Thursday, November 17, 2005

Pray for the Schools

Earlier today I posted some links about a situation that is facing a Catholic school in California--basically, is the school standing up for what we believe as Catholics?

Tonight I will be attending a meeting in my diocese that I believe is emblematic of another danger facing Catholic schools. It's my opinion that my diocese is trying to get out of the business of educating Catholic children.

Tonight I'll find out the future of the wonderful little Catholic school that my Big Kids attend--and that Little Brother thinks he's a part of, given the hours we both volunteer there. (He has taken on a couple of lunchroom tasks as "his jobs" and gets very bent out of shape if someone else tries to do these tasks!)

Our diocese has invested heavily in the services of a consultant to recommend the course of action that would be best as regards the parochial schools. I think that if the diocese had channeled those funds directly to the schools, we wouldn't need to worry about closing our doors for the next few years.

The thing is, educating Catholic children is not and should never be thought of as a "business." It's an apostolate, pure and simple. It's making sure that the Faith is carried on, and showing children that the Faith is something that can be part of their daily lives, not just for 45 minutes or so on a Sunday morning. It's about letting them know that they can talk about, learn about, and pray to God at school and anytime, and that, as Middle Sister told me when she was in first grade, "Jesus is Number One!" You can't put a price on things like that.

Please pray for our school and all the schools in a similar situation. I think that's all there is left that we can do.

1 comment:

Steve said...

Were planning on sending Boudreaux and Thibadeaux to our local Catholic school system; I cannot abide the thought of my boys going to public school here, I am a product of this school system, and it was bad enough in the 80's, let alone now.