4th Sunday in Ordinary Time, 2012
Fr. Anthony Brankin
Gospel: Mark 1:21-28 “He taught them with authority.”
You may or may not have known it—but this is the beginning of Catholic Schools week. And you may be saying to yourselves—Well so what? My children are grown, my grandchildren live out of state—why would I—sitting here in Saint Odilo Church in Berwyn ever worry about Catholic Schools week anymore? But think again. Every one of us has a stake in the success of Catholic schools—and this school in particular because we are not only talking about the future parishioners of Saint Odilo—but the future of our society.
The Bean Queen of Georgetown RulesThe bean, or Epiphany Queen, of the Georgetown Visitation can request special things. Whichever sister finds the bean or medal in her piece of cake after supper is Queen-for-a-Year and is treated in a special way. Go to our Live Jesus blog and read about what Sr. Mary Philomena got to wear that day.
Are you called to a life of the “little virtues” of gentleness, humility, and cheerful optimism? Consider the Washington, DC.
Listen to these statistics: and refer to them for the rest of this sermon—But in Cicero and Berwyn – there are 43 thousand persons under the age of 18,—and ninety-five percent of these kids are Catholic. Now reflect upon the fact that there are only four Catholic schools in these two towns that combined with catechism classes are reaching no more than 2000 children. Think of it—there are therefore almost 42,000 Catholic children in our area who are not getting instructed in the faith. That has to make anyone who takes their Catholicism seriously shudder. I know I do.
Schools — the survival of our faith
So, we all have a real stake in what goes on over there—that is everyone’s school. And for that reason Catholic Schools Week is everyone’s week as well.
So what can we say about Catholic schools? Well we can say that they are more needed now than ever before—because the faith of our families—and therefore the existence of our families—grows more precarious every year; and Catholic schools—at least in the ideal—may be the last best hope for the survival of our faith in this country and the survival of our own families. I have said for almost five years now—if we lose our faith, we shall lose our families—and if we lose our families we will lose our souls. It is that simple. It is that urgent. And it is Catholic schools that can make a difference.
Now if Catholic schools will make a difference in our lives and in the life of our country, of course it will depend upon whether or not our Catholic people understand how desperate is the situation. As much as we—and I—talk about money and subsides and fund-raising and tuition—it is not really about getting more money. Because there isn’t enough money in the world to save us if we don’t have the understanding of what a Catholic school is or if we lack the will to save it.
Trying to ruin our lives
And until we understand that the people who run this country and are trying to run our lives are not favorable to the existence of Catholic schools, and they are about ready to close us down or do what they can to cripple us—and that includes arresting Bishops and levying fines and penalties against Christians in general and Catholics in particular—until we understand that this is what is at stake—we will go blithely about our days and think that Catholic schools are a nice thing for one-child families who can afford the tuition. And then one day there will be no more Catholic schools.
So, what is a Catholic school? First of all it is an alternative school. However, it is a religious, faith-based alternative to the government school. Any Catholic school worthy of the name Catholic, provides our families with a chance to escape the slavery and brain-washing and control and conditioning that are part and parcel of the government school system.
Now I know a lot of you are involved with public schools. Now or in the past. My mother went to public schools and she herself became a public school teacher for the Chicago Board of Education. And my sister Mary, God rest her soul, taught high school English in Gage Park public school.
So please do not construe anything I say about the worth and value of Catholic education—as a slam on any persons who must utilize the public school system—either as families who must go there—or teachers or employees who must work there. There are a lot of things we all wish we could do—but cannot.
Government schools and their agenda
But please do not think it is all neutral and benign. Please be aware that if you must send your children to public schools, you must be wary—of the fact that the public schools are government schools; and they teach—either directly or indirectly— the values of the government. There is no such thing as “value free”. Everything and everyone comes from and with a set of values and beliefs and understandings. If you think all that they teach in the government schools is reading and writing and ‘rithmetic—think again. Because the values of the government that are taught every day by one means or another are values that prop up the government and the ones who would control us. The values inculcated daily in our state schools are by self-definition godlessness, worldliness, radical individualism and mindless corporatism.
