Covering the Costs of Catholic Schools: One Innovative Approach

Subsidizing the cost of Catholic schools is a frequent and widespread concern of dioceses throughout the United States. Unassisted by public funding, Catholic schools are forced to raise their tuition with the increasing costs of books and materials and the reasonable rise in teachers' salaries. Here is briefly described a financial "success. story taking place in the Diocese of Lincoln, Nebraska. The information provided for this article was kindly offered by Father Liam M. Barr, Bishop's Delegate for Diocesan and Social Development, Diocese of Lincoln.

In 1971, Bishop Glennon P. Flavin of Lincoln initiated a daring financial strategy in order to continue offering affordable, quality­based Catholic education to the young people of the diocese. Under this program, both generous parish subsidies and carefully planned investments would serve to pay for Catholic schools within the diocese. This was in keeping with the priorities the bishop set for the diocese, which included religious education and the fostering of religious and priestly vocations. As for encouraging religious and priestly vocations, each priest of the Lincoln diocese would be required to teach in a diocesan school early in his priesthood­­a requirement which still exists.

Each year on the first Sunday of May, there is a diocesan­wide collection called the "Bishop Bruskewitz's Charity and Stewardship Appeal." In each parish eighty percent of what is collected toward the parish's goal is returned to the parish for the purpose of subsidizing its own grade school and high school. The parish receives one hundred percent of any funds donated which surpass the parish goal. In so doing the parish's school benefits directly from the Bishop's Appeal. (Typically, each high school will be subsidized by a cluster of parishes proximate to one another.)

Parishes give generously because they clearly see the results of their generosity. It is a simple policy of "putting your money where your mouth is," says Father Barr. It is an investment for the future Church and the education of the young.

The diocese has not closed any schools in twenty­five years, and still it continues to open new schools. Interestingly, the dynamic is such that new parish churches are founded following the founding of new schools. The children of these parishes are able to attend school at minimal cost to the family­­responsible for book fees only. (For children of non­Catholic families outside of the parish, a fee structure is offered.)

"Parishes give generously

because they clearly see the

results of their generosity."

In 1982, Bishop Flavin began the policy of establishing endowments for each school. Currently, in the case of the six high schools of the diocese, each has an endowment between 1.5 and 3 million dollars. For example, Bishop Neumann High School of Wahoo, NE, receives eighty percent of its subsidies from funds provided by local parishes, nine percent comes from student fees, and the remainder comes from the school's endowment. In the case of Pope Pius X High School of Lincoln, there are eleven local parishes which support the school. Sixty percent of the school's subsidies come from those parishes, thirty percent comes from student tuition (no more than $750/year), and the remaining ten percent comes from the school's endowment.

Bishop Flavin's vision has borne much fruit in the past two decades. He set in place investment strategies for the diocesan schools, insuring their future growth, while fostering in parishes an incentive to fund their local schools. The people in the parishes are more willing to be generous when they know where their money is going.

For more information about the Annual Charity and Stewardship Appeal or the Endowment Program set in place in the Diocese of Lincoln, contact Rev. John Perkinton, Superintendent of Schools, PO Box 80328, Lincoln, NE 68501, {402} 488­2040.

Most Reverend Philip M. Hannan

One of the key figures who served on Planning Committee of the momentous National Congress on the Word of God in 1972 was Archbishop Philip M. Hannan of New Orleans. Long dedicated to the faithful proclamation of the Gospel, he has served the Church in a wide variety of ministries on the "front line.* And at the age of 82, he pushes forward with renewed vigor.

As chaplain to the 82nd Airborne Division in Europe from 1942 to 1946, he was known as "The Jumping Padre," making seven parachute jumps with the troops in France. Following his return to the States, he was made chancellor of the Archdiocese of Washington, where he was founding editor of the official Archdiocesan newspaper, The Catholic Standard. He was consecrated an auxiliary bishop of Washington, only later to be installed as Archbishop of New Orleans in 1965. He served two terms as Chairman of the Department of Communication at the United States Catholic Conference, and he was Chairman of the Board of The Catholic University of America.

The Archbishop's episcopacy has been especially devoted to the communication of the Word, whether through preaching from the pulpit, speaking on behalf of the poor and elderly, or producing Catholic documentaries for the New Orleans television station he founded as Archbishop.

To this day Archbishop Hannan serves as Chairman and President of PBS Station WLAE Channel 32, and at present he is working to establish a national Catholic television channel which will be available to the diocesan cable channels.

In this issue, in light of the approaching twenty­fifth anniversary of the National Institute for the Word of God (Sept, 1997), the Archbishop offers a brief reflection on the continued critical need for the Institute for the Word of God:

The Need Today for The National Institute for the Word of God

by the Most Reverend Philip M. Hannan, Guest Columnist

The tocsin of the politician during an election campaign is "I'll lower the taxes." The tocsin of a Bishop newly appointed to a diocese is, "I shall train the priests to give better sermons." The reaction is always the same ­­ thunderous approval.

The competition for the homilist is worse today than ever. Television today with its premium on eloquence and attractiveness, as well as the clever televangelists create rough competition for a hum­drum homilist.

