A Catholic high school in Harlem
August 20, 2009, 5:02 pm
Posted by Joseph A. Komonchak
Journalistic ethics might not permit David Gibson to note it, but nothing, I believe, prevents my drawing attention to his review in “America” of Patrick J. McCloskey’s new book The Street Stops Here: AYear at a Catholic High School in Harlem. It is a year-long study of Rice High School, and by David’s account, an important book. Thanks to Eugene Palumbo for suggesting the thread.
It’s a fine book that goes a long way toward explaining why inner-city Catholic schools are worth saving. I saw Mr. McCloskey speak about the book at a forum sponsored by the Columbia Teachers College and the Hechinger Institute (which seeks to encourage good journalism about education). It was good to see the Catholic schools getting a bit of the attention they deserve.
Rice has served the community of Harlem for as long as i can remember.
What would be good to know is the status of inner city parochial schools in the New york Archdiocese right now, especially the High schools (left to their own funding devices, as I recall) and the parochial schools in the poor black areas.
It would also be nice to know the posture of the new Archbishop about this issue.
The question arises as to what Catholic schools do that parishes do not. Perhaps the schools do what the parishes do not; engage the families and children in the faith. The decline of schools has revealed the vacuity of the parish clergy who too long relied on the nuns as they spent too much time watching Broadway shows and “cultural” events. David seems to hint at this in his review. The story is not as simple as we would like to believe.
Ah yes, what simplicity is avoided by invoking “the vacuity of the parish clergy”!
I think there have been wonderful priests in inner city parishes doing great work. Recently saw in Catholic New Nork the opening of Carrol Gardens in Yonkers for affordable housing in a poor West area. named for the late and dedicated Fr. Pat Carrol.
other veteran inner city priests soldier on, poting out their lives.
The question rather is are the number of inner city parishes just dwindling or are the numbers of dedicated to serving the poor priests dwindling as well?
A further question is the policies regarding inner city service. I refernce once more the superb talk last year by Msgr. Bob Stern on the history of the Spanish Apostolate in New York.It raised real questions about how policy towards minorities should be developed and the need of a wide variety of expertise that the Bishop needs to listen to.
The question of the seperate value of Catholic schools is also an important one for both service and policyconsideration.
Schools in the bla ck community have dwindled, so the Rice story is particularly germane.
Many students may not be Catholic in these schools, but the shaping of youth in values and leadership by the example of dedicated folk speaks of great witness – a witness I suspect continues to dwindle and whose import is undeestimated,
(This makes me think of the current struggles of some of our “visited” nuns who work among the poorest of the poor and whose Christlike service speaks far more volumes than those who would trumpet pious ferverinos.)
Joe, your exceptions prove the rule. Thankfully, the clergy are not the church. Just part of it. In general the clerical attitude is we have the sacraments, come and get it. It is a setup for empire but not service. You can whitewash it all you want. Your presence in an essential ivory tower for fifty years does not situate you for an accurate assessment.
Bill: I didn’t cite exceptions to your “rule.” I am regularly astonished that you can be satisfied with the gross generalizations you indulge in, and then criticize other people for “simple” analyses.
Joe, I don’t know what your amazement is when the parishes have been in deep trouble for a long time. I have been in parishes on a day to day basis unlike you. I have witnessed in depth the condition of the parishes and the activity of the clergy. How you can gloss over them is beyond astonishment. I particularize because I have been there. Not teaching theoretical classes which have little relevance to what is happening in the parishes.
Bill Mazzella, how you can get to such a confrontational stance in the space of eight comments is the genuine amazement. It’s really over the top.
As to your purported “point” about parish priests and the decline of schools, I have never seen any such connection made in the empirical evidence, and if the most clerical pastors in Christendom did in some way contribute to a decline, it would be well down the list of factors causing such problems.
David Gibson, what no one addresses in detail is that for the most part the clergy are mostly stipenders rather than shepherds with deep involvement with the people. The Middle Ages even had a name for this. There were priests then who were ordained only to say Mass and bring in stipends. The clergy, not of course in all cases, act as people “set apart” and protecting their image at all costs. This is why the Boston Globe has to bring truth into the church rather than the clergy itself. So I guess what I am writing has to come from the Boston Globe to have credibility.
Catholic schools is grabbing the children because the credibility is not there to grab the parents. So the answer is not in Catholic schools. It is in a more genuine approach.
