Arlington Heights Catholic education organization, Cristo Rey Institute, acknowledges two donations from Raskob Foundation
Cristo Rey Institute of Arlington Heights, gratefully acknowledges an in-kind and a $10,000 cash donation from the nationally renowned Raskob Foundation to provide Catholic sponsorship and formation work at two newly opened Cristo Rey high schools in Miami, Florida and Santa Ana, California.
The Raskob Foundation has an almost 80-year legacy of grant making and philanthropic activities in service to the Catholic Church. The foundation provides resources in support of organizations, ministries, programs and projects associated with the Church throughout the world. Today, five generations of family members continue the vision established by its founders, John and Helena Raskob.
The Cristo Rey Institute (CRI) is a pontifical public juridic person (PJP) whose purpose is to offer another means of ensuring Catholic identity for schools within the Cristo Rey Network (CRN). All CRN schools must be Catholic schools. Most Cristo Rey schools ensure their Catholic identity by sponsorship through a Catholic religious order or congregation. CRI is another means to ensure the Catholic identity of CRN schools.
President Matthew Couture, president of Cristo Rey Institute stated: “We are especially thankful to the Raskob Foundation for being the first national Catholic charitable foundation to recognize and encourage our Catholic sponsorship and formation work for two new schools in Florida and California, and we intend to build on our successes there by sponsoring additional new Cristo Rey Network high schools in other areas of the country.
President Couture continued to explain the essential reason for CRI: “While having a religious order or congregation to sponsor a Cristo Rey high school is often the best choice, not all areas of our country have religious available to provide sponsorship. This is especially the case in those parts of our country where the Church is growing. In these places, the need for new Catholic educational institutions is especially strong. For Catholic education to flourish, the Church needs to develop new models to ensure Catholic identity for Catholic schools of the future. This is why CRI exists.”
CRI Executive director John Dussman also thanked the Raskob Foundation team and noted CRI’s alignment to Raskob goals with a famous quote from Raskob co-founder, John J. Raskob, “Go ahead and do things, the bigger the better, as long as your fundamentals are sound.”
The Cristo Rey Institute (CRI) is a permanent body of religious, ordained and lay people established under the authority of the Pope to participate on behalf of the Catholic Church “in the teaching ministry of Jesus Christ and to continually implement His charisma and values, especially to the underserved children and families.” It is specifically charged with providing the possibility of official Catholic religious sponsorship for Cristo Rey Network Schools.
Cristo Rey Institute was founded by the Midwest Province of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits), the Clerics of St. Viator and the Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth.
Information about the Raskob Foundation can be found here: rfca.org.
More information about the Cristo Rey Institute is available at www.cristoreyinstitute.org or by emailing John Dussman at jdussman@cristoreyinstitute.org.