Every educator 'is a minister of God'

By ROB HERBST
The Catholic Week
MOBILE — As a former schoolteacher himself, Fr. Tony Ricard had a challenging student or two. But he stuck to one simple mantra that he shared with Archdiocese of Mobile educators.
“Better that you treat every child of God as if he or she is the Christ come back again, than to be standing at the judgement seat and finding out you treated Jesus as if he or she was nobody,” Fr. Ricard explained. 
Fr. Ricard was the keynote speaker for this year’s Catholic School Orientation Day, an annual prelude to the beginning of the school year. Before the first day of school, educators from the 18 Catholic schools in the archdiocese attended one of two sessions Aug. 15 at Montgomery Catholic Preparatory School and Aug. 16 at Corpus Christi Parish in Mobile.
Now a priest of the Archdiocese of New Orleans, Fr. Ricard is a parish pastor, high school chaplain, author of 12 books and international speaker. 
He’s also a former public school teacher, which he says impacts his ministry today.
Fr. Ricard told those in attendance that the first seminary he attended was Lafayette Academy in New Orleans, a public school and not an actual seminary, because “as a school teacher, you actually learn how to be a priest because you know what it means to feed the hungry, clothe the naked and visit the prisoners. You know how to handle all of that. It laid the foundation of who I am.”
Fr. Ricard also said everyone staffed at each school has different positions, but share one common bond – they are all religion teachers first.
“No matter what your role, you are a minister of God.”
“Each and every one of you is a minister of God. … No matter what your academic discipline may be, you are first a Religion teacher.”
Fr. Ricard cited examples and described school secretaries as “some of the greatest ministers I’ve ever seen.”
He said secretaries are often the first to console a child after informing a student of their grandparent’s death. He said custodians provide needed support to students, explaining they’ll often cheer up a boy crushed after a breakup with a girlfriend.
“The custodians minister every day. Do you know how many times a custodian has saved a child’s life?” 
Archbishop Thomas J. Rodi shared a similar message in his homily during the Mass for orientation day. 
Archbishop Rodi described his childhood years. What he remembers most aren’t the specific lessons, but the teachers who had a positive influence on him.
“That’s the opportunity that teachers, coaches, principals have – to make students feel special, feel they are loved, feel they can succeed. They do that by what we teach in the classroom and by our example.”
Later in the homily, Archbishop Rodi pulled a Rosary out of his pocket. He said he was in gym class when it was announced over the public address system that President John F. Kennedy had been shot.
His gym teacher then took the class of high school boys to the bleachers, where they said a Rosary for President Kennedy.
“Wow, Coach carries a Rosary (we thought),’ ” Archbishop Rodi recalled. 
“I still carry my Rosary. Thanks Coach. … That’s the ministry of Catholic education. We have an opportunity not only to share knowledge about all different disciplines, but also to share values.”