Page 8: Duc in Altum, continued
Duc in Altum, continued
We must wage a war on two fronts, financially. First, we must return to an earlier notion of Catholic schooling, which held that the expenses involved were the responsibility of the entire Catholic community, and not simply that of parents who happen to send their children to those schools or of parishes that happen to sponsor such schools. Until we eliminate (or drastically reduce) tuition for Catholic elementary and secondary schools, we will not be following in the footsteps of the “greats” of American Catholic education. One wonders, too, why the plan so successful in the Diocese of Wichita has not been duplicated everywhere. Senior citizens should also see it as a special privilege of theirs to make generous contributions toward Catholic education, as an act of gratitude for the (probably) free Catholic schooling they received and for the relatively inexpensive education their children received from the Church.
The second battle-front is the State. As Cardinal Grocholewski put it so bluntly, the situation here is “a disaster.” If parents have the constitutional right to choose the most appropriate educational environment for their children (and they do), that right cannot be hemmed in by restrictions that make it difficult, if not impossible, to vindicate in reality. As we learned with the “poll tax” (designed to keep Blacks from exercising their voting franchise), a civil right penalized is a civil right denied. Where are the Catholic political figures (and others of a fair mind) to advance the cause of parental freedom of choice in education? Where is the Catholic outrage at this patently unjust system of educational funding? This is precisely the kind of arena in which Vatican II had hoped lay activism would surface, but the silence is deafening.
The theme of Catholic Schools Week this year is: “Catholic Schools Light the Way.” The last day of that celebration is, by a providential coincidence, the Feast of the Lord’s Presentation in the Temple (also historically known as Candlemas Day), when we are reminded of old Simeon’s prophecy that the Infant Jesus would be “a light of revelation for the Gentiles.” For that reason, the Church has always blessed candles on that day and taken them in procession into the church, seeing likewise in that action our own personal vocation to be “the light of the world” in our particular circumstances.
We must wage a war on two fronts, financially. First, we must return to an earlier notion of Catholic schooling, which held that the expenses involved were the responsibility of the entire Catholic community, and not simply that of parents who happen to send their children to those schools or of parishes that happen to sponsor such schools. Until we eliminate (or drastically reduce) tuition for Catholic elementary and secondary schools, we will not be following in the footsteps of the “greats” of American Catholic education. One wonders, too, why the plan so successful in the Diocese of Wichita has not been duplicated everywhere. Senior citizens should also see it as a special privilege of theirs to make generous contributions toward Catholic education, as an act of gratitude for the (probably) free Catholic schooling they received and for the relatively inexpensive education their children received from the Church.
The second battle-front is the State. As Cardinal Grocholewski put it so bluntly, the situation here is “a disaster.” If parents have the constitutional right to choose the most appropriate educational environment for their children (and they do), that right cannot be hemmed in by restrictions that make it difficult, if not impossible, to vindicate in reality. As we learned with the “poll tax” (designed to keep Blacks from exercising their voting franchise), a civil right penalized is a civil right denied. Where are the Catholic political figures (and others of a fair mind) to advance the cause of parental freedom of choice in education? Where is the Catholic outrage at this patently unjust system of educational funding? This is precisely the kind of arena in which Vatican II had hoped lay activism would surface, but the silence is deafening.
The theme of Catholic Schools Week this year is: “Catholic Schools Light the Way.” The last day of that celebration is, by a providential coincidence, the Feast of the Lord’s Presentation in the Temple (also historically known as Candlemas Day), when we are reminded of old Simeon’s prophecy that the Infant Jesus would be “a light of revelation for the Gentiles.” For that reason, the Church has always blessed candles on that day and taken them in procession into the church, seeing likewise in that action our own personal vocation to be “the light of the world” in our particular circumstances.
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