In his new book What Makes Education Catholic: Spiritual Foundations (Orbis Books, 2021), internationally renowned religious education expert Thomas Groome offers brief overviews of some of the important voices in the Catholic intellectual tradition and Catholicism with whom he feels Catholic educators should be familiar, such as Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, Julian of Norwich, Ignatius of Loyola, Angela Merici, and Mary Ward. He shows how these foremothers and fathers of Catholic education can ground and shape the spirituality of Catholic educators in today’s postmodern world. Groome is a professor of theology and religious education in the Boston College School of Theology and Ministry and founding director of the Ph.D. program in theology and education. “Catholic schools educate from a faith perspective and for a faith perspective,” he said. He added that it doesn’t mean imposing Catholicism on students, but rather “giving access to a faith-inspired education that engages the souls as well as the minds of participants and leans them into a gracious Transcendent Horizon of meaning, purpose, and values, [that] can offer heightened hope for life lived well and for the common good. of all.” Groome is an award-winning author whose other publications include Educating for Life, What Makes Us Catholic, Will There Be Faith?, Faith for the Heart, and a widely-used textbook series. Read more about his latest book from BC News.