Matt C. Abbott
Priests to parents: Catholic education is essential
By Matt C. Abbott
Father Phillip W. De Vous — pastor of Divine Mercy Parish in Bellevue, Ky., and St. Bernard Parish in Dayton, Ky. — and Father Gregory E. Osburg — pastor of Holy Spirit Parish in Newport, Ky. — recently sent the following (slightly edited) letter to their parishioners.
© Matt C. Abbott
Father Phillip W. De Vous — pastor of Divine Mercy Parish in Bellevue, Ky., and St. Bernard Parish in Dayton, Ky. — and Father Gregory E. Osburg — pastor of Holy Spirit Parish in Newport, Ky. — recently sent the following (slightly edited) letter to their parishioners.
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'My Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:
'We write this letter to you concerning a most important and urgent matter: the work of forming the future generation of disciples of Jesus Christ is in your hands. We are writing to ask you to enroll your child in Holy Trinity School.
'First, let us tell you that, according to the law of the Church, your children have a right to a Catholic education. A right, however, would not be a right if someone did not have the obligation to provide for its exercise. We have provided in an excellent fashion everything you need to vindicate the right of a Catholic education for your child at Holy Trinity School. As your parish priests, we give you our personal guarantee that our parish school is a fine school — academically, morally, and spiritually.
'We have top-level teachers and administrators totally dedicated to giving your children an excellent education that forms not only their minds, but their souls. Our school is a wonderful place, where students learn more than just academics — they learn how to be faithful and holy disciples of Jesus Christ, a skill set that will see them accomplish the true goal of gaining eternal life in the Kingdom of Heaven. There is no greater or truer education than this.
'Related to this exhortation to enroll your child in Holy Trinity School is a difficult matter that many parish priests, ourselves included, have been reluctant, and maybe even timid, in addressing — the obligation of every Catholic parent to provide for their children an authentically Catholic education and the obligation to enroll them in the place their children have the best chance to succeed as disciples of Jesus Christ. In our parish, the place where every Catholic child belongs is our Holy Trinity School. There are serious reasons why parents may not be able to enroll their children in our Catholic school, but those serious reasons do not apply in the majority of instances that we are aware of.
'Too often the consideration for sending children to a government school has much more to do with various social, sporting, and extracurricular considerations than for a truly serious reason which a Catholic school is unable to address. We are reminded of Jesus' exhortation to us in the Gospel of St. Mark: 'For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his life?' Our Lord has put before us the fundamental priority of our Christian life — learning to live as authentic disciples so that we might be saved and have eternal life.
'The center of our faith is the mystery of the Word made Flesh — Jesus Christ becoming fully man while also being fully God. He called his disciples together so that he could teach them exactly how to follow Him. Jesus Christ is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and He has founded His Holy Church so that She, and only She, may educate us in the ways of that authentic discipleship that leads to eternal life. Parents are the first educators in the life of Faith for their children. As we pray in the sacred rite of Baptism concerning the role of parents in imparting the Faith to their children: 'May they be also the best of teachers, bearing witness to the faith by what they say and do, in Christ Jesus our Lord.'
'In Her thousands of years of wisdom in bearing witness to and forming the life of Christ in Her faithful, Holy Mother Church has always regarded parochial schools, in the various forms they have taken throughout the ages, as the normative institution of assistance to Catholic parents in fulfilling their obligation to educate their children in the Faith of Jesus Christ. Because our Faith is an incarnational Faith, we believe institutions of education and formation in authentic Christian discipleship are essential, not optional, for the practice of our Catholic Faith. As the universal Code of Canon Law — the law which governs and directs the life and activity of the Church — instructs us: 'Among educational means the Christian faithful should greatly value schools, which are of principal assistance to parents in fulfilling their educational task (Code of Canon Law, 1983, c. 796).'
'In our world today, there are ever-increasingly hostile forces that seek to corrupt our children by indoctrinating them in the culture of death and to attack and steal away the life of faith given to us by Jesus Christ. These forces have a strangle-hold on the agenda of government schools in the United States. As one example — a quick viewing of the website of the National Education Association, the powerful national teachers union which sets the educational agenda for government schools in our country, proclaims the union's support for indoctrinating children in the radical homosexual agenda.
'Furthermore, this agent of government schools is openly hostile to the existence of Catholic schools and openly opposes parental choice of any kind for children's education. This is to say nothing of this powerful agent of government schools' support for abortion on demand, for the distribution of contraceptives to students beginning in middle school (12 years of age and above), and its public support of politicians who publicly attack, dismiss, and ridicule the faith of millions of Christians.
