IT’S NOT a secret – US Catholic schools are struggling with low enrollment. Years ago, some children would even be on “waiting list” of acceptance, hoping to get in a parochial school. Now administrators, principals, pastors, and bishops are anxiously thinking of and implementing ways to fill empty seats in classrooms.
Last Wednesday’s Educational Summit in the Our Lady of Angel’s Region, under the leadership of Bishop Edward Clark, was another effort to bring back the vitality and viability of our Catholic schools.
A little bit tense, the summit’s mood was positive and hopeful. The leadership team projected and effected optimism, promising to keep the tradition of making the parochial school a “vital ministry of the parish,” “serving an immigrant population,” “a significant part of evangelization,” “producing Catholic leaders” and “providing quality academic program.”
There was a renewed sense of “working together”, avoiding a “parochial mentality” and giving support to each other’s school in the deanery and archdiocesan levels.
Personally, I shared my views and feelings about this serious Catholic matter. I strongly expressed that values among many parents have changed. “It’s not all about finance,” I said. “It’s the change of values among many parents.”
I shared with the priests and principals the conversation I had a with a school mother, who was trying to convince her fellow employees to enroll their kids to Catholic school. One parent said, “Why enroll my kids to a private school when there is free public education?” The school parent was dismayed because when it comes to buying brand name bags and purses like those of Louis Vuitton and Hermes, they can spend hundreds of dollars.
A remark of another parent disturbed the school mother. “I give my kids an option,” the fellow employee said, “private school or a big house and luxury car?”
These remarks tell us, indeed, that values of some parents have become materialistic and secular. This is why many Catholic leaders and educators agree that the main issue in Catholic education is still evangelization, not just evangelization of children but of adults and parents! As Church, we must exert strong efforts to bring faith and gospel values in homes and the society.
The Gospel this Sunday is suited for this reflection on the ministry of evangelization in order to bring back the vitality of Catholic schools. “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower…Remain in me, as I remain in you. Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me. I am the vine, you are the branches.”
Parents have to see that the core values that children learn in Catholic school are rooted in our relationship with Jesus Christ. Unless they see this, unless their own values are not conformed to the Gospel and founded in their personal relationship with Jesus, they will not see the significant role that Catholic schools would play in the lives and formation of their children.
