The Bishop Maginn graduating class was unlike any other, said Principal Mike Tolan in a very warm and moving speech at his school’s graduating ceremony.

The graduating students got their diplomas in the stately Albany Cathedral, re-constituted to meet every one of the most rigorous CDC coronavirus regulations.

“Many of you came to the school in the ashes of 911,” Tolan said, “and leave with Covid-19. “It is your turn to make a better world.”

The Bishop Maginn senior class was a beautiful thing to see, it touched me deeply.

I have heard the stories of these children, young adults now, who together made up the tapestry that makes America so special.

There were graduates from years of refugee camps, genocides, civil wars, some orphaned, from poor neighborhoods, brown and black and yellow children,  students from white middle-class homes, broken homes, abusive homes, foreign countries.

It was the great American melting pot, proof that diversity works in the most beautiful ways, and why it is our greatness, not our shame.

Almost all of the children were born into crisis, lived through crises, and graduated in a time of turmoil and crisis.

Mike Tolan is a true child of Jesus, not a pretender. Hardly any of these children could pay their tuition or gone to any other private school for the special attention they need.

When they needed a place to go, Bishop Maginn was a refuge they all say they will never forget.

Not one of them was turned away.  I am proud to say we – the AOG –  paid the tuition for more than a dozen, many of them new.

“Go have a beautiful life,” he said at the end of his speech.

Tolan’s school is a place of love. In more than a year of working with these children, none of them experienced a cruel or bigoted or excluded moment at this school.

So many of these children have suffered terror, chaos, death, sickness, even brutal harassment in the public schools they first attended. One of the graduates was hospitalized after a beating in a middle school.

Another had his hair set on fire. Every one of them told me how safe they felt at Bishop Maginn, how much the teachers cared, how free and supported they felt to learn.

I won’t forget a young refugee female from Thailand asking me “why so many people in America hate us now.” You haven’t met the real America yet, I said.

Sue Silverstein loves them all, and she and her classroom are open to them every single day of their lives.

And the true America, the Army of Good,  sent these children food, school supplies, graduation supplies, laptops, microscopes, and a hundred other things.

They got the message, all of you were there with me in that cathedral today, I felt all of you are blessed for what you have done.

The seniors will be fine, they know how to endure and move forward. They just might change our world and bail out the earth.

Principal Tolan talked about how hard this class worked, inside and out. He said it was a common thing for one of them to ask permission to leave school early on some days.

You are, he told the graduates, “a model for the world. If the world could be like our school, it would be a wonderful place.”

Why?, he would ask them. Because we have to get to our jobs, they said.

They are, to me, the heart of America.

Valedictorian Gabe Silverstein-Gilligan gave a beautiful and honest speech about real life in America today, and their very difficult year. He talked about the challenges all of them faced leaving this supportive cocoon.

He talked about Spring this was a rough time, and how an “Army Of Strangers” came to help them.

The names of the graduates were a song of the new America:  Gabriel, Tamia, Anastasia, Olivia, Than, CarolJulia, CarolMaria, Dajenae, Cecelia, Tajenae, Maya, O’Zariah, Blue, Hassani, Christer H, Christer S, Michael, Madeline,  Joshua, June, Eh Thaw, Anthony.

Nobody can stop it or crush it. They are on their way. What a privilege to know and work at this school, a place unlike any other I have seen or known.

The ceremony was really a mirror of the pandemic realities facing them as they graduate. Sue Silverstein followed every CDC guideline to the letter. She spent days making sure every regulation was understood and followed to the letter.

I couldn’t look in any direction without seeing tapes and restrictions and ribbons and guidelines. The huge and beautiful cathedral was a sea of masks.

Maria and I sat in our own pew at the rear of the vast and beautiful Albany Cathedral. We couldn’t come near the students and they couldn’t come near us.

Every senior marched up alone to the front of the building to pick up their awards and diplomas. There were at least six feet of distance from everyone sitting in the pews.

They cheered each other loudly as, one by one, they walked smiling down to the front to get their diplomas, and returned to clapping friends and siblings, and flashing cellphones.

Everyone had to wear masks. Still, the graduates were festive, the cell phones were out in force. Outside, the students posed for their families and friends.

When I got home, there was a message from Mike, a good man I greatly admire, a warrior for love and compassion.

“Jon,” he wrote, “there is never enough ways to say thanks. Let’s resume our Wednesday’s as soon as we can.” Wednesdays are my regular day for visiting Bishop Maginn.

I can’t wait to get back and talk to the new seniors and resume my work. Thanks to you all for helping make this happen.