Memoirs

From The Scarlet Knight

Black and White are their colors. Black robes loosely covering the torso in order to conceal weapons while White toughened leather worn around the neck to blunt knife slashes to the throat. These are the Guardians, some always in training Themselves to replenish their ranks for future battles to come in order to preserve their lives and their Beliefs. They will spend their time protecting Themselves and others while teaching all others their Beliefs.

The Guardians found their voice, thought and spirit after clashing with remnants of the Druid clans at the Beginning of the Ages. After helping in the raising of Stonehenge and then watching the human sacrifice that bled freely upon the basalt and granite, the Guardians claimed their freedom from the Druid terror with their own blood left upon the stones.

As in kind, blood was shed centuries later when Someone Else from the desert of the World claimed a birthright by being staked upon a cross of cedar, cypress and pine. The Guardians witnessed this impalement and for years prior to this event walked with Someone Else among the people of the World learning from Someone Else while celebrating wine and bread at each offering of Brotherhood. The Teachings of Someone Else were of Love for All and Unity in Reason and Purpose. The Guardians learned well.

Belief in Miracles -- for the Guardians it began with Someone Else, not the 1980 USA men's hockey team. Men, women and children were seen to be saved both in Body and Spirit by Someone Else. Food was plentiful for the starving and Hope was enduring for all who listened. During these learning years together, the Guardians would often fish with Someone Else and always Someone Else would exceed the Limit by three thousand without once being flagged by the local centurion. Someone Else also transcended the tavern scene for all deep in drink -- pay for a Fig Fizz and end up sipping a glass of rare 0001 pomegranate wine. Miracles never cease when one Believes.

Countless years after the loss of Someone Else and after the Dark Time for All, the Guardians travelled far from their place of inception. It was after this Dark Time for All that explorations of the World and the Individual Spirit thrived in the hearts and minds of All and it was during this time that the remaining Guardians took to the seas and followed the trade routes tracking to the Sun's daily demise. The Guardians paid their fare by protecting and teaching the young and unenlightened aboard ship with Swords and Books being only part of the Guardians arsenal. Their belief in Someone Else travelled well with the Guardians and it was to be the vital strength of the Guardians.

The Guardians found their way to the "Fourth part of the World" with little loss of life under their watch and guidance. Their ships landed in a New World which in time would be the Newest of New Worlds. After many arduous years guided by faith and reason, the Guardians found their way to inland prairies and a River settled between stratified cliffs that forever forward would be known as the Land. The Guardians were finally Home and the Land would require their protection for All Time.

The Guardians had many Leaders from their beginning. Over the centuries many of them died along with their Brothers fighting for their belief in the Brotherhood and their belief in Someone Else. When the Guardians set sail west on an ocean far less turbulent than the land around them, they landed anew with their Leaders intent on survival and living true to their Beliefs. When the Guardians finally found their Homeland, their Leader was known as The Priest Campion, a visionary with strength and purpose. Priest Campion believed that the Guardians survival was inherent in the strength of their Beliefs and sinews and his Impassioned Intent was that the Guardians teach their Beliefs and the Knowledge of the World as they knew it to all others, especially to boys and young men who were destined to lead all things Natural.

The Guardians Keep was the first structure to be built in the Land and housed all the Guardians. The butchery, kitchens and place of meals for the Guardians were soon intimately attached to the Keep and easily accessible, supplied and defended by the Guardians with immediate defenses of the Keep being moat and wooden pickets aligned with the stables. Deep within the Keep, a Place with a small Table draped in linen was kept sacred and devoted to the meaning of Someone Else and to the celebration of Brotherhood. The Guardians Keep was constructed well for both Guardian and Someone Else.

Ultimately, the Keep and the Land would be free from peril for a time determined not only by the strength of the Guardians but also by their numbers. Recognizing the loss of Guardians on their trek to the Land and the future loss of Guardians to age and battles to come, Priest Campion's Fervent Intent to teach and mentor boys and young men gave immediate rise to The Knights of the Brotherhood. His Fervent Intent gave immediate rise to The Knights of the Land and thus The Knights of Campion were conceived and they were to live alongside the Guardians in the Land.

For the birth of The Knights of Campion to take place, the Guardians made a Promise to fathers and mothers of boys and young men throughout all the lands that they had travelled, "Give us your sons for a Time and We Promise to nurture both their bodies and minds, to train them in the art of conflict and compromise, and to teach them the Laws of Someone Else and Men. They will be our Knights through 4 autumn and 4 spring harvests and live with us in the Land. Their epic Quest begins with your consent and your bags of silver". Many fathers and mothers consented and willingly paid the charge. The Knights of Campion and the Land thus would become One.

