Catholic school officials look at ways to prevent school closings

Published: 2004-08-19

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The growing number of Catholic school closings across the country has not gone unnoticed by Catholic school officials, who say something must be done to prevent more schools, particularly those in urban areas, from shutting their doors. "It's a wake-up call to the Catholic Church," said Jesuit Father Joseph O'Keefe, interim dean of the Lynch School of Education at Boston College. He was commenting on the number of Catholic school closings just this year in Detroit, Boston, Chicago, Pittsburgh, Cleveland and elsewhere. Although the National Catholic Educational Association does not have figures on the number of Catholic schools that will not reopen this fall, it reported that 123 schools were closed or consolidated last year, while 34 new schools opened. Because several schools were consolidated, the net loss for 2003-04 was 45 schools. Total Catholic school enrollment dropped by 2.7 percent. Father O'Keefe, who has recently completed a study on urban Catholic schools, said the closings of predominantly inner-city schools "really runs against" the social justice mission of the church and its preferential option for the poor. Inner-city schools face the double impact of shifting demographics and old, deteriorating buildings. Schools simply cannot be sustained with higher tuitions and parishes cannot afford to make up the loss. The only way to keep these schools open is through creative approaches, said Father O'Keefe. They must "innovate or perish," he told Catholic News Service.

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