Special Announcements
Giving Tuesday
HELP HOLY CROSS SCHOOL!
Early giving starts Nov 13th!
3 Easy Ways: Scan the code OR Click the banner on the HCS website
OR Pop into the Business Office from 7:45 – 9:00 We can help process your donation!
All donations help our students! Checks and cash are also welcome!!
We are thankful for you!
Student Awards
Congratulations to our Ambassador of Christ Virtue Award Winners!
A Celebration of Legacy, Hope for the Future
Catholic Schools Week is a time to celebrate the blessings of Catholic education. Along with the academic excellence that Philly Catholic schools provide, the affordability of the private education provided in the archdiocese of Philadelphia is another reason for prospective parents to take a look at how Holy Cross could be a good fit. With numerous financial aid options and scholarships, we believe that every student’s presence in the classroom is an investment not only in their own future but that of every person who will come in contact with them.
- A Cause for Celebration
According to greatphillyschols.org, one in 10 Philadelphia students attends a Catholic school. Philadelphia public schools have an estimated 121,000 students in 2023 and a student to teacher ratio of 16 to 1. On average, Philadelphia Catholic schools ratio varies between 4:1 and 13:1.
Philadelphia has three Catholic schools devoted to special education. This is a tremendous blessing, especially if we consider that many Catholic dioceses and archdioceses around the country don’t even have one!
In addition to the high quality education provided by Archdiocese of Philadelphia schools, our school offers various financial aid opportunities. Check out the financial aid options available through Philly Catholic schools!
2 Hope for the Future in the Midst of Challenge
Graduates of Catholic schools in the Philadelphia area are serious about higher education. $449 Million in college scholarship money was earned by the 2022 class of all 15 Catholic high schools in the archdiocese of Philadelphia. This is an impressive metric of how Catholic education prepares students to aim towards the future and to be a positive impact in the world.
What about the challenges? The challenge facing Catholic education is not economical, it’s not finding ways to run enough fundraising drives.
The central challenge which every Catholic school must face in today’s society is the exploding ferocity of, to use Pope Benedict XVI’s words, the “dictatorship of relativism”, of the pernicious ideologies which dominate today’s world, cutting at the roots of Divine Revelation: the nature of man and woman, of an alluring and empty promise of boundless license to be free of every moral ‘inhibition’ and ‘constraint’. This promise is nothing but poison sugarcoated in that primordial lie first made in Eden by Satan: “You will be like gods” (Gn 3:5) by turning against God.
Therefore, the challenge facing every Catholic school is the same it has always been: to proclaim the truth of Christ who – contrary to the lie of the devil – has already made it possible, not to “be like god”, but to be one with God (Jn 17:21), to receive the same divine nature of Christ by the maturation of the baptismal grace we have received.
There is, however, something utterly unique and unprecedented about our current situation in 2023: the need for Catholic education has never been more urgently necessary for children and young adults.
Our children have a right to the truth, they have a right to know the dignity and beauty of their vocation to be a boy or girl, a man or woman. Every child has the right to be defended and protected by their parents and educators from the multi-billion dollar industry of media influence which is broadcasting anti-Christian ideologies and dogmas at a level of invasiveness unprecedented in human history.
At Holy Cross, we are committed to defending these rights. Despite the immense challenge we face as a Catholic school in today’s world, we are filled with hope by the words of Christ: “I am with you always; Yes, to the end of time” (Mt 28:20). We are filled with hope for the future by each one of our students. They are our mission. And we are profoundly humbled and honored to be able to say that.
Happy Catholic Schools Week!
Christmas and 2023 : A New Beginning
Christmas is here: a time of hope and joy as we celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus born in Bethlehem. After teachers and students take a well-deserved break to rest, have fun and enjoy the company of family, school will resume in a new year.
With 2023 fast approaching, it would be worthwhile to look at a few things Catholic high schools and elementary schools in Philadelphia have to be grateful for and why there’s every reason to be hopeful in pursuing a Catholic education for your child.
1. Christ-centered classrooms
We can’t have Catholic schools without Christ. After many students have had the joy of singing carols and hymns in their recent Christmas concerts across the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, the centrality of the presence of Jesus has been celebrated and lived. Private education has the great benefit of offering our classrooms with the religious freedom necessary to bring Christ to our students and, through them, to our world.
2. Academic Excellence
A Peoria Magazine article found that “Catholic school students consistently score higher on advanced achievement tests, and by eighth grade, they outscore their public school counterparts in mathematics by a full 13 points.” This is one example of many which underline how a Catholic secondary education is continually being proven to give students an high quality academic edge over their peers who haven’t had the benefit of private education. What is the reason for this academic edge? I believe the answer is, to a large extent, to point #3.
3. Strong Moral Values
Great grades are nice but every parent, I’m sure, would certainly rank a strong moral character as a higher priority. After all, education is about forming youth not about churning out test scores.
The commitment to instilling moral values lies at the cornerstone of any Catholic education. This mission is what brings our teacher to work every day and is what continues to solidify the position Catholic schools hold in the eyes of parents. The same article mentioned earlier cites a study from the University of Pennsylvania which found that “success is not the number-one priority for most parents. We’re much more concerned about our children becoming kind, compassionate and helpful.”
As any working adult can attest, a person’s GPA in high school is not what bosses are looking for: bosses look the person in front of them, their communication skills, their character, how they treat others around them. And with good reason! At each and every Catholic school in Philadelphia we are happy to know that the moral values our students are receiving are preparing them for whatever the future has in store.
We give thanks in this Christmas season for these and so many more reasons. We give thanks for our heroic and committed educators who have made it their life’s mission to prepare future generations to be Christ-filled men and women. We give thanks to our dedicated parent volunteers who so generously give of their time, talent and treasure to make Holy Cross one of the leading private schools in the Philadelphia area.
A very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you and your families!
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