But the archdiocese cannot continue to operate "half-empty buildings," Bishop McFadden said.
North Catholic has only 551 students in a school for 1,700. And at Cardinal Dougherty, with room for more than 2,000 students, enrollment is at only 642.
Donna Farrell, an archdiocese spokeswoman, said the closings are painful for officials too.
McFadden once protested in 1975 when his alma mater, St. Thomas More in West Philadelphia, was being closed. And, Richard McCarron, secretary for Catholic education, graduated from Cardinal Dougherty and taught at North Catholic for years, Farrell said.
"It's because people care so much that this is so hard," she said.
As a life-long Port Richmond resident, Donna Marie Conway had heard rumors that North Catholic would close, even back when she was in grade school at St. George Parish School.
Both her children went to the same school: John graduated from St. George and her daughter, Julianne, is a sixth-grader there.
Donna Marie, 33, said she is fighting for the school because she knows how much it means to her son and her family school.
"During his freshman year, he was only there a few days when he said to me, 'Mom, North Catholic is the best place on earth,' " she recalled.
"I thought he was joking at first," she said. "But he said, 'Mom, you don't understand how great it is. There's school spirit and there's the camaraderie . . . .' "
As other North Catholic parents noted, Donna Marie Conway said it seems unfair the archdiocese is building new schools in the suburbs while closing schools in the city.
Her family doesn't plan to move to the suburbs, she said. Port Richmond is home.
"My ancestors got off the boat, not too far away, on the Delaware. They settled here in the 1900s, and we're still here to this day," said Donna Marie Conway, 33.
Her parents live "around the corner" on Thompson; her daughter's school is three blocks away.
It's the kind of community where residents who may visit the Columbia Social Hall on Almond Street, near Tioga, are reminded of their roots becaue the Catholic cemetery, with hundreds of Polish names, is just across the street. And you can hear the bells ringing from St. George Catholic Church on Venango, at Edgemont, several times a day.
"I am a practicing Catholic . . . and I'm raising my children in the faith. I'm not just sending them to Catholic schools because I think it's a better education, but also for the religious aspect of it.
"That's why this is so hard."
John Hanejko, a retired Philadelphia police officer, is president of the North Catholic Alumni Association, Class of 1965.
Like young John Conway, Hanejko said the alumni isn't giving up easily on North; many are reaching out to the archdiocese to find a way to save the school.
"We're not pessimistic," Hanejko said. "We're not overly optimistic; we're realistic. But it's not over."