The appeal of the "evangelicals" for the poorly instructed Catholics is well known. In addition, some well-instructed Catholics attend evangelical services and contribute to their cause. I was surprised and a little shocked by the candid confession of a priest who had held a lucrative job before he entered the seminary. "Yes, I went to hear the evangelists on Sunday after I attended Mass for the show they give," he said. "Did you contribute to the collection in the amount that the others gave," I asked. "Yes. I'll admit that 1 gave five dollars in the collection at Mass but I gave about $25 to the evangelist. I paid for the show. The choir was good, the preacher was amusing, the crowd reaction was good. It was a good show."

I was also completely floored by two prim and proper elderly Catholic ladies who sat next to me on a plane and who calmly said that they always sent a donation to Jimmy Swaggart.

Nevertheless, there is the undeniable and primordial attraction of the Word of God we present in Catholic pulpits on Sundays because of the grace of God present in the Eucharist and the power of the prayers of our people. There is always a response from the preaching of the Word. Isaiah described this years ago, "Just as from the heavens the rain and snow come down, and do not return there till they have watered the earth, making it fertile and fruitful, giving seed to him who sows and bread to him who eats, so shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth; it shall not return to me void but shall do my will, achieving the end for which I sent it" (55:10­11).

"Giving bread to him who eats" means that the Word must be assimilated by the receiver, must be taken into the very being of the hearer. That means the message of the Word must penetrate to the heart and must be responsive to a need in the hearer.

There is a general feeling in our society today for unchanging moral norms or guideposts to give meaning and stability to our lives. The evils of pandemic illegitimate births and abortion demonstrate dramatically the complete lack of sexual morality. The veto by the President on partial birth abortion shows that the lack of basic morality reaches to the highest ranks in our society. Large segments of society perceive clearly these evils and a need for their correction.

The message of the Word must be brought to the perceptive people in a convincing manner that enables them to defend and propagate the Word. They must be so convinced of the "sanctity of sex to confront prudently the oft­repeated remark, "We've been living together for only six months. We don't know if we should get married."

The homilist must show that the sins against sexual morality affect not only the couples involved but the web of morality that holds Christian civilization together. The damage to family life and thereby to the children is immediate. It also affects the standards in the schools and the cost of civil security, as well as adding to the pervasive decline of moral responsibility.

I offer two tragic examples that have occurred "close to home." In the relatively quiet neighborhood where I live, a neighbor ­ a father with several children and a lovely wife ­ was killed by a boy of about twelve years. The father was returning home from work riding on his bicycle. And twice in the last year I have had two youngsters, about ten years of age, appeal to me to call the police to protect them from an older boy who was threatening them. Both incidents occurred at night and neither boy was even close to his home. Obviously, there was no adequate parenting or concern for the children.

We live at a time when the "missions" are in our own neighborhood. We must so convince the faithful of the necessity of bringing the Word to their neighbors that they become "ambassadors of Christ" to those around them. This means a development of the virtue of prudence, which entails a further burden on the preacher.

Years ago when I was in the seminary, we were urgently instructed to become better preachers because the better educated public demanded better sermons. The curve of education has markedly decreased, largely as a result of television, and better preaching is more crucially needed to teach the basics.

More urgently than ever we need to proclaim Christ as "the way, the truth and the life." If Christ is not preached effectively from our pulpits, where will it be done?

The work of the National Institute for the Word of God is the answer.

THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE GOES TO THE SOLOMON ISLANDS

Special article by Rev. John Burke, OP

This summer at the invitation of the Most Reverend Bernard O'Grady, OP, Bishop of Gizo, I conducted six four-day workshops in preaching for the priests, catechists and seminarians of the Solomon Islands. The Solomons are a group of some thirty islands and many atolls three hours by air northwest of Australia, extending from east to west about 9OO miles, a total area of 10,983 square miles. The most famous island is Guadalcanal, the scene of the some of the bloodiest fighting in the Second World War. Battle scars in the form of abandoned equipment, sunken ships and planes remain, as do the painful memories of the conflict in the older inhabitants.

Population

The total population of the Islands, an independent country whose nominal head is the Queen of England, is 350,000 ­ of whom some 75,000 are Catholics. English is the official language, but Pidgin is the most widely spoken. Communication is further complicated by the fact that there are some eighty local languages (not dialects), and sometimes neighboring villages cannot understand each other. The population is widely scattered among 5,000 villages, each containing between one to fifty or more families. Each family may have twenty or more members, including the extended family. Each village is governed by a chief with his elders. At the same time, all citizens have the right to vote for the national officials.

Education

Lack of education is a significant problem. Education is compulsory for all children only until the sixth grade. After that, each child takes a special exam and only ten per cent are allowed to go on to seventh grade. Then after ninth grade there is another exam to weed out even more students. Consequently only a small number have a twelfth grade education because of the shortage of teachers, desks, and schools, not to mention the lack of jobs available for higher education. When the students finish school, most return to their villages where they help their parents, do some gardening and spend many hours ­ especially at night in the dark (they have no electricity) "telling stories.. In other words, village life is really very relaxed because there is not much to do, and there is neither television nor movies available to them.