'Given that such a powerful, organized agent of evil, aided and abetted by many in the government school bureaucracy, is setting the agenda for government schools, we ask you: Is a government school, where evil is tolerated and presented to our children as normal, the place where your children have the best chance of being formed in being and succeeding in becoming a disciple of Jesus Christ?
'We are deeply appreciative of all those who have so generously dedicated their time and talent to the work of CCD. Given, however, the fact that our Holy Trinity School is such an excellent school, we, in fidelity with the ages-old wisdom of Holy Mother Church, are of the mind that our CCD program should be really very small, existing only as an extra-ordinary program to address those exceptional situations where our Holy Trinity School cannot be of full assistance to our parishioners.
'Given the materialistic, secularist, morally relativistic, practically atheistic culture we and our children live in, our CCD teachers have a daunting task in forming a new generation of faithful, fervent, and apostolic Catholics in a one-to-two-hour session per week. We are afraid it is an impossible task for CCD programs to accomplish, given that and other constraints placed on CCD programs. If you, as a parent, had only one hour a week to give to your children and they spent the other one-hundred and sixty-seven hours with others, who do you think would have more influence on their formation?
'In light of these realities, it is clear that CCD, while an excellent effort for exceptional circumstances, is not the normative or best way to give Catholic children the best Catholic education available. Yet, every year, it seems, our CCD enrollment goes up and our Holy Trinity School enrollment goes down. We have wondered why parents are trading a wholesome Catholic environment of seven hours a day, five days a week, daily prayers, Mass, devotions, and Christian service for a program, however good, that we are able to provide only one to two hours per week, at most. Given that we spend more than 40 percent of our parish offertory income on our parishes' primary educational apostolate — Holy Trinity School — it only makes sense that all of our parishioner-parents who do not have their children enrolled Holy Trinity School should enroll them immediately, for the eternal good of their children.
'Many parents have told us that the tuition costs are what prohibit them from being able to enroll their children in Holy Trinity School. So let us remove that issue from your consideration — if you are willing to enroll your children in Holy Trinity School, we promise, as your pastors, to see that your children get an authentic Catholic education. We would only ask of you — if you cannot pay the full tuition — to come talk with us and tell us what you can give in terms of money and what you will donate in terms of time and talent to the work of the school. Lack of money should not deter any faithful parishioner from giving their children an education in the eternal truths and values of our Holy Faith. Raising money for tuition assistance is much easier to do than raising money for paying the light bill of an empty school.
'So we promise you, as your pastors, that we are absolutely committed to giving your child a Catholic education and we will work tirelessly to raise the funds to educate your child in our Holy Trinity School. But we need you to get your children enrolled in our Holy Trinity School so that we can accomplish our pastoral duty for you and your children in seeing to it that they are provided with an authentically Catholic education. Enroll your children now for the new school year. If you are dedicated and committed to your Catholic Faith and Catholic education, we assure you, with the help of the Holy Spirit, that your children will get a Catholic education. Since the 'money thing' is off the table — what are you waiting for?
'Also, we are deeply grateful that a number of our parents do have their children enrolled in our school and are making steep sacrifices to pay their tuition. That is a clear sign that their life priorities are in order and that the Faith is primary in the conduct of their lives. If anyone is finding the payment of tuition so difficult that they are considering sending their children elsewhere, please see either of the parish priests and they will make it possible for you to keep them in our school. We owe that to them and to Christ and His Church. So we will seek out every possible means to fulfill our responsibility. You can count on that.
'We realize this letter might be upsetting to some, but we write it because we are deeply concerned about the salvation of souls, the future of the Church in our communities, and because we are deeply committed to the work of Catholic education. We would not have our faith or our vocations to the priesthood, were it not for the work and witness of Catholic schools. We see everyday the wonderful fruit our Holy Trinity School is bearing in our midst and we want you — we are begging you as your pastors and making it possible for you — to take advantage of our Holy Trinity School.
'As our beloved bishop, the Most Reverend Roger J. Foys, has said since day one of his becoming the chief shepherd of the Diocese of Covington: 'There are many alternatives to Catholic education, but there are no substitutes.' We believe that with all our hearts and ask you to join us and our Holy Trinity School family in the joyful and faith-filled adventure of educating the next generation in authentic discipleship of Jesus Christ. Enroll your child in our Catholic school and you might just be saving the world!
'In Christ,
'Father Phillip W. De Vous
'Father Gregory E. Osburg'
© Matt C. Abbott
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