As Vatican Comes to California, Students Discover a New Subject

‘We would be remiss as encouragers of the faith if we didn’t incorporate the Pope’s visit in our academic program.’

Father Michael Nocita,Alemany High principal

When students at Alemany High School, a Roman Catholic campus in Mission Hills, compared notes during the first week of school, they discovered that nearly all their classes had featured discussions on Pope John Paul II’s upcoming visit to Los Angeles.

In 12th-grader Kathie Galan’s social studies class, students talked about security measures to protect the Pope. Robyn Renauld’s 10th-grade history teacher told students that current-event presentations had to address the papal visit. And, in the ninth-grade religion class attended by Blanca Nunez and Steven Sanchez, students talked about the Pope’s dual role as spiritual leader and head of state.

It all made 10th-grader Angela Forstron stop and think: “Because the school is so close to a place where the Pope is going to visit, it makes us a part of history, too.”

That the Pope was mentioned almost universally in Alemany’s classrooms was no mistake. During a faculty meeting before school started, Father Michael Nocita, the principal, had instructed teachers to integrate some aspect of the papal sojourn into their lectures.

“The Pope’s visit is a major historical event and certainly a great faith event. That’s why I wanted to make sure teachers included his visit in the curriculum,” Nocita said. “We would be remiss as educators--and remiss in our role as encouragers of the faith--if we didn’t incorporate the Pope’s visit in our academic program.”

Nocita and other educators say classroom activities that incorporate serendipitous events such as the Pope’s visit can make even the driest academic subject come to life. Throughout the San Fernando Valley, and particularly in parishes surrounding the San Fernando Mission where the Pope is scheduled to visit Sept. 16, Catholic schools have added papal-related exercises to their lesson plans.

“It is very important to bring contemporary events into the classroom because it is a way of subtly telling children that there is a relationship between the classroom and the outside world,” said Carolyn Ellner, dean of the School of Education at California State University, Northridge.

Classroom Visit

Education will play an important role in the Pope’s 10-day U. S. visit. In New Orleans, the Pope is scheduled to make a major address on the state of Catholic education and, during his stay in Los Angeles, he plans to visit a classroom at the Immaculate Conception parish in downtown Los Angeles.

Even papal protesters are targeting Catholic youth.

A yet-unnamed campus of a Los Angeles-area Catholic high school will be the site of a demonstration by a group called the “Greet the Pope Committee.” Organizer Ginny Garrett of the Gay and Lesbian Free Thought Forum said the group will distribute condoms and brochures on AIDS and safe sex methods to protest the church’s opposition to artificial contraceptives.

Prepared for Event

The Catholic emphasis in the classroom has made certain that the 23,000 students who attend Catholic schools in the Valley have some kind of academic preparation for the Pope’s visit. Methods run from light-hearted exercises to serious debates.

At St. Euphrasia School in Granada Hills, second-graders folded large pieces of colored construction paper into miters, the tall, peaked ornamental headdress worn by the Pope and bishops.

In a more serious vein, St. Euphrasia’s fifth-graders have been bringing news articles on the papal visit to post on a bulletin board. Eighth-graders learning to use reference books are researching papal topics and history when they use encyclopedias, dictionaries and atlases, St. Euphrasia Principal Leonora Mahoney said.

Variety of Activities

Plans at St. John Baptist De La Salle Elementary School in Granada Hills call for students to be involved in a variety of activities during the papal visit, Principal Pat Baldwin said.

Sixth-graders will try to explain the Pope’s views in their daily journals during the papal tour. Second-graders are painting a mural about the Pope’s California visit, while fifth-graders will write and perform in their own play about the papal visit.

The eight-member religion faculty at Chaminade College Preparatory Intermediate School in Chatsworth has decided to turn all classes into forums on papal policies. Students will discuss a variety of topics, such as whether church doctrine is still influential in the daily lives of American Catholics.

“There’s so much opportunity here,” Chris Redondo, religion department chairman, said. “The way the event is being conducted--with all the different audiences the Pope will talk to, all the different topics he will discuss and all the controversy surrounding some of the subjects he will address--makes the visit a teacher’s dream.

“And it’s important that we address controversial topics,” Redondo added. “Especially on the high school level, teachers have a duty to help their students understand all sides of an issue.”