I want to tell you about Ellie Sovada ’18.

Ellie was killed Monday evening April 29th in a tragic automobile accident. She was returning home from something she loved, running track. It had been a beautiful 75-degree day.

I want to tell you about her in a way that doesn’t use clichés or vocabulary that could be descriptive of all precious children; each one is unique.

Sparkle. That’s the word I’ll use. It’s what Ellie’s classmates and friends have chosen as the descriptor to honor her: Sparkle. Wouldn’t you be happy to have a daughter who could be described with just one word, sparkle?

If Cathedral is good at nothing else I hope we are unmatched when it comes to responding as a community of faith to and with those in need, especially those mourning the loss of a child. The indescribable pain is beyond human understanding. And so we yearn, plead for God’s tender loving embrace as the only possible way of moving on.

There are dozens of other things I could tell you about Cathedral, many of them very important. Somehow it doesn’t seem right to have those things share this space with Ellie. Such a precious child, such a sparkling gem in God’s infinite and mysterious kingdom.

May she rest in peace, sparkling for an eternity. May her classmates remember her and honor her each time they are together over the next century.

Bountiful blessings and Happy Easter,

Michael A. Mullin
President

Our Mission:

Inspired and informed by Catholic tradition, our mission is to educate people while inspiring them to virtuous lives.

Our Shared Vision:

Cathedral’s effectiveness will be unmatched in its education, preparation, and formation of young men and women for adulthood – and in its delivery of religious, intellectual, social, financial, leadership, service, and cultural capital to Central Minnesota and the world.

(At first glance this shared vision might seem to be a big arrogant, certainly inappropriately so for a Benedictine-founded school and for one that is inspired and informed by Catholic tradition.  That's why we take great care to remind everyone we can never proclaim it to be true about ourselves and that if others say it about us, wonderful, but we will always work to be better and stronger, guided by hard data.)