Philadelphia archdiocese to close 48 Catholic schools

  • Thread starter Thread starter Kassandra
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
K

Kassandra

Guest
The Archdiocese of Philadelphia announced Friday that it will be closing four of its high schools and 44 of its elementary schools, shocking the community.

Officials from Monsignor Bonner and Archbishop Prendergast, West Catholic, St. Hubert and Conwell Egan were informed Friday morning that their schools will be closing at the end of the school year in June…

Catholic Schools
 
I’m from Philly and the whole thing is just heart breaking. I went to private Catholic high school, but I had good friends at Prendie. My grade school was the only one in the Norristown area that isn’t going to be merged with another. The archdiocesan high school I would have gone to if I hadn’t fallen in love with my actual high school, Kennedy-Kendrick, closed in 2010 due to an earlier round of cuts. I’m currently studying to become a teacher, and would love to teach at a Catholic school, but at this rate, they’ll be gone by the time I graduate.😦
 
Ladygem said:
I’m from Philly and the whole thing is just heart breaking. I went to private Catholic high school, but I had good friends at Prendie. My grade school was the only one in the Norristown area that isn’t going to be merged with another. The archdiocesan high school I would have gone to if I hadn’t fallen in love with my actual high school, Kennedy-Kendrick, closed in 2010 due to an earlier round of cuts. I’m currently studying to become a teacher, and would love to teach at a Catholic school, but at this rate, they’ll be gone by the time I graduate.😦
Click to expand...
It is heartbreaking - no matter where it is happening. I remember Catholic school as being one of the best things in my life and some of the best times in my life.

:tanning:
 
Ladygem said:
I’m from Philly and the whole thing is just heart breaking. I went to private Catholic high school, but I had good friends at Prendie. My grade school was the only one in the Norristown area that isn’t going to be merged with another. The archdiocesan high school I would have gone to if I hadn’t fallen in love with my actual high school, Kennedy-Kendrick, closed in 2010 due to an earlier round of cuts. I’m currently studying to become a teacher, and would love to teach at a Catholic school, but at this rate, they’ll be gone by the time I graduate.😦
Click to expand...
I, too, am a Catholic school alumna, a teacher, and extremely sad to hear of these closings. I pray that the children involved find these closing not too disruptive to their educations.

Luna
 
I just wonder what it is that’s causing the decline to occur?? I just know that if we don’t encourage and teach our children our faith that it’s only gonna get worse. I see so much in my parish the kids that don’t participate during mass, like alter servers we use to see boy alter servers all the time and now it’s all girls?? No I am not saying thats bad by any means,but I just don’t see why all the boys don’t help out! It’s many other things I would imagine that happens to our kids nowadays after they reach their age and make all the Sacraments, but its after that when they leave and don’t return. That has an everlasting effect on the Catholic Church if we don’t engrain our rich Catholic Faith into our kids that gives them the knowledge to continue… I know I’m off the subject but I just wanted to share ,because I don’t have any Catholic schools in my immediate area and I was raised on a farm, had my moments that I too fell away from the faith for a time but it was my mother and father that helped me see that being apart of the faith is so much apart of my everyday life. I learned that I shouldn’t depend on others in the Church to teach me the entire faith, it’s got to be the faith in me and Christ that gives me the strength and grace to be better and more knowledgeable to myself to be apart of the lives of the my brothers/sisters to never give up on who we are and to stand up and be proud Catholics… So therefore let us pray for and increase of the faithful and for our Holy Church!!
 
A Catholic education is no longer what it is nostalgically depicted in the play, Late Night Catechism. We sent both our sons to Catholic school K-12. When my elder son was in the eighth grade, he and some classmates were falsely accused of molesting a second-grader. This was in a parochial school run by a radical, anti-male, feminist sister principal. She badgered the “victim” until he told her what she wanted to hear. Next step was the school photo album, and he picked out my son and his friends. The sister put my son through the third degree, but he refused to confess, despite the threats of jail, lawsuits, and the loss of our home. I just learned of the incident that took place about 1991. A few years after my son’s experience, someone at the school called the police and they arrested her. Never found out why. I have since read the book, Sisters In Crisis, which describes how they took over the sisterhood. Today, he and his wife belong to some “non-denominational” church. The younger doesn’t even go to any church. I blame that sister for turning them away from the Church. I think my boys would have been no worse off if they had gone to public schools.
 
VGARZA1972 said:
… we use to see boy alter servers all the time and now it’s all girls?? No I am not saying thats bad by any means,but I just don’t see why all the boys don’t help out! …
Click to expand...
I once read about a boy whose mother was an airline pilot. Asked if he wanted to be one too when he grew up, he replied that it was, “Women’s work”.

