The Conundrum of Catholic Kids in Public Schools

stella maris1 Since many dioceses continue to close or consolidate their Catholic schools, the number of Catholics attending public schools keeps increasing. Alarmed by this trend, the popular conservative blogger Msgr. Charles Pope wrote an article a few years ago targeting public education, referring to it as “poison”:

…[T]he vast majority of Catholic children now go to government run secular schools where they are daily indoctrinated with trendy and often sinful teachings to include the immoral agenda of the homosexual lobby, condom obsessed sexual “teachings” and all sorts of deconstructionist and syncretistic notions that discredit faith, the Scriptures, and the meaning of the human person, and the existence of God.

Msgr. Pope concluded that a Catholic education, either by home schooling or otherwise, is the only option a Catholic family should consider:

…[A]nything we can do to dismantle the secular and/or government stranglehold over modern education which has become little less than indoctrination and a big money grab is to be encouraged. Higher priority needs to be given to Catholic alternatives.

Though he offers no practical solutions, what makes this article worthwhile is the comment section that follows. After 128 comments, many of them personal, passionate, and putting the priest on the defensive, he finally cuts off the thread. It can be viewed as a survey in which three main themes emerge, the primary one being affordability, something the priest never mentions in his article. A sampling of the comments:

…I fail to see how a Catholic education can ever be affordable if the schools insist on embracing technology at the expense of affordability. …You should not have limit your family to 1.7 children, or your husband be a doctor to afford this type of education.

…I second those who cite the prohibitive expense of Catholic schools. And while market rate for teachers might not be cheap, I’d suggest that the main culprit is the obsession with sophisticated facilities and technology.

…To bring back affordable Catholic schools, we will need some things that will not happen overnight. We need to bring back committed religious (male and female) as teachers (that will help hold down the costs of operating the schools). We need to have a serious conversation about funding (at the parish and diocese level).

…Interesting article, though it omits one major point – the cost of obtaining a Catholic education. …So, while some of us desperately want to send our children to Catholic schools, we just cannot afford it, even with financial aid. This reality must also be addressed.

…I also echo the concerns about cost and am surprised that the article does not even mention this factor! The cost for a Catholic education here is incredibly high, and there is no way that we could afford to send one, much less all three, of our children to a Catholic school.

…As a catholic schoolteacher of almost 30 years, I have found that $ is the main problem. Some priests don’t push for catholic education knowing the expense it is for the parish and the parishioners. The tuition keeps people away to save money for college.

…And what is ironic is, it is those of us who are committed to living the Church teaching on openness to life who are going to have the hardest time paying even part of the tuition for Catholic school.

That’s a tragic irony; while Catholic education is cost-prohibitive to many small families, large ones devoted to openness to life are financially shut out.

Note the practical advice offered by some of the commentors: bring back the religious brothers and sisters to teach, stop wasting money on expensive facilities and technology, and reprioritize diocesan finances.

The second theme that is evident is the failure of Catholic schools to teach Catholicism:

…Having teachers hostile to the faith, along with aping the atheist/hedonist government indoctrination camps, is what killed Catholic education. IMHO, it won’t be long before the US Gov’t will simply outlaw all non-gov’t schools as well as homeschooling

…I wanted to put my son in a Catholic school, but I could not find a school that took the faith seriously. In fact, many of the teachers themselves weren’t even Catholic!!! Also, I found the same books that I complained about in the public schools in the Catholic schools. Not good.

…Most of our friends homeschool. I suppose that if our children were in the previous Catholic school they attended in WA, we’d have taken them out as well due to the increased secularism that has crept into it.

…I feel like the emperor has no clothes when it comes to Catholic schools. Church and educational leaders keep telling us how great the Catholic schools are, but there is no real empirical evidence to show that Catholic schools are successful in their primary function: passing on the Faith.

Msgr. Pope admits this,

I deeply regret the loss of Catholic schools but admit that too many of them had become weak on faith and were mere clones of the government schools. This is not true everywhere, but sadly it was too often the case.

Finally, parental responsibility for passing the faith to their children was repeatedly emphasized:

…Children will grow up and remain Catholic only if they live and practice their faith at home. It doesn’t matter where they go to school because parents are first and foremost educators of their children in the Faith. So if parents are doing their job, children will grow up to be practicing Catholics.

…I think the key is to empower and frankly remind parents that it is their responsibility to catechize their children. If children are well loved and catechized, they can go to most schools (or be home-schooled) and be a positive influence.

…We the parents are the primary educators of our children. We must pass on the faith. But the problem is that many parents do not have the faith. You cannot give something to your children you don’t have.

…It is the job of the parents. If parents teach and live the faith…their children will turn out fine. If parents don’t live the faith, sending their children to Catholic school won’t matter a bit.

Parents ultimately have to be responsible for explaining the dramatic differences between the dangerous moral instruction coming from civil institutions and what Holy Scripture and the Church have always taught. There are many passages from Holy Scripture that instruct parents to take responsibility for their kids’ religious education:

Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up with the training and instruction of the Lord (Ephesians 6:4).

Hear, O children, a father’s instruction, be attentive, that you may gain understanding! (Proverbs 4:1).

Let me offer three Scripture-based thoughts for Catholic families with kids in public schools:

First, children should be taught that as Catholics they are not part of this world but citizens of the kingdom of heaven, while public institutions are not. Jesus was very clear when he prayed for the disciples:

I gave them [the disciples] your word, and the world hated them, because they do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world but that you keep them from the evil one (John 17:14-15).

Secondly, when Jesus cites “the evil one” above he’s using the same word used in the Our Father, “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil [the evil one]”. He’s assuring us that a steady focus on prayer in the family can protect our children from Satan’s influence that might be channeled through the public school.

Finally, find a church with good family and youth programs which can provide alternatives to public school activities: youth choirs, other music opportunities, as well sports programs. Some churches have them some don’t. Also, getting to know other like-minded parents opens the door to friendships among the kids. St. Paul cites and old adage: