Father Joseph Gifford traded the stage for the sanctuary. The 27-year-old newly ordained priest was on track for a promising career in opera when he discerned God was calling him to the priesthood.
Guadalupe Rodriguez came to Visitation School as a shy freshman, but now as a senior, she greets visitors while working the front desk at the entrance of the school adjacent to the Visitation Sisters’ former monastery.
When Bethlehem Academy senior Joseph Seidel’s plans to take a probability and statistics course through Northwestern University in St. Paul fell through last year, he took an independent study on saints’ writings instead.
Benilde-St. Margaret’s School senior softball captain Taylor Damberg found success on the diamond and something worth even more in the halls and classrooms of the high school in St. Louis Park.
The Catholic Spirit asked Archbishop Bernard Hebda to describe the Roadmap for Excellence in Catholic Education and to explain how he hopes it shapes Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.
