Catholic St. Louis magazine

A principal gift of faith

Photos by Jacob Wiegand | jacobwiegand@archstl.org Connie Johnson, principal at All Saints Academy at St. Norbert Parish, assisted kindergartener Stella Macias during dropoff before the start of school in November. Johnson, who is in her first year at St. Norbert, is a parishioner at St. Theodore in Flint Hill.

As a first-year Catholic school principal and new to the faith, Connie Johnson wants to use her gifts for God’s people

During a routine visit to classes at All Saints Academy-St. Norbert, principal Connie Johnson checked in with second graders as they were reviewing an all-important lesson on the use of contractions.

“That apostrophe is actually doing something,” she said as students carefully examined the word you’re written on the board in front of them. “That’s taking the place of what two words?”

“You is one of them,” she explained. “What is the other one?”

“Are,” several students chimed in.

“Yes, ‘are.’ You are. I know, that’s mind-blowing, right?”

As a first-year principal, those quick visits are an important building block in fostering relationships with her students, Connie said. And as a first-year Catholic — Connie was received into the Church at the Easter Vigil in 2024 — she also believes it’s essential to share the gift of faith with others.

“I feel like that’s part of my mission here,” she said. “Of course, we’re going to make sure the kids know who Jesus is and that Jesus loves them. But we can also let our teachers know that, and we can let our staff know that, and you just never know where that person is. Because that’s kind of what happened to me.”

Connie Johnson, sang to fifth grader Sebastian Sosa Romero for his upcoming birthday.

Teaching has been a part of Connie’s life since 2000, primarily with middle school math. She left education for a few years, but then returned and eventually applied for a teaching job at Sacred Heart School in Troy in 2021.

“That’s where my whole world was turned upside down,” she said.

After feeling unwelcome and eventually leaving another Christian church where she and her husband had been longtime members, Connie was reluctant to participate much at Sacred Heart when it came to matters of faith.

Her teaching partner Bridget Hemmer noticed. Bridget didn’t press the subject, but instead offered gentle encouragement, often fielding questions that Connie had about the Mass, prayers and other Church traditions.

“At the beginning, we didn’t want to put any pressure on her because we didn’t want to push her away,” Bridget recalled. “The staff at Sacred Heart is loving, kind and generous and open to everyone. I think that was the pull that brought her in. Nobody was pushing. We were open to any questions she had.”

By her second year at Sacred Heart, Connie knew it was time to take the next step: Christian initiation classes. She attended sessions at nearby St. Theodore in Flint Hill, where Bridget, who became her sponsor, is a parishioner. Toward the end of their catechesis sessions, one of her formators posed a weighty question: How are you going to use the gifts God has given you for His Church, for His people and His kingdom?

The answer came: in service as a Catholic school principal.

Connie was just finishing a doctorate in educational leadership. As she was contemplating her next career move, another Sacred Heart colleague, Angie Courtois, encouraged her to think about applying as a principal.

“Watching her teach, and with her love of math, she’s one of those teachers who will fight for those kids to do their best and challenge them,” said Angie, now a principal at Holy Cross Academy. “She knows who she is, and for this job you have to have a strong moral compass and a faith and trust in God, and she has those things.”

Connie sees herself represented in the student body at All Saints Academy. More than 78% of her students are Black or multiracial; and nearly 70% are nonCatholic, although many of them are part of other Christian communities.

Just as her colleagues did with her, Connie extends invitations to school families to come and see the Catholic faith. “In every program that we do, I invite them to Mass,” she said. “We just started an honor roll this year, and the parents come to Mass, and the awards ceremony is after Mass in church.”

Those types of invitations are what eventually lead to building relationships, asking questions and going deeper, she said, just like she experienced in her teaching days at Sacred Heart.

“I just started asking questions,” Connie said. “They didn’t know the relationship between me and God — they didn’t know all that. They were just there at the right moment in time. So I think for me, that’s my mission, is just to be there when God wants me to be there, to show up.”

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