Welcome from Deacon Fournier (Dean of Catholic Identity)

Dear Parents, Students, Supporters, Community Members and Friends,

It is my honor to assist Bishop Joseph Strickland, the Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Tyler, Texas, and the Chancellor of the Bishop Gorman Catholic School, as the Dean of Catholic Identity at the Bishop Gorman Catholic School. It is a great honor to serve parents, the first teachers of their children.

Catholic Schools are an extension of the teaching work of the Catholic Church. The living Jesus Christ still teaches and directs His Church. And, through that Church, the Lord continues to influence all human culture with the Light of His Gospel. The faithful of the Church are called to inculcate and live the truth as articulated under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit by the Sacred Scriptures (the Bible), the Christian Tradition, and the authentic teaching office (Magisterium) of the Catholic Church.

At the forefront of the mission of the Catholic Church is the education of the next generation of Catholic men and women. It is Christ the Teacher who teaches His children in the Catholic School. As Pope Saint John Paul II said so succinctly in an address to Catholic educators in 1979 “Catholic education is above all a question of communicating Christ, of helping to form Christ in the lives of others.” This mission is inter-generational because the Church exists to evangelize, catechize, and educate until the Lord returns.

Catholic education exists to put students in touch with the source of all Truth and Beauty, the living God, fully revealed in Jesus Christ. Though this occurs in the teaching of theology, it is also meant to be infused in the teaching of every academic discipline.

Dean of Catholic Identity Responsibilities

The Dean of Catholic Identity is the pastoral representative of the Catholic Bishop of the Diocese of Tyler, Texas to Bishop Thomas K. Gorman Catholic School. Catholic Schools are an extension of the teaching ministry of the Catholic Church. The Dean has the responsibility for ensuring that the Catholic Christian Identity of the School informs every aspect of the school.

The Dean serves as a Major Administrator of the School, working with the principal, the faculty, the Chaplain, and the entire staff to ensure that the school is a place where the fullness of the Catholic Christian faith is taught, lived, experienced, and passed on to students.

The Dean of Catholic Identity reports directly to the Bishop of Tyler who is also the Chancellor of the School.