A triumph of hope

By Paul Barra  

AUGUST 20, 2010 6:30 a.m. (0)

August 15 was the feast of the Assumption, an important date for Catholics and especially for St. Joseph’s Catholic School in Greenville.

The date celebrates the belief that the Mother of God was physically taken into heaven at the end of her life. Catholics, both Eastern and Roman rites, believe Mary personifies the goodness of the human race and God’s promises to us.

For St. Joe’s, it also marks the date 10 years ago when the school finally was accepted as a bonafide Catholic institution. Prior to that, it had been relegated to calling itself “a private school in the Catholic tradition.”

From its perilous beginning, with 13 freshmen in a house borrowed from St. Michael’s Lutheran Church in 1993, the school wanted nothing more than to be a Catholic secondary school in the Upstate, which had, and has, no other. The Diocese of Charleston, which encompasses the entirety of South Carolina, had its own financial concerns and would not accept SJCS as a diocesan institution. St. Joseph’s was left on its own.

The parents who started the school mortgaged everything but their souls to keep hope alive. They made mistakes, corrected them, then made some more. They borrowed money, and then borrowed some more.

Gradually, the school began to grow, its student population and its reputation. By 2000 it had established itself among the best high schools in the state. Through it all, the school maintained its philosophy of hiring only teachers whose credentials were matched by faith and of infusing its curricula and activities with traditional Christian values.

When Robert J. Baker was ordained Bishop of Charleston in the spring of that year, the school petitioned the chancery again for recognition. Aides advised Bishop Baker he had more important issues to deal with, but he invited Greenville native Margaret Ann Moon to the episcopal residence for lunch to listen to her plea on behalf of the St. Joe’s community. Moon’s presentation and the witness of many others convinced the bishop the school was a faithful Catholic institution.

The bishop came to Greenville that summer, blessed the school and signed an agreement recognizing St. Joseph’s as the first independent Catholic School in the Diocese of Charleston. On the eve of his promotion to Bishop of Birmingham in 2008, he called it one of his best decisions as leader of South Carolina’s Catholics.

It was as if long awaited rains had come to a fertile field. St. Joseph’s blossomed. It added a middle school, a gymnasium and a football stadium. It became a fixture among the Top 50 Catholic High Schools in the nation. Graduates are accepted to the most prestigious colleges and earn millions in scholarships; academic and athletic teams have gained a reputation for excellence; and more parents seek to enroll their children every year. For the 2010-2011 year, SJCS has an enrollment of 590 students.

It is the only Catholic school in the state with a full-time chaplain, and it has nurtured conversions to Catholicism and vocations to the priesthood. Graduates teach in Catholic schools.

Through its successes, St. Joe’s remains accessible. Not a whiff of elitism exists in its halls or on its playing fields. Students do not put locks on their lockers. SJCS assists families with nearly $500,000 in tuition aid annually. And it does it all as a private academy.

I call St. Joseph’s a triumph of hope because there wasn’t much else to rely on in those early, scary years - and because hope in the goodness of the institutional Church eventually came to fruition on the feast of the Assumption 10 years ago.

Paul A. Barra is a writer who lives in Reidville.  He has taught in South Carolina’s public schools and at St. Joseph’s Catholic School, and has written a book about the school (“St. Joe’s Remarkable Journey,” Tumblar House, 2008). Contact him at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

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