Why is the Boston archdiocese settling priest-sex-offender cases for $30-50 million yet closing a local parochial school , St. Thomas in Thomaston, Ct., due to lack of funding?

-- (kjbentley@attbi.com), March 12, 2002

Answers

The case in Boston is a horrible thing, but what the Diocese of Boston does and pays out has no relationship to the Diocese of Hartford, Connecticut. Many of these schools are being closed and merged with others because of declining enrollments, buildings in poor repair, and other reasons. The tuition of these schools is subsidized by the local parishes and the diocese. One problem is that years ago, nuns were the teachers, and required little or no salaries. Nowadays, with fewer teaching orders around, the schools hire lay teachers and have to pay them a decent working wage. Hence increased costs.

-- Christina (introibo2000@yahoo.com), March 12, 2002.

I would venture to say that there is something wrong with that particular school. Many Catholic schools have waiting lists, even after raising tuition, doing all the fundraisers, etc. In some places the non-Catholics probably outnumber the Catholics, as people have wised up to the fact that you can get a prep school education for a lot less money at a Catholic school. So, unless someone is really fouling up somewhere, most Catholic schools can support themselves.

I'm not so sure about salaries being such an expense, some Catholic schools have gone so far as to REQUIRE volunteer participation from the parents as part of letting the child in (e.g. if your regular job is in police work, you are expected to put in hours working security at the local sports functions for example), so they can cut costs in a way most public schools can only dream of (and they themselves are bad about making parents feel as though they HAVE to volunteer in order to make the schools work). My own personal feeling is that if any school is so bad (discipline, curriculum, whatever) as to make you feel that they are not doing right by your child, then it is time to homeschool.

As to chuch support, it depends on the parish--usually it is in the form of one of the second collections during the month (which is probably the equivalent of pin money, as a lot of people have grown tired of the second collections for this, that, and something else, and only donate to the main collection). I have no idea how much the diocese supports the schools.

-- GT (nospam@nospam.com), March 13, 2002.

"e.g. if your regular job is in police work, you are expected to put in hours working security at the local sports functions for example), so they can cut costs"

This is not always posible for a Police Officer to do. He may be under contract in such a manner that he cannot possibly do volunteer work due to a possible conflict of interest of some kind. Labor Unions are not that friendly and the employers have their set of rules too.

-- Fred Bishop (fcbishop@globaleyes.net), March 13, 2002.

I was talking in the broader text of volunteer work, and the "expected" is often translated to "highly encouraged", "highly recommended", etc. which means the same thing.

Also, I would think that any police officer not allowed to do this kind of volunteer work (after all, they do all sorts of volunteer work, and remember that they seldom, if ever, travel anywhere unarmed, so even attending their child's game might qualify), would probably have a valid claim of religious discrimination. Churches aren't unionized like other organizations, anyway.

They also extend this policy to parents in other fields, by the way, e.g. computers, anyone with specialized knowledge, etc. Some let you "pay your way" out of volunteering too, which some might do for time reasons, due to work conflicts, as opposed to not wanting to volunteer per se.

-- GT (nospam@nospam.com), March 13, 2002.