Why 1 in 10 new priests in the US come from homeschooling families

[Daisy]

I don’t think they are that bad. I think they are fair to good in my city. We go because the educational standards are very high and I appreciate the community involvement at the school. It’s definitely a family of families. But the actual religion classes are not very strong. And many of the families aren’t dedicated to their faith or attend regular Sunday mass. The Catholic homeschoolers I encounter are usually hardcore and dedicated to their belief system.

 

[Pup7]

Just a question - am I right in saying that more non-Catholics attend Catholic schools these days (usually in pursuit of a higher quality of education than what is perceived to be available in some public schools), and if I am right, could that be having an effect on the religious education? I’m genuinely curious.

 

[Xanthippe_Voorhees]

Just a question - am I right in saying that more non-Catholics attend Catholic schools these days (usually in pursuit of a higher quality of education than what is perceived to be available in some public schools), and if I am right, could that be having an effect on the religious education? I’m genuinely curious.

It depends on the dioceses, but yes, in many regions Diocean Catholic schools cater to all parents dissatisfied with public education.

And yes, it does have an affect because they tend to excuse Mass attendance (sometimes forbidden by other religions) which makes it hard to even attend Mass as a class.

 

[nunsuch]

In at least some dioceses, and for some religious congregations, offering Catholic school education to non-Catholics (which has always been the case in the US, by the way, going back to St. Elizabeth Ann Seton) is seen as ministry, particularly to the economically disadvantaged and to immigrants. They are not understood only as places for Catholics. I personally think this is a very positive Gospel witness.

 

[commenter]

The religious quality of Catholic schools varies widely. From the late 1960s for a few decades, some eliminated almost all doctrine, and took a position that everything is relative. “If you feel this is true, then for you it’s true. If I feel the opposite is true, then that becomes my truth.” After the Catechism came out, there was a very slow, grudging improvement.

Today some Catholic schools are excellent, most are only satisfactory but still much better environment than any public school.

 

[DisorientingSneeze]

A quote from the article:

Catholicism isn’t a Sunday thing for Catholic homeschooling families – it’s an all day, every day thing that includes devotions, prayers, service to the poor and political action. In that atmosphere, it’s much easier for young men and women to hear God’s call.”

I would change that. Catholicism isn’t a Sunday thing for Catholic families. The atmosphere being described is one of the family culture and can be built with intentionality in the family/domestic church nomatter the education choices. Is there a huge time together advantage in homeschool that can facilitate this well? Absolutely.

I think what we are seeing here is part correlation and part causation. Families who choose homeschool are likely to want to build that type of not just on Sunday culture. If their circumstances changed such that they had to stop homeschooling they would still strive for those things described.

 

[Xanthippe_Voorhees]

A quote from the article:

Catholicism isn’t a Sunday thing for Catholic homeschooling families – it’s an all day, every day thing that includes devotions, prayers, service to the poor and political action. In that atmosphere, it’s much easier for young men and women to hear God’s call.”

Yep.

There are several bloggers who are VERY Catholic and have had to send their children to school for various reasons–usually special needs that were not compatible with a half dozen little kids running around.

Involved parents matter.

Even the seminarians from atheist families had involved, loving, committed families who found a commitment to Christ.

Who doesn’t become a priest? Children where Dad made money but was nary a sight, where family dinner only occurred on Thanksgiving, where Mom spent most of her time hanging out “with the girls” because she “needed a break”.

Correlation is being called causation clearly in this article. Statistically, since 1 in 20 students are homeschooled in that state a minimum of 1 in 20 priests should have been homeschooled. Homeschoolers are 3 times as likely to be “fervently” religious than their peers.

Logically, therefore if we have 200 catholic students, 10 are homeschooled. Six of them follow their religion fervently. Of the remaining 190 students in public and private combined, about 20% or 38 follow fervently. If we suspend reality for a moment and say all of the fervent students become priests then we should expect that 6 in 44 or 1 in 8 priests were homeschooled. So 1 in 10, is not really a great representation.