Catholics have to pick their battles. We have a limited amount of time, and resources.
I was looking into becoming active in a local chapter of a national social workers’s association, thinking maybe it would offer a forum to engage fellow professionals, maybe influence a little towards Christian values. Then I saw the latest newsletter, a survey of members; 97% support legal abortion! Okaaa… My time and dues money would have been wasted.
There are other smaller forums, Catholic at least in name, that I might influence. So I concentrate my efforts there. But in another city, or 2 decades earlier, it might have been worth it to try to impact on the daily newspaper, state university, etc. Maybe some doors open part way.
In my diocese the Catholic high schools are under Common Core, secularizing for many years. The president of one Catholic high school tried to increase the Catholicity for years, with some success. But the teacher’s union, the ultra liberal diocesan education office, the alumni fixated on sports, parents interested more in college than Heaven, made improvements limited.
He started his own independent school: daily Mass, Philosophy, Latin, Oath of Fidelity to the Magisterium by teachers, prolife. We have approval to exist from the bishop, but no recognition from the diocese. In some cities it may have been better for him to work within the system with the 350 diocesan students he had (or even to get a job in the public district, with 3500 students) rather than the 35 students we now have.
The situation where you are, the options might support a different choice. But in my American city, it looks like “the ghetto” is becoming necessary.
