Page 4: Duc in Altum

By: Father Peter M.J. Stravinskas, Ph.D., S.T.D. 

Some time ago, someone asked me, “Why do you have such a ‘thing’ about Catholic schools?” My answer was: “Because I am a Catholic, because I am a priest, because the Church has a ‘thing’ about them, and because they are the one institution that continues to have across-the-board credibility.” The so-called public schools have gone from bad to worse (one need only consider the most recent debacle in Maine, where school officials were providing contraceptives to junior high-schoolers). Of course, Pope Pius XI predicted such developments in his 1929 encyclical on Christian education, in which he declared that “the so-called ‘neutral’ or ‘lay’ school, from which religion is excluded, is contrary to the fundamental principles of education. Such a school moreover cannot exist in practice; it is bound to become irreligious.” CCD in its various incarnations has been an unrelenting misadventure, both in terms of time and money, as Father Andrew Greeley has documented for the past forty years. And home-schooling has not delivered on the hopes many pinned on it to deliver by now a bumper-crop of priestly and religious vocations. No, Pius XI got it right when he proclaimed: “Catholic education in Catholic schools for all the Catholic youth.” That still needs to be our goal. 

On November 13, Bishop Robert McManus, in his capacity as chairman of the American bishops’ Committee on Education, presented a report to the hierarchy assembled in Baltimore, notinglights and shadows in the overall picture of Catholic elementary and secondary schools. The bad news is all too well-known: 

In the two years since we [the American bishops in “Renewing Our Commitment to Catholic Elementary and Secondary Schools in the Third Millennium”] issued our call to action on behalf of Catholic schools, over 400 additional Catholic schools have closed or consolidated. Large urban areas in the Mideast and Great Lakes areas experienced the greatest losses, as Catholic families continued to move to the suburbs and/or experienced economic setbacks. Both Catholic and public schools in rural areas continue to struggle as people move to cities and suburbs, rather than stay on farms and in small communities. 

The good news is less well-known: Along with these losses are some quite encouraging trends. In the same two-year period, over 70 new Catholic schools have opened. States in the Southeast and the Far West are experiencing a strong demand for Catholic schools. Over one-third of all Catholic schools have waiting lists. During the last school year, student enrollment in Catholic secondary schools increased.