The Guardians accepted boys and young men with their Acceptance largely determined by the moral strength perceived in their fathers and mothers and by the belief of their fathers and mothers in an Ultimate Truth understood by few. The mental strength and plasticity of each of these boys and young men would be measured and blanks in a ledger filled in for Acceptance or Not. The cache of silver treasured by the fathers and mothers would finally seal the deal with the Guardians knowing full well that the real treasure of the fathers and mothers were their boys and young men. The Campion Knights thus would bodily coalesce in the Land.

The Teachings of the Guardians were commanding and resolute. Their Teachings encompassed all the skills of pitched battle, the strength and finality in a broadsword strike to the sword arm of an enemy and the lingering death that accompanies a deep thrust of a blade under the arm at the shoulder where chain mail is lacking. Under the watchful eyes of the Guardians, the Knights learned the intrinsic rewards of loyalty and commitment to The Knighthood and to The Land, and to All the World. The Guardians taught the Knights the Known Laws of the Natural World, the Laws governing Persons and States, the Meaning of Someone Else and beliefs Not of Someone Else espoused by others that The Knights of the Land needed to Learn. The greatest strength of Knighthood is Knowledge, not a slashing sword thrust to the groin of an enemy combatant. The Guardians made it so -- the Knights were given this Knowledge.

The Guardians, Teachers of the Knights, were teachers to Themselves. The greatest strength of the Guardians was neither evident on the battlefield nor celebrated in Chapel with Someone Else. The Greatest Strength of the Guardians resided in their minds and in their stoic commitment to truth, to each other, to the Knights and to All the World. The Guardians lived and learned in their years with Someone Else to be reasoned and purposeful and since that Learning the Guardians have always examined and questioned their Teachings, their Beliefs and the World around Them. The Guardians have questioned their killing expertise in battle, their dominant oversight of boys and young men, and their faith in the meaning of Someone Else in a World with other Saviors in need of followers. Since their beginning, the Guardians have always taught Themselves while teaching others and the Guardians have taught Themselves well.

There had been much Talk over the centuries since the Beginning of the Ages of an Ultimate Truth that All the World wanted to believe in and accept as the Final and Only Answer. Over these centuries, wars had been fought and much Life had been foolishly lost in pursuit of this Ultimate Truth that would be defined by armies and death and not by moral beliefs. The Guardians, being reasoned and purposeful, finally would Question the killing and hatred seen in this pursuit of the Ultimate Truth by Themselves and others and strived to understand the Meaning of it All. After much Time, the Guardians understood that Someone Else was only one truth and together with other truths would form the Ultimate Truth sought by All. The Ultimate Truth would not be defined by armies and death but defined by true beliefs of All the World and All the People.

There have been and there are many Saviors and many beliefs of many People in All the World but only one Ultimate Truth can exist. This Ultimate Truth has fathered all the Saviors and all the beliefs of all the People. Thus, the World has come to believe in a deity, a Supreme Being that administers this Ultimate Truth. The Guardians also believe in this Concept.

The Guardians have a name for this Supreme Being.

The Guardians call him God and Someone Else knows God well.

By Ami Korpi

Fertile Ground: Campion High School played an important role in many lives

What does a Jesuit provincial have in common with a former Wisconsin governor, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, an Emmy-nominated comedian, a former president of Mexico, and a groundbreaking physician? All attended Campion High School in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin. Those mentioned above are Midwest Jesuits provincial, Fr. Brian Paulson, SJ; Governor Patrick Lucey; Garry Wills(author of Lincoln at Gettysburg); George Wendt (best known as "Norm" on the sitcom Cheers); President Vicente Fox; and James West, MD (who served on the team that performed the world's first human organ transplant and became a pioneer in addiction treatment).

A PRIVILEGE

Following in the footsteps of his father and older brother, Fr. Paulson enrolled at Campion. "Some people think of being sent to boarding school as a punishment, but we thought of it as a treat, a privilege really," he recalls. "The Jesuits there were great role models. They seemed very happy and enjoyed each other's company, and they could speak with familiarity about God. As a result of their influence and the overall experience, the Society of Jesus has formed my mind, heart, and spirit since I was a student at Campion."

Today, Fr. Paulson's Campion connections are still present. Two Jesuits he met there, Fr. Daniel McDonald and Fr. Albert DiUlio, are on his provincial staff.

