Being Jewish at a Catholic high school

Here’s a perspective you don’t hear often, from writer Aaron Reiss in The Houston Press: 

I’m sure it seems weird at this point that I chose to go to Catholic school. My grandmother on my dad’s side of the family was skeptical. I remember my dad and I picking her up from airport once while I was in high school, and the discussion of one priest sex scandal caused her to say she thought being a priest — mostly being abstinent — wasn’t healthy for people. She thought it was a broken system.

Some of my classmates at Catholic school had opposite but equally uninformed views. The first activity of my high school orientation was to have first period classes get together in a circle and meet each other. My first period class was advanced geometry with Rev. Kevin Storey, a Canadian with a huge smile of fake teeth. We as a class participated in a typical orientation icebreaker: What’s an interesting fact about you? When it was my turn, I said, “I’m Jewish.” (Catholic school is probably the only place this qualifies as an interesting fact.) Storey repeated my fact to the rest of the class, in case anyone didn’t hear, and the reaction was mum. It wasn’t a conversation starter like some of the other facts — I play baseball; I wrestle; I went to Alaska this summer. And as the school year got into full swing, I had classmates ask me with a sense of confusion, “You’re Jewish?” or “What do you think of theology class?” or “Why’d you come here?”

Good question.

I went to St. Thomas because I liked my tour of the campus. The school seemed nice, and one of my best friends was going there. It was either St. Thomas or Lamar, and I never gave Lamar a chance. It was an uninformed decision. I was 13.

I remember the first time I was in a class that stood to pray before it began a lesson. Students recited the Our Father, which I didn’t know, and faced a crucifix, which I hadn’t noticed previously.

Going into high school, I hadn’t thought about the idea of taking a theology class, or that I might have priests as teachers. But theology wasn’t a problem — I had no more issues with it than I did with English or math classes. The priests I had as educators are some of the best people I’ve ever met, and Storey was the best of them.