We know this because we know that the Holy Spirit guides the Church... it's just that foolish humans seem to undermine the Holy Spirit at every turn.
Case in point: The Daily Herald's Eric Peterson reported yesterday that the Vatican's Dicastery for Culture and Education has rejected the last-ditch appeal from parents seeking to prevent the closure of St. Hubert's School in northwest suburban Hoffman Estates, Illinois.
Enrollment had dipped at St. Hubert's and the school's finances were precarious at best. Peterson's article noted that the pastor of the parish into which St. Hubert's was recently merged, Holy Archangels Parish, and the new parish finance council actually requested the closure, and Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich obliged. A coalition of school parents, opposed to the closure, hired a canon lawyer and appealed to the Vatican, looking to "present evidence documenting mismanagement of finances and poor decision-making by parish administrators leading to the closure request." They also hired a consultant, who came up with a plan to put the school back on a sound financial footing; according to Todd Fuerer's September 1 article on the CBS News website, the parents even came up with $282,000 to "help with operating expenses."
No, I don't know what happened to the money either.
Catholic grammar schools and high schools have been merging or closing, sometimes merging and then closing in the Chicago area, throughout my adult life. The unusual feature of the St. Hubert's case was the appeal to the Holy See. Usually, at least in my experience, Catholic school closure decisions are accepted, sometimes with sadness, sometimes with anger. When St. Thecla's School was closed (in conjunction with the merger of the parish church into two others), there was initially some hope that my own nearby parish school might gain a lot of former Thecla students. And we did get a few. But only a few. For the most part, from what I heard, most of the parents of St. Thecla's School students vowed to send their kids anywhere but another Catholic school. And I'll bet you that most of them are not contributing to the support of their merged parish church either.
St. Thecla's was not in financial distress. Though enrollment was borderline, the school was operating in the black. In that case it was the Archdiocese that coveted the prime real estate on which the school and church sat... and apparently continues to sit: Although the church building seems to have been sold (or at least rented out) to a Church-of-What's-Happening-Now sort of denomination, the school building... which was rumored to be sold to the Chicago Public Schools... seems to still be on the Cardinal's hands.
Not every school closing case is the same.
But the common element in all cases is money.
Even if there is no financial hanky panky, and even if the school does not sit on prime real estate, it costs a lot to run a Catholic school.
When I served on my parish school board, more than 30 years ago, salaries and benefits were 90% or more of our entire budget. Well, even way back when, we'd just about run out of nuns. Nuns weren't free labor, of course, but they were a lot less expensive than lay teachers. Even though lay teachers in the Chicago Catholic schools don't make nearly as much as their Chicago Public School counterparts. Long Suffering Spouse -- who began teaching at our parish school after I left the school board -- still doesn't make as much as a newly graduated CPS teacher. I am certain that salaries and benefits are easily 90% of a Catholic school's budget, even today.
When I started on the school board, the parish provided a subsidy to the parish school, to help keep tuition more manageable. One year the subsidy was on the order of $250,000. But the Archdiocese of Chicago put the kibosh on that practice. I suppose it would be uncharitable of me to suggest that the Archdiocese wanted more of that money Downtown... for itself... but, though I have labored mightily, I haven't been able to come up with a better explanation.
It also seems that the Archdiocese is -- if not actually determined to shut down Catholic schools entirely -- at best barely tolerant of their continued existence.
Where -- I sometimes wonder -- do they think the Catholics of tomorrow will come from?
Now, I suppose that the vast numbers of Muslim immigrants, in gratitude for the support and services provided by local Catholic charities, may choose to abandon Islam en masse and convert to Catholicism. A lot of the money that Catholic groups are putting into immigrant services comes from the American taxpayer, not from Catholics specifically, so that would be a total win-win for the Church: They could possibly gain huge numbers of converts while only spending OPM (Other People's Money). I suppose that could happen... but I sure wouldn't bet on it.
The Church needs Catholic schools.
I would add, as a patriot, that America needs Catholic schools: Catholic schools do a better job of educating kids than public schools -- if this isn't true everywhere in the nation, it is certainly true in our big cities. And America needs better educated citizens. Desperately.
So... my advice to the bishops is this: Recommit yourselves to Catholic education. Support it. Nuture it. Find ways not to close schools.
Also -- and I don't know if this is just a Chicago problem, or if this is nationwide -- but, in Chicago at least, stop looking at the public schools as a model to be emulated. I don't mean to be blunt about this, but (with the exception of a few selective enrollment schools) CPS sucks. We do more, with less, than public schools, and we could do better if we didn't try and ape the trends they follow. CPS should be studying our Catholic schools and trying to imitate our best practices. And, please, don't be embarrassed about teaching religion: Your future collections depend on the kids in your schools now. If you want them in the pews of your churches when they are grown, you better educate them in the Faith.
Finally, to the disappointed parents of St. Hubert's: Start your own school. The heck with the Cardinal. You obviously have resources. Use them for yourselves and your children, and I'll bet you have people lining up around the block to join you. Be unashamedly Catholic. Teach real history. Teach patriotism. Demand excellence... and maybe even a smattering of Latin and Greek. You've got a canonist on call; let the canonist guide you toward establishing an independent Catholic institution that will make you and your children proud... and which the Cardinal can't reach. Good luck.
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