Up until ten years ago, the churches ran the schools, and then the government took them over. Recognizing its limitations, now the government wants the churches to take over the schools again, although it will continue to pay all the salaries and expenses. In the meantime, Catholic sisters are teaching in the government schools. They can even teach religion in the classroom because there is a government syllabus for religion agreed to by Catholics, Methodists, Anglicans, and the South Seas Evangelical Church. About 95% of the teachers are local people, who have only a ninth grade education themselves, plus an additional two years in a special teachers' college.

The Catholic Church

The Diocese of Gizo, encompassing the Western Islands, is one of three dioceses in the Solomon Islands, including the Archdiocese of Honiara, the capital city, located on Guadalcanal and the small Diocese of Auki on the Island of Malaita. The Church today is still very dependent on the religious missionaries who brought Catholicism to the Islands. Bishop Crawford was an Irish Dominican missionary for many years before he was appointed first Bishop of Gizo; Bishop O'Grady is his successor. The Irish Dominicans founded the Order in Australia and New Zealand and these Dominicans, both men and women, have continued to provide most of the missionaries for the diocese. At present in the Diocese of Gizo, there are some nine Dominican priests, both native and foreign, one cooperator brother, two men novices, some fifteen Dominican sisters and two women novices.

Parish Ministry

Parish ministry is considerably different from what we experience in the United States. Most of the work of the Church is done in the villages by lay men and women catechists who take their ministry very seriously. They are trained at the Nazareth Catechetical Center in Honiara or in Papua New Guinea, and also for a brief time in Gizo. These catechists, who work very closely with the priests, serve as lay pastors when a priest is not there. They receive no salary for their work, although some villages may provide them with food.

Each Sunday they conduct a Liturgy of the Word adapted from the Mass of the day and lead their people in daily prayer, morning and evening and on other occasions as well. In addition, they prepare their people for baptism, marriage and the other sacraments. On all these occasions, they are expected to preach the word of God­­usually at some length. It was because of the catechists' need for continuing formation in preaching that the National Institute for the Word of God was asked to conduct the workshops in preaching.

The Workshops

In lectures, small group sharing, and lab sessions, the workshops dealt with such topics as: "Preaching as Personal Witness," "The Sunday Homily: Theology and Elements," "The Church and Its Mission: Evangelization, " "Didascalia," "Catechesis," "Ministry through Bible Sharing," and "Secular Humanism of the Western Civilization."

Of particular value to the catechists was our treatment of secular humanism. Great changes are taking place in the Islands. The economy in particular is changing from the subsistence level economy of village life based on barter and cooperation to a competitive and ultimately divisive economy based on money. Needless to say, the effects are both good and bad. The catechists will be the leaders in managing this change for the good of the Catholic people. Thus our consideration of secular humanism was greatly valued by these village­level Church leaders. The Catechists' Notion of "Catechist" An indication of just how vital these dedicated lay persons are to the life of the Church in the villages is demonstrated by the catechists' own responses to a workshop discussion question: "How does the catechist contribute to building a Christian community?"

The participants answered that the catechist should be a good preacher and reader, open to people, and prayerful. His or her duties include organizing the liturgies, providing for the music, and being sure the chapel is clean and in good repair, with appropriate decorations, so that it is a place of beauty.

The participants attending the workshop also said that the catechist needs to be concerned about both the general and religious education of the village. All villagers should be able to read and write, be aware of environmental and economic issues, be politically astute, and able to handle money. To these ends, the catechist should conduct programs to acquaint the villagers with the politics and politicians which will affect their lives as Catholics, including moral issues in family life and planning and laws. All the while, the catechist is responsible for conducting Sunday schools, building libraries, teaching Scripture and Church doctrine.

By the end of my month's stay, I was awestruck by the multifaceted role of the village catechist­­but I was also gratified that the Word of God Institute could play some part in the catechist formation on the Solomons.

NEWSBRIEFS

Mark your calendars! There is a meeting of the Chief Executive Officers of the Catholic Coalition on Preaching on Nov. 23­24, 1996, to discuss the upcoming National Conference on Preaching in Louisville to be held Sept. 21­24, 1997. More information will be posted in future issues of the GNL.

The National Institute conducted workshops at the North American College in Rome for the sixth consecutive year during September 16-27, 1996. The College is the seminary in Rome that trains priests for the dioceses of North America.

We recommend. ..

The Beginners' Guide to Bible Sharing: Volumes I and II (Brown­Roe, 1984) and the Companion to the Prayer of Christians: Reflections and Personal Prayers (Liturgical Press, 1995) by Father John Burke, OP.

The National Institute for the Word of God and the GoodNews Letter is on the World Wide Web!! Come visit us at our address http://niwg.op.org/niwg/ (Old address) and find Fr. John Burke at burkeop@aol.com

The GoodNews Letter is published three times a year by The National Institute for the Word of God. story suggestions, news items, and correspondence are welcome and may be forwarded to the Editor

Michaelmas, 1996
The National Institute for the Word of God 487 Michigan Avenue, NE Washington, DC 20017 Editor, Michael Berry