Lwanga awardee finds blessings in mixing faith, science as Catholic educator

One of the perks of working at a Catholic school is discovering ways to incorporate faith into academics.

That’s exactly what Venus D. Spain has done with her freshman biology class at Cardinal Ritter College Prep High School. This past school year, she invited students to attend Mass at her parish, St. Peter Claver, which was followed up with a reflection paper on the “biology of God.”

Students were asked to make a connection between biology — the scientific study of life and living organisms — and what they’ve learned in theology class.

“It was, what’s the correlation, where does the faith fit into their study of science and the theology that they learned?” she said. “The Eucharist was a big part of that connection.”

It’s one example of how Spain integrates faith into her work as a science teacher at Cardinal Ritter. Earlier this month, the St. Charles Lwanga Center honored Spain with the Father Ed Feuerbacher Lifetime Achievement Award at its annual Testimonial Dinner and Celebration. She was one of several who were honored for their contributions in the community.

A career in education wasn’t originally in Spain’s plans, but as a student at Xavier University in the 1990s, she became involved in several youth-focused programs and helped coach basketball. It was there that a fellow coach encouraged her to pursue teaching.

Once she returned to St. Louis, Spain continued to coach youth sports and was hired as a third-grade teacher at the former Bishop Healy School. Three years later, she received a call from former Cardinal Ritter principal Carmelle Hall, who asked her if she’d consider a job teaching high school science. She recently celebrated her 25th anniversary at the school. In addition to freshman biology, she also teaches genetics to juniors and seniors.

In her nomination for the award, Spain was described as having aspired, inspired, and empowered her students to achieve their best and as modeling the threefold mission of Cardinal Ritter: academic excellence, leadership and faith development.

Spain said that the most rewarding part of her career has been being able to practice her Catholic faith through education.

Biology is largely focused on the characteristics of living things, but students also understand it through the lens of faith, she said. “We begin with cells, but they know there is a higher power connected to our whole formation as living human beings,” she said. “God formed us, and He formed this earth and living things in six, seven days, and He saw that it was good, right? He gave us the ability to think, to take care of all the other living creatures, and it is our responsibility to make sure that we’re doing that.”

Spain has been inspired in faith by the women of her parish and her late mother, Elizabeth Spain, who taught her that daily devotion, prayer, and service to God would manifest in abundant blessings. Over the years, she’s served at several parishes as an acolyte, an extraordinary minister of the Eucharist and a youth Sunday school leader. At St. Peter Claver, she’s involved in the Sister Antona Ebo Women’s Ministry.

Spain, who recently assisted with tornado recovery efforts, said it’s not about the things she has done but the blessings she’s received from God through the people and she’s encountered throughout her life, whether that’s at school, in church or in the community.

“I am really humbled that I was nominated to receive this award, and I just think there’s more to do,” she said. “I’m starting to realize that there’s more than I can do beyond my church.”

Father Carl Scheble also lifetime honoree

Father Carl Scheble was honored with the Father Ed Feuerbacher Lifetime Achievement Award from the St. Charles Lwanga Center in June.

Father Scheble was raised in the former Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish in the Baden neighborhood of north St. Louis. He later attended the former Prep North High School in Florissant, where he felt a calling to the priesthood.

After ordination in 1983, Father Scheble spent 18 years of his priesthood serving several predominantly African-American parishes on the northside of St. Louis, including Holy Rosary, Visitation-St. Ann and St. Elizabeth, Mother of John the Baptist. In all, he’s been a parish priest for 41 years, serving in urban, suburban and rural parishes across the archdiocese.

In 2023, he was named archdiocesan vicar general and moderator of the curia (the archdiocesan staff). He works closely with the episcopal vicars who oversee the archdiocese’s three vicariates (groupings of parishes within the archdiocese) to provide parish support and administration.

The Lwanga Center played an instrumental role in introducing him to the Black Catholic community, he said. Through the center, he became involved in youth and young adult ministry, marriage prep and the National Black Catholic Congress, among other activities. He also heard speakers hosted by Lwanga, including the late Benedictine Father Cyprian Davis, a prolific chronicler of black Catholic history, and Sister Thea Bowman.

“There were just incredible experiences that the Lwanga Center afforded me that I would have never had otherwise,” Father Scheble said. “For me, as a white clergyman, it was wonderfully formative.”

Father Scheble has overseen several parish mergers over the years, which he said is always a difficult process. However, at the same time, he has always felt welcomed by each parish community he has served.

“Coming as a priest … I was brought into their families, literally,” he said. “What a blessing to experience that.”

Lwanga Center awardees

Fr. Edward F. Feuerbacher Lifetime Achievement: Venus D. Spain and Father Carl Scheble

Trailblazer Award: Sister Gail Guelker, SSND, and Lynn Woolfolk

Torch Bearer Award: Jesuits of the Central and Southern Province, USA

Leon Henderson Award: Jessica Pou

Parish adult, young adult and youth honorees

Christ the King: Mimi Taylor-Hendrix (adult)

St. Ann: Dr. James Paunicka (adult); Ke’Von Reynolds (youth)

St. Josephine Bakhita: Sister Janice Munier, SSND (adult); Markus Willem Dowdy (posthumously, young adult)

St. Norbert: Jane Kariuki (adult); Kadin A.J. Anderson (youth)

St. Peter Claver: Rosalind Williams (adult); Andrea Lowe (young adult); Kennedy Thomas (youth)