Dear Parishioners:
Catholic Schools Week begins this Sunday. This annual observance takes place across the country as we pay tribute to the achievements of Catholic Schools and recognize their contribution to the common good of our nation. Catholic schools have been the largest non-public educational system in the United States for over a century, and they are not owned and run by the government. Today, Catholic schools enroll more than 1.6 million students. While in the 226 Catholic colleges and universities, there are another 850,000 students earning degrees.
This is truly a remarkable achievement in light of the history of Catholic Education in the United States. In 17th century America, there was little toleration of Catholics. In 1790, when the 13 colonies became the 13 states, Catholics numbered only 35,000 in a population of 4 million. By 1820, American Catholics were still no more than 200,000. Bishop John Carroll, the nation's first and only bishop then, sought to establish a teaching order of religious sisters and Catholic schools. Thus, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton and her Daughters of Charity became among our nation's first Catholic School teachers.
Meanwhile, in the 1830s, the civic-minded elites of the U.S. were inventing something new, public schools. These were schools owned and run by the government, funded by taxes, free from tuition, and available to all children. They were called "common schools" because they would instill in pupils the common culture of the nation. Today, we think of a "public school" as a secular institution. However, its inventors did not. They sought to make the schools overtly Protestant with bible studies, prayers, and religion classes at odds with the teaching of the Catholic Church.
Thus, there was a great need to establish Catholic Schools for the growing immigrant Catholic population in 18th-century America. In 1870, the census counted 4.2 million Catholics in a national population of 38 million, making Catholics a group with significant political power. Anti-Catholic sentiments and the Know Nothing political movement dominated the day's politics. They viewed Catholics with suspicion and acted with bigotry and malice against the Church.
The American River Ganges by Thomas Nast (1871)
The cartoon was a commentary on the idea that American Catholics were not assimilating into American culture and were instead blindly following the Roman pontiff.. The cartoon was part of a larger anti-Catholic movement in the United States.
Among them was the U.S. Senator James G. Blaine of Maine, who in 1874 proposed to amend the U.S. Constitution to have it decree that "no money raised by taxation in any state for the support of public schools, or derived from any public fund therefor, … shall ever be under the control of any religious sect."
His amendment narrowly failed, but its popularity was evident as individual states quickly added the Blaine language to their state constitutions. By 1890, 29 of the 42 states in the Union had adopted the so-called Blaine Amendment, a blatantly bigoted anti-Catholic law. Today, there are Blaine amendments in the constitutions of 37 of our 50 states and they prohibit school choice programs.
So, as we reflect on this history, let's not take our Catholic Schools for granted and give proper thanks for the many founders who worked so hard to establish them. Among those founders are Bishop Carroll and Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, who established the first Catholic schools in our nation. Also, St. John Neumann, the Bishop of Philadelphia, who established the first Catholic School System in the 1850s.
Father Brady, the Sisters of Mercy, OLM Parishioners, and the contractor break ground on the site of the new Our Lady of Mercy School.
Here at OLM, we remember with gratitude Fr. Francis P. Brady and Mercy Sister Helena McNulty, who established our parish school. Some seventy-five years later, we thank them for their legacy, which is our outstanding parish school where the Catholic faith is studied and lived daily. A school where students are challenged to strive to be saints and scholars. A school where a dedicated administration and faculty provide outstanding academics, arts, and athletics in accord with the Catholic Faith.
The late Pope Benedict XVI once said: "A good school provides a rounded education for the whole person. And a good Catholic school, over and above this, should help all its students to become saints." Our Lady of Mercy School is such a school! So celebrate Catholic Schools and stop by the Open House at OLM School between 10:00 am and 12 noon on Sunday. Be well. Do good. God Bless. Go OLM Jags!