Catholic Schools in the Wilderness

In a March 2, 2007 column in the Chicago Sun-Times, Catholic sociologist and researcher Fr. Andrew Greeley writes,

This is a period when the American Catholic Church is as dry and dull as the Sonoran Desert. The hope and joy generated by the Vatican Council is dead. The separation between the leaders and the followers has grown wider. The former speak on many things; the latter barely hear them...

No part of the desert is more barren than Catholic grammar schools and high schools. One rarely hears parish sermons about the benefit of Catholic schools. Diocesan school offices are busy with plans to close more schools. ... Many Catholic laity don't think the schools are necessary anymore (although others stand in waiting lines or fight bishops and priests who want to close them or won't build new ones -- not that the laity matter these days).

While Fr. Greeley is talking in general terms, he could just as easily be describing the situation right here in DOR. Father then adds,

All of this pessimism troubles me because I've spent much of my life doing research on Catholic schools. Catholic schools are among the best things that the church in this country has done, they are resources in social capital that the church should treasure, and they are more important in a time of change in the church than in a time of stability.

Do any of our leaders have ears to hear?

Are There Fewer Catholic Children To Educate?

Found while surfing ...

From a 2006 article in the Buffalo First Business Newspaper:

The Buffalo diocese in the midst of a regional reorganization process that encompasses both parishes and schools. Enrollment in Catholic grammar schools has been dropping for a couple of decades. In 1984, the diocese had 28,080 students enrolled in 125 elementary schools. By 2004, the diocese had 17,218 students enrolled in 76 schools.

The number of baptisms in the diocese has dropped 51 percent during the same period.

Let's see now ... It looks like both the number of schools and the number of students in the Diocese of Buffalo dropped some 39% in 20 years, while the number of baptisms was down by 51% in those same 20 years.

I wonder if there could be a connection?

More on Wichita

The Diocese of Wichita is known around the country for both the spiritual and material successes it continues to realize since adopting Stewardship as a way of life. Since the mid-1980s the diocese has been actively promoting it in all its parishes. One of the remarkable results is that Catholic education – both elementary and high school – is tuition-free to all Catholic students.

Stewardship as a way of life began in Wichita's St. Francis of Assisi Parish some 40 years ago. A glance at their home page gives an indication of its fruits:

When was the last time you attended Mass where the crowd was standing room only? Here at St. Francis of Assisi, it happens every weekend. Our school receives equally enthusiastic support with parents, faculty and staff working together to serve and strengthen the Body of Christ through the formation of our parish children.

St. Francis' Stewardship page provides a little more detail:

THE VISION Stewardship as a way of life began at St. Francis of Assisi in 1968 when Monsignor Thomas McGread arrived as Pastor. There were approximately 600 families in the Parish at that time. He did not come empty handed, as he brought with him a vision from the words of St. Peter, "As each one has received a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards of God's varied grace." ( I Peter 4:10 ) This vision was not to be denied. Father Tom's message was simple: Strive to share our gifts of time, talent and treasure for the service of God and all His people. We do this out of thanksgiving to God for all that He has given to us. Having initiated the Stewardship Way of Life, he encouraged the parish to grow and prosper in unity, harmony and spirituality.

HOW MANY PARISHIONERS PARTICIPATE? The answer is always changing and probably known only by God. St. Francis is a very active parish of over 2600 families, with some 85% of our parishioners attending weekend Masses, more than 500 parishioners participate in Perpetual Adoration, some 750 students attend the Parish grade school, another 500 participate in the Parish School of Religion program and more than 250 attend the area Catholic high school. There are approximately 70 organizations active in the parish, made up of more than 1,900 volunteers. The Stewardship Way of Life has also significantly contributed to helping develop nine priests and six Religious from St. Francis since 1968.

St. Francis of Assisi School is obviously an integral part of the parish. One has to wonder how successful the parish would have been had its parishioners not had a strong sense of ownership in both their parish and their school.

Here in Monroe County that sense of ownership in a school will soon be limited to a mere 11 parishes, most of them relatively wealthy and most of them on the east side. I suspect that promotion of the concept of Stewardship as a way of life will have far easier sailing in those waters than it will on the west side in general and in the city in particular.

As for the five or so parishes that spent hundreds of hours devising plans to save their schools and raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to prove those plans feasible - in other words, those parishes that have clearly shown the diocese what they most want to do with their time, talent and treasure - I suspect Stewardship as a way of life will be an awfully hard sell.

