Catholic Schools Week

We are smack in the middle of Catholic Schools Week.  This is a great time to ponder the institution of catholic schools, and a catholic education.  In our larger, more catholic cities, most everyone went to a catholic grade school.  I had the opportunity to teach, and serve as a Spiritual Director, in a catholic high school.  I enjoyed that time very much.  While today we offer a solid curriculum in our schools, the origin of our schools was to provide a catholic refuge.

St. John Neumann, who served as Bishop of Philadelphia in the early part of the nineteenth century, crated the first diocesan system of catholic schools.  Over the years catholic immigrants were able to send their children to these catholic schools so as to maintain the faith of their children.  There was a great deal of hostility towards catholics in our nation in the early part of our country's history.  In the early version of the public schools, that hostility was subtle but ever present.  So throughout the early part of the twentieth century these schools provided a safe haven from the unfriendly aggression which many catholics experienced.

As the cities grew another undertaking of the catholic school was to provide a quality education to the poor.  Even today the catholic schools outscore the public schools in academic achievement.  For many children who lived in inner-city, poverty entrenched, neighborhoods, and even for poor rural children, the catholic school provided a formidable foundation which would allow these children to attend college, or even technical education of some sort.

Sadly today many of these same schools are closing, leaving a valuable ministry unfulfilled.  Some thirty years ago the U.S. Bishops offered a document entitled, The Light of Faith, which offered a plan of catechsis and religious education in the United States.  In regards to catholic schools, it recognized that these places are part of a larger ministry of the Church.  When reflecting on John Paul's call to A New Evangelization, we can come to understand that the catholic grade school has an important part in this ministry.  Now there continues to be much debate about this.

When we celebrate our Catholic Schools, we are celebrating a rich history and promising future.  The Schools can survive, and even thrive, when parishes begin to take more responsibility for catechesis and evangelization.  But that can only come out of a strong faith community.  Catholic Schools, in one form or another, will always be part of proclaiming Good News.