The priests, brothers, sisters, and ministries of the Congregation of Holy Cross celebrate this week as one of our own is honored at the 2011 NCEA Convention and Expo in New Orleans.

Fr. Neil Wack, C.S.C., was named a Distinguished Pastor by the National Catholic Education Association (NCEA) for his “outstanding support of Catholic Education.” Fr. Neil is pastor of Christ the King Parish in South Bend, IN, which is the parish in which he was raised. Under Wack's leadership, Christ the King School has maintained its status as one of the flagship schools in the Diocese of Fort Wayne/South Bend. A 1984 graduate of the school and now a local celebrity, Fr. Neil said of the Holy Cross education the parish and school provide: “Our mission and the mission of all Catholic schools is that very basic mission of what Father Basil Moreau said, ‘Educate the mind and the heart, but never educate the mind at the expense of the heart.’ Everything we do is geared towards that, and every decision I make should be looking to that.”