Letters to the Editor

Punished for following the rules

It makes me sad to hear that my elementary school, St. John Chrysostom in Wallingford, is closing ("Final bells for 49," Saturday). I can't even begin to think about how upset I'd be if I were still enrolled, if I were a parent, or if I worked there. The part that saddens me the most, though, is how it's ending.

I never imagined that it would close based on an announcement from a commission of 16 nuns, priests, and men in suits. Very few, if any, of the commission members have ever even been to St. John's for one day, let alone the 12 years my family spent there. None of them know the loving and caring community that welcomed me in 1998. It shocks me and hurts me that these 16 people can just look at a page of numbers and end the almost 60 years of Catholic education that St. John's has provided.

It's unfair that St. John's is being closed after it followed the rules. During my earlier years there, the school, with growing enrollment, closed its doors to students who didn't live within parish boundaries - per archdiocesan instruction. From that point, until two years ago, enrollment declined. Now, because of these numbers, there will be no more St. John's. Other local schools that kept their boundaries open will remain open.

Losing these schools can almost feel like losing a family member. Hopefully, we'll get to see a successful and sustainable archdiocesan school district.

Richard G. Scott, St. John Chrysostom School Class of 2006, Media, rscott3@swarthmore.edu

For greater good, adapt to change

As a graduate of a grade school and high school in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, I applaud Archbishop Charles Chaput and the blue-ribbon commission for having the courage and fortitude to make difficult but long-overdue decisions. Streamlining, consolidation, and restructuring will result in better and stronger schools. You can't have successful 21st-century schools with a 1950 educational model. Philadelphians need to stop living in the past, embrace the future, and adapt gracefully to necessary change for the greater good of all.

Nikola Sizgorich, Philadelphia

Lost shepherds and marginalized laity

The front-page story on Catholic school closings and the story on empty pews in mainline Protestant churches ("Churches struggle with declining flocks," Saturday) were neatly connected by two letters that day on the marginalization of the laity and our lost clerical shepherds.