“Back to school” sales have begun. This time of year the thoughts of many parents and their children turn to the fast- approaching beginning of the school year. Already the staffs of our educational efforts are toiling away in freshly scrubbed and waxed rooms. Decisions are being made as to what classrooms are being used by which grades. The starting dates of our educational programs are being published in this bulletin. The beginning of another school year is right around the corner, probably too sonn for pupils enjoying the dog days of summer.

My thoughts have been on our educational programs here the past few weeks for two reasons in addition to the proximity of starting up again. In the first instance, a staff person told me the other day that, at a meeting with persons from other churches and parishes here in Kenosha, she was challenged strongly by some who criticized our parish for having a grade school. These Catholic leaders told here that their parish was able to do “more important” things for the Gospel because their parish did not have a school to drain their parish coffers. I know from other comments made to me that this kind of thought process is a strong current in that parish. I am also aware that this kind of thinking exists among some people in our parish as well.

The second thing that got me to thinking about our educational efforts was a sermon by Father Richard Hauser, SJ, at the St. Ignatius feast day Mass at Creighton University on July 31. St. Ignatius, the founder of the Jesuits, insisted that his Company of Jesus be involved in education. Father made the point that Creighton insisted on continuing to exist as a Catholic institution of higher learning when other educational institutions had abandoned their religious origins. Among those that changed their orientation were some famous Ivy League institutions and some formerly Jesuit colleges and universities. He insisted in his homily that the Jesuit presence at Creighton has made it one of the finest educational institutions precisely because it brings a distinctively Catholic focus to the mission of education in a secular world.

Obviously, these two views exist in the Catholic Church today competing for adherents. There is no doubt as to where I come down on this issue. I agree much more with Father Hauser than with the leaders of the other parish noted above. For me, the existence of our grade school offers a choice, not between good and evil, right and wrong, or better and worse, but between more and less. Our grade school offers a choice to our people along the lines Father Hauser indicated that places our faith at the center of our education efforts. We can be completely Catholic in our school. We can share the truth about Jesus without being told to be quiet. We can even pray in the classroom, something I do at the beginning of every class at Creighton.

The bottom line for me is this: Is it worth it to use so much of our resources for our school, as well as for our Inter-parish Junior High School and St. Joseph High School? Is the return we get on our investment worth it? I believe it is.

I have written over the past seven years about the studies that have been done on Catholic education. Even the most recent studies show that the return on our investment is very good in terms of participation of our graduates in Church life, in their success in business and higher education, and in their practice of what was taught them. I mentioned this to the staff person quoted above. I also told her that I still believed that immersion in our faith was the way to go in order to share faith in the most complete way with our young people.
I know that it costs more to send a child to our schools. I know we end up paying double: for our tuition and in taxes for the public schools. Never let it be said Catholics did not do our part in providing a good public education. We certainly do our part by paying our taxes and through the many fine Catholic teachers in the public system, many of whom got their start teaching in Catholic schools.

While I am on this, I want to get something else off my chest. I am sick and tired of nun/Sister/priest bashing that I see in plays, television, and books. I listened to some folks recounting experiences of the “horrible” Sisters they had in school and the pastor of their parish they “endured”. After ten minutes of their stories I told them to their face that in my life I never experienced anything like they did. The Sisters who taught me were mysterious in their habits and veils, but they were not cruel or heartless. They actually taught me something! And the priests were, for the most part, kind and faithful men trying to lead me to the Lord. After my “outburst”, they recanted many of their words. Nothing is ever perfect, but nothing was ever as bad as they portrayed life in the Catholic Church. I don’t say this in reaction to the scandal that surrounds us in the Church. Remember, only a very few priests were involved in those activities.

Our parish exists to make a difference. Our educational opportunities exist to share the faith with our children. Our financial resources exist to continue the faith in the world today. I, for one, believe that investing in the future begins with our investment in education of the young. I expect you will hear the same from Archbishop Dolan based on some indications I have already seen in his words. I have lived in countries that have no Catholic educational system such as ours. And we come off much better than they. Let’s use what we have and make it better.

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