Archbishop Dolan of New York speaking at a recent meeting of RCIA teachers at Riverdale, New York cited a recent Pew study which showed that Catholics believe in Jesus and the Bible but had problems with the clergy. Dolan lamented stating that the herarchy is the church. (Although as he walked away from the lectern he seemed like a person unconvinced about his statements. )
I am just stating in a different way what the Pew study exhibited.
“For the most part clergy are mostly stipenders rather than shepherds with deep involvement with the people.” How would you measure that? It’s a shame that your experience has brought you to such a conclusion. But I’m afraid that statement rings utterly false to me.
I’m sorry that this thread had been hijacked about the quality of priests.
I don’t agree with Bill, but I’m sure he’s ensountered (as have I) some real vapidity on the part of the clergy at times.
It’s a fact there were”Massing priests” in the Middle Ages -as clergy numbers decline, the question of whether we might head in that direction again is perhaps worth raising.
But the heart of this thread is the value of Cathoic Schools to the inner city (and I still propose of how the Church should serve there.)
I’d only add that I’m also saddened to see so little adressed to that and i think it shows in governance quarters a lack of clear vision on the topic -a lack seriously worth thinking through.
Here’s a link to the NY Times story on the decison to let 10 Archdiocesan High Schools go it alone, sink or swim, in NY. Nore that one of them, Cardinal Spellman is the honor school that Sonia Sotomayor attended.
at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/26/nyregion/26catholic.html
Making up the subsidy, the difference between the real cost of the education and what students are asked to pay is defined as the financial problem. For Cardinal Egan, it became a question of these schools OR Catholic Charities being appropriately funded. It remains to see how Cardinal Dolan will look at the problem. The former Archdiocesan high schools are being asked to do what the private schools have been doing (with great effort): to appoint a Board of Trustees, and a President to manage the financial end of things and appoint a principal to work on the academic programs. And to work very hard at fund raising, particularly through appeals to Alumni.
The school I attended is the oldest continually operated Catholic High School for Girls in New York State, a Blue Ribbon School of excellence that even today sends almost all of its now mostly minority students on to college. There are currently 400 students, with families representing 50 different countries. The school has been inventive in meeting the financial needs of its students, and as it has always given generous financial aid. Its loyal Alumnae are being called upon to try to fill the gap, and are doing as much as they can. One ingenious and community-minded venture might help some. The order that owns the school has leased a corner of the property to a cooperative that is building affordable housing which may create a small income stream. But nobody really knows what will happen.
The Archdiocese of New York has had for many years an Inner-City Scholarship Fund which has supported many students who otherwise wouldn’t have been able to afford to go the Catholic schools. I’ve thought it was one of the better charities to contribute to.
The article to which Susan Gannon refers us was published in January 2009. I wonder where things stand now.
Here’s a newsletter from the Archdiocese updating their efforts a bit. It is a bit vague and jargon-ridden, but does commend both Blessed Sacrament and Cathedral High Schools as the source of notable graduates. Unfortunately both are among the 10 schools cut loose by the Archdiocese.
Sorry, here’s the link:
http://www.adnyeducation.org/media/files/Pathways%20NL_MayJuneFINAL.pdf
The discussion about priests seems off the point here, since Rice is a Christian Brothers school, not a parish school. Patrick McCloskey’s book goes into some excellent detail on the relations between the brother who chaired the board and the principal, a layman. There is some tension, but ultimately it works out very well.
It’s surprising to me that the Archdiocese of NY kept archdiocesan schools as long as it did. The high school I went to in Brooklyn, Nazareth, was a diocesan school when I graduated in 1971, but was cut loose by the Diocese of Brooklyn not many years afterward (along with most of the other diocesan high schools). Like Rice, its students today are 100 percent from minority groups. It has continued under the leadership of a lay board in conjunction with the Xaverian Brothers. Now, the diocese is looking to adopt this model for the parish schools.
At the forum I mentioned earlier on McCloskey’s book, Sam Freedman, one of the best writers around on both religion and education, made some very perceptive comments about the need for Catholics to provide financial support for their own schools. I really think this is the crux of the problem. If there really were a will among Catholics to support their schools, the Catholic school system would be in much better shape. Most alumni don’t give.
Rightly or wrongly my point is that, in my opinion, the Catholic Schools are not the most effective way to spread the gospel. My objection is that the target is a captive, controlled audience, the children, while the Parents become hypocrites because they have to attend certain functions. How it refers to priests is that it allows them to be lazier since they just plug into this machinery which does not require that much work. The sisters did it before and now the lay teachers are.
I don’t discount the many good things that have occured in Catholic schools and its value to an immigrant population. It is nevertheless bad theology for the reasons I have given.
