Making God Known, Loved, and Served: The Future of Catholic Primary and Secondary Schools in the United States

Journal of Catholic Education, Jul 2013

By Notre Dame Task Force on Catholic Educat , Published on 03/01/08

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Making God Known, Loved, and Served: The Future of Catholic Primary and Secondary Schools in the United States

Catholic Education: A Journal of Inquiry and Practice Making God Known, Loved, and Ser ved: The Future of Catholic Primar y and Secondar y Schools in the United States Notre Dame Task Force on Catholic Educat 0 Recommended Citation 0 This Article is brought to you for free with open access by the School of Education at Digital Commons at Loyola Marymount University and Loyola Law School. It has been accepted for publication in Catholic Education: A Journal of Inquiry and Practice by the journal's editorial board and has been published on the web by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons at Loyola Marymount University and Loyola Law School. For more information about Digital Commons , please contact - Article 2 ARTICLES MAKING GOD KNOWN, LOVED, AND SERVED: THE FUTURE OF CATHOLIC PRI MARY AND SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN THE UNITED STATES NOTRE DAME TASK FORCE ON CATHOLIC EDUCATION University of Notre Dame PREFACE IDame, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops released a pasn June 2005, shortly before I became president of the University of Notre toral statement, Renewing Our Commitment to Catholic Elementary and Secondary Schools in the Third Millennium. This document, building upon the rich experience of two hundred years of Catholic elementary and secondary education in the United States, underscores the essential role played by Catholic schools for the life of the Church. This report articulates the University of Notre Dame’s response to the bishops’ call for Catholic higher education to help address the future of elementary and secondary Catholic schools. It represents the work of a national task force I convened upon my inauguration, in response to the invitation issued by the bishops in their pastoral statement, to study the problem in breadth and detail. As a university community, we stand ready to engage the critical challenges that face this national treasure. We offer these reflections and recommendations with hope and renewed conviction that, just as our forebears in the faith responded with such generosity and courage to the challenges of their time, so too shall we. The best days for Catholic schools are yet to come. Sincerely yours in Notre Dame, Rev. John I. Jenkins, CSC President INTRODUCTION We know the story well, perhaps too well. Today, Catholic elementary and secondary schools in the United States remain the largest private school system in the world and still provide remarkable, often transformative, education, often on shoestring budgets. These schools arose as a response to public schools deemed anti-Catholic in the 19th and early 20th centuries. They flourished because of the bold vision of bishops, pastors, and religious orders and the sacrifices made by immigrant peoples who found in their Catholic schools comfort from a new and sometimes hostile culture and, at the same time, the opportunity for their children to participate more fully in American society. But, so the story goes, the glory days of Catholic schools have passed, abiding mainly in our collective memory of a time when every parish had a school (or so it seemed) staffed by nuns and bursting with students. Forty years after their peak enrollment of over 5 million, Catholic elementary and secondary schools now serve half as many students even as the Catholic population has soared. Another painful round of school closures at the outset of the 21st century has erased the modest enrollment gains of the 1990s. The religious are almost gone. Pastors are overwhelmed. Mass attendance is down. So are collections. Faculty salaries are still too low. Costs and tuition are rising. Enrollments are declining. Thus goes the litany. Yes, we know the story well. Has it become so familiar, though, that we could forget its ending is not inevitable? Must we resign ourselves to fewer, less vibrant, and less influential Catholic schools for the Church and for the United States? In light of the grim statistics and trends, we might wonder: is it even possible for those of us who, in the words of Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings, see Catholic schools as “national treasures”1 that must be preserved, to imagine a bright future of increasing enrollments and vibrant, financially stable schools? This report issues from our conviction that Catholic schools can and must be strong in our nation’s third century. While recognizing the challenges that face Catholic schools, we are convinced that extraordinary chapters lie ahead if the Catholic community and other stakeholders summon the commitment to respond generously to the call of the bishops in their recent pastoral statement, Renewing Our Commitment to Catholic Elementary and Secondary Schools in the Third Millennium. Indeed, the bishops’ decision to use the phrase “third millennium” in the title bespeaks their faith in the resiliency of Catholic schools, their appreciation of Catholic schools’ unique evangelizing and educational efficacy, and their desire to ins (...truncated)


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Notre Dame Task Force on Catholic Educat . Making God Known, Loved, and Served: The Future of Catholic Primary and Secondary Schools in the United States, Journal of Catholic Education, 2013, pp. 276-312, Volume 11, Issue 3,