It's in the Church bulletin--I told you that's what they were up to when they didn't hire you!"
My mother has come into my room, fairly singing the news. (She is "only herself" when she feels vindicated--doesn't matter the issue, only that she's "correct".) This time, it is about the newly announced "melding" of both Catholic schools in the city.
"Mom," I tell her, "the Pastor told me that this was his preferred route--he thinks it is the only way to save both schools--even though I think he's dead wrong..." I turn back to a re-run of "Survivor".
"Well, now there's going to be the first through fourth grade at one school and the fifth through eighth at the other--but it will just be melded into the something called "The Generic Catholic Schools of Gardner", or something like that...I KNEW they were going to do this!" Mom has stopped listening to me.
I highly doubt the name change. However, I do not doubt the plan. This Pastor is the man who,after the retiring Principal of Sacred Heart School had hired me as the "official sub" and went on to recruit me for the new eighth grade teacher--with blossoming hopes of a new arts program and a stronger Language Arts program--not only "un-hired" me, he didn't talk to me for three weeks. This allowed embarrassment between me and the families in the parish who met me at Mass, introduced by their children, as "the new teacher"...and further consternation in my family, whom I was advised that I might tell of my new job by the same Principal (now retired) who had assured me that she had the power to hire and was hiring me as the new eighth grade teacher. So, the freeze-out by the Pastor, (with no notification until I pressed the Principal, about my standing), has made me permanently wary of anything this man does. Most especially, in the arena of Sacred Heart School. (No reason for my non-hire was given. No apology for being told by the Principal that I had the job--and then it dissolved. No "sorry" for not contacting me for weeks, either way.)
Now, the entity, that for four generations of my family, educated us through junior high, saw us through all the formative sacraments of early Catholicism, and was supported emotionally; spiritually and financially, by my entire clan, is vanishing. It is being absorbed and morphed into something that neither the Irish congregation of Sacred Heart Parish nor the French congregation of Holy Rosary Parish, are satisfied with. (Rivals for all of their existence, they offered healthy alternatives and strong choices to Catholics in the surrounding part of the state. The schools were different in their styles of education--from uniforms and discipline--to the orders of nuns who once solely commanded them.) Having older children separated from their younger colleagues in the Faith will also be a decided difference--as the campuses and buildings are a city apart. (What of families with kids in both places--isn't this simply a greater set of difficulties, not to mention transportation and time-tables?) How can this "solution" be seen as a positive plus?
I have held my tongue most of my life when it comes to the inconsistencies, brutality, hypocracy and illegal actions of the Catholic Church (as opposed to its parishioners and adherents...). I have not protested against the organization--mainly in honor of my family and the nuns and priests and friends who have benefited from and added to the humaneness of the religion. However, there comes a time when one has been mentally buffeted by, physically judged and cast aside from, emotionally ostracized, financially abused, publically embarrassed and spiritually robbed, so one must speak. While I can say that as many good, solid, educated and caring people have entered my life who are Catholic and whom have made a positive difference, I can point out an entire organization which has made me feel guilty, separate from, not as good as, and ever "bad", simply for who I am; who I was born as; who I will forever be.
Even if the Catholic Church as left me in its shadow, my parents and their generation, who have supported and safe-guarded its traditions, are being betrayed. The Church is moving too fast and furious. Too quick to lop off, to close down, to eradicate the very things the elders created or fought so long to uphold.
My parents believed in Catholic education--still do. Though their children and their grandchildren have been out of Sacred Heart School for a decade, they still support it. (As do they the Church, itself.) They are forever suggesting its programs to family friends moving into the town. To have the school suddenly "morph", without so much as a vote in the parish that has kept its corridors open and filled, betrays the decades-long history of both parishes--and denies the cultural traditions that created both schools in the first place--traditions of diversity and richness.
I attempted to explain sociological theory to the Pastor in my interview. He is new here. He is younger than me. He is good friends with the Bishop, who lives an hour away, in a mansion, in a city that is thriving and much larger than this poor factory town. Sacred Heart Church survived because Sacred Heart Parish thrived. Its identity was clear and clearly formed. It's parishioners loyal and proud and needing the personal contacts of the Church at the center of their lives. So, too, with Holy Rosary Church. The very identity of the parish was different, and larger, and culturally connected.