First a small correction to my last posts above: The Archdiocese of New York commended Blessed Sacrament elementary school and Cardinal Spellman High School, both attended by Sonia Sotomayor. Spellman is on the list of archdiocesan schools now seeking private funding, but I don’t know the status of Blessed Sacrament. Cathedral High School is also on the list, and it was commended for the achievement of Ursula Burns, the first African-American woman to become CEO of a Fortune 500 company.
Second, Paul Moses has a good point about the need for support for Catholic schools. And when many of the students in these inner-city Catholic schools today are non-Catholic or come from non-practicing homes, the usual network of Catholic community support may be harder to tap. (Though I know of several excellent schools with strong Alum support both in New York City and New England.) The Archdiocese of New York has a “Communal Fund” to which donors to the private schools can give, and if they designate a particular school for help, the school gets 5.4% interest on anything over $100. My high school dutifully reports this in their fund request booklets, but I would imagine that this option might appeal more to large donors than the average alum.
Apparently some of the faith-based Catholic schools in England are also feeling an identity crisis as middle-class flight from the inner cities has meant their schools, though supported financially by the state, now find the majority of their students are from Muslim families. The article suggested that the Catholic community consider these schools in the light of missionary schools, which can do much good and give good witness even though they may not convert their students. Maybe we should look at our inner city schools that way.
Bill suggests that Catholic schools are not the most effective way to spread the gospel, speaking of a captive, controlled audience, etc.. In my area of suburbia there are many more Catholic children enrolled in part-time religious instruction programs than in Catholic elementary and high schools. The most often cited reason for this is the excellence of the local public schools and the high school taxes– comparable to private school tuition– that everyone here must pay for as a baseline. But perhaps some parents who were less than happy with their own Catholic schooling might agree with Bill, and feel uneasy at subjecting their children to the same experience. Others, at a time when Catholics are so divided about many things, might be doubtful about the nature of the religious instruction offered in their parish school. At least in the part-time religious instruction programs, there is widespread parent involvement in instruction and therefore they get a chance to see upfront what is going on. (One local parish here recruits its youth ministers from Steubenville and seems to involve their teens in Steubenville events. I would have some questions there, myself.)
N.B. The article I mentioned above about the Catholic sponsored faith-based schools in England appeared recently in The Tablet.
Thanks to Susan for all the info.
I still have a few questions:
If people must pay a large school tax and then large amounts on top for parochial scxhool tuition, should not the effort be placed on strong religious ed in those areas, while the Church would especially underscore its service to the poor by supporting inner city schools?
Do people get a full and fair accounting of mneys in the (srch)iuoceses by which to judge how their contributions are spent on various functions?
What about inner city churches? Is there a clear policy about keeping them going beyond the finacial picture, or, should that be the one and only criterion?
Bill Mazzella:
Do you really think you’re being fair to Joe Komonchak? It looks to me as if you’re accusing him of something he didn’t do: that is, he didn’t “whitewash” or “gloss over” anything. He simply said he felt you had over-generalized.
In one part of your attack on him, you said:
When I read that, I recalled a remark about Komonchak that was made by Steve Privett, S.J., current president of the University of San Francisco. Steve worked with refugees here in El Salvador during the civil war, and then went to Catholic U. for a doctorate. In the following years, first as provost of Santa Clara University and now as president at USF, his work in the area of social justice has won high praise. The remark of Steve’s that I recalled was this: “Joe Komonchak was a great teacher, the best of all the teachers I had in my doctoral program.”
Since you’re so big on “particularizing,” I wrote to Steve today, asking him to be “particular:” about whether his work for social justice has been nourished by the classes he took with Joe Komonchak. Here’s his reply:
Gene,
I have praised Joe K many times. He is an outstanding writer and teacher. In my opinion, however, he is woefully unaware of parish life in its entirety. He has, as I remember, stated that he was unaware of the pedophilia crisis before it exploded. Unaware on both counts. I am not accusing him of anything. If disagreeing is accusing then all of us are in trouble. None of us should be beyond constructive criticism. I do no presume to evaluate Joe in any way. If you force me to it I give him countless more plusses than minuses.
Disagreeing is not accusing. Accusing is accusing. But I’ll stop at that.
“I particularize because I have been there. Not teaching theoretical classes which have little relevance to what is happening in the parishes.”
I suppose I should clarify the above. What I mean to say is not that Joe does not teach with relevance to the parishes. But rather he does not appear to realize how dead so many parishes are and who is responsible for that.
