Washington Cardinal Robert W. McElroy celebrated a Feb. 24 Mass at Archbishop Carroll High School in Washington, where he urged students and faculty there to use this holy season of Lent “to make ourselves more and more like who we are called to be.”
“I hope and pray you have a wonderful Lent where you come closer to God and God comes closer to you,” Cardinal McElroy prayed during the liturgy.
Cardinal McElroy was originally scheduled to celebrate Mass at the coeducational high school on Jan. 26 as part of Carroll’s observance of Catholic Schools Week. It was postponed and rescheduled because of the major winter storm that blanketed the region with up to a foot of snow that day and the evening before.
Lent’s 40 days of sacrifice and self-denial, the cardinal said at the Mass, means “we give up what is important to us in order to sacrifice for others.”
Asking God to “dispel the darkness of selfishness,” Cardinal McElroy prayed that students at the school “come out of here as men and women who learned to give of themselves.”
“Grant, by moderating our desires, we may learn to love things of heaven,” the cardinal prayed. “Make this a community of learning, character and faith.”
During his homily, Cardinal McElroy recounted a story of how during World War II, a young Jewish boy in France was shielded from Nazi persecution by officials at a boarding school despite the great danger it posed to those who assisted the boy.
The lesson from that event, the cardinal told the students, is that “the life which is lived that does not know what it means to sacrifice for others is a life which has not lived.”
“Christ sacrificed Himself on the cross, which He did for all of us – personally and individually,” Cardinal McElroy said. “We are called to sacrifice for others.”
He also called on the students to appreciate those who make it possible for them to have the education they receive at Carroll.
“During this time of Lent and sacrifice, please take a moment to thank those who have sacrificed for you to be here … including the school staff,” Cardinal McElroy said.
Concelebrating the Mass with the cardinal was Washington Auxiliary Bishop Roy E. Campbell, Jr., who is a 1965 graduate of the high school. Serving at the Mass was Deacon William Hawkins, who is also a graduate of the school, as is his son. His granddaughter is currently enrolled there.
“This is a wonderful place of formation of hearts, souls and character,” Cardinal McElroy said of the school. Prior to imparting his blessing at the end of the Mass, he urged students to remember “when we hurt, when we feel alone … turn to God in prayer.”
Archbishop Carroll High School, with a student body of 400, is a coeducational school sponsored by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington. It is one of two high schools administered by the archdiocese. The other is Don Bosco Cristo Rey High School in Takoma Park, Maryland, a coeducational school that is jointly sponsored by the archdiocese and the Salesians of Don Bosco.
Larry Savoy, the president of Archbishop Carroll High School and a member of the class of 1993 there, called Carroll High School “the cardinal’s school,” and thanked the cardinal for his “show of love and support for this wonderful place.”
Prior to the Mass, the school president said the cardinal’s visit serves a dual purpose.
“It is important for our young people to know the leader of the local Church, and it is important for him (Cardinal McElroy) to know that our young people are in a good place,” Savoy said.
Presented with a gift basket of Archbishop Carroll High School swag including a shirt with the school’s logo, Cardinal McElroy quipped, “They will certainly know where I’m from when I wear this.”
Mark Savercool, Carroll’s vice president for advancement, noted that “we are very excited to have the cardinal make his first visit. It’s a big deal for us.”
Inviting Cardinal McElroy to tour the school, Savoy told the cardinal that “we want to show you the wonderful things going on in this place where students are steeped in the Gospel values.”
Prior to being conducted on the tour, Cardinal McElroy blessed a Wall of Valor memorial in the school lobby that honors alumni of the school who died while serving in the military.
