Priest: You've contracepted our parochial school out of existence

  • Thread starter Thread starter quiet52
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
I live in Massachusetts…one of the most secular states in the country. It is the land of the Cafeteria Catholic.

I have three Catholic elementary schools within a 2 mile radius of my house. One is a stone’s throw away and that isn’t even the one my husband and I plan to send our children.

All of them are absolutely thriving. It’s the public schools that are closing left and right. We have a public school that is a block from my house. It closed it’s doors this year.

It has very little to do with the number of children a family has. If the school can’t perform or meet expectations…no one will support it.

Why are they thriving? Because they are outstanding schools. All of them.

The public schools? Not so much.
 
Kelfa28 said:
I live in Massachusetts…one of the most secular states in the country. It is the land of the Cafeteria Catholic.

I have three Catholic elementary schools within a 2 mile radius of my house. One is a stone’s throw away and that isn’t even the one my husband and I plan to send our children.

All of them are absolutely thriving. It’s the public schools that are closing left and right. We have a public school that is a block from my house. It closed it’s doors this year.

It has very little to do with the number of children a family has. If the school can’t perform or meet expectations…no one will support it.

Why are they thriving? Because they are outstanding schools. All of them.

The public schools? Not so much.
Click to expand...
Catholic schools thrive where I am too, partly because the public schools are so bad. When a B average child transfers from public to Catholic school here they test out fully one grade behind. Family structures which value education get their kids into private school if they can. Broken family structures that don’t care about education just shift all the responsibility to the government. There are many stories of kids arriving at public school kindergarten not even knowing the names of colors.
 
Country_Gal said:
I think it’s more important to save for college that pay for private schools.
Click to expand...
Of course everyone has priorities. But you are being honest by saying that you prioritize college savings over a Catholic school education for your kids. That’s different than people who claim they “can’t afford” to send their kids to Catholic school when what they really mean is that they have different priorities.
 
TheWarriorMonk said:
The article actually addresses two issues, and contraception isn’t the primary one, though the article attempts to make it the primary one.

The primary one is “And they aren’t even going to Mass anymore.” It doesn’t matter if you have one 1 or 15 children; if you don’t raise them Catholic they’re not going to Catholic School. If a couple only has two children, and they go to Catholic School, the school can support itself.

An issue also not mentioned in the article is that the cost of living has become extremely burdensome in many areas. For example, if you live in an area where your an average house cost $300,000, your real estate taxes are $12,000, you have to buy your own health insurance, and you have 12 children, you simply can’t afford to send your children to a private school. One of my neighbors relayed such a story to use; he was face with either pulling one of his children out of Catholic school or buying a car to get the work. Needless to say, he bought the car.
Click to expand...
It is about contraception. Contraception is the root cause of many of our evils.

catholicexchange.com/contraception-the-bacteria-devouring-americas-soul/

The priest in the article is exactly right.

-Tim-
 
Country_Gal said:
I think it’s more important to save for college that pay for private schools.
Click to expand...
We are not talking about private school but ***parochial ***school.

If the private school is parochial, perhaps run by Dominincan Sisters who take the children to monthly confession, first Friday adoration, teach them the faith and train them in Chastity, teaching them that they are worth waiting for because Christ died for them on the Cross…

If that is the private school, then we are not paying for just an education but for the salvation of our children’s souls, and for the salvation of the souls of everyone they have an impression upon.

That, my dear Country Gal, is infinitely more valuable any college educations. Given the choice, I’ll give my dauthers Heaven over college any day.

-Tim-
 
manualman said:
Interestingly enough, I went to catholic school with a family that had 12 kids. I can’t say how they managed it, but there they were. My parish today waives tuition for any beyond 3 at a time. Still a brutally hard situation for those folks though.
Click to expand...
The reason we homeschool is not that the local Catholic school is not Catholic, but that it does not have such a policy. We have 6 kids, and would have to pay full tuition for each one.
 
Brendan said:
The reason we homeschool is not that the local Catholic school is not Catholic, but that it does not have such a policy. We have 6 kids, and would have to pay full tuition for each one.
Click to expand...
Well, if you homeschool, your kids ARE in a Catholic school. 😃

But I am surprised by that school’s policy. My kids have attended several Catholic schools - elementary and high school - and all of them have a multiple child discount. I hope that’s the norm in other places too.
 
Brendan said:
The reason we homeschool is not that the local Catholic school is not Catholic, but that it does not have such a policy. We have 6 kids, and would have to pay full tuition for each one.
Click to expand...
I’m sure you teach them every bit as well.

I should admit that mine isn’t your average catholic school either. Minus the Dominican nuns, we’ve got all the bullet points a poster further above cited as ideal. 👍

P.P.S. Our parish also eats about 1/4 the cost of tuition for parishioners up front before we even see a bill. That’s actually pretty common, but getting rarer.
 
TimothyH said:
We are not talking about private school but ***parochial ***school.

If the private school is parochial, perhaps run by Dominincan Sisters who take the children to monthly confession, first Friday adoration, teach them the faith and train them in Chastity, teaching them that they are worth waiting for because Christ died for them on the Cross…

If that is the private school, then we are not paying for just an education but for the salvation of our children’s souls, and for the salvation of the souls of everyone they have an impression upon.

