It Isn't About the Money?

A couple of weeks back I posted the Monroe County portion of a file I found on dor.org about a year ago. The file appears to show the 2006-07 Catholic Ministry Appeal goals for each parish, as well as the actual amount of pledges received as of about March 1st of last year.

CMA pledge goals are a fairly good indication of how the diocese assesses the relative wealth - or at least the relative ability to pay - of its various parishes. It's really pretty simple: Parishes with relatively high Sunday collections will generally have larger CMA goals than parishes with relatively low Sunday collections.

Over the last few days I've had a chance to work with this data a bit and have developed a spreadsheet that allows us to compare both CMA goals and actual pledges in parishes where schools are staying open with the goals and actual pledges in parishes where schools are being closed.



In terms of CMA goals, the parishes with schools staying open were tasked with raising 69% more money than those whose schools were being closed. The total dollar difference between the two groups was some $302,000.

But in terms of actual CMA pledges the differences are even more striking. Parishes whose schools are staying open pledged 97% more money than those whose schools are being closed. Here the total dollar difference between the two groups was almost $382,000.

The diocese, I'm sure, will say it isn't about the money. The data, however, are saying something else.

More Fluff from the D&C

Mark Hare's got a nice puff piece on the Diocese of Rochester in today's Democrat and Chronicle. Not one of his interviews is with a rank-and-file Catholic from a parish that's losing its school. The closest he gets is Fr. Horan at St. Margaret Mary, who says, "all the changes" are "part of the purification the church."

Hare skims over declining Mass attendance, getting one of his numbers wrong in the process (it's 107,489 in 2000, not 2001), without pointing out just how striking the loss of over 22% Mass-attending Catholics in a mere 8 years is (see here and here).

This is a diocese in serious trouble. Mark Hare did it no favors today.

Parents Decide, but Only Outside Monroe County

This week's Catholic Courier is running an article reporting, in part, on St. Patrick School in Owego. The Courier reports that the school has met an enrollment quota and will continue to stay open. Fr. William Moorby, pastor of Blessed Trinity/St. Patrick parishes said that

"setting an enrollment quota was based on the parish pastoral council's wish to give affected families a role in determining the school's future.

"'We wanted to leave it up to the people,' he said, adding that parental support of St. Patrick has remained at a high level."

What a great idea: Giving affected families a role in determining a school's future!

It's too bad our Big Brother in Christ won't let it spread to Monroe County.

"Dramatic De-population" Remains a Myth

The US Census Bureau's 2007 population estimates are out. The data shows that the overall population of the 12 counties that comprise DOR is essentially unchanged from last year, at just under 1.5 million.

Looking back, we see that from April 1 2000 through April 1 2007 DOR's total population fell 0.6%, while from October 2000 through October 2007 DOR's Average October Mass Attendance dropped 22.2%.



(The census data can be found here.)

Massive MCCS Defections Ahead?

There's another interesting comment to a post over on The Sad Saga. Anonymous writes,

"We trust the principals and the teachers at Catholic Schools, not the DoR. Most registered to see what would happen. Now with class sizes so large they will not stay. I believe that, unless there is a softening of the position the Diocese has taken people will pull their children out and the whole system will collapse. They are still supposedly down 500 students from where they wanted to be to keep the current tuition (although they got their 48%...their math doesn't make any sense). There is no way they will get those children in without opening one or two schools to create more space at the schools people desire." (emphasis added)

It's a pretty sure bet that several hundred parents pulling their children out of overcrowded schools was not something seen in the tea leaves examined by the bishop's panel of "experts."

This whole situation may turn out to be one more textbook example of the disaster that often ensues whenever primary stakeholders are excluded from the decision-making process.

Diocese Won't Seek New Students - Schools Are Full

A page 1 headline in today's Democrat and Chronicle proclaims: "Hefty re-enrollments fill Catholic schools." The accompanying article reports that 913 students who will be displaced from the 13 schools forced to close have applied for spots in the 11 schools that will stay open.

Also, there will be no 2008 MCCS ad campaign focused on bringing new students into the system. The D&C also reports that diocesan spokesman Doug Mandelaro said that "marketing to new families would raise false hopes. 'There just aren't a lot of seats available,' he said."

Contradictions Abound

This flies in the face of what Mandelaro said in a DOR Press Release less than 10 weeks ago: "The much-lower tuition rate will greatly increase the ability of families able to afford a Catholic education at our schools and is intended to draw new families to them."

It also contradicts what Bishop Clark wrote in his February 6 Along the Way column in the Catholic courier: "We simply had to lower tuition considerably if we were to have any chance of ... attracting new families."

And it also contradicts a February 12 diocesan statement: "We reiterate that we will do the best we can to seat every child who would like to receive a Catholic education."

These Are Our Leaders?

The only logical conclusion here is that Catholic education in the Diocese of Rochester is in the hands of prideful men and women who adamantly refuse to admit a mistake, even in the face of overwhelming evidence. Given the normal MCCS ad campaign, 11 Catholic schools would almost certainly have proven to have been insufficient to handle the demand. Therefore, the diocese won't run the ads.

What a wonderful display of Christian leadership!

Where's the MCCS Ad Campaign?

The enrollment period for students new to the Monroe County Catholic School System begins today. One would think that the diocese would be doing everything possible to entice new students to register, if only to get the highest possible number of students into the system and thus ensure the financial success of its restructuring plan.

In the past the diocese has run extensive ad campaigns during enrollment periods for exactly this reason.


Where is the 2008 ad campaign?

And if we don't need one this year, why would that be?