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This November, the Vatican will host the , at which educational experts from across the globe will meet to discuss “the challenges that the ‘educational emergency’ unavoidably provokes for our societies, educational systems, and the Church.” Among those experts invited to participate will be one of the preeminent advocates for Catholic liberal education in the United States, Michael Van Hecke (’86).

“The aim of this Congress echoes everything I’ve strived for in my work,” Mr. Van Hecke. “The issues of this congress are the same issues I’ve been discussing with colleagues, superintendents, and bishops for … years.”

Mr. Van Hecke is the headmaster of , a K-12 classical school in Ventura, California, that is consistently ranked among the best Catholic schools in the United States. He is also the president of the and the president and founder of the (ICLE).

“People are desperate to know how to revitalize Catholic schools,” Mr. Van Hecke observes, and “the Catholic Textbook Project and the Institute for Catholic Liberal Education have become the organizations to go to for help.” Catholic schools in more than 50 dioceses in North America and overseas and now using Catholic Textbook Project textbooks, and the ICLE has been active in helping Catholic schools across the country to adopt classical, authentically Catholic curricula.

The Congregation for Catholic Education is hosting the World Congress, which will take place in Vatican City, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council’s declaration Gravissimum Educationis and the 25th anniversary of the Pope St. John Paul’s Ex Corde Ecclesiae. “I am grateful for the Vatican invitation and look forward to the November Congress and its international discussion,” says Mr. Van Hecke. “I hope that others might benefit from the experience we have gained from our work with Catholic schools here in North America.”