He also has many good memories.

"A highlight of my sophomore year was participating with some senior guys who were friends of my older brother Marty in a band we called Open Road," he says. "One of the leaders was Tony Altimari, who is now an accomplished surgeon in Wheaton, Illinois. My role was on keyboards. We played songs like You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet (Bachman-Turner Overdrive), Color My World (Chicago), Brown Sugar (The Rolling Stones), Stairway to Heaven (Led Zeppelin), and many more. Scholastic Roc O'Connor, SJ, was one of our 'roadies' (aka chaperones!) when we played at a bar in downtown Prairie du Chien. Who gets to do that when you are 15 years old? The 1970s were a different period and place. Good times.

WELLSPRING OF VOCATIONS

As noted by Fr. Paulson, extracurricular activities were a prominent feature in Campion life. In addition to high academic standards, the school was "known and noted" for "religious dedication, dramatics, musical excellence, and athletic prowess," wrote Br. Sylvester Staber, SJ, in his essay, A Short History of Campion High School. Campion was also renowned for its exceptional science program.

It all started in 1880, when the Jesuits founded the College of the Sacred Heart as a post-secondary institution open to the public. From 1888 to 1898, it became a Jesuit house of formation, until the doors opened again to the public as a high school and college. By 1913, the school's name had changed to Campion College of the Sacred Heart, taking Blessed(now Saint) Edmund Campion, SJ, as its patron. When, in 1925, its college division closed, Campion High School assumed the name it would have for the next 50 years.

According to Br. Staber, Campion fostered a total of 472 vocations to religious life, including diocesan clergy, members of various religious congregations, and, of course, Jesuit priests and brothers.

Along with his brother (Fr. John Eagan, SJ), Fr. Joseph Eagan, SJ, heard the call to join the Jesuits there, and wrote, "I shall always cherish those never-to-be forgotten Campion years. They were four of the greatest years of my life." As for his vocation, he said, "Basically it was the scholastics teaching at Campion who influenced me. Their example of joy as Jesuits and the fun we had on sports teams playing against them made them people we really looked up to. During our three-day Holy Week retreats from our sophomore year on, I felt God wanted me to be Jesuit."

Later, Fr. Joseph Eagan said he thoroughly enjoyed teaching at his alma mater: "Those years are full of so many faces and such happy memories, including taking students on a European tour - the highlight of which was attending the coronation of Pope Paul VI."

Some students were sent to Campion because they weren't doing well academically. It might surprise Marquette University grads who remember their freshman history class to learn that Fr. John Patrick Donnelly, SJ, was one of those students.

"I did a lot of reading as a boy, but I was not a good student," Fr. Donnelly wrote. "[My] mother claimed that I did so badly on a high school entrance exam that I would not be admitted to Riverside High School. Something had to be done ."

By the time he was a senior at Campion, however, the young Donnelly competed with 100 others for a scholarship in Chicago. He ranked second, won a four-year full scholarship, and credited his achievement in part to several daily compulsory study hall periods: "I probably needed the discipline. [And the]Jesuit teachers were generally good and caring, and my early success sharpened my desire to learn. "My years at Campion gave me growing confidence in my academic abilities and deepened my religious faith," Fr. Donnelly reflected.

IGNATIAN INSPIRATION

Campion was also a well spring of vocations and a vocation for laypeople dedicated to the work of the Jesuits and lives lived in the Ignatian tradition. It inspired great loyalty as well. A dedicated group of graduates have kept in touch via reunions and a newsletter at CampionForever.org, today under the care of alumnus Tom Olson.

In a recent edition, Jack (aka "Beaky")Downes wrote, "I think my years at Campion prepared me for a full, rewarding, and useful life, and for that I shall always be grateful to my parents(for their sacrifices to send me there) and to the many Jesuits who helped form and enrich my life. A.M.D.G."

Martin Sawa reflected, "The Jebbies taught me how to write and how to think and helped shape my future. I regard my class...as one of the last cohorts to benefit from a classical liberal education, something I appreciate more and more as I try to make sense of the world around me."

LAST DAYS AND LEGACY

As the saying goes, good things do come to an end. When Campion closed in 1975, Fr. Gregory Lucey, SJ (brother of Governor Lucey), the high school's president and rector of its Jesuit community, wrote the following:

...the institutions of man are finite.... We must realize, as one alumnus wrote, "that in the decision to conclude lies the responsibility to continue. From one accomplished task can come the knowledge to begin another, a different role and perhaps with greater purpose."

