A Message to the Class of 2020 from Bishop Tobin

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In my own name and on behalf of the entire Diocese of Providence, I wish to extend our very sincere congratulations and best wishes to the seniors who are graduating from our Catholic High Schools this year.
And also a word of sincere gratitude to everyone in our schools who has helped the schools successfully navigate the unusual challenges of this year — to our administrators, teachers, staff, parents and students — thank you very much for your dedication and your really good work!
To our senior class — I suspect that if you live to be a hundred years old, you will never forget the experiences of this year. You will tell your children and grandchildren about how everything changed — about the challenges of distance learning, about how your sports and extracurricular activities were cancelled, how you were locked-down in your homes, how you couldn’t hang-out with your friends, and how you couldn’t even have an in-person graduation. It’s been an unusual, difficult time, hasn’t it?
But in remembering this year, I hope you will also think of how people in our church and community came together to help and support one another, in creative and useful ways. I hope you will remember the great sacrifices that lots of folks in our community made, and how encouragement, charity and compassion became the hallmarks of the spring and summer of 2020. Many of you have been involved in these good works too — thank you for caring, and for sharing!
And now, as you move on to the future, I wish you continued success and the fullness of God’s blessings. I urge you, especially, to stay close to God and to be strong in faith. Your faith in God will be the rock-solid foundation on which you build the rest of your life.
Your faith will give your life direction and meaning; it will help you to weather the storms of life; and it will, in the end, open up for you the gates of heaven, the doors of eternal life. So . . . stay close to God, be strong in faith, and God will walk with you every step of the way!
Dear Seniors, thank you for your good work, congratulations and may God be with you!