By Florida Catholic staff - Florida Catholic
Father Michael Davis, pastor of St. Gregory the Great Parish in Plantation, speaks after receiving a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Catholic Education Foundation at a ceremony in New York, April 26, 2023.
Image of the Lifetime Achievement Award given to Father Michael Davis, pastor of St. Gregory the Great Parish in Plantation, by the Catholic Education Foundation, at a ceremony in New York, April 26, 2023.
NEW YORK | Father Michael Davis, pastor of St. Gregory the Great Parish in Plantation, has received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Catholic Education Foundation.
The award was presented at the foundation’s 2023 Honors Night – the first since the pandemic – held April 26, 2023, in New York.
“It was an amazing event,” Father Davis said. “I was humbled to be among such outstanding educators. The honor of my life.”
Before being named pastor of three Archdiocese of Miami parishes (previously St. Jerome in Fort Lauderdale and Little Flower in Coral Gables), Father Davis worked in education, serving in four South Florida archdiocesan high schools in a variety of capacities, including classroom teacher, department chair, assistant principal, and president. He has taught students at all levels of elementary, high school, and college, including serving on the faculty of St. John Vianney College Seminary in Miami (1997-2000) and at Mount Saint Mary's Seminary of the West in Cincinnati, Ohio (2008-10).
From 2002 to 2008 he served as teacher, principal and president of Archbishop Coleman Carroll High School in Miami, where he strived to create a strong Catholic environment. The school was later named one of "top 20 Catholic high schools in America for its clear Catholic identity," as determined by the Acton Institute of Grand Rapids, Michigan.
The goal of the Catholic Education Foundation is “to preserve and expand Catholic elementary and secondary schools” as well as highlight and promote “the defining aspect” of a Catholic education: Catholic identity.
The foundation, headquartered in New Jersey, publishes a quarterly journal, “The Catholic Educator,” and offers seminars on topics such as “The Priest in Today’s Catholic Schools.”
Two other Floridians were honored by the foundation along with Father Davis. Jesuit Father John Belmonte, superintendent of schools for the Diocese of Venice, and Daniel Guernsey, headmaster at Donohue Academy of Ave Maria University, were Hall of Fame inductees.
Other honorees were Thomas Carroll, superintendent of schools for the Archdiocese of Boston (Hall of Fame); Dominican Sister Elizabeth Ann Allen, director of the Center for Catholic Education at Aquinas College in Nashville; Mary Pat Donoghue, executive director of the U.S. bishops’ Secretariat of Catholic Education; and Bishop Robert McManus of Worcester, Massachusetts, all recipients of a Lifetime Achievement Award.
Father Michael Davis, right, pastor of St. Gregory the Great Parish in Plantation, takes a selfie with Worcester, Massachusetts Bishop Robert J. McManus, who also was honored by the Catholic Education Foundation with a Lifetime Achievement Award at a ceremony held in New York, April 26, 2023.
Father Michael Davis, right, pastor of St. Gregory the Great Parish in Plantation, takes a selfie with Spokane, Washington Bishop Thomas Daly, keynote speaker at the Catholic Education Foundation's Honors Night, where Father Davis received a Lifetime Achievement Award, April 26, 2023, in New York.
