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Appeal: Annual Fund
OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT
September, 2008
Dear Friends of CTU,
Whenever I walk down the aisle where the school supplies are located, I still feel the twinge of excitement and fear triggered by the advent of a new school year. Back then it was the “5 & 10” or the drugstore (no Office Depot yet). I recall the earnest negotiations with my mother about getting new pencils (no ball point pens, either), a note pad with lined paper, a gummy eraser, maybe a new ruler - and, in an exceptional year, a new book bag. Remember?
For the past several years, though, the real excitement and nervousness I feel at this time of year is waiting for another wave of new students to walk in our doors at CTU. Most of them are not sporting new book bags or pencils, but the decision to come here took a lot more courage than heading off to third grade at St. Francis of Assisi school (one of my alma maters).
Many of our new students went through a long process of thinking about their future during college years. Some took the step of entering a religious community and plunging into a completely new way of life. Many took the risk of spending a year as a volunteer, working with the poorest of the poor in a place far from home - a transforming experience that “ruined them for life” as one person described it. A lot of them come with some significant debt from loans that helped them get through college, a burden that will be with them a long time as they take up jobs that will never yield a big salary.
But, most important of all, each of them believes that God has led them here to prepare for a life of service. Each of them desires with all their heart to do something beautiful with their lives - something in the spirit of the Gospel and in the footsteps of Jesus himself. I have to tell you I never tire of hearing from our students their answers to the question: “Why are you here?” Anyone who complains that this generation of young men and women is jaded or thinks only of their iPods has not listened to the idealism and beauty that shapes the spirit of these students preparing to serve our broken world.
So… dear friends, even at a time when economic storm clouds hover overhead and when everyone is counting their pennies, I come to you hat in hand. I am asking not for me but for them - the future leaders of a new church and a new world. Your support enables us to prepare them in the best way possible for their life of service, and to do so at a cost that will not add more debt to their lives. Please help us do this.
Through your sacrifice, you share in all of the good these men and women will do: running schools and parishes, serving as campus ministers and hospital chaplains, working with youth and quelling the violence of gangs, directing the work of international aid programs like Catholic Relief Service. Our graduates do all of these and much more.
On behalf of all the extraordinary men and women who will enter our doors this fall - thank you!
Fr. Donald Senior, C.P.
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