Catholic Identity is a Priority

Article written by Cardinal Dolan of New York,  President of United States Conference of Catholic Bishops: 

Keeping the Faith

I was not that surprised to read it, were you?

The Wall Street Journal a couple of weeks ago had a fine piece by Peter Beinart, very effectively making the point that, if Jews in the United States are worried about their children and grandchildren keeping the faith – - and are they ever worried! – - well, the best course of action is to support Jewish grade and high schools.

Mr. Beinart convincingly shows that Jewish children who attend Hebrew private schools are statistically much more likely, as adults, to practice their Jewish faith, attend synagogue, marry a Jewish spouse, and pass on the faith of Israel to their own children.

He remarks that American Judaism is at a crisis, with more and more Jews leaving their faith, and not raising their own children as faithful Jews.  A strong Jewish school system, argues the author, will correct that.

Sound familiar?  We Catholics have known this for years:  there is no more tried-and-true way of passing on our Catholic faith to our kids than by sacrificing to put them in a Catholic school.  Data proves they persevere in the faith at higher rates, pray better, are more faithful to Sunday Mass, live gospel values, are more generous to their parish, even have happier marriages, volunteer more, and transmit the faith to their own children, than those not in a Catholic school.

In our nation’s history, Catholic schools had two goals:  to educate excellently, and to form children in the faith.  Both are essential.

I recently had the pleasure of meeting with leaders in our Catholic high schools.  They observed that, in some of their areas, the public schools were, thank God, offering a good education.  Lord knows, they remarked, their facilities, and the frills in the government schools, were more dazzling than the Catholic high schools.

So, they asserted, there was only one reason for a parent to sacrifice financially to send his/her son/daughter to the Catholic high school:  formation in faith, values, character, discipline, and religion . . . along with a first class education.

In other words, Catholic identity is a priority.

If our schools are not visibly and robustly Catholic, let’s save a lot of money and close them in areas where our children can get a decent academic education free of charge.

Our Jewish neighbors have come to know that; we had best rediscover it!

Baby Time

Arley and I have been waiting as patiently as we possibly can to meet our first born child. God has definitely tested us over the past few weeks. I am sure that our teachers and parents are tired of hearing my everyday line of "hopefully tonight" and, "any day now", when asked when the baby is coming.

If no progress is made today or through the weekend, we are going to the hospital Monday morning to induce labor. We look forward to sharing the news about our new arrival when she decides to meet us.

I appreciate every body's prayers and our teachers patience with me on days I have been out of the building to be with Arley.

I will be out the majority of next week spending time with my family. Please contact Cindy or Sally if you need any assistance while I am out.

Have a great weekend!

In Christ,

Scott Czarnopys

Research on Catholic Schools

Principal’s Corner

Research on Catholic Schools

•          Overall academic achievement is higher (Coleman, Hoffer, & Kilgore, 1982; Sander, 1996)

• Graduates are: 
• More likely to vote (Dee, 2005).
• More likely to earn higher wages (Neal, 1997).
• More civically engaged, more tolerant of diverse views, more committed to service as adults (Campbell, 2001; Wolf, Greene, Kleitz, & Thalhammer, 2001).

• With attendance in any Catholic school for any period of time, students are:
• 4x’s more likely to be attending church at age 45, 3x’s more likely to be confirmed, 2x’s more likely to be married in Church (Georgetown research noted by Sr. M. Paul McCaughey, O.P., Back to School Kick-Off,  2009)

• The longer students attend a Catholic school:
• the more regular their church attendance, the more generous they will tend to be, the more they will tend to give back to the community through service (the Catholic School Effect noted by Fr. Ron Nuzzi, ACE Leadership Mentor Workshop, 2005)

• Did you know that currently, 6 of the 9 Supreme Court Justices went to Catholic school? (Boston.com)

• In the year 2000, the Barna Research group did a nationwide study to determine the probability of making a major life decision to “believe in Jesus as one’s  Savior”
• 33% reported making that decision between the ages of 6-13 (K-8)
• 4% between the ages of 14-18 (9-12)
• 6% after the age of 19
• Of the 43% that will ever make that decision, 37 of the 43% happen in their K-12 years
• That translates to better than 86% of all people make this decision when they are school age

In Christ,

Scott Czarnopys

Saint Patrick School - Principal