Leave no child behind: Catholic schools should accept everyone

[rug]

Parents shouldn’t be subjected to a moral entrance exam to send their kids to Catholic schools.

Saturday, July 14, 2012
Father Bill Tkachuk

In May 2010 the Boston Globe reported that St. Paul Elementary School in Hingham, Massachusetts had withdrawn its acceptance of an 8-year-old boy when the pastor and the school principal learned that the boy was the child of a lesbian couple. “There are many different non-traditional families that fall under the umbrella of the Catholic Church,” one of the boy’s parents told the Globe. “I guess we assumed we would fall under one of those.”

Boston’s Cardinal Sean O’Malley supported the pastor, saying, “He made a decision about the admission of the child to St. Paul School based on his pastoral concern for the child.” At the same time, the archdiocese reached out to the family and offered to help them find another Catholic school in the archdiocese for their child.

In January 2011 the Archdiocese of Boston announced a new policy for Catholic school admissions, stating, “Our schools welcome and do not discriminate against or exclude any categories of students.” The policy also says that parents and guardians of students in Catholic schools “must accept and understand that the teachings of the Catholic Church are an essential and required part of the curriculum.”

Who “belongs” in a Catholic school? On what basis do we exclude a specific child or family from a Catholic school? Can a Catholic school become too “catholic”? These are some of the questions that arose from the controversy in Boston and the subsequent decision that adherence of families to Catholic teaching and practice will not become a criterion for admission to Catholic schools.

http://www.uscatholic.org/church/2012/06/leave-no-child-behind-catholic-schools-should-accept-everyone

By Father Bill Tkachuk, pastor of St. Nicholas Parish and co-pastor of Pope John XXIII School in Evanston, Illinois. This article appeared in the August 2012 issue of U.S> Catholic (Vol. 77, No. 8, pages 23-27). Sounding Board is one person’s take on a many-sided subject and does not necessarily reflect the opinions of U.S. Catholic, its editors, or the Claretians.

[knitter4democracy]

1. I've taught in Catholic schools, and where I taught, everyone was in.

There was no moral test, no asking about anything. If the parents applied, the kid got in (though at one, we had an admissions test--high-stakes college prep academy so we needed to know what areas they needed help in). We never would have kicked a kid out for his parents' choices. Then again, I taught in high schools: maybe we're not quite as weird about stuff in the high schools.

Diocesan schools tend to be more conservative. The Marianist and Ursuline schools I was in were amazing, but then, that makes sense considering who ran them.

[rug]

2. I had Dominican nuns in grammar school and Irish Christian Brothers in high school.

No morality test. Good thing or half of us wouldn't have been there.

[knitter4democracy]

5. Exactly.

They should do their job and educate the child, not have some stupid morality test like they're Protestants or something.

[Fortinbras Armstrong]

3. Pastoral concern for the child?

Boston’s Cardinal Sean O’Malley supported the pastor, saying, “He made a decision about the admission of the child to St. Paul School based on his pastoral concern for the child.”

So his pastoral concern leads him to say "this child should not get a Catholic education". Same mindset as "we had to destroy the villiage to save it".

[rug]

4. Fortunately, that policy was changed within the year.

[mykpart]

6. A child shouldn't be discriminated against because of

the actions of his/her parents. Such children may need spiritual support more than others. Although parents of these children must understand that the mainline Catholic doctrine will be taught, and should not complain when that happens. When I taught CCD, many of the children in my class were children of divorced and remarried parents, and at first I worried about teaching about marriage. But I realized that my job was not to pass judgement on individual couples, but to teach the objective doctrine of the Church. If children had questions, I referred them to the priest and their parents for guidance. Never had a complaint from a parent. Eventually, though, I gave up teaching CCD.

[rug]

7. It's too bad you gave up teaching CCD.

It's important to question what you're taught. If it's good teaching it will flourish under questions and the children will understand it better than simply reciting it.

[mykpart]

8. I have a feeling that today

I wouldn't be allowed to teach CCD.

[xxenderwigginxx]

9. While I despise most of what the catholic church does

I have no issue with private organizations restricting membership as they choose. Each of us in our own lives utilize this same freedom in our personal lives, Freedom of association. Here at DU there are restrictions to membership, and people are often banned. Is that discrimination? Should there be laws that force us to allow conservatives an equal amount of posts on a liberal site?