Parishioners work for continued Catholic education in area

Submitted on March 05, 2009

Send to friendThe 11 parishes of the Northeast St. Louis County Deanery are combining their efforts to provide for the future of Catholic education in the deanery "in a way that’s never been done before," according to Chuck James, chairman of the deanery’s Ad Hoc Committee on Education. James, a member of Blessed Teresa of Calcutta Parish in Ferguson, called the deanery’s Excellence in Education Initiative "exciting." Father Michael Henning, pastor of Holy Name of Jesus Parish in Bissell Hills, said, "We are trying to look at this in a different way." "This is a great commitment by Catholics of this deanery to really have a say in what we want our future to be," said Bob Freesmeier, a member of St. Fernand Parish in Florissant and chairman of the Northeast Deanery Pastoral Council. The Northeast County Deanery has nine parish schools and a special education learning center serving more than 2,200 students. The deanery underwent a large-scale consolidation of parishes and schools several years ago. "We believed that before things deteriorated in any parish to the point that more closings be made, we needed to get together and position ourselves to be prepared for the future," James said. "We think we can do things better together than separately."