Chaput: Let go of anger, fight for school vouchers

Archbishop Charles J. Chaput speaks at a news conference at which the school closings were announced. The graph behind him charts archdiocesan school enrollment since 1894, with a peak in the 1950s and '60s and a substantial decline since then.
Archbishop Charles J. Chaput speaks at a news conference at which the school closings were announced. The graph behind him charts archdiocesan school enrollment since 1894, with a peak in the 1950s and '60s and a substantial decline since then. (MICHAEL BRYANT / Staff Photographer)
Staff Report
Posted: January 12, 2012

Archbishop Charles J. Chaput is calling on Catholics angered by plans to close schools throughout the Archdiocese of Philadelphia to direct their energies to getting their elected officials to support school vouchers instead.

"Some Catholics - too many - seem to find it easier to criticize their own leaders than to face the fact that they're discriminated against every day of the year," he says in his weekly column for www.CatholicPhilly.com. "They pay once for public schools; then they pay again for the Catholic schools they rightly hold in such esteem."

"But Catholics should hold public leaders - beginning with our elected officials in Harrisburg - to an equally demanding standard. School choice may not answer every financial challenge in Catholic education; but vouchers would make a decisive difference. They'd help our schools enormously. To put it simply: Vouchers are a matter of parental rights and basic justice."

An Archdiocesan "Blue Ribbon Commission" last week recommended closing four high schools and 45 elementary schools due to declining enrollment. A appeals process on behalf of the schools is under way.

The archbishop also called on those affected by the closings to be civil to each other as the process unfolds.

"The Blue Ribbon Commission members who worked so selflessly on the report, along with many members of our archdiocesan staff, did their service with extraordinary dedication, integrity and concern for the needs of our people," Chaput said.

"They deserve our thanks and respect. They do not deserve the bitter - and unjust - criticism some parents and students have shown them," he said.

The archbishop said in the past week he has received hundreds of e-mails, most of them voicing "confusion, anger and grief."

"This is natural," he said. "In fact, it would be abnormal and very troubling if people didn't vent their feelings on a matter so close to the heart of Philadelphia Catholics."

But Chaput said that as tempers cool, people need to keep in mind that the Blue Ribbon Commission' report is now about "'closing schools.' It's about putting Catholic education on a firm footing for the first time in decades."

"It can't be done without suffering, and nobody wants to be the cause of other good people's pain, he said. "But the work needs to be done. It can't be delayed."

"The resource challenges we face in 2012 are much harsher than 40 or 50 years ago . . ." Chaput said. " family can run on nostalgia and red ink."

Index by Keyword
|
Index by Date
|
About Philly.com
|
Contact Us
|
Terms of Use & Privacy Statement
|
Copyright 2013