This morning we were at school hosting a family who was looking for a school to include in its year end giving. We had a great time and the family asked many good and insightful questions. One question stuck out and it was about the Catholic nature of our school.
Back in 2000 I remember talking to a colleague at Saint Ignatius High School about opening a school for kids in the inner city of Cleveland. He wondered why I would want to open a Catholic school in an area where there were so few Catholics. At that time, I gave him an answer I had heard Bishop Pilla give many times when faced with a similar question, "We have Catholic schools in the city not because the students are Catholic, but because we are Catholic." I always thought that was a good way of putting. Not unlike Catholic hospitals...they do not only serve Catholics who are ill!
Two years ago I was invited to Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, to speak about the Cristo Rey model. Calvinists have hundreds of schools throughout the world. Many of them, as I understand it, were founded to educate Christian children of missionaries and colonists. As time went by, the schools, mostly in urban areas began to serve a new clientele. Most of the urban dwellers, particularly in the African cities where the Calvinists had established schools, were now Moslems.
When I mentioned the issue that many American Catholics bring up about urban Catholic schools educating non-Catholics, I told them of the Bishop Pilla answer. They nodded, but said they too had to have a good reason to continue Christian schools for Moslems. Their reason was rooted in the Gospel. We have these schools in poor urban areas because they are our nieghbors and we are commanded to love our neighbors by Jesus! Wow! Great answer...
Happy New Year!
