No Margin, No Mission

Abstract

In the United States today, schools for the poor present a powerful challenge to the Catholic community. In the midst of a culture in which margin determines mission, it is important to identify new opportunities and reasons for hope. The first opportunity involves increasing skepticism about the ethos of individual autonomy in favour of a new belief in the common good. Every-where in the US —in religion, education, and even in Clintonian political rhetoric-people discuss the yearning for community, what Amatai Etzioni calls ‘the search for a new Gemeinschaft’ (Etzioni, 1993, p. 167). Given its tradition of solidarity and the preferential option for the poor, along with its potential to operationalize its profoundly multi-cultural membership, the Catholic Church can raise the debate to new levels. The Church can also benefit from this new interest as it seeks to define its institutional initiatives as a post-immigrant church in a post-modern society. Second, members of the academic community, especially Catholic universities, can engage in further critical inquiry about inner-city Catholic schools. Moreover, in contrast to the current practice of minimizing the impact of school closings, educational and ecclesiastical leaders should make available to the public dimensions of the crisis and be resolute in demanding an appropriate response from the Catholic community. Third, in the face of declining low-income schools, Catholic institutions that enjoy fiscal stability must redouble efforts to create welcoming communities for low-income students of colour. Though there have been some initiatives to understand the culture of Catholic schools (Lesko, 1988; O’Keefe, 1991), much more needs to be done. Finally, Catholics must explore together the complex and controversial ecclesiological issues of identity and diversity. Unless the Catholic community discovers anew the model of ‘church as servant’ (Dulles, 1987), Preston Williams’ prediction about the demise of Catholic schools will come true. He wrote: The silence of the Church in the face of the conservative undercutting of the option for the poor leads many to believe that the Church itself is politically conservative or racist and lacking in a commitment to its moral formal teaching on racial equality and its option for obligation in a just society. In the minds of many the Church is seen as willing to ignore or to expend very little energy upon the poor in order to embrace a conservative social program that includes other aspects of its special interest. (Williams, 1990, p. 318) Facing the Future: Threats and Opportunities If the contemporary rationale for Catholic schools is grounded in the values of the affluent, ethnically assimilated, suburban, secularized and generally content Catholic majority, the data on school closings are not problematic. On the other hand, if the rationale is the one I outline below-a clear and compelling vocation to provide for the needs of the poor and to foster appreciation of the human family in its rich diversity-the closing of even one school in an inner-city area is intolerable. While the financial threat to schools for the poor is well established, new opportunities must be explored.

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