Father Peter Marsalek, SOLT, the newly appointed President of John Paul II High School and Bishop Garriga Middle Preparatory School, addresses a large crowd during the April 23 press conference announcing his appointment.

Father Peter Marsalek has been appointed President of John Paul II High School and Bishop Garriga Middle Preparatory School. The announcement was made during an April 23 press conference on the John Paul II campus in the presence of students, parents, faculty, area Catholic school administrators and other local officials.

Click here to view video of the April 23 press conference

Father Marsalek, a priest of the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity has been serving as the Diocesan Director of Religious Education for the past two years, and will assume the position of president August 1.

René Gonzalez, diocesan Superintendent of Catholic Schools, pointed to the growth of John Paul II High School in the past three years, and the fact that the enrollment at Bishop Garriga Middle Preparatory School has almost tripled over the past six years prompted them to make the appointment.

Father Marsalek will be responsible for overseeing and fostering the continued growth and expansion of the two campuses, as well as the alignment of curriculum between the two schools, which are located adjacent to one another on Saratoga Blvd. in Corpus Christi. He will also assist with fundraising efforts and will serve as the chief spokesperson on behalf of the schools before the community.

During the press conference, leaders of both schools addressed the crowd. Included were Bishop Edmond Carmody. Father Joseph Lopez, diocesan Chancellor; Father Peter Martinez, Chaplain and Director of Institutional Advancement for John Paul II; Chuck Cazalas, President of John Paul II School Advisory Board and Gracie Mirabal, President of Bishop Garriga Middle Preparatory School.

Bishop Carmody told the students and faculty of the two schools, "You have inspired the community by what you are doing." Following his remarks he led the crowd in blessing Father Marsalek.

Father Marsalek is a native of Burlington, Ontario, Canada and was ordained in January of 2005. He holds a Licentiate in Sacred Theology, Summa Cum Laude, from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome, Italy and a Master of Science in Engineering from Queen's University in Kingston Ontario, Canada. Fr. Marsalek is also an accomplished athlete, having served as the Head Tennis Professional for 5 years at the Burlington Tennis Club, Burlington, Ontario, Canada. He has often used his athletic skills as a means to reach out to youth in educational settings.

Following are the remarks Father Marsalek made on the occasion of his appointment:

It is with a great sense of joy, humility and responsibility that I accept this appointment to become the President of John Paul II High School and Bishop Garriga Middle Preparatory School. Joy, because I have a passion for Catholic education, stemming from my own upbringing through Catholic Elementary and High Schools, and proceeding forth in my experiences working in catechesis, adult faith formation and teaching at a Catholic High School; humility, because I realize the importance vested in the position of the school president, and I recognize that I will be able to do justice to the position only with God's help and the support of all of you here today; and, responsibility, because Catholic education should offer and promise its students something unique and absolutely essential, namely, an encounter with Jesus Christ in all dimensions of the school's life. This is after all the purpose of Catholic education – to draw people by the power of the Gospel to live a life that is beautiful, good and true.

The rapid growth of John Paul II High School and Bishop Garriga Middle Preparatory School is a testimony to the fact that more and more parents recognize the need for excellence in the formation of their children. A formation which signifies something much more than merely passing on knowledge or information to students, but one which also pertains to the development of the student's character. However, the question arises, according to what standards should character be formed? In our contemporary age, people hesitate to make reference to absolute truths regarding the purpose of life, morality and ethical norms. This fear and hesitancy leaves a vacuum that is filled by a relativistic vision of truth that leaves each individual to decide for himself what truth and goodness are. Consequently, many educators pass on knowledge and information but character formation is limited because of the general confusion on what constitutes truth and goodness. As Pope Benedict XVI pointed out in his address to American Catholic educators last year, the crisis of truth is ultimately rooted in a crisis of faith in God and in the human person created in God's image and likeness.

In response to this crisis of truth, faith and character formation, one can easily perceive the wisdom behind the motto of John Paul II High School, "Fides, Ratio, Virtus" (faith, reason, virtue). Only through faith can we assent to the perennial truth that God has revealed to us in Jesus Christ. Only through faith can we perceive that Jesus Christ reveals the ultimate dignity of the human person, the purpose of human life and the vocation of the human person.

The Catholic faith however is never in contradiction or hostility with human reason. In fact, faith can help purify reason by ensuring that reason remains open to the consideration of ultimate truths. While doing my graduate studies in engineering, I can recall one of my supervisors stating to a fellow graduate student, "when you finish your doctoral dissertation, you will know 90% about a very small, small, fraction of the universe." In other words, scientific knowledge is important, but it should not be confused as containing all of the answers to the deepest desires of the human heart. To make an analogy, a mosaic is comprised of thousands of individual pieces that make up a single picture. However, if one becomes so fixated on their study of an individual piece to the point that they forget the perspective of the overall mosaic, their knowledge will be incomplete and perhaps even misleading. Only when knowledge is understood in the full context of the truth of the human person and his destiny as a child of God, can it be transformed into a wisdom that leads the human person to fulfillment in life.

Finally, the emphasis on virtue as the school motto is precisely a reference to character formation according to a very particular content. The Catholic Church never tires of upholding moral categories of right and wrong, good and evil, and virtue is nothing less than a firm disposition to act according to the truth about the good in every situation. This reference to the truth about the good is no arbitrary decision according to personal whim, but a reference to what has been revealed to us by Jesus Christ and shown to be utterly reasonable.

Catholic schools recognize that the great dignity of education lies in facilitating the attainment of the students' happiness. By forming students according to faith, reason and virtue, Catholic education leads students according to the truth about the good and assists them in discovering their God given vocation, or calling, in life. In discovering the fullness and the unity of truth, "young people will surely relish the discovery that the question of what they can know opens up the vast adventure of what they ought to do." (Pope Benedict XVI, Address to Catholic Educators at the Catholic University of America, April 17, 2008) It is this type of formation that leads students to an authentic experience of freedom lived in harmony with other people and not merely the aimless pursuit of novelty.

Your Excellency, Bishop Carmody, I thank you for the opportunity to serve in the capacity of President of John Paul II High School and Bishop Garriga Middle Preparatory School. Brother priests, I particularly anticipate collaborating with you in witnessing to the students through our consecrated life the path of true and genuine freedom. Administrators and teachers of the School Boards, Catholic Schools Office, John Paul II High School and Bishop Garriga Middle Preparatory School, I look forward to the prospect of working with you toward the fulfillment of the mission and vision of both schools. Finally, dear students, my desire is that ultimately, through your experience at John Paul II High School and Bishop Garriga Middle Preparatory School, you will acquire an education that opens many doors and opportunities for you, but most importantly, that each of you would one day leave John Paul II High School knowing that you are important to this community, that you are irreplaceable in God's eyes, that you are eternally loved, and that your ultimate fulfillment and happiness in life will come by living the magnificent life and vocation that God has called you to live.