In a letter to the archdiocese accompanying the announcement, Moo said he knows “there is desire to know the plans and agenda for the future” but that the plan on the outset is to “get to know [the] community” and “spend time in prayer with the Lord, alongside Archbishop [Alexander] Sample, his leadership team, and all of you, asking the Lord to reveal to us his plans and his desires for the mission of Catholic education in western Oregon.”
Moo also emphasized that Catholic education needs to provide “the opportunity to come to encounter and know Jesus Christ.”
“The Church’s vision and mission for education is not a model to be implemented or the latest trendy educational fad to be adopted,” Moo said.
“It is our timeless charter and heritage, one that has withstood the test of time over many centuries and is handed on to us today, one that calls our schools to be ‘[sanctuaries] of education’ on a spiritual, intellectual, and moral rescue mission for souls.”
The closure of the archdiocese’s former Department of Catholic Schools in June came less than seven months after Sample issued guidelines on how Catholics should handle gender ideology.
Part of the guidance included recommendations that “Catholic institutions should not endorse gender identity theory nor enable any form of gender transition whether social or medical.”