Page 6: Catholic Schools in Perspective

Catholic Schools in Perspective

by the Very Reverend Peter M. J. Stravinskas, Ph.D., S.T.D.

"The days have come. . . in which the school is more necessary than the church."

Does that statement startle you? Who could say that? The answer is that it did indeed startle people the first time it was said – and nearly 150 years ago – by Archbishop John J. Hughes of New York. In many ways, it was his insight and foresight that launched the Catholic community in America on an endeavor unparalleled in the history of the Church. Archbishop Hughes felt that if he lost the children, there would be little hope for the future of the Church in this country.

From the last third of the 19th century until the same period of the 20th century, the Catholic school system in the United States was the marvel and envy of the Church Universal – and then the bottom fell out! What happened? How? Why?

Some would-be opinion-makers in the Church raised questions about the Church's commitment to and understanding of Catholic education as it had been traditionally understood since the Catholic school curriculum had become similar in many ways to that of the public schools. Regular school closings, an increased reliance on lay teachers, and a new stress on out-of-school religious education programs as viable alternatives were also operative factors. Another concern raised at the time was whether or not parochial schools fostered a so-called "ghetto mentality," causing Catholics to be unassimilated into the mainstream of American life. Add to all this a decline in Catholic births, similar to that of the overall American population. The end result found dramatic expression in the thousands of Catholic parents who withdrew their children from Catholic schools, or never enrolled them at all, either because there were none or because parental confidence in the schools (and the Church) had been shaken. We shall have to return to these matters later.

Forty years later, and much wiser for the experience, the Catholic community has demonstrated a renewed interest in Catholic education as enrollments have stabilized and even increased in many dioceses. Unfortunately, this has not occurred across the board. Some of this change of heart has come about because parents realize they need positive reinforcement of their values in the classroom; the secular humanism of the government schools cannot help them in that area and, in some cases, actively opposes their value system, to the confusion of the children.

Furthermore, it is now clear that the school does not replace parents but supplements their primary work of planting the seed of faith, a process that usually needs to be complemented by professional educators, a point made by the Fathers of the Second Vatican Council and by subsequent Popes. This consciousness has guided the Church's understanding of the educational enterprise from the very beginning and goes a long way to explain her intense commitment to providing a total education in a value-oriented atmosphere. There has been an amazing consistency on this, as even a brief survey of ecclesiastical documents would reveal. At present, we need only be concerned with those which have had an impact on the Church in this country.