Now this accusation may sound harsh to our ears accustomed as they are to only hearing how everything is beautiful in its own way—but what do you think happens subliminally to the mind of a child who walks through the door of the government school. He is made to learn so surely and so subtly—by the lack of prayers and images, by the prohibition of the barest mention of God or of even the notions of right and wrong—that God has no real place in the real world of adults and teachers. The child learns—without so much as one explicit lesson in these things—that God really has very little to do with any important part of his life.
He imbibes the unspoken lesson that Faith and God and religion is something his grandmother believes in—or it is some strange ceremony that his parents drag him to on Sunday. For in the life of a little secular American student who goes to the state school, God might as well not exist. You see, the government whether it admits it or not—teaches our children how to make all their life decisions as if there were no God. And our modern lives and the moral tragedies that mark modern life are what we have to show for it.
Smuggle your daughter
When your public school can prescribe birth control pills to little twelve year olds or help smuggle your thirteen year old daughter to an abortionist—and you as parent are not even informed, then you must tell me what is really going on! Whose children are they? You thought they were yours. You thought your life was yours. No. The government wants us all to know—we belong to the government, and for the government there is no God.
That is why we need a Catholic alternative education—that our children might learn and we be confident that we belong to God and to each other. But for a faith based education to be effective and to make a difference, it needs to be offered to as many children as possible. The problem is that Catholic education is for so many families in the economy we have been given prohibitively expensive. We need to figure out a way to do what we used to do—because it worked. You know what I am talking about—where a whole family could go to the Catholic school virtually for free.
A new model for Catholic schools
Look at what that would mean for us. That would mean every kid in this neighborhood—and 99% of them are Catholic— would be able to go to Saint Odilo School. And most of them would go. And then we could get them in church.
We would thus have a neighborhood that creates the school and a school that in turn re-creates the neighborhood. We would have 500 families and maybe 800 children. And Saint Odilo Church and School would be the center and hub of their lives. Everyone would know everyone and be related to (or friends with) everyone else. We would be a village—a Catholic village. We would all go to the same church and school and reflect and live the same values and same beliefs.
Do you know how older people are proud of how back in the day we used to identify our neighborhood with our parish: “Where are you from?” “Oh, Saint Odilo.” Well what a joy for our families were they able to live like that again.
Like the Baptists and Mormons
So how do we revitalize the Catholic school system? Here is my dream: We reduce the tuition to the point where it is virtually free—and then no one has any reason not to come here. That is what I am talking about—virtually free tuition.
But that is going to take some thinking outside the box. Maybe we could develop a new core or cadre of volunteers— young people—right out of college—for whom volunteering to teach for three or four years for a small stipend and room and board would be a vocation for them. They could be the modern-day counterpart of the army of holy and dedicated religious women who for so many generations gave their lives for our kids. The Baptists do it—the Mormons do it. Why not the Catholics? And this period of volunteering does not have to be for a lifetime—but maybe only for a few years until the young people decide it is time to get married and raise their own families. I cannot believe that our young people if they were asked, would refuse. They are too full of life and love not to want to help God and their little brothers and sisters.
But that is just one suggestion. There may be many others. But before any one says it is impossible to recreate an in expensive and effective Catholic education for all the Catholic children, then we would have to remind them—that we already did it—and well and successfully—for a hundred years.
Find creative ways
So let this year’s Catholic Schools week then be a tribute to the sacrifices made by our teachers and parents and parishioners for the sake of our children.
Let Catholic Schools week also be a challenge to all of us to re-evaluate our understanding of public schools and see if government education might be a lot more problematic than we ever thought.
And then finally let this Catholic Schools week be an opportunity for us to creatively find ways—not just how to keep this or that Catholic school open—but how best to provide for the Catholic education of the millions of children—and tens of thousands of them here in Cicero and Berwyn—who are slipping through the cracks and being lost because we cannot find ways to connect them to their faith.
Let Catholic Schools week be our week to think on how best to fulfill Our Lord’s command, “Let the children come unto me.” Because that is really what it is all about.