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The Seed Bears Fruit: NAPC*IS is Formed
By the summer of 1995, the number of private independent schools teaching the Catholic Faith had increased dramatically. No one knew the exact figure; the estimate was over a hundred. Some, like Kolbe Academy and Holy Angels Academy, had recognition from their bishop to call themselves Catholic.

Francis Crotty, always the visionary, saw the need for an association of these schools that would preserve and promote their independence and support faithful Catholic education. This vision was shared and realized by the founders of the four charter member schools of NAPC*IS: Kolbe Academy of Napa, CA; Manresa Academy of Reno, NV; St. Thomas Aquinas School, Tahoe City, CA; and St. Maria Goretti Academy, Loomis, CA.

The vision of NAPC*IS was declared in the “Sweetwater Document,” the official statement of the founders’ recording of the formation of the association, whose mission was “to provide for the spiritual and academic welfare of our nation's Catholic schoolchildren, directed to the greater glory of God and the growth of His Church on earth. Fulfillment of this purpose will come from strict adherence to the Magisterium of the Roman Catholic Church and from the implementation of reasonable and demonstrated practices of education.” The “Sweetwater Document” was a rejection of the 1967 "Land O'Lakes Statement" issued by the International Federation of Catholic Universities under the Presidency of Theodore Hesburgh of Notre Dame which, in effect, divorced Catholic education from the Catholic Church in its assertion "to perform its teaching research functions effectively, the Catholic university must have a true autonomy and academic freedom in the face of authority of whatever kind, lay or clerical, external to the academic community itself." The “Sweetwater Document” proudly asserted, “academic freedom and the application of high professional standards in the preparation and teaching of the Catholic Faith comes not from autonomy and rejection of authority, but rather, only by embracing Truth as preserved by the Holy See and protected under its authority.”

The asterisk in the NAPC*IS name is explained, thus: * The word Catholic appears in the name of the National Association of Private Catholic and Independent Schools only to reflect the fact that some member schools have received the consent of the competent ecclesiastical authority in their diocese to bear the title Catholic school in accordance with c. 803.3. NAPCIS claims no authority to determine if a member school can bear this title, nor does membership in NAPCIS permit a school to call itself Catholic.

For twelve years NAPC*IS has:

1. Provided an accreditation and teacher certification organization for private Catholic and independent schools;
2. Promoted and assisted in the establishment of new private Catholic and independent schools;
3. Assisted administrators and teachers of private Catholic and independent schools in applying Roman Catholic teachings and sound academic principles to education;
4. Guaranteed the right of parents to choose an education for their children in accordance with their religious faith.

NAPC*IS now has a membership of 64 schools from 30 states across the country. The estimate of private Catholic and independent schools nationwide and in Canada now stands at 180. Why aren’t they all NAPC*IS member schools? “Independent” is the operative word, but we’re working on breaking through that barrier to make the point that it is not just what NAPC*IS has to offer to schools as a reason to join, but what each school has to offer to each other, and to those who are looking for assistance to start a school, or for parents to aid in their search for an alternative in the education of their children.