I did not ask to become the pastor of a
Catholic School. In fact, I was slightly surprised to be assigned as
a teacher in one of them at the time of my ordination. My brief
experience teaching in, and then administrating, Catholic Schools has
not always been fun, or edifying, or exceedingly hopeful for the
future of our Catholic youth. It is a hard go of it, and to a degree
I sympathize with those who wonder if it is worth trying to keep them
going. My school, currently, is a small one. The teachers get paid
minimally, and can afford to work there only because of the presence
of family and community; a spouse who also works, or sharing an
apartment with relatives, etc. I have the typical breakdown in levels
of devotion among Catholic parishioners who attend: one third are at
Mass most all the time. One third occasionally come. One third never
come, save maybe the C & E crowd. There could be circumstances in
which I would say to shut the whole thing down. But in the
present circumstances, here are the reasons why I fight so hard to
keep it all going.
I support my own Catholic school
because a classroom full of kids all saying the Hail Mary together is
worth more than a thousand dollars. In some places of the United
States a religious culture still predominates, even in public
schools. Not in New England. The same atmosphere of agnostic,
indifferent, burnt-out post-Christian culture, which makes it hard to
evangelize in our Catholic parishes, has created an even more
culturally-damning atmosphere in the public school scene. Trying to
teach children to be their best in life, with such an atmosphere that
cuts out and discards one of humanity's essential traits (the
religious and the spiritual), is like trying to fly a remote
controlled airplane without the remote. Sure it costs a lot to run a
Catholic school; so much work, so much of our own personal resources.
For my money (pun intended) simply having a place where groups of
children are allowed and encouraged to pray, every single day, is
worth it.
I support my own Catholic school
because having teachers who engage in a personal prayer life of their
own, is worth even more. I don't see all my teachers at Mass every
weekend. I don't really know what kind of religious practices imbue
the lives of my non-Catholic teachers when they are not at work.
Still, I know there is a faithful core, and a faithful spirit, among
my staff. The majority, who would miss Mass only when they are sick
and nearly bedridden, carry the spiritual weight of the school, and
give me hope that we can pull the others along with us on the road to
beatitude. The value of this is beyond comparison. We may lag behind
in our professional teacher development; we can't pay for them to
take the best classes, or train them to be on the very top of things
in their teaching skills and pedagogy. These would be great, but we
do not make teacher professionalism the measure of our school. Jesus
never commended such a lopsided vision of success. He taught by his
life. It is still the most important principle for any teacher. One
of our Diocesan priests says this often. It doesn't matter what you
teach or how. You teach who you are. My teachers are people of
prayer, and that is something worth “selling all and giving to the
poor,” to continue. (Yes, to the poor Catholic school teachers).
I support my own Catholic school
because even the parents/guardians who rely too much on us to parent
their own children, often know it and lament it. No one pretends that
a Catholic school can replace an actual family. But the Catholic
faith is intentional about replicating the family in its
institutions. The domestic Church and the parochial Church should
mirror each other for a reason. It is worth trying to show that to as
many families as possible, even if they slightly abuse the privilege.
If families are messed up, if for example there are more and more
grandparents needing to parent their grandchildren, it may or may not
be our fault, but it is our problem. Yes, we take the modern-day
problems of the family into our school when we take their children.
Yes, it costs us even more time and effort when we need to generate
scholarship funds because these families are the ones who can't
afford the whole tuition. But if ministry is something that parishes
should invest in, where else are you going to be an influence on
families? For the present time, I value the expensive endeavor of
mixed success in my Catholic school over any other supposedly cheaper
option. Whether families want it or not, we are going to try to
impart our Catholic family ideals so long as they are with us: honor, respect, love, and family religious practice. A previous generation may have replaced the Third Commandment with their own fashion of "thou shalt support thy child's Catholic school." If that is where they left off with the faith, then that is where I shall pick them up. The
families may not want everything the Catholic faith has to offer. But
they are here because they know they need at least some of it, and we'll take them there.
I support my own Catholic school
because even if a family leaves before we have changed their life as
much as we would want, we have done good. The families who leave
Catholic Schools in our Diocese rarely do so on sour terms. We might
wish they could have dedicated a little more to be with us, but the
circumstances of life are what they are. People move. Work and home
situations change. For some, the educational or faith “benefit”
may no longer seem worth their personal investment. None of these
mean we have failed in what we are supposed to do for the families
that enrolled their children. Our mission is not to graduate the
greatest numbers we can. It is not to build a successful display of
alumni. Our mission is to be the salt of the earth and the light of
the world. I can see that we doing this even for those families who
pull out and don't “complete the program.” In my experience,
the few who may speak badly about their past experience in our Catholic
schools are soon drowned out by our public good name, which I think
is doing good for our Lord and His Church. I expect things to
continue this way, myself adding to the longevity as much as I can.
I support my own Catholic school
because I am serving a mission which is greater than my own. I
personally benefited from a Catholic education, at home. Knowing what
it is like for homeschooling Catholics to receive the locals pastor's
scorn for not supporting the local parochial school, I am determined
not to the make the same mistake. Catholic education is not about “my
school.” Even supporting my school is not about “my school.” I
support the Catholic faith. I support Catholic families. I support
Catholic education. If all our Catholic schools verged on closing
because too many Catholic families decided to homeschool their
children, we could hardly be blessed with a better problem to have.
The modern Catholic parent has more tools at their disposal than ever
to fulfill their task as primary educators. If they choose to give it
a try, in the true spirit of embracing that role which the Church has
articulated for them, they are making as much of an investment in
Catholic education as they would have by giving us the thousands of
dollars in tuition and greater numbers for enrollment (besides, from
my own experience it adds to the chances of some extra vocations).
Modern-day Catholic homeschooling is my primary example of serving a
mission which is greater than my own school. But the spirit, where we
do no begrudge sacrifices for our school because we have mistaken the
actual school for the mission itself, leads us to advance Catholic
education in other ways. If I secure a donation for another Catholic
school because I apologizes for encroaching upon their
benefactors, then I advance my mission. If I get a student, who is
moving away, to enroll in another Catholic school, then I advance my
mission. If I have to work a little harder because of all of the
above to keep my school running day in and day out, then I advance my
mission in the right way, by acknowledging that it is not my own.
All of this having been said, you do
not have to support “my” Catholic school. But you had better be
on board with my mission (lest I call you a heretic, or worse). You
had better be an influence in you parish, or parishes, of
involvement. Your prayers, your time, your money should all be doing
something for the Kingdom of God. What are you doing?
Fr. Timothy Naples, Diocese of Burlington
