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As the late Professor of Classics from Sacred Heart Seminary College, son of this parish, Assistant Professor and Founder of the Medical Ethics Department at the Wayne State University School of Medicine, alumnus of our school, and priest of the Archdiocese of Detroit, Rev. Walter A. Markowicz, would more than likely quote on an occasion like the 150 anniversary of our school: respice, adspice, prospice, a Latin motto that can be loosely rendered --- he would add: very loosely rendered --- understand the past, know the present, look to the future. For it is on an occasion like the 150 anniversary of St. Alphonsus Schools that past, present, and future converge. It is what we are about as an educational community: it is what we are about as a community interested in and committed to the ministry of education. we are about the task of recalling where we have been, celebrating who we are, and faithfully looking to the future with hope and courage as we plan and create new dreams for the children of tomorrow, the Church of the Third Millennium.
In 1846, two decades before the Civil War, the State of Michigan was in the process of recovering from its previous designation as an "interminable swampland." With the opening of the Erie Canal a few years earlier, this area saw an unprecedented string of migrations from the other side of the globe. These were people who came with nothing and who transformed this swampland into a fertile and lavish garden.
Those early architects of the dream, three German immigrants. Peter Joseph Henn, Peter Joseph Esper, and his wife Catherine Theisen Esper, decided to form a school to help the next generation meld into a new world, a new culture - information in this state. It was pretty insightful really: 1846 was an age when education was regarded as a privilege, not a right. There were no public schools available. In 1846 we were a polyglot community, multilingual, mulitcultural. In 1846 we were a people who came from various strata of society: educated and uneducated, professional and common worker, urban person and rural person, colonist and native, all of whom found a home in this region. In 1846 we were on the heels of the Industrial Revolution which introduced technologies and new ideas and ways of life that were previously unimaginable.
These first German families looked to the educational process as the key to unlocking the doors of the future for their children. Bringing together the various strands of color and texture that made up the culture of their day, education was the loom that wove a beautiful and now familiar tapestry. Perhaps if they were alive today, they would say that understanding which comes from the educational process must proceed all else.
While holding onto the rich Tradition of Faith, they catapulted their children into a new age of opportunities and ideas that undoubtedly were very different from what they could ever conceive. This was the humble and courageous beginnings of St. Alphonsus Schools.
150 years later, it's difficult to imagine the anxiety of introducing your children to people of cultures who have long since joined our own technologies which we now tend to regard as necessities for civilized living. Although our world has changed, people have not. It would be a shame to undercut the courage and foresight of these pioneer families. They were the architects of a dream who remembered the traditions of their faith, clearly understood the present, and looked to the uncertain future with no small trust in God's provident care. We stand here today grateful recipients of their forward thinking and initiative. We pray for a similar vision and courage to move ahead into a new millennium.
While we remember the same faith tradition that drove our parochial ancestors to dream, plan, and build a school and, six years later, a parish church, we nonetheless are asked to understand the present and courageously confront the challenges of another wave of immigration, a change in the social and cultural climate of our neighborhood and a world whose technology is growing at an exponential rate. Again with the insight of our parochial ancestors, we look to the educational process as a tool and key to unlocking the doors of future opportunities and success. Understanding and knowledge must precede all else. Before judgment, before conflict, before sealing ourselves off in some reclusive and restrictive environment or, worse yet, running from it, we must see education as the key, understanding, the path for the future.
As we move into a new millennium, it is important to have a clear notion of what of our past we are holding onto, what of our tradition is important and unyielding and what can give way to new formulations, new thoughts and new synergistic expressions.
If one thing can be said about the last 150 years, it is this: change is inevitable. School buildings come and go. Approaches to education change. The language of the school changes (Recall the original language of St. Alphonsus School was German.). Priorities changes. Athletic programs change. Even the way we worship God is very different from how it was done 40 years ago. But for 150 years, the soul of St. Alphonsus School has been the values and principles of its core, Jesus Christ. That has been the bedrock of our existence since our formation by Westphalian immigrants in 1846. That is what continues to be the mission statement that carries us into a new Millennium of growth and change. Jesus Christ is Lord and God of St. Alphonsus Schools, its leadership, its faculty, its coaches, its students. Jesus Christ is our standard for compassion. Jesus Christ is our model for teaching. Jesus Christ is our measure for judgment. Jesus Christ is our way to evaluate the past. Jesus Christ is our hermeneutic for understanding and interpreting the present. Jesus Christ is the way and guide to the year 2000 and beyond. It is the best of who we were, are and will be. It is why we came into business 150 years ago; it is why we stay in business today.
There are lots of alternatives to education, utilizing different technologies and different pedagogical theories that brings what's new to our generation. Without undercutting the good that may occur from these alternatives, I am proud to be connected with an institution which doesn't just give children the news but the Good News. I am pleased and proud that St. Alphonsus Schools have been the herald of that Good News for so many generations of people. I am filled with pride when it is recognized not just for its academic standards, not just for its athletic championships but it is recognized among the East Dearborn and Detroit communities and throughout the Archdiocese of Detroit for its principles and values, its fidelity to its mission centered on Jesus Christ.
As we look to the future we are bound to encounter doubting Thomas's along the way, people who will cautiously withhold judgment until they examine for themselves the signs of victory. They were found in the Gospel. They are part of our age and every age. How blessed are we who have not seen but who believe.
This is ultimately where we are as we face the future of change and possibility. We know who we are: we know where we've been. We must now drink deeply from the same cup of courage and confident faith as did the Espers, the Henns, the Horgers, the Reuters, the Theisens, and the other Westphalian immigrants as we reinvest ourselves in the process of seeking truth and understanding while simultaneously reminding ourselves of who we are as a Catholic people and wherein we place our trust: Jesus Christ. This is our path to the future, the door to the Third Millennium of Christians in this area.
Homily delivered by Rev. Michael W. Quaine Pastor of St. Alphonsus Parish on the occasion of the 150 anniversary of St. Alphonsus Schools April 14, 1996