Archbishop's web site Denver Catholic Register Parishes Catholic Pastoral Center
October 30, 2002
Superintendents take up challenge of keeping schools `Catholic'
Increasing role of lay educators presents a modern-day challenge
By Jack Bacon
Catholic identity was hardly an issue for Catholic schools when priests, nuns and religious brothers were in charge and taught the classes, but nowadays officials worry about erosion of that obvious religious culture of only a few decades ago.
Top Catholic education officials from across the country who assembled in Denver last week confronted the concern as one of their important challenges. The occasion was the five-day annual national meeting of the Chief Administrators of Catholic Educators at the Adam's Mark Hotel.
The issue developed as laymen and laywomen became more numerous and more prominent in administration and faculty positions, replacing dwindling numbers of priests and religious. The transition has been growing for some time and is expected to continue.
The situation, speakers said, is more significant than the disappearance of readily recognized Roman collars and religious garb. They describe it as the threat of losing the "charism" traditionally provided by religious orders, the "Catholic culture" that distinguishes schools as well as other institutions.
It's not a question of inadequacy or lack of commitment, said Augustinian Father Richard M. Jacobs of Villanova University, author of several books on the vocation, authority and specific mission of Catholic schools.
"It's posed by having principals and teachers who haven't attended Catholic schools," he said. "What is 'Catholic' to them?"
Father Jacobs said the increasing trend to lay staffing of schools means the issue becomes more important each year.
"We have to focus on how to form lay educators who want to be Catholic educators" but don't have that specific experience, he said.
In their presentation, Father Ronald J. Nuzzi and Dr. Thomas C. Hunt, co-editors of "Catholic Schools Still Make a Difference," surveyed the research on U.S. Catholic schools conducted during the decade of the 1990s that was the basis of that study. The findings included:
By 1999, 53 percent of the principals of Catholic elementary schools and 50 percent of those in secondary schools were laymen or laywomen; only 25 percent of high school religion teachers were sisters, brothers or priests; and Catholic school enrollment during the 10 years increased by 70,000 although the number of Catholic schools declined by 441, 5 percent.
Father Jacobs contributed his own statistic: Of 119 Augustinians in his province, only 40 are working full time and the average age of those 40 is 64.
"But I'm not worried about Villanova still being Augustinian, I'm more worried about it being Catholic," he said, and added a national statistic: "40 percent of (Catholic school) teachers didn't go to Catholic schools (and) 12 ½ percent are not Catholic."
Father Jacobs said the situation presents both an opportunity and a threat. The opportunity, he said, is to provide the proper formation and support for lay educators "who want to be Catholic educators."
The threat, he said, is that the lay educators' "life in Catholic schools (becomes) just a career rather than a vocation," in part because of low pay that reflects a lack of support."
Timothy Cook, Creighton University professor of education and author of "Architects of Catholic Culture: Design and Building Catholic Culture in Catholic Schools," discussed specific ways of making the commitment to Catholicism clear and understood both by people in the schools, including students, and the public.
He suggested, for example, that Catholic educators, when they talk about their emphasis on community and service — "All schools do that" — refer to their "faith community" and "Christian service."
Cook, who formerly served as principal of a seventh- through 12th-grade school in Providence, R.I., said educators should make school prayer the "fundamental ritual, as common as taking attendance" and suggested engaging students and faculty in composing their own prayers.
It's important, he said, to continually emphasize the mission-centered purpose of the school and to convey it beyond school walls — especially in such events as graduation ceremonies when substantial numbers gather who have little other contact with the school or the opportunity to hear about its "core values."
Father Jacobs' presentation on formation of principals of Catholic schools was based on points made in his book "Shepherding the Shepherds," addressing bishops as well as superintendents' roles in assuring maintenance and expansion of the schools' Catholic culture.
The Church, he said, has "to provide the financial resources and the imagination to insure the schools remain Catholic" despite the growing trend of lay administration and staffing.
Father Jacobs, Cook and Merylann J. Schuttloffel, who also addressed last week's meeting, are the authors featured in the National Catholic Education Association's Leadership Monograph Series, a detailed course in formation of school officials and teachers to deal with the premise "that Catholic culture does not happen by itself nor does it occur through osmosis."
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