Scott Blackwood was born and raised in southern California. He had no religious upbringing. In high school, Blackwood had a friend who was a practicing Catholic. In college, he also had friends who were atheists, he said.
“I started to realize there was a real difference that religion played in the lives of these friends of mine in college, and I realized there’s something real there, something that (is) very fundamentally human that I was missing at that time,” Blackwood told “Practicing Catholic” co-hosts Leah Heselton and Father Tom Margevicius for an episode that debuts Sept. 18 on Relevant Radio 1330 AM.
In college, Blackwood was a music major, and he learned in one class that musical tradition in the western world comes from Gregorian chant.
“It just really captivated me, and I started taking the Catholic Church more seriously as the potential denomination that could be right, so-to-speak,” Blackwood said. “My heart started to melt a little bit from that engagement with the Church’s music. I would say that played a key role, even though I probably didn’t really notice it at the time.”
Blackwood believed there had to be one church that had the right doctrines and was guided by the Holy Spirit. He wasn’t going to compromise with a church that was partially right, Blackwood said.
“There had to be an institution — for me anyway — that had the integrity, (the) full integrity of the faith,” Blackwood said. “I figured I would start with the Catholic Church first, partially because of that encouragement from my Orthodox Catholic friend, but also I knew historically the Catholic Church was the oldest denomination. Why wouldn’t I start there and then see how doctrine develops?”
Blackwood is the new head of school at Way of the Shepherd Montessori School in Blaine.
To hear more from Blackwood about how he brings his passion for faith, education and the Montessori method to Way of the Shepherd, listen to this episode of “Practicing Catholic,” which repeats at 1 p.m. Sept. 19 and 2 p.m. Sept. 20.
Produced by Relevant Radio and the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, the latest episode also features Jeff and Jenni Fuchs in an interview about their YouTube podcast “Kept In Her Heart.”
Listen to interviews after they have aired at practicingcatholicshow.com or choose a streaming platform at Spotify for Podcasters.