That, my dear Country Gal, is infinitely more valuable any college educations. Given the choice, I’ll give my dauthers Heaven over college any day.

-Tim-
Click to expand...
I believe that debt and student loans are a big thing dragging down young families, forcing responsible people to delay having children. The Bible speaks against the servitude of debt.
 
Brendan said:
The reason we homeschool is not that the local Catholic school is not Catholic, but that it does not have such a policy. We have 6 kids, and would have to pay full tuition for each one.
Click to expand...
Our Catholic school doesn’t have a multi-child discount either. I know I am not exaggerating when I say that I can not find room in my budget for 60k a year for the next 20 years.
 
manualman said:
Very few issues have single causes or magic bullet solutions. This doesn’t mean one shouldn’t look for the larger issues involved.
.
.
.
A catholic school has to really be a CATHOLIC school in every way for it to be worth it. They are out there if you look. We’ve found one that I’d move to a trailer park before pulling my kids out of it.
Click to expand...
Yes, there are many factors affecting this.

I grew up going to 6 years of Catholic school and 7 years of public, usually alternating every 2 or 3 years (I grew up in the military). Unfortunately, I didn’t find kids that much different in the Catholic schools. There were good and bad everywhere. Same with the teachers. I wish I could say my experience was different. 😦

My daughter spent her elementary years wanting so badly to go to a Catholic school, and I didn’t feel we had the money to spare. In high school, we finally sent her to the same school her older brother had graduated from. She hated it. Some of the kids were cruel. She had teachers there ‘teaching’ things against the Catholic faith.

My son’s experience there wasn’t great, either. He was sexually harassed by a gay student, and the director of the school, a brother, no less, made a huge deal about introducing this gay student and his boyfriend as they came into prom together, and how welcoming the school was. Nobody else got publicly welcomed or public accolades.

There were some good teachers and students, by the way. I’m not saying it was all bad. But I didn’t feel it supported what I was trying to teach my kids, or even the Catholic faith, well enough to warrant that much money.
 
Catholic education can work, and it can be tuition free, if parents and parishes are willing. I only hope that this can continue. All the Catholic school children I’ve met are receiving the best education possible.
 
TimothyH said:
That, my dear Country Gal, is infinitely more valuable any college educations. Given the choice, I’ll give my dauthers Heaven over college any day.

-Tim-
Click to expand...
This seems to imply that the only way to achieve salvation is through a parochial education.
 
TheWarriorMonk said:
So if contraception is the root cause, you are stating that Muslim schools are shutting down at the same rate as Catholic schools?
Click to expand...
Such a leading question implies that the asker thinks muslims have the same low total fertility rate as other Americans (implying similar levels of contraception and/or abortion use). Got backup or just supposition?
 
on_the_hill said:
This seems to imply that the only way to achieve salvation is through a parochial education.
Click to expand...
The cruise ship that hit the rocks and sank off Italy a few years ago comes to mind here. The shore was a couple hundred yards away. Almost anybody not physically disabled can swim that far (waters were calm). But the captain was charged in criminal court for going ashore instead of remaining aboard and doing everything possible to get his passengers safely to shore.

Can kids grow up as faithful and well educated catholics even if they attend public schools? Of course. But as parents, it’s our duty to do our BEST to raise them in the faith, not to call “good enough” and leave it at that to save money and trouble. Some eras make uniquely catholic education more crucial than others. We seemed to be out of that era after the Kennedy presidency, but we really weren’t. It’s becoming more crucial all the time again as the culture veers further from christendom.
 
manualman said:
Such a leading question implies that the asker thinks muslims have the same low total fertility rate as other Americans (implying similar levels of contraception and/or abortion use). Got backup or just supposition?
Click to expand...
Do you have evidence that it is not?

The fact is that it is permitted in the Muslim population, whereas it is not permitted in the Catholic population. If contraceptive use is the cause of this problem, Muslim schools should be shutting down at a higher rate than Catholic schools. Fact is, they aren’t.

The lack of morals is the root cause of contraceptive use, along with many of societies other problems. It is not the use of contraceptives that that causes moral problems. The former is just simple common sense. To prove the later requires dismissing a sample group of over 1,000,000,000 people.
 
Speaking of high fertility, Mormons have large families and strong faith, and fully utilize the public schools. Instead, they are faithful tithers with very strong church communities. Catholics would benefit by emulating some of their ways.
 
manualman said:
Can kids grow up as faithful and well educated catholics even if they attend public schools? Of course. But as parents, it’s our duty to do our BEST to raise them in the faith, not to call “good enough” and leave it at that to save money and trouble.
Click to expand...
Sure, I agree. But not all Catholic schools are equally good at providing that high quality education in the Faith. I went to a Catholic school for two years and didn’t really learn much at all about Catholicism. On the other hand, my wife went to a Catholic school and knows a whole lot more than I ever did.

Plus, I got to learn neat facts in biology class, like: Paramecium can float in a drop of water because they’re so small gravity doesn’t affect them. :confused:
 
on_the_hill said:
Plus, I got to learn neat facts in biology class, like: Paramecium can float in a drop of water because they’re so small gravity doesn’t affect them. :confused:
Click to expand...
Paramecium have mass, and therefore are affected by gravity. The teacher likely meant that there are other forces in play that keep the paramecium in the drop of water.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top