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Brady Kamphenkel teaches a class at Mater Dei. (Submitted photo)
Mater Dei, the education apostolate offering a Catholic high school option combining elements of homeschooling and more traditional school models, has found a new home in Cloquet.
Formerly based out of space the apostolate rented at Holy Family parish in West Duluth, the apostolate is now working out of previously unused space in the same building as Queen of Peace Catholic School in Cloquet.
Brady Kamphenkel, the apostolate’s new headmaster, said, “It’s sort of an idea whose time had come.”
A number of faculty and staff were from that area, some of the students were coming from the Cloquet area to Duluth, too, and even a couple of board members were at Queen of Peace.
When Stella Maris Academy, the diocesan Catholic school in Duluth, opened its long-awaited new Catholic high school and began to thrive, Kamphenkel said, it made sense that Mater Dei could be the most helpful to the most people by making the move.
He said when members reached out to Father Nick Nelson, pastor of Queen of Peace and president of its Catholic school, they found someone who had already been supportive of the apostolate and welcomed the idea.
“It’s just been a natural, I would say providential kind of connection and relationship established between Mater Dei and Queen of Peace parish and community,” Father Nelson said. For the parish and school community, it offers an opportunity to continue Catholic education into high school. For Mater Dei, he said, it’s a chance to continue its mission, become a little leaner, and take advantage of unused classrooms.
“It’s something that I’ve always desired to be able to have at a parish wherever I was,” Father Nelson said. “I’ve thought that Catholic education, whether it’s homeschooling, whether it’s actual school, whether it’s some sort of one-room schoolhouse, whatever, needs to be offered from young kids all the way through high school. This is kind of a dream come true for me to be able to offer that all in one campus to my parishioners.”
Kamphenkel said the move has gone very well so far. “It kind of worked out perfectly. We’re really, really pleased with the outcome,” he said. “Transition is always spooky, but it’s been better than we even hoped.”
The apostolate’s 13 students use five classrooms next to the parish office, with additional space downstairs for his office and an office manager. There’s also a gathering space for students.
“I love to hear the sounds of air hockey, ping pong, the muted soft thud of a chess piece,” Kamphenkel said. The students eat in the parish gathering space. They attend daily Mass each morning, just as the Queen of Peace students do. They pray the Angelus at lunch and end the day with the Divine Mercy Chaplet.
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Mater Dei students attend Mass at Queen of Peace Church. (Submitted photo) |
Kamphenkel said that although there’s only an unofficial relationship between Mater Dei and Queen of Peace School, it’s a friendly one, and he hopes the two entities can benefit each other.
Father Nelson said so far the kind of unofficial relationship is “quite ideal.” Mater Dei is a separate entity, a separate corporation, with its own board and finances. “Whether it survives or fails, it’s on their own, it has no connection with the parish,” he said “The parish isn’t taking on any liability or anything.”
At the same time, he sees commonality with the kind of pedagogy and curriculum being used at Queen of Peace, setting up what both he and Kamphenkel hope will be a natural progression of students being able to continue Catholic education as they leave the middle school years at Queen of Peace and enter high school.
Father Nelson’s own role with Mater Dei is, he said, unofficial but supportive and hands-on.
He said already the Mater Dei students are doing service projects in the parish. Just as boys from Queen of Peace serve at daily Mass and girls from the school act as sacristans, now one day a week it’s students from Mater Dei filling those roles.
Overall, he said, things have “been very, very smooth.”
Mater Dei’s Kamphenkel described Father Nelson as an “absolute champion” and “incredible supportive” and said there’s been a “really warm reception” for the apostolate.
For now, Kamphenkel said, it feels like the place Mater Dei is supposed to be.