The archdiocesan school system educates 67,000 youngsters at 167 parish schools, 17 high schools, and four special-education schools.
At its peak in 1965, enrollment numbered 265,000.
The archdiocese has made several attempts in recent years to promote Catholic schools, including a $500,000 marketing campaign in 2007 called "Keeping Faith in Mind" that touted the quality of its education and values.
Despite these and private efforts to fund tuition scholarships, enrollment has declined about 25 percent in the last decade, with the largest drop in inner-city parishes, many of whose pupils are not Catholic.
Bishop Michael Fitzgerald, who oversees the archdiocese's Office for Catholic Education, said the study had no hidden agenda to close struggling schools, although its findings would likely include criteria for determining which schools should stay open.
He also said the archdiocese remained committed to serving the poor of all faiths.
The cardinal named John "Jack" Quindlen, a retired senior vice president of the DuPont Co. and formerly its chief financial officer, to chair the committee.
"This will be a strategic view," Quindlen said. "Assets, buildings, finances, education, logistics. We're going to look at everything."
"The cardinal has handed us the ball," he added, "but has not told us how to go about" the task.
The committee, 12 of whose members were introduced at the news conference, includes several business leaders. Among them are H. Edward Hanway, chairman emeritus of Cigna Corp., and Thomas J. Colligan, a vice dean at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and former vice chair of the management consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers L.L.C.
