educate the whole person," Trinity has launched a sports program, says Tony Ryan.

"We have a sports program. Which is unbelievable. We only have 30 kids in the high school. We play against high schools that have 300 or 400 kids....We have a guy who is a fulltime PE teacher and coach. He coaches the baseball team, the two basketball teams. He is guy who played pro baseball...."

And what do parents say about the school? "My kids love the school," says parent Mark Brumley. "The school is clearly, unambiguously, unabashedly, authentically Catholic in its teaching and its approach to education....Everybody is on the same page here and taking seriously living the Christian life and receiving the sacraments and leading a life of prayer."

For more information about Trinity Grammar and Prep, or to make a donation, write or call: 2055 Redwood Road, Napa, CA 94558, (707) 258-9030.

TOP