It is not by default that we close; it is after having made a concerted effort at every level. It is ... with peace that we live with this decision, knowing it was right and necessary, made with dignity and integrity. Anything less would be out of step with the tradition we have ended and the tradition we continue to live as we scatter to begin anew.

The Campion tradition is in fact still alive and well, not only in its graduates, but also in a "new Campion" halfway around the world, with which several "old Campion" alumni have been intricately involved.

Father Tony Wach, SJ, first went to East Africa in 1991, when the province there was looking for volunteers. Eventually, while serving as superior in Kampala, Uganda, he became immersed (along withFr. Jim Strzok, SJ - also a grad of the original Campion) in starting a school, which would come to be known as Ocer Campion Jesuit College.

"I was willing to get involved because I had the experience of an excellent Jesuit school," said Fr. Wach. "I was committed that we should have poor kids who are bright and wouldn't otherwise have the opportunity. The challenge was to get the right culture at Ocer - the right standards and tradition, something that will last 100years." Ocer means "he is risen" in the Acholi language.

Father Wach found a unique source of fundraising prospects in original Campion alums.

For example, when Dr. David Zamierowski, MD, wasa student, he got to know the future Fr. Wach very well. "During the time we were at Campion, the Jesuits were very structured," Zamierowski explained. "They assigned seating in classes alphabetically. We - 'W' and 'Z' - were bench mates in every class for four years."

So, when Fr. Wach shared his dreams for this new ministry, Zamierowski and his wife, Mary, wanted to help. "One motivational factor is nostalgia for the wonderful time Campion provided; another is the desire to leave a legacy," he said.

With that, a group of alumni launched the "New Campion Campaign" to support the building of a Jesuit educational complex in the war-torn region of Gulu in northern Uganda. The school opened in 2010 and is run by the Eastern Africa Province of the Society of Jesus in concert with community members, other religious groups, and government officials. Today it serves 364 girls and 373 boys, now growing at approximately 90 students per year.

[EDITOR:] Reprinted with permission, UMI Asst. Dir of Communications - Originally appeared in the Fall/Winter 2020 issue of Jesuits magazine.

From the Desk Of John Duskey '63

There has been some "push back" on my statement that there were "weak spots" in the classroom curriculum, during the early sixties. It should be noted that, especially in his last two years (1966-68) as principal, Fr. Doran initiated several improvements to the classroom curriculum, particularly in the areas of science and social studies. He saw these as needed improvements that would be an effective way to provide graduates with the means of becoming part of a well-educated citizenry in whatever their field of further study or vocational choice. In its day, Campion was an excellent school, but excellence is a moving target. The needs of society and the needs of a school change, as time marches on.

This question of classroom curriculum is separate from the evaluation of teachers, but there is a relationship. The principal has to obtain the services of teachers who are capable of teaching the subjects that will be taught. At first glance, it looks like it was easier to find teachers of English and History, and more difficult to find teachers for Math and the Sciences. But these are all difficult choices for a principal like Fr. Doran. The choice of great teachers is part of the pursuit of excellence.

Yet, excellence at Campion involved a lot more than classroom curriculum. There are various kinds of curriculum in a school and certain ones are much more significant in a boarding school.

• The overall curriculum of the school, i.e., student life throughout the school day and year.
• The classroom curriculum, both the subjects taught and the content within those subjects.
• Organized activities outside the classroom, e.g., athletics, drama, music, forensics (These are sometimes referred to as "extra-curricular activities.")
• Organized social activities, i.e., parties, dances, etc.

Campion was an excellent school, even though a few of our teachers were not having success at that time in their careers. It was an excellent school even though a few parts of the classroom curriculum didn't meet the needs of some students. Through the guidance of the Jesuits, the overall curriculum of the school was designed for excellence, especially in the disciplines of study habits and general behavior. The Jesuits provided for organized activities and social events that added to the school's overall excellence.

The curriculum for each student is an individual affair. The school guides the student into certain classroom experiences, but it is up to the student to learn. The student learns to follow the rules, to set aside times to study, and also chooses which organized activities and social events to add to his own group of individualized learning experiences. At Campion, the faculty played a very important role in all of this, but the learning has to be done by the student.

I think each of us can say we learned a lot more at Campion than the Math, Latin, English, History, Chemistry, etc., that we learned in the classroom. People who did not live through the Campion experience, and who had heard of Campion's reputation as an excellent school, knew that the overall curriculum of the school was great. Campion was a selective enrollment school: Eighth graders were carefully chosen to enter the school, and it was the students, together with many outstanding faculty members, who gave the school its reputation for excellence.

