Nurturing Our Catholic Identity

by John Convey

ullout quote: "We need to be protective of our Catholic identity, not let it slip away." In the north Philadelphia neighborhood where I grew up in the 1940s and 50s, all students at Holy Child parish school were Catholic. The large, thriving school was mainly Irish, with some German and Italian students and other children of immigrants in the mix. It was taken for granted in this neighborhood that if you were Catholic, you attended Holy Child School. All teachers were members of the Sisters of St. Joseph, and the parish priests played a highly visible role in the school. In such a homogeneous setting, it wasn't difficult to maintain a strong sense of our Catholic identity.

Today, that neighborhood is in Philadelphia's inner city. The church has been closed, but the archdiocese still maintains a Catholic school there called Our Lady of Hope. It serves a minority population, including a large number of non-Catholic students. As with most Catholic schools today, the faculty comprises many more lay people than religious.

Fostering a sense of Catholic identity becomes more of a challenge for today's schools embracing diverse populations. Some urban schools are primarily non-Catholic. Throughout the South, Catholic schools are being built in places where large Catholic populations are new to Baptist-dominated areas. In suburbs, Catholic schools are challenged to be more than just good private schools with high achievement test results and winning sports teams.

In a project we are launching at The Catholic University of America to prepare Catholic schools to meet 21st-century challenges, we're examining finances, governance, curriculum, student demographics and other key issues. But the state of religious identity in Catholic education is a paramount topic. For if our schools are not Catholic in their mission, why should they exist?

Catholic schools were born out of necessity. They were founded by immigrants to educate their children in the faith and for society because Catholics weren't always welcome at public schools. Supported by economically strong parishes and served by legions of religious, they thrived. Since the 1960s, Catholic schools have been through tumultuous change. Falling enrollment, closings, the switch to lay people in the classrooms, and more diverse student bodies have meant adaptation. Largely because of the baby bust, population shifts and increased costs, enrollment fell from 5.5 million in the mid-1960s to under 3 million in 1990. It has begun to climb again, thanks in part to aggressive marketing.

Urban schools closed or consolidated as the Catholic population moved to the suburbs. Maintaining Catholic schools in inner-city neighborhoods, even as the number of Catholics in those schools dwindles to a fraction, remains an important ministry of the Church. Some schools in major urban areas are 90 percent non-Catholic, and these schools face the biggest challenges in maintaining their Catholic identity.

As Catholic schools experience continued change, it is clear that steps must be taken to preserve Catholic identity. On a national level, initiatives by the National Catholic Educational Association and the United States Catholic Conference have helped teachers and school leaders to create an environment that promotes the Catholic identity of schools, regardless of their make-up. This identity is fostered by the entire school community and supported by the extended community of the parish, parents and alumni.

One reason behind the academic success of Catholic schools is their strong faith communities. High School and Beyond, a study by the U.S. Department of Education, suggests that schools with strong identities tend to be better schools. Teachers are more committed and more satisfied. Parents are more involved, and the schools draw upon a wide circle of community support.

One research topic for our team of experts is a solid definition of Catholic identity. Certainly, Catholic identity goes beyond uniforms and a cross outside the building. It is born and nurtured of a philosophy that speaks to educating the whole person, both mind and spirit, with Gospel-based values. But how can these values be instilled in the everyday administration of a school?

That's one question we hope to answer in our 30-month project, as we cross the country to gather opinions from Catholic school leaders. The Rev. Carl Pieber, C.M., director of diocesan relations at Catholic University, and I are surveying bishops and priests to determine how they view Catholic identity and how they feel about the future of Catholic schools. Other researchers will examine the religion curriculum, assess the preparation of religion teachers, and explore the spiritual aspects of leadership. Funded by a grant from the Lilly Endowment, the project is designed to spark a public discourse about the future of Catholic schools and may result in establishing a Center for the Study of Catholic Schools here at the university's Life Cycle Institute.

In the past, with all-Catholic enrollments, Catholic identity may have been taken for granted. With 100 percent religious in the school, communicating the charisma of religion, it was easier to foster that identity. We have to make sure our strong traditions are maintained. We need to be protective of our Catholic identity, not let it slip away. It's important for each individual diocese, each individual school, to embrace and foster it.

John Convey, is chairman of the Department of Education at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., and an authority on Catholic education.

To the Top of this page
Return to the Commentaries main page
The Catholic University of America home page

Any questions or comments? cua-public-affairs@cua.edu

Revised: 27 October 1997

All contents copyright © 1997.
The Catholic University of America,
Office of Public Affairs.