ATLANTA—The Secretary for Education, Donald T. Sasso, said March 30 that over 15 hours of task force meetings brought about frank exchanges among those around the table from three affected school and parish communities and representatives of the archdiocese.

However, the process was not designed to reach a consensus, he said. “It was basically to surface any alternate proposals which the task force was to give the archbishop.”

These proposals were in addition to the one recommended by the Department of Catholic Education in early March. Archbishop John F. Donoghue announced April 3 that that proposal will be substantially implemented.

Discussing the task force on the day it concluded its work, Sasso said that the representatives from Our Lady of Lourdes, St. Anthony’s and Sts. Peter and Paul parishes talked at the meetings about how various proposals affected one another’s parishes and searched for alternatives.

“There was honest, frank discussion, certainly a sharing of feelings and perceptions from the school and parish communities as well as from the diocesan representatives.”

Minutes were kept of the meetings and submitted for corrections, Sasso said. “We attempted to document an accurate record of our meetings. Discussions at times were very emotional. That is certainly very understandable.”

The process was mutually educational, he said. Representatives of the archdiocese presented data from surveys and other sources to the school and parish representatives to explain the reasoning for their proposal. The six task force members also spoke of the value the Catholic schools have in their communities, Sasso said. “It was an opportunity to have an open, honest dialogue about perceptions, feelings, emotions, the history of these schools, the esteem with which they are held by their communities.”

“The mission of St. Katharine Drexel was a part of that discussion,” he said, speaking of the foundress of Our Lady of Lourdes School. “I think the representatives wanted to educate us to those realities, appropriately.”

He expressed gratitude to the members of the task force for their “extraordinary commitment of time and energy during this past week. It was an extraordinary effort.”