Our Catholic School exists because of the Gospel call of Jesus. In today's reading of the Beatitudes we see how different we must be from the world around us. We want to help parents to raise their children with those values. It is sometimes so hard for parents. They can feel overwhelmed, for instance, by advertising which pressures their children to get certain brands of shoes and clothes.

I saw a tragic example of that when I was in the Philippines. American style advertisements are constantly on television and billboards. One priest told us that children there, boys and girls, will actually prostitute themselves to get money to buy the right kind of clothes. The poison of our consumer society, what the pope calls the "culture of death," has spread thru the whole world.

Here at Holy Family we hope to form young people who will resist that culture of death. To do that we need Jesus and the Catholic faith he gives us. Our parish school not just to give a good education, but for the faith, to introduce that young person to Jesus and his message. Many of you have made great sacrifices to keep Holy Family School going. This year we have been blessed by a wonderful, young principal. He is a family man and a person of faith. It is with great pleasure I present Mr. Steve Morissette.

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