Yes, both are Catholic. However, it was more than Rome that made them important fixtures in the community. Today, while the community begins to disappear--the older generation which created it is in most need of these institutions. The older generation supported and ran and breathed life into these institutions. Now, they need that energy--they need the priests and nuns whom they welcomed and opened their homes and hearts to, in past years. They need the bolstering of their identities within those spiritual hallways. They need the cultural sensitivity that helped foster their organizations and on which this generation built its families.
The Bishop doesn't need what is here, in Gardner. (Only the dwindling funds--and therein lies the core of this problem.) By combining the schools, without a game plan anyone has seen--and surely without a cultural game plan, let alone a publicized educational blueprint in place-- it drops the first shoe. The second will be, surely as the Catholics of this town fear, a closing of several of the distinct houses of worship--cultural meccas for the population that was once the richness of this town--and which might have brought this town back, someday.
People don't support generic sports teams. They hold no loyalty to generic beauty products, foodstuffs nor manufactured goods. Generic items are items you turn to when the best in show are out of your reach, when you are on hard times and a budget and can't afford the top of the line. Do you want to pay premium tuition to a generic school? Do you want to say you are a graduate of such a place? (Would the Bishop attend? Would the Pastor?)
Perhaps I still resonate at the betrayal of those sisters of mercy (Whatever our mixed memories of them are...) who gave up their lives and their comforts, for the children of our school, living lives of poverty, chastity, and obedience? Nuns, who, suddenly after spending their productive years in service and obedience to the Roman Catholic Church, were cast out of convents, the Church no longer willing to support them, and told to "find service in the world"--without support or funding to do so... I can own all of these emotional undertows.
But it seems to me, that to homogenize and consolidate the very things which stood out as precious, and increasingly rare, is stupid. It is short-sighted. It is queasy and common. It smacks of politics, money making, and a sullied bottom line--even as the Catholic Church seeks to remove the mire from its boots. Seeks to right the moral wrongs it once overlooked or hid away. It is the betrayal of a town down on its luck. It is a sucker punch to people who are too old and needy to fight back--and to their legacy passed on to their grandchildren.
The Church I grew up in, for all of its sins, was better than this. There were aspirations and hope.
In Gardner, that is going the way of plain-wrapped obsolesence.
There IS a reason I didn't get that job, a few months ago.
My mother has come into my room, fairly singing the news. (She is "only herself" when she feels vindicated--doesn't matter the issue, only that she's "correct".) This time, it is about the newly announced "melding" of both Catholic schools in the city.
"Mom," I tell her, "the Pastor told me that this was his preferred route--he thinks it is the only way to save both schools--even though I think he's dead wrong..." I turn back to a re-run of "Survivor".
"Well, now there's going to be the first through fourth grade at one school and the fifth through eighth at the other--but it will just be melded into the something called "The Generic Catholic Schools of Gardner", or something like that...I KNEW they were going to do this!" Mom has stopped listening to me.
I highly doubt the name change. However, I do not doubt the plan. This Pastor is the man who,after the retiring Principal of Sacred Heart School had hired me as the "official sub" and went on to recruit me for the new eighth grade teacher--with blossoming hopes of a new arts program and a stronger Language Arts program--not only "un-hired" me, he didn't talk to me for three weeks. This allowed embarrassment between me and the families in the parish who met me at Mass, introduced by their children, as "the new teacher"...and further consternation in my family, whom I was advised that I might tell of my new job by the same Principal (now retired) who had assured me that she had the power to hire and was hiring me as the new eighth grade teacher. So, the freeze-out by the Pastor, (with no notification until I pressed the Principal, about my standing), has made me permanently wary of anything this man does. Most especially, in the arena of Sacred Heart School. (No reason for my non-hire was given. No apology for being told by the Principal that I had the job--and then it dissolved. No "sorry" for not contacting me for weeks, either way.)
Now, the entity, that for four generations of my family, educated us through junior high, saw us through all the formative sacraments of early Catholicism, and was supported emotionally; spiritually and financially, by my entire clan, is vanishing. It is being absorbed and morphed into something that neither the Irish congregation of Sacred Heart Parish nor the French congregation of Holy Rosary Parish, are satisfied with. (Rivals for all of their existence, they offered healthy alternatives and strong choices to Catholