As I ponder about the needs of our students, parents, teachers, and Cathedral, I have been transfixed by recent news from the Office of the US Surgeon General about a new Epidemic which is largely hidden but ever so important for us to call to our attention as parents, educators, priests, and religious.
I recently learned that our nation's Surgeon General Vivek Murthy has declared a National Epidemic of Loneliness. Below, you will find short videos on this new epidemic, which has relevant not only to our country's national discourse, but also relevant to our conversations as parents, teachers, priests, and religious.
Murthy shares in his report that loneliness is not just a feeling but a sense of isolation tied to increased health risks. The stress of lacking connections with others and the lack of healthy relationships is equivalent to the health risks of smoking 15 cigarettes a day.
What I also found incredibly striking in his report is that people between the ages of 17-24 spend 70% less time with their peers than those of the same age group from the early 2000s. With these statistics in mind, I would suggest to all of us, the foundations to make good and healthy relationships begin in the K-8 years.
Upon hearing news of these reports, I find myself reflecting in great gratitude for our Cathedral, Fr. Christy and his brother priests, who serve as great counselors and spiritual fathers for us, and our religious sisters in Sr. Mary Elizabeth and Sr. Josephine, who serve as spiritual mothers for us as well. I also find rest in the new resources we have in our administrative team, with Ms. Dalton as our Director of Academics being a constant and available support to our teachers and Mrs. Barbone, who is available to help our students form the healthy connections they need with one another and with their teachers. Throughout the summer, I have also collaborated closely with our HSA to find new ways to connect our families and build our community, which I am excited for all of us to experience as the year goes on.
We are so blessed to be here at the Cathedral and here at the St. Francis Cathedral School, and we are so blessed to have the gift of our Catholic Faith. In Jesus's Farewell Discourse, his final prayer, and his longest prayer in scripture is that we may all be one as the Father and Him are one. Jesus invites us into a relationship with each other as one Church and, ultimately, with Himself.
Jesus's wisdom echoes through time, in the living rooms of our homes and in our classrooms. As educators, we profoundly know and have experienced that when our kids are connected with their teachers, parents, and peers, academic excellence across every subject area for that child has the potential for exponential growth.
May all that we do be means to the end of building community, helping one another when we need it the most, and being present to one another. May we live the relationships that God calls us to as a community and model them for our children for not only the expected academic outcomes of these relationships, but also for the safety and security we want our kids to experience and have.