Sadly, in many places today, Catholics schools have lost sight of this mission. They have become simply one more place for those who can afford them to hide their children away from the harsh reality of poverty in America, with scholarships that allow a token number of poorer brown and black children to attend.
The Catholic schools run by those original Daughters of Charity were places where Catholic children, often surrounded by anti-Catholic sentiment, could be nurtured, steeped in their Catholic culture. Today there are “Catholic” schools where less than half of faculty and/or students are practicing Catholics. How Catholic can that culture be? It is said that they “are tools of evangelization.” If so, where is the data to show how many are embracing the Catholic faith because they went to a Catholic school?
On this feast of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, through her intercession, may we, and especially the bishops of our nation, have the courage and wisdom to acknowledge where schools have failed and redirect our limited resources to that original mission of Catholic schools in America.