Sorry that the thread has moved away from a discussion of Catholic schools and into more personal territory revolving around Fr. Komonchak’s understanding of parish life or lack thereof. I’m sure he’s both a fine teacher and chicken farmer.
It seems to me that most reports I read about parochial schools compares them (usually favorably) with the existing public school in an inner city, which is falling apart, unsafe, and cannot attract good teachers.
Many Catholics pat themselves on the back for providing a haven for kids at risk in a dangerous place. And perhaps rightly so.
But there’s a tendency for these stories about successful inner-city school stories to be used to fear-monger parents into sending their kids to Catholic schools in rural or suburban areas–and those parochial schools, by comparison with public education, may not stack up so well.
Anyone know whether any neutral (non-Church) comparative study has been done on the quality of Catholic education in all geographic areas? To what extent does success of those students depend on the quality of instruction and programming? And to what extent does it depend on the simple fact that the school can throw out the undesirables or those whose special needs make them too expensive to serve?
The question is by no means “Fr. Komonchak’s understanding of parish life or lack thereof.”
The question is whether Catholic schools are rightly the best way to build the faith. They might show humanitarian and cultural gains. But how well do they relate to the gospels? Tied in with this is the adulation of the clergy (taken a fall since pedophilia crisis) square with preaching the gospel. The reason this is so important is due to the “lack” of Presiders the hierarchy is willing to let millions of Catholics go without the Lord’s Supper. This can use a separate thread and is it worth addressing?
Enough. This thread has gotten way off track. “Adulation of the clergy”? How absurd. Bill, I suggest taking a break from pronouncing and reading around a bit, especially the book Young Adult Catholics. There is a good amount of data showing that Catholic education correlates strongly with attachment to the Catholic Church. (We are certainly not going to start a thread on the priest shortage, not now.)
I’m sorry that this thread went off on to the quality of the priesthood in the US today, and even more that it ever had anything to do with me personally. But I do want to defend myself against one thing that Bill Mazzella said, since he’s raised it elsewhere with unpleasant implications. I have said in the past, and can repeat it in all honesty again, that I did not personally know of any instances of pedophilia among priests. I knew, of course, of cases that had been made public, beginning, it seems, in the early 1980s. But I did not know of any cases by hear-say or any other means. That’s all.
Jean: Being a chicken farmer is perhaps easier, or at least more immediately gratifying, than being a teacher. At the end of the day, you can count and collect the eggs… Fifteen of them yesterday.
Gene Palumbo, well said! And Bill, scholars can be effectively pastoral, too. Their “parishes” may not look like the conventional ones, and the “parishioners” may come and go every few years, but that doesn’t mean their teachers’ influence will not last. In Fr. Komonchak’s case, the Church owes him for his great work on the history of the Council, and we for his creative and lively presence here. Yes, he nudges us sometimes, but so much the better, for balanced discussion. (No wonder those chickens are so productive. He’s got them well in hand already.)
I thank Jean for raising further perceptive issues.
The thread is about a high school in the heart of Central harlem and thus a lot of the discussion is about New York (some mention of Brooklyn).
The issue of parochial inner city schools is much wider -would be nice to hear about Baltimore, Memphis, etc.
Despite all the foofaraw above between Bill and Joe, would be good to have more voices (from parish clergy, religious and others experienced in the inner city) on the topic of how well this service to the poor exists, is delivered and what impact it has.
“Being a chicken farmer is perhaps easier, or at least more immediately gratifying, than being a teacher. At the end of the day, you can count and collect the eggs… Fifteen of them yesterday.”
Plus farmers can dispatch slackers in ways that teachers ought not even entertain in their dreams, eh?
“Plus farmers can dispatch slackers in ways that teachers ought not even entertain in their dreams, eh?”
Jean! Are you talking capital punishment?! Or just permanent exile?
I think I detect here a new rallying cry: NIMC: Not in my classroom!
Not to be confused with NIMCC: Not in my chicken coop!
Although I know very well that the sort of priest Bill criticizes (going to shows and letting other people do the work) does exist, in my experience these sort of priests go to the cushy parishes and don’t get assigned to the inner city. The inner city priests are the most mission-oriented because they are not in it for the perks. Their parishioners are not going to give them big presents or wine and dine them. And, for whatever it’s worth, I believe their pastoral experience brings them into contact with more of the real hardships of their flock and the real joy of faith than those in more comfortable circumstances. Christ chose to identify himself with the poor, and it’s there that he promised to be found. We forget that. But anyone in a religious order or clergy I’ve known to serve in really poor circumstances knows it.
Rita, a spot on post!