If each school has an average of, say, 350 students, I can hardly wait to see the public schools gag on an additional 17,000. 😃
 
sedonaman said:
If each school has an average of, say, 350 students, I can hardly wait to see the public schools gag on an additional 17,000. 😃
Click to expand...
Public schools don’t see children as spoiled pieces of meat or bits of gristle, something to “gag on.” With the exception of a few, well-litigated exceptions, we take all comers, both because we’re required to but also because the vast majority of public school professionals see their jobs as both professions and vocations.

This veteran public school teacher suspects that the schools who do absorb the children from the closed Catholic schools will welcome them for their discipline, strong family structures (because in disintegrating families there’s rarely the wherewithal for private schools), and work ethic. Public school administrators will carve out classroom space for them and do their utmost to get them the resources they need, everything from teachers to textbooks to desks to paraprofessional support services. And public school teachers will welcome their new kiddos, and if they’re not provided with the budget buy learning supplies for them, they’ll do what every public school teacher I’ve ever know does: go to Wal-Mart and spend their own money to purchase what they and their students need to teach and learn.

Luna
 
Luna_Lovecraft said:
Public schools don’t see children as spoiled pieces of meat or bits of gristle, something to “gag on.” … [etc.]
Luna
Click to expand...
You gag when you bite off more than you can chew. Public schools ban the merest breath of the Christian religion while subsidizing student clubs devoted to witchcraft. They ban Santa Claus, the word “Christmas”, and even red and green decorations, but allow blue, the color of ADVENT! They dare not allow the mention Jesus lest someone be “offended” because of the “insensitivity” of it all, but force their students to play “Muslim for a day”, never mind that Christians might be offended. They teach students how to keep one banana from getting another banana pregnant. The homosexual lifestyle is the public schools’ current cause célèbre, and woe be unto any student who disagrees alliancealert.org/tag/zz-glowacki-v-howell-public-school-district/ or even has the temerity to say he gets inspiration from Jesus. God works in mysterious ways, and now the public schools are going to have to come up with some additional bucks to pay for all these students being dumped on them. They might even have to engage in the pursuit of truth, heaven forbid!

I think “gag” is an appropriate figure of speech.
 
sedonaman said:
You gag when you bite off more than you can chew.
Click to expand...
Well again, this veteran public school teacher knows that the children from these closed Catholic schools will not be more than we can chew on. Again, with very few exceptions, we take all comers: rich and poor; able and handicapped; native born and immigrant; ill in body and mind and healthy in body and mind; multilingual, monolingual, and nonverbal; and just about every combination thereof. And we take the resources we’re allotted, augment them out of our own pocketbooks, and work on and off the clock to give our kids the best educations we know how to give. And again, we’ll welcome the vast majority of these kids because of all the positive influences they’ll have on our campuses.
sedonaman said:
Public schools ban the merest breath of the Christian religion while subsidizing student clubs devoted to witchcraft. They ban Santa Claus, the word “Christmas”, and even red and green decorations, but allow blue, the color of ADVENT! They dare not allow the mention Jesus lest someone be “offended” because of the “insensitivity” of it all, but force their students to play “Muslim for a day”, never mind that Christians might be offended. They teach students how to keep one banana from getting another banana pregnant. The homosexual lifestyle is the public schools’ current cause célèbre, and woe be unto any student who disagrees alliancealert.org/tag/zz-glowacki-v-howell-public-school-district/ or even has the temerity to say he gets inspiration from Jesus. God works in mysterious ways, and now the public schools are going to have to come up with some additional bucks to pay for all these students being dumped on them. They might even have to engage in the pursuit of truth, heaven forbid!

I think “gag” is an appropriate figure of speech.
Click to expand...
I’m going to let this statement stand as a testament to the mindless power of the American media and paranoia that results when people spend too much time immersed in that junk as opposed to any real, first-hand knowledge or understanding as to what really happens on our public schools campuses.

Thanks for indulging me in this conversation. I now have to get back to planning two big literature units for the coming semester. 🙂

Luna
 
Kassandra said:
The Archdiocese of Philadelphia announced Friday that it will be closing four of its high schools and 44 of its elementary schools, shocking the community.

Officials from Monsignor Bonner and Archbishop Prendergast, West Catholic, St. Hubert and Conwell Egan were informed Friday morning that their schools will be closing at the end of the school year in June…

Catholic Schools
Click to expand...
Let me get this straight: …

Philadelphia priests molest children–resulting lawsuits sends archdiocese into insolvency.
*
Catholic Children suffer.*

Philadelphia archbishop/cardinal attempts to reestablish solvency–closes 48 Catholic schools.
*
Catholic Children still suffer.*

That ain’t right.
 
