This year we have more than 1,000 young men and women graduating from our private and diocesan Catholic high schools. I am very proud of them and equally proud of their parents, many of whom have made great personal sacrifices to provide their children with a fine Catholic education.

Happily, the great majority of the graduates will be going to universities and colleges to complete their education, in some cases to become the first college graduate in their family. I congratulate them for their achievement and wish them well in their future undertakings.

It was my privilege to participate in the graduation ceremonies at Bishop Dunne High School earlier this week and I was particularly impressed at the number of scholarships awarded to the graduates. Many were full scholarships to prestigious institutions like Harvard, Cornell, the U.S. Naval Academy and Stanford. Scholarships to Bishop Dunne graduates totalled nearly $4,000,000.

Honors such as these not only reflect on the academic ability of the students involved but on the academic excellence of the institutions.