[Note: The last paragraph was added a few hours after the rest of the post. It was a part of the original on my word processor but was missed in the copy-and-past operation that transferred the text. Sorry about that. - Mike]

DOR vs. Wichita

About 10 days ago the D&C published Catholic schools' decline here among worst in U.S. Accompanying that story was a link to a spreadsheet containing data for 176 U.S. dioceses. The data, supplied by the National Catholic Education Association, included the number of schools and the total student enrollment for each diocese for both the 1997-98 and 2007-08 school years.

A post a few weeks ago reported on the Diocese of Wichita and its Catholic schools. Several years ago Wichita instituted diocesan-wide stewardship and today no Catholic student pays any tuition in any of its Catholic elementary or high schools. The recently released NCEA data allows us to take a closer look at the Wichita Catholic schools and compare them to what we have here.

Keep in mind that Wichita, with just over 120,000 Catholics, is about one-third the size of DOR. Also, U.S. Census data indicate that the overall population of each diocese is stable, with a net change in each diocese of less than 1% in the past 7 years.

10 years ago Wichita had 36 Catholic schools and today it has 39, while Rochester has gone from 63 to 48 (and is about to lose another 13).


In terms of enrollment, Wichita has grown from 9,976 students to 10,806 in the past 10 years, while DOR has declined from 17,710 students to 10,739 (and is about to lose several hundred more).


The bishops of both Rochester and Wichita say they care about Catholic schools. At least one of them means it.

It Isn't About the Money? - Update

The status of the 2007-08 CMA Fund Drive as of April 25 is available on dor.org. That data can be used to generate a spreadsheet which allows us to compare the results for the Monroe County parishes whose associated schools are slated to close with those whose schools will be staying open.



About 5 weeks ago we looked at data covering the 2006-07 CMA drive. The current data are quite similar.

In terms of CMA goals, the parishes where schools are staying open have been tasked with raising, on average, 76% more money than those whose schools will be closed. The total dollar difference between the two groups is almost $357,000.

But in terms of actual CMA pledges the differences are even more striking. Parishes where schools are staying open have so far pledged an average of 96% more than those whose schools will be closed. Here the total dollar difference between the two groups is just over $433,000.

As I said before, the diocese almost certainly will say it isn't about the money. The data, however, are saying something else.

Catholic Call-In Rescheduled

Shamelessly copied from The Sad Saga (Way to go, GSS!) ...

Diocese Reschedules Catholic Call-In

The DOR has rescheduled its "Catholic Call-In" to May 19, from 2 - 8 p.m. The toll-free number is 1-888-477-1718.

The Diocese has said that Catholic schools questions may be re-routed to the schools office. However, if you've already taken that route with no or incomplete resolution, or if you'd like to inquire as to how the Diocese values Catholic education as a ministry versus its other commitments, you may want to place a call on the 19th.

Celibacy "Invented" in 1123?

About six months ago the D&C published a letter claiming that

Priests are celibate because of a political and economic decision made by the First Lateran Council of 1123 to halt corrupt practices during feudal times. Church leaders wanted to eliminate the inheritance of Church property by the male children of priests.

The letter was authored by Patricia LaRosa, a person I once knew as Patricia Boyce when she served as Pastoral Associate and then Parish Visitor at Our Lady of Mercy Church. Ms. LaRosa believes herself to be called to the priesthood and at last report is seeking ordination in the Episcopal Church.

I was reminded of Ms. LaRosa's letter by a recent comment posted by CliffM concerning Chava Redonnet's OpEd piece in yesterday's D&C. The comment repeated the allegations made by Ms. LaRosa.

Last October I submitted an answer to Ms. LaRosa's allegation which the D&C chose not to publish. This fable, however, refuses to die so I will self-publish my letter here:

In “Priests’ celibacy has political roots” the writer strongly implies that clerical celibacy was first imposed by the Catholic Church in 1123 for crass, materialistic reasons. The record, however, shows otherwise.

In 385 Pope St. Siricius wrote to another bishop about celibacy, saying “All priests … are bound by the indissoluble law of these sanctions, so that from the day of our ordination, we give up both our hearts and our bodies to continence and chastity.”

Five years later the Council of Carthage declared, “What the Apostles taught [concerning celibacy] and what antiquity itself observed, let us also endeavor to keep.”

It is quite clear from these and other records that by the end of the fourth century clerical celibacy was already a universal and what some bishops even saw as apostolic practice in the Church. It most certainly was not the result of political/economic machinations some 700+ years later.

All of which leaves one to wonder how (why?) a person holding two advanced religious degrees could be so misinformed on the subject.