For Immediate Release
Contact: Laura Graves, Principal
Phone: 217.816.6295
Email: lgraves@hfaemail.org
PHOENIX—Holy Family Academy in Phoenix has been officially recognized as an independent, Catholic School in the Diocese of Phoenix. The announcement came in a formal decree issued by His Excellency Bishop Thomas Olmsted.
“We are most grateful to Bishop Olmsted for this acknowledgement of Holy Family Academy’s faithfulness and its commitment to providing Christ-centered, traditional Catholic education,” said Dr. Shirley Weis, chair of the Board of Directors.
“We have been in discussions with the diocese for about three years,” said Laura Graves, principal. “Part of this process is a review of the content and quality of the curriculum as well as our religious education. This is such a blessing for our students, faculty and parents,” she said.
Holy Family Academy aims to provide students in K-12 with a truly outstanding education in the classical liberal arts in an environment that is conducive to formation of the whole person. The school strives to ultimately form good Catholic citizens – men and women willing and able to work for the restoration of all things in Christ, freely submitting to Our Lord in the spiritual, moral intellectual and physical realms.
Principal Graves explained that in early 2018 a group of dads met to pray abut and discuss their responsibilities as parents in the education of their children and options available to them. They sought a quality, faith-based curriculum in a spiritually enriching environment. They ultimately decided to form Holy Family Academy and they moved into a temporary site in the fall of that year.
After extensive renovations to a beautiful new location purchased for this purpose in 2020, the academy is thriving in its permanent home at State Route 51 and Thomas Road near Phoenix Children’s Hospital.
The latest project for the academy was construction of a 170-person chapel. The chapel opened this past August. The school has offered weekly Mass and Confession, as well as daily Rosary and other services based on the liturgical calendar and school schedule, for the past two years.
The success and growth of the academy has repeatedly demonstrated Divine intervention and grace. Official designation as an independent, Catholic institution is just the latest example of this.
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