Student interviews bishop on Tekakwitha

When David Lee, a sixth-grader at Christ the King School, was first informed of his "Individual in History" school project for National History Day, he wanted to work on someone relevant to the Catholic Church.

"I wanted to do a Native American that had an impact on Christian Society," he said.
The Native American he chose happened to be Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha, a favorite figure in the Albany Diocese.

"I did not know much about her," he admitted. "She was going into sainthood when my mom turned on the news and she told me about it."

Life of service
Blessed Kateri, the "Lily of the Mohawks," is in position to become the first Native Ameri-can saint. She was born in 1656 in a village called Ossernenon, now Auriesville, and later converted and lived near Fonda. She moved to a Mohawk settlement near Quebec to escape persecution and died at the age of 24 after leading a life of celibacy and charity.
Choosing an individual was only the first part of the process for David, however. As his social studies teacher, David Veeder, pointed out: "They had to select a person and thoroughly research why this person is important in history."

For his research, David decided to go to the top, so to speak, and interview Bishop Howard J. Hubbard.

"My mom set up a meeting to get more information," he said.

David came to the diocesan Pastoral Center in Albany with a list of questions on Blessed Kateri, which he relayed to the Bishop in an interview.

Good answers
"The Bishop was really knowledgeable about Kateri Tekakwitha and gave me a lot of good information about her," David explained. "He helped me understand all the hard work that goes into the canonization process and he gave me a blessed medal of Kateri Tekakwitha."

On his meeting and interview with the bishop, David said "it was very enlightening. I thought the Bishop was really nice."

Mr. Veeder described the project a little more in depth.

"It's a national competition for sixth- to eighth-graders to do a project for a certain kind of theme for history," he explained. "There are different levels of competition. There's the regional competition, which is held in the New York State Museum and the winners of that go to the state competition held in Cooperstown. Then the state winners go onto the national competition at the University of Maryland."

Teacher's tie
Mr. Veeder said the winners will not be announced until spring of 2009.

As for David's project on Kateri Tekakwitha, as well as all his other students, Mr. Veeder is expecting an interesting presentation.

"I've talked to him," Mr. Veeder said. "I am excited for a personal reason: [Regarding] the land [Blessed Kateri] lived on, there's a deed my great-great-great grandfather bought. It's the land where the shrine and museum are now."

The shrine of Blessed Kateri is located in Fonda, while the museum is located in Auries-ville, where she lived.

"It is interesting that our next saint might be Kateri, someone who lived in our own backyard," David said. "I will pray that it happens soon."

(11/06/08)