LiveCatholic said:
Let me get this straight: …

Philadelphia priests molest children–resulting lawsuits sends archdiocese into insolvency.
*
Catholic Children suffer.*

Philadelphia archbishop/cardinal attempts to reestablish solvency–closes 48 Catholic schools.
*
Catholic Children still suffer.*

That ain’t right.
Click to expand...
Yes, the clergy have the Catholic Church that they created in the past 40 years.

On a note of realism and “getting it”, the new Bishop in Philly is trying to sell his mansion and live in more modest digs. Kudos to him.
 
And so it begins…

Conwell-Egan to fight closing
Conwell-Egan Catholic High School won’t go silently.
Click to expand...
Sources told the newspaper that a delegation of Conwell and Egan graduates intends to challenge the blue ribbon panel’s recommendation to close the high school by taking it up directly with the hierarchy of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.
Click to expand...
phillyburbs.com/news/local/courier_times_news/breaking_news/conwell-egan-to-fight-closing/article_0a1a0ab4-c744-5994-8f05-8931658dc029.html

I feel sorry for Archbishop Chaput. It sounds as if he has been handed a difficult situation.
 
The report produced by the blue ribbon commission is online. It looks at the problems facing the AoP Catholic school system and makes recommendations for turning things around.

One of the problems is that the pool of potential students is lower. Not only is the overall population down, but Catholic families are having less children. For example, from 1990 to
2009 infant baptisms in the Archdiocese declined from 21,600 to 11,700 or some
46 percent.

Another problem is competition from charter schools. These offer the safety and discipline which has attracted students to Catholic schools in the past, plus they are tuition free. There are 67 charter schools in the area, with 34,000 students. In contrast, the AoP Catholic schools have 68,000 students in 173 schools.

An additional problem is the decline in availability of priests and religious to serve in the schools necessitates reliance on lay staff. The lay staff earn more, making the schools more expensive to run. This results in decreased availability of programs and higher tuition.
bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/phillyburbs.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/b/41/b41aab0f-23e0-5b28-bf4a-725b52242ac5/4f07775b6bf88.pdf.pdf
 
Luna_Lovecraft said:
Public schools don’t see children as spoiled pieces of meat or bits of gristle, something to “gag on.” With the exception of a few, well-litigated exceptions, we take all comers, both because we’re required to but also because the vast majority of public school professionals see their jobs as both professions and vocations.

This veteran public school teacher suspects that the schools who do absorb the children from the closed Catholic schools will welcome them for their discipline, strong family structures (because in disintegrating families there’s rarely the wherewithal for private schools), and work ethic. Public school administrators will carve out classroom space for them and do their utmost to get them the resources they need, everything from teachers to textbooks to desks to paraprofessional support services. And public school teachers will welcome their new kiddos, and if they’re not provided with the budget buy learning supplies for them, they’ll do what every public school teacher I’ve ever know does: go to Wal-Mart and spend their own money to purchase what they and their students need to teach and learn.

Luna
Click to expand...
:clapping: :clapping: :clapping:
 
There is one school (elementary I believe, can’t remember which one) that recently claimed independence from the archdiocese, with help from them. There is a foundation, started by a Catholic school father with a successful contracting business, that now funds the school. It seems like the ADofP is trying to work at this from all angles.

I wonder if some of the schools are not within a stone’s throw from one another. I realize this changes the “personality” of the schools, but really, when there is another Catholic school within I’d say 5 miles of the one you’re going to, then it only makes sense to consolidate. I am sure some closings, though, will make it challenging for students to get to a Catholic school.
 
To be honest the way government is trying to strong arm Catholic organizations through the fact that they are assisted with Federal funds I’m about ready to see all Catholic schools, hospitals and adoption agencies close world wide.

If the world doesn’t want our help then let them fend for themselves…
 
Isolation said:
To be honest the way government is trying to strong arm Catholic organizations through the fact that they are assisted with Federal funds I’m about ready to see all Catholic schools, hospitals and adoption agencies close world wide.
.
Click to expand...
Did I miss something? What gov assistance is the Philly Catholic schools getting?

And it’s not the public schools who will gag from the onslaught of children, it’s the taxpayer who will suddenly have to pay. I wonder if the state can afford it? They’ve taxed the parents, and then forced the parents to pay again for the education of their children. The schools and the teachers’ unions will be thrilled, because it’s more money and more children to mold and control. And the QKK (Queer Klux Klan) who is trying to destroy the church. Thousands of children now will be fed the pro-homosexual lies taught in the public schools.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top