There is a line from Pope St. Paul VI that serves as a driving theme for Thomas Carroll, founder and president of the Catholic Talent Project: 

“Modern man listens more willingly to witnesses than to teachers, and if he does listen to teachers, it is because they are witnesses.” 

Carroll served as superintendent of Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of Boston from April 2019 to May 2024, serving as secretary of education for Cardinal Seán O’Malley. For Carroll, his tenure was akin to an immersion experience in mission territory.

“I wanted to put ‘Catholic’ back into Catholic schools,” Carroll told the Register. “I needed to address the inadequate attention to talent.”

It was simple to Carroll, but a reflection of the sign of the times: Where was the Catholicity in the school system’s educators and administrators? 

Carroll saw it as a mission to find those actively committed to their faith and put them to work. 

With two dozen schools on the verge of collapse in the Boston Archdiocese, Carroll knew he had to think outside the box. 

“Seventy percent of my time was spent on recruiting and cultivating talent,” he said. This meant getting out of the archdiocese and flying around the country recruiting teachers. “Superintendents normally don’t have anything to do with teacher hiring,” Carroll said. But this wasn’t a normal time. “I was trying to save [Boston’s] Catholic school system and bring it back to Catholicism,” he said. 

“Look, by age 13, nearly half of children raised Catholic lose their faith,” Carroll said, underscoring the dire straits, adding that “86% have lost their faith by 18.”

Two years into his role as superintendent, Carroll felt the creative surge that could only have been the prompting of the Holy Spirit, as he put it. Carroll imagined a cohort rooted in Catholic identity — not unlike a Catholic Peace Corps or Catholic version of Teach for America — that would intentionally be an instrument of evangelization. 

The target: the 20 to 25 souls in each classroom around the country hungry for the Word.

With the Archdiocese of Boston serving as the pilot school system, Carroll recruited a cohort for the St. Thomas More Teaching Fellowship to train dozens of future teachers as they taught in Catholic schools. The teaching cohorts are culled from colleges included in the Register’s annual “Catholic Identity College Guide,” as well as at such institutions as Duke and Princeton. The Catholic Talent Project was thus born. “Catholic renewal was not possible unless we cultivated faithful Catholic witnesses,” Carroll explained. 

Carroll now wants to take the Catholic Talent Project around the country, with a focus on three pillars of recruitment: classroom teachers, principals and superintendents. “There are over 5,900 Catholic schools in the country. That’s 1.6 million students,” Carroll said. “I believe the most important hire a bishop can do is the hiring of a school superintendent. If you get an on-fire superintendent, that will affect the future hiring of every single teacher.” 

Those who support Carroll’s vision agree. 

“There are very few efforts more essential to the renewal of Catholic education than placing faithful and well-formed Catholics in our classrooms and in other positions of leadership in American Catholic schools,” Shawn Peterson, member of the Catholic Talent Project’s board of advisers and president of Catholic Education Partners, told the Register.

Added Sean Graber, EWTN’s chief digital officer and a founding board member of the Catholic Talent Project, “Catholic education is essential for the future of the Church, the formation of young people, and, ultimately, for the salvation of souls.”

For Carroll, gone are the days of assumed Catholicity in schools or entire school systems. 

Carroll himself can attest to stepping out into the deep. He converted from German Lutheranism, although he considered himself agnostic, more than 25 years ago.

After Boston, Carroll set his aim on the West Coast: the Archdiocese of San Francisco. With Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone’s approval, Carroll teamed with Chris Fisher, superintendent of the archdiocese’s schools. 

“I’m looking forward to partnering with the Catholic Talent Project to fill a vital need for our schools — helping us not only identify and recruit, but form and train mission-passionate young teachers,” Fisher told the Register. “Teaching is hard work. It demands a vocational spirit and lots of coaching and mentorship.”

Carroll and his team undergo the recruiting, vetting and training of the St. Thomas More fellows. Fellows learn practical teaching skills in a five-week academy and are assigned a veteran teacher as a mentor. 

“If a school hires a St. Thomas More fellow, they’re getting a good teacher who will play a large role in the spiritual formation of both the school and the students,” Carroll said, noting that 100% of the fellows have been hired.

John Morales was a Catholic Talent Project fellow, teaching fourth grade. “I have had the privilege of helping my students grow in virtue,” he told the Register of his time at Immaculate Conception School in Revere, Massachusetts.

Carroll’s aim is to reach ten dioceses over 5 years, to create examples for other bishops. There are 175 dioceses in the U.S. that have Catholic schools.

And the fruits are evident, according to educator Morales. “I had students who dreaded praying and going to Mass become more excited to participate in the sacraments and prayer.”