Prayer and schools--both Catholic and public
In the last few days, prayer has been on my mind because I was
asked to write a short article for Upturn, the publication of
the Association of Chicago Priests. This issue reflects on the
personal prayer of priests and how the priestly ministry frames
and shapes their personal prayer. The editor asked those of us
writing for this issue to say how we pray, how the celebrations
of the liturgical year--All Souls day, All Saints day, the feast
of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the celebration of Christmas--affect
our personal prayer, how do we pray for other priests, for our
people. These are good questions, and I’m glad Father Larry Dowling,
the editor of Upturn, asked them. The Association of Chicago Priests
offers good service to the presbyterate of the Archdiocese by
creating a forum where open reflection and discussion on what
shapes priestly life is possible and where priestly fraternity
is strengthened.
These days I find myself praying more fervently for the Catholic
schools, not only because I’m visiting some of them at the beginning
of the school year but also because the study of the Archdiocesan
Task Force on schools is almost complete and ready for presentation.
The Task Force began its work toward the end of Cardinal Bernardin’s
ministry as archbishop, when he put together a group to study
the availability and the viability of our Catholic schools. This
study came out of the Decisions document’s emphasis on education
in the mission of the Archdiocese.
The Task Force worked hard and well, going through the situation
school by school, area by area, Vicariate by Vicariate, to give
a total picture of a successful but troubled network of Catholic
schools. The recommendations for availability are sometimes difficult
but defensible; the recommendations for continued viability are
still problematic, at least for me. Even if we could implement
all the recommendations for funding the schools suggested by the
Task Force, the financial viability of many of our schools would
remain fragile.
The Catholic Church in this country created the parochial school
system in the last century because the public schools at that
time were, in fact, Protestant schools. For the first hundred
and fifty years of this constitutional republic, the Constitution
did not forbid prayer and Bible reading in public schools because
we were, effectively, a Protestant nation. Catholics who wanted
to raise their children in their own faith created an alternate
system of religious schools, meeting the standards of the government
but in the hands of religious Orders of women and men. The Catholic
schools were, in fact, run by volunteers, Sisters and Brothers
who taught for room and board and a small monthly stipend, members
of Orders which formed them as excellent educators and took collective
responsibility for the schools.
Catholic schools were resented by many in this country because
they were an alternative to Protestant American hegemony in education.
The public school was the American equivalent of a State Church.
It taught a doctrine--how to be a good American--and it was paid
for by all the taxpayers, whether they frequented it or not. Good
Americans attended the Public School; Americans of questionable
faith did not. Despite our much vaunted pluralism and acceptance
of diversity, there is still, for some people, only one American
Way. The dislike of schools under religious and Catholic auspices
still accounts in part for the fierce opposition to considering
any form of tax relief or tax support for tax-paying parents who
make use of the Catholic schools to educate their children.
While the relationship between the government schools and the
Catholic schools, and also those run by the Jewish community and
other religions, is friendly in Chicago and elsewhere in the Archdiocese,
the basic inequality between parents who use the public schools
and those who do not remains set. This past week, however, the
Supreme Court let stand the Wisconsin system of funding non-government
run schools by giving vouchers to parents. Since it is the inability
of parents to pay for Catholic schools that most threatens their
future, vouchers to parents for the purpose of educating their
children seems the best solution at this time. If they can do
it in Wisconsin, I don’t see why we can’t do it in Illinois. But
it will depend upon parents who want their children in Catholic
schools entering the political discussion and fending off the
cries of anti-Americanism that will be leveled at them by those
for whom exclusive devotion to the public schools is an article
of faith.
Larger than the question of the financial viability of the Catholic
schools is the need, of course, for a strong public school system.
The vast majority of all American children, Catholics and others,
do go to the public schools. The concern for their good success
which dominates the public conversation today should be shared
by us all. My conviction that Catholic school parents deserve,
in justice, help from the taxes they pay does not mean any citizen
should not work to strengthen the public schools. Eradicating
Catholic and other religious schools, however, will not create
a stronger public school system.
Larger still than the question of the financial viability of any
schools, religious or public, is the need to hand on the faith.
The Task Force report tells us that about half of all school age
children in Catholic families are neither in Catholic schools
nor in catechetical programs. Implementing the Task Force recommendations
will demand cooperation between the Catechetical Office and the
Office for Catholic Schools so that all Catholic children will
have the chance to learn their faith and live according to the
Gospel. We need more imagination to create alternate forms of
educating young people in the faith, some school-based and others
not, some in traditional Catholic schools, others in schools yet
to be invented.
The Church is a school of prayer--personal prayer, liturgical
prayer, ministerial prayer, family prayer, prayer of all sorts.
My prayer these days often brings the schools, both Catholic and
public, before the Lord. May He help us find ways to support diverse
systems of schooling and, most of all, may He help the Church
find better ways to form both children and adults in the way of
the Gospel.
Sincerely yours in Christ,