School administrators are guardians of that excellence. Failures in some areas can easily take down the quality of the whole school. Less selective admissions and a lack of discipline in overall student life can do this. However, if one or another of the teachers was not having a successful teaching experience, that would not detract from the whole school. Likewise, if the school missed an opportunity to enhance the classroom curriculum, which could affect some of the students, the school could still be an excellent school.

A principal is interested in hearing from graduates, whether from one, five, ten years or more after graduation. A principal would enjoy hearing good things about a student's experiences, but there are some things the principal would not like to hear:

• I took this course in freshman year in college, and it covered material that I felt I should have learned in high school.
• There was a subject (not a teacher) that I really disliked when I was in high school, but which I found interesting when I took that subject in college.
• I still have not decided what subject I want to choose for my college major and I don't feel my high school experience helped me move toward that decision.

These responses will be different for each student. Each of the three above represents a different problem with respect to classroom curriculum, and the problems they represent may or may not be something that can be resolved for the benefit of future students.

Curriculum exists in service to the educational goals of the school. In a college preparatory school, it guides the student toward:

• Personal and social development, including leadership and cooperation in group efforts.
• Development of analytic skills, geared toward solving problems, with words or with numbers.
• The ability to think things through and ask important questions.
• Choice of field(s) of interest for further study.
• Choice of a college for post-secondary education and admission to that college.

When we studied Math and Science, we developed analytic skills. Our knowledge of language, (English, Latin, Spanish, French, or any other language) also helps develop analytic skills, and the skills of rhetoric and composition. ROTC helped develop leadership skills, but so also does working on the school yearbook or participating on athletic teams. (Note: in its last few years, Campion did eliminate its ROTC/military program.)

Taken as an isolated event, it is simple to choose a field for further study. The problem is choosing the right field, one where the student has both interest and capability. A student who gains familiarity with several different fields will be more likely to make a good choice. (It is also unfortunately true that, sometimes, a student makes this decision on the basis of direct, or perhaps more subtle, pressure from other persons, including teachers and parents.)

Some students go to college without having decided on a major field. Experiences in the first year or two in college can help, but time and program availability can become limiting factors.

Campion, or any other school, should always be seeking excellence. But excellence in a school's curriculum is always a moving goal. There is no firm, unchanging formula. You make a little progress, and then you see what you need to do next. The pursuit of excellence in a school's classroom curriculum is one of the prime responsibilities of a principal.

I don't want to make a major research project out of this. If you want to get an idea of the traditional Jesuit ideas on education, see the book Loyola and the Educational System of the Jesuits, by the Rev. Thomas Hughes, S. J., of St. Louis University, published in 1901 by Charles Scribner's Sons of New York. My copy is a reprint in the Bibliolife series, The Great Educators. It traces the educational history of the Jesuit order and includes an analysis of the system of studies, as of 1901.

There were a lot of changes throughout the world in the sixty years that followed. It is not productive to hold strictly to a tradition that makes no room for helpful changes. (Cardinal Robert Sarah, whom Pope Francis has appointed to head the Congregation for Divine Worship, has used the expression "a museum of curiosities" to describe the result of a frozen concept of tradition.)

Throughout the 1960s there were changes at work within the Jesuits. In 1965, Fr. Pedro Arrupe was elected Superior General of the order, and he was hailed as the 'second founder' of a renewed Jesuit order. Consider the number of young men entering the Jesuit order in the sixties:

Year	1961	1962	1963	1964	1965	1966	1967	1968	1969
Entrants	52	40	40	34	25	22	15	13	10

And of these entrants, a far smaller number actually stayed until ordination. For example, of the 34 who entered in 1964, only 8 stayed in the order through ordination.

There is a collection of essays about Jesuit Higher Education, edited by Rolando Bonachea that was published in 1989 by Duquesne University Press in Pittsburgh. Within that collection is an essay by Fr. Lawrence Biondi, S.J., titled Educational Aims of the Liberal Arts Curriculum: Contextual Education. The author states the goals of education as described by Plato, Aquinas and Loyola, which are similar. Then he describes the 'great debate' seen in 19th century England by Matthew Arnold, who advocated the study of the humanities, especially literature, and Thomas Huxley, who advocated the mastery of the natural sciences. Fr. Biondi takes the position that both are important, but there is more.

