Approximately 70% of Catholic children of elementary age, and 36% of the high school level are attending the Catholic schools of the archdiocese according to the census of 1963. News of widespread interest to the Catholic pupils in public schools (and their parents) was released this week.

The Department of Catholic Education, of which Father Daniel O’Connor is head, will treble the scope of its work in 1966 as the result of surveys and fact-gathering now going up. Plans will be announced in early 1966, and it is expected to inaugurate the program next September. Fathers Alan Dillman and Anthony Morris have been named assistants to Father O’Connor in this new re-defined Catholic education program.

At present, the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine is responsible for elementary and high school classes for those not in Catholic schools. Since the archdiocese plan has simply grown, parish by parish, there are great discrepancies and gaps in it. The Department of Education, in addition to the planning and supervision of parochial schools, will plan classes, train lay catechists, provide text-books, and arrange for a completely graded and uniform system of attendance and study for those not in Catholic schools.

“The whole picture of Catholic education is changing before our eyes. We plan to update it, improve it and widen it. The Catholic school has a top priority because it introduces the child and youth to the whole of education and centers this in the theological urgency of God’s presence and His will. But the rising demands for admission and the rising cost of building and operation point to a day when the traditional pattern of “Every Catholic child in a Catholic school” will no longer hold, Archbishop Paul J. Hallinan said in announcing the new plan. “Rather it must become, ‘The Catholic education of every Catholic wherever he is.’”

Trained personnel, facilities and programs for Catholic education outside the Catholic school must be provided. “Nor can it be thought of as a ‘half-way measure,’ a ‘stop-gap plan’ or a drummed-up ersatz program with little depth or scope. The child and youth in the public school deserves the very best care we can provide just as those in Catholic school now provide,” the archbishop said.

The Department of Education will also include the Newman Apostle and adult education, although Fr. Theophilus McNulty, O.F.M., will continue as director of the former. Special education such as Our Lady’s School and the Latin School will remain under the Department.

Studies now to be made by the department will rely on lay, and especially parental, experience, programs in other dioceses, objectives of sister communities devoted to this work, and the confraternity and Newman staff of the National Catholic Welfare Conference.