Catholic Homeschooling

http://www.ncregister.com/blog/johnclark/homeschooling-and-the-future-of-the-church

This story does not contain anything profound but is noteworthy in that it suggests a shift on the part of Catholic conservatives. Historically Catholics would have been pretty dubious about homeschooling.

In the United States Catholics realised more than a century ago that in order to keep their kids Catholic they would have to get them out of the Protestant/American/Classically Liberal agenda of the public schools. They created their vast parochial system and its need became even more pronounced and profound as the US school system underwent the process of secularisation in the 1960's, 1970's and beyond.

And yet today their parochial schools are in a state of decline and in some cases collapse.  The Rust Belt and Northern Appalachia are regions heavily affected by Catholic immigration which arrived around the turn of the 20^th century. It completely changed the nature, demographics and culture of the region. The Friday Fish Fry would have been something unknown and even frowned upon by past generations. Today it remains a cultural standard and is ubiquitous.

And at one time Catholic parochial schools dominated the local landscape and while they still have a substantial presence in cities, in the hinterland they are in a state of collapse, or even free-fall. Over the past twenty years I've seen numerous parochial schools shut down and now many of the buildings are gone, torn down. They were too expensive to keep up and the diocese couldn't sell them or just wanted to be rid of them.

Urban areas have not been exempt. Sometimes while working to the north I will listen to the NPR station out of Buffalo and just recently they announced the closing of the Niagara Falls Roman Catholic Jr/Sr High School. Without subsidies from the diocese these schools cannot survive.

What's happening? The parishioners can't afford the tuitions, diocesan finances are in decline and there's another dirty little secret. These dioceses are paying out huge sums in the form of settlements, paying off abuse victims. Additionally some of the dioceses are burdened with grand old buildings. Many of them were built about a century ago and are now in desperate need of renovation and yet at present their numbers are but a fraction of what they were in previous generations. The buildings seem unnecessary and the money isn't there.

People have moved out of the area and fewer people attend these churches. This is affecting the parochial system and the Niagara Falls shutdown is undoubtedly but the first in what will be a long chain. Niagara Falls in particular is something of a poster child for the Rust Belt, only surpassed by Detroit and nearby Buffalo. The city is in a state of distress. Once you travel even a few blocks away from the touristy area near the falls and the Rainbow Bridge crossing, you're more or less in a dilapidated ghetto.

Clearly many of the other schools in Western New York will also fail in the coming years. I know some of the places mentioned in the article and their situation is akin to what I've seen all across Western and Northern Pennsylvania.

Conservative Catholics don't want to send their kids to public schools. Who can blame them and yet for many the days of parochial education seem to be ending. There are still big academies in places like Erie, Pittsburgh and even Jamestown NY, but for the most part, the system is in decline.

Here's a link to an interesting article addressing some of the issues.

https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2016/08/18/catholic-school-system-we-know-it-must-change

Some Roman Catholics are beginning to find common cause and share in the mindset of Evangelicalism and thus it's not strange to find a growing interest in homeschooling. Such expressions of individualism and anti-conventionality are unusual for Catholics. To leave education in the hands of the laity is for many Catholics counterintuitive and smacks of Liberalism and Protestantism and yet if you live in an area with no parochial school, what are you to do?

Families are obviously becoming rare. I can think of a couple of occasions when we as a family walked into a Catholic building to look over the architecture and perhaps have a quiet historical or theological lesson. The priests (if present) almost become hysterical at the thought of a family with multiple children coming to their church. I cannot tell you how disappointed they are when they discover that we're not Catholic, we're not there to worship and we don't even cross ourselves upon entering the 'sanctuary'.

Other Catholic conservatives are growing increasingly hostile to Evangelical influence and yet for them they might have to make some decisions. Are they going to move someplace where their kids can go to a parochial school or are they going to risk the public school? I know of some families located in nearby small towns that transport their kids over an hour to get them to a parochial school.

In the end I'm not really all that concerned about what educational decisions Roman Catholics make and yet I am interested in the trends and changes. It's part of a larger story.