Question from Paul on 10/2/2007: 
I send my two young boys to Catholic school because I want them to get a good education that also embraces my faith and personal values. yet, in recent months, I have been dismayed to see some Catholic parents transfer their children to public school. I even had a disturbing discussion with one catholic that was encouraging me to pull my kids out of catholic school and put them on our town's public school system. What has happened to Catholics lately?!
I love my kids, my faith and my catholic school and I would do anything possible to prevent that. Public schools today are NOT what they were years ago. Long ago, public schools were a neutral or benign environment for Christian values. No Longer! Today, secular and atheistic authorities stamp out mention of God and have made it unfriendly and even hostile for students of faith. Forgive this preamble (I had to get it off my chest) but the Question is...
What can catholics that are faithful to catholic education say in response to those catholics that opted the "easy way" and have turned their back on catholic education? Sadly, many catholics send their kids to public schools to save money, etc. What can we do? What can we say? I have my opinions and points, but I want to here others on this critical matter.
Thank you and God bless all of you... Regards, Paul M.
Answer by Fr. Robert J. Levis on 10/3/2007:
Paul, I hate to admit it but today many so-called Catholic Schools are very defective in teaching the Faith, many of them. I know many parents who extract their children from such Catholic School to preserve them from heresy and immorality. This hurts me to post this. This is true at the grade school level, at the secondary and collegiate level. So the duty of Catholic parents is to be objective in their study of what is taught at all levels. One should go further in investigating this question and not be superficial in accepting a principal's assertion that all is well in his school. Better to ask the parents of children who know from experience what is going on. Rome has tried since about 1976 to get control of what happens and is taught at the college and university level. She has failed.The latest failure is with the document "Ex corde ecclesiae" where at least the local Bishop should have something to say about the Theology taught.This is no more than another failed document, failed since the coup called "the Land O'Lakes" revolutionary document where leading college presidents refused to be subject to the authority of their bishops. The ony answer at the primary level is home-study, where parents assume their primary duty and instruct their own children. Fr. Bob Levis
I pulled my kids last year from the same Catholic school I attended . Midwest High School. History has repeated itself.
ReplyDeleteIn the early '70's lots of Catholic kids were thrown up against lockers and just treated like potted plants and trash. It was horrible. The parents were excessively deferential to the Priests, nuns, and the Bishops. Force feeding religion by people who were masochistically cruel and psychologically unstable. They talked the talk--but few even remotely "walked the walk". The school was full of what Psychiatrists term Axis II, Cluster B behaviors..Narcissistic and Sociopathic Priests, Borderline Nuns, etc--all acting out with layers of Substance abuse and...sexual and emotional abuse. Few show up for class re-unions anymore--as they are simply too painful. We started 9th grade with 95 students-- and graduated 57.
One of the Priests (Superintendent)later came to me 25 years later and made his "Alcoholic Amends"--for he threw me against a locker on numerous occasions, simply because I was a big kid and "an example he wanted to make" to the others. He acknowledged I had done nothing. He tearfully made his amends, acknowledged his anger problems and substance abuse Issues (We all knew--but no one listened to kids back then). The Jesuits (Graduate level) taught me to forgive him--for he was earnest and contrite--and "walked the walk".
In the middle 70's more Catholic parents began listening to their kids--and other parents. They were shocked, ashamed and disgusted with what they found out. The kids left in droves.By 1995 when the Priest abuse scandals hit the mainstream press--class size had reduced by 1/2 or more. After the scandal hit--numbers continued to decline. In 2000 things seemed to pick up a bit and a few families started their kids.
Very few Priests and Nuns now as in 1972, comparatively. Most faculty are Lay Teachers/Lay administrators. However, 70% of the faculty are good,caring,hard-working, decent people-- Fair, nurturing, and effective teachers.
30 % are as unstable psychologically and mean-spirited/ sabotaging Individuals as the Priests and Nuns they replaced--none should not come within 50 feet of a child. They work at Catholic schools simply--as they could not function in a Public School or other facility with Normal Policies & Procedures. The administration is worse--lying and falsifying records and events--"In the name of the Lord"..and such other Delusions. If I hadn't seen it first hand and repetitively--I would never have believed it. As an "Involved" parent I saw first hand the emotional abuse, arbitrary & Capricious behavior, and Sadistic behavior--justified in the name of Christianity. My son's class graduated less than 30.
I am a Lawyer (Jesuit trained) who has defended many Institutions in Court--including Catholic Hospitals, etc. None are as sick as these schools. They seem to attract and retain the most unstable Employees, that never think they can do wrong or get caught--"as they are doing the Lord's Work". ( I have Priest friends and clients who privately are appalled and afraid to speak--due to the backlash sure to follow--Sound familiar Cardinal Bernard Law ???.) I have talked to many good "former Catholic Parents"--who transferred their kids to the Public Schools...where they have thrived. I find myself right with them--shocked at the audacity of these "Pseudo-Catholics' who use the Lord to treat the kids like ...Job. The Jesuits are castigated, as well.
Give me a loving and contrite Cardinal Bernadin over an unstable and "Rome pandering" Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz, before I will consider the Church as having a conscience..or a Soul.
I will never send a child to a Catholic Institution ever again. There is no transparency, nor no accountability. How do you rationally discuss/point out abnormal behavior with an irrational person ??
By the way--my kids are all "Honors Program" attendee's at their Universities, and are doing very well. Therapy has helped the younger one understand why an Authority figure acted sooo "Un-Catholic"... and nothing ever happens to her ..and she does this to other students without any remorse or rebuke.
Tell Rome it is run by a Bully. It didn't work in 1972 and it is failing ..again.
Badly.
Signed,
No more Catholic schools for me
I wish I had all the money I've spent on therapy for myself. The domican nuns were brutal telling the little ones on the first day of school that she would chop of their heads and roll them down the ailse. Not sure I believed her then but didn't not believe her either. My little sister had her hair pulled hard by a nun and I had to watch and couldn't do a thing about it. I still have much guilt over how I should have been able to protect her and couldn't. Mostly it was emotional abuse for me continually told I was stupid and "wouldn't amount to anything". (at least I proved them wrong on that one). The cruelest of all was teaching us about a God that was harsh and unforgiving. I had to reinvent my God to the loving forgiving God my parents taught me about. I'm 62 years old and am still dealing with the demons left by those nuns.
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