Archbishop Richard Smith explains the significance of a green cord which holds his cross during an April 13 visit with kindergarten and Grade 1 students at J. J. Nearing School in St. Albert.

WCR PHOTO | RAMON GONZALEZ

Archbishop Richard Smith explains the significance of a green cord which holds his cross during an April 13 visit with kindergarten and Grade 1 students at J. J. Nearing School in St. Albert.
April 20, 2015
RAMON GONZALEZ
WESTERN CATHOLIC REPORTER

The heart of a Catholic school is Jesus, the archbishop of Edmonton told Catholic elementary students in St. Albert April 13.

Speaking to students at J.J. Nearing School, Archbishop Richard Smith said the Catholic school system is all about Jesus – knowing him, loving him and following him. "In a Catholic school, you learn all kinds of wonderful things, but at the heart of it all is learning about Jesus."

Smith spent all morning at the school, speaking to different grades separately in the library. The visit was part of his plan to visit all 182 Catholic schools in the archdiocese.

The higher grades got more of a lecture but all grades got a show-and-tell of the archbishop's main symbols, including the crozier, the pallium, the zucchetto and the mitre.

The archbishop fields a student question about his crozier.

WCR PHOTO | RAMON GONZALEZ

The archbishop fields a student question about his crozier.

"This is what the bishop would wear when he celebrates Mass," Smith explained.

Jesus had 12 "friends" called apostles whose role was to tell people about him, explained Smith. In the Catholic Church, the bishop represents the apostles and his role is to oversee the whole Church in his designated diocese and help the people stay faithful to Jesus.

"So the role of the bishop is to help people stay together in the faith following the Lord in accordance to the teaching that was left to us by the apostles."

In the Edmonton Archdiocese, which stretches from Lloydminster to Jasper from east to west and from Redwater to Olds from north to south, the archbishop is the shepherd for about 450,000 Catholics, 182 Catholic schools, a number of Catholic hospitals and several service agencies, Smith explained.

Smith sees Catholic schools as a precious gift

WESTERN CATHOLIC REPORTER

St. Albert – Archbishop Richard Smith has set out to visit all 182 Catholic schools in the Edmonton Archdiocese because he believes the schools are a precious gift.

"I think we have to do all that we can do to help the children know the Lord, follow the Lord and love the Lord," he said in an interview.

The school visits, Smith said, also provide him with a great opportunity to meet with teachers and principals to assure them, to encourage them and to help them in their role.

"We also realize today that sometimes children carry burdens that they shouldn't have to carry at such tender ages," he added.

"So it's also a wonderful way for me to draw close to them and to show the solicitude of the Church and our willingness to walk with them and to try to help them navigate some of these complex issues."

When Smith visits a school he often meets with students in small groups in question-and-answer sessions.

"Very often they will ask me to help them understand some of the things they have to grapple with," he explained.

"So they'll talk about depression and they'll talk about cyberbullying and they'll talk about stress and about problems at home.

"This is an opportunity for me so say, 'Okay, here is how the Church would help you respond to that.'"

Smith didn't have to deal with questions like this when he visited St. Albert's J.J. Nearing School April 13, but he often does when he meets with junior and senior high school students.

Grabbing the crozier, the archbishop asked the students what it reminded them of? Some replied, "a cane"; others said, "a shepherd."

Then Smith asked who our shepherd is? Children replied "God" or "the archbishop" and Smith said, "Jesus is our shepherd and he calls himself the Good Shepherd, right? He loves the sheep. Jesus is the shepherd and we are the sheep. So the sheep, we, follow Jesus."

Lifting his crozier, the archbishop said the shepherd uses the crozier "to keep the sheep all together as Jesus doesn't want any of us to get lost."

Another symbol related to the shepherd and sheep is the pallium, a narrow band woven of white lamb's wool which the archbishop wears over his shoulders. "This is worn by archbishops and every year when there is a new archbishop he gets this from the pope," Smith told students.

Who is our pope and where does he live? Smith asked. Most students knew the answer replying, "He is Pope Francis and he lives in Vatican City in Rome."

The archbishop said every year in January on the feast of St. Agnes the pope blesses some sheep, whose wool is sheered and used to make the pallium.

How did Jesus show he was the Good Shepherd? "By performing miracles," replied one Grade 4 student. "By caring," said another.

"These are great answers but he said one thing in particular; he said the Good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep," Smith explained.

"Jesus died to show his great love for us and to bring us all back together." Jesus was nailed to the cross and that explains the reason for three long golden pins on the pallium.

The cross is an important symbol of Christianity and all bishops wear one next to the chest.

When the bishop is at Mass he wears the cross under his robes. It hangs from a special green cord intertwined with gold, the official colour for a bishop. It manifests the unity of the bishop with the pope, whose cord is solid gold. The cord that holds a cardinal's cross is red intertwined with gold.

Smith noted bishops wear two hats, a purple cap called a zucchetto and the mitre, a tall folding cap, consisting of two similar parts rising to a peak and sewn together at the sides. Two short lappets that always hang down from the back represent the Old and New Testament respectively.

Students at St. Albert's J. J. Nearing School welcome Archbishop Smith April 13 at an assembly in the school gym.

WCR PHOTO | RAMON GONZALEZ

Students at St. Albert's J. J. Nearing School welcome Archbishop Smith April 13 at an assembly in the school gym.

Two students from J.J. Nearing said they were honoured that Smith visited their school.

"It's a great honour because he is so high up in the Church," said Riley Yurkiw, a Grade 4 student. "I learned we should pray in the morning and before we go to bed." The 10-year-old student described the archbishop as "a kind man and a nice man."

ONE OF THE HEADS

Student Deonne Wade, another Grade 4 student, said the archbishop's visit was "a really big honour because he is like one of the heads of the Church."

Deonne said she learned a lot from the discussion, including that "we have to use God more in our lives and to focus more on the one true thing we should be focusing on – God."

She said she was deeply impressed with all the different roles the archbishop has as well as "the different clothes he has for different occasions."