Fr. Biondi describes the goals that are hallmarks of an excellent Jesuit liberal education this way: "Theology and philosophy, history and communication, English and foreign languages and literature, fine arts and a variety of social and natural sciences all have their distinct yet cooperative and integrative roles... Such a curriculum provides our students with knowledge, expertise, and skills to find solutions to complex problems." While I agree with Fr. Biondi's stated goals, I should also point out that not every Jesuit school is able to achieve everything those hallmarks represent.

Fr. Doran wanted to do some things to enhance the curriculum at Campion. After 1966 he was able to start taking action. This should not be seen as a conflict of ideas with Campion's pre-1966 president, Fr. Howard Kalb. It is better to look for a variety of possible reasons, rather than attribute this delay to personal conflict. In this case, I suggested that there might be some financial limitations on what the school could do, given the demands of the school's building program and limited income from tuition and gifts. Every school has financial limitations all the time; sometimes these limitations are more apparent. Campion's financial crisis could be handled smoothly until the early seventies. Bro. Ed Gill, Campion's treasurer in the 1970s, told of the high costs of salaries, food and heating oil in those days as the school headed toward closing.

Campion's total financial situation has never been made public, but some basic facts are obvious: Tuition was $1250.00 per year, and there were 575 students in the 1959-60 year. That would give the school about $700.000.00 for the year. [EDITOR: Base tuition in the 1972-73 year was $2,698.00 per year with just 335 students]. This money had to feed and house the students plus about 50 Jesuits and pay the salaries of several employees who worked in maintenance, health care, food preparation, and instruction. We do know that Campion did not have substantial endowment funds. The Jesuits were determined to spend the school's money to replace buildings like Old Lawler Hall and Kostka Hall that were so old as to present a fire hazard.

Consider these four construction projects, all completed within a ten year span: 1). New Lawler Hall, 1955; 2). Lucey Hall, 1959, 3). Hoffman Athletic Center, 1963; and 4). Xavier Hall, 1965. The Jesuits were only able to recover $2,800,000.00 when they sold the real estate to the Lutherans in 1978.

I do believe that Fr. Kalb was not frozen into the older model of education. He was supportive of music and the arts in general. The campus plan, seen in the 1963 Hoffman Hall dedication brochure, showed new music facilities and a large auditorium. That never came to be, as the enrollment started to decline in the early seventies and the financial situation worsened.

There can be valid criticism of classroom curriculum. The school did eventually offer Biology and AP Calculus and expanded its offerings in social studies. It would have been desirable to offer classroom instruction in music and the visual arts, but it was difficult to allocate the time of a qualified teacher and the number of students interested in such courses was limited. Some alumni have remarked that they wish they had taken two years of Spanish. Still, even today, there are students who are anxious to take the full four years of Latin. There has also been a question about the proportion between the study of literature and the teaching of rhetoric and composition, in the time spent in English class. The development of writing skills is very important, but it takes a lot of time to read and grade writing assignments. I know of one school, today, that reduces the standard number of class sections taught by English teachers.

As for us as alumni, what's done is done. We can't rewrite history. But the questions raised here could help us understand our own history, and may help us understand education today. Current issues in the field of curriculum studies include the upgrading of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) curricula. There is a continuing need for understanding of social issues -- which could well include a more widespread study of sociology, political science, and economics among young people today. For a long time, many schools have had a class called "Health and Safety." A health-oriented course, drawing from knowledge of Biology and Chemistry, could be a real challenge, a life-enhancing event for students in school today. It could also be beneficial for all of us as we consider our own needs in health care.

For many years, Campion existed because of the lives, the skills, and the energy that men gave to the Jesuit order. With fewer and fewer vocations, it was clear that, if such a school were to exist, it would have to exist without Jesuits, and that would mean much higher costs. In today's world, major Jesuit institutions operate, in many cases, with less than a half dozen Jesuits. Boarding school continues to exist as an option for high school students such as we were in our days at Campion. I pointed out that St. John's Northwestern in Delafield, Wisconsin, is an example. You can look up sjnacademies.org and read more about it. The school has re-branded itself as "St. John's Northwestern Academies" as they now promote two programs: the Military Academy (which includes ROTC) and the Leadership Academy. But the costs are high and the tuition is high. At that price, the customers demand high quality. Even in its best days, Campion's clientele was not extremely wealthy. If the school had continued to exist without Jesuits, the financial burden would have forced the same result.

As for the Jesuits, the order is a lot smaller now. Fewer young men are entering the order, and there are fewer Jesuits to send to every school, college, parish, or other institution. That isn't just a Jesuit problem; the decreasing number of priests is a problem throughout the Catholic Church.