Who’s to Blame for the Closing of Catholic Schools?

(Full disclosure: my husband is Chair of Our Lady of the Valley’s Finance Committee)
Television crews interview the teachers and children. Local newspapers run front page stories; social networks are abuzz with a “Save Our School” campaign.
The projected closing of St. Ann School in Hornell has awakened a sleeping giant. Time will tell if the miracle many are praying for will come to fruition.
Time will also tell if the gossip, slander, anger and enmity will be quelled by understanding and forgiveness.
What? Gossip? Anger? In a church?
Well, yeah.
It seems that those who recommended closing the school (strictly for financial reasons) are Public Enemy Number 1. Or I suppose in this case they’d be called Private Enemy Number 1. They are just selfish and evil. And those who want to keep the school open are noble and blameless.
It’s all black and white, you see.
The blame game runs the gamut from the Bishop to the Pastor to Council members to parishioners.
“They are bad. We are good.”
I won’t get started on the fact that maybe, just maybe, this kind of attitude from a significant minority in our parish is not exactly the best marketing strategy. Rather let’s look at what I believe is the singly valid and provable cause for Catholic schools closing not just in our area but across the entire country.
Tithing.
And the fact that Catholics just don’t do it.
Christian churches across the country don’t do it either. They average 2.2% of their income. Catholics average half that.
Well, you might say, times are tough. The economy’s poor. People have so many bills to pay, you know.
Anyone who believes that the average Catholic in the Canisteo Valley can’t give more than 1.1% to the Church that ministers to them is in full-fledge denial.
How much money do we spend on dining out for breakfast, lunch, dinner, or even a coffee? To get our manicure or pedicure? To buy drinks on Friday after work? For that trip to the mall to buy clothes?
Then we scramble for the spare change at the Mass’ Collection. We pull out the dollar bills and coins that remain after we’ve purchased all of our “necessities.”
Wow.
Sorry, God. Catch ya later.
The fact is that a lot of American Catholics have slid into the dark arena of worshipping Secular Consumerism.
It’s all about the stuff, you know.
This sentiment was echoed by the College of Cardinals last month, where it was stated: “[The] challenge of secularism…tends to marginalize religion from social life in the West.” Pope Benedict XVI addressed a similar theme: “The need for an authentic renewal of catechesis…against what has been defined as 'religious illiteracy.’”
Literacy such as Canon 222. §1: “Christ's faithful have the obligation to provide for the needs of the Church, so that the Church has available to it those things which are necessary for divine worship, for apostolic and charitable work and for the worthy support of its ministers.”
The worthy support of its ministers.
Not the leftovers we discover in our pockets while sitting in the pews.
Ironically, if more of our generation had gone to Catholic Schools, this obligation would be more well-known.
Otherwise, if you really want to know why Catholic Schools close, think about your wallet size; think about your priorities.
And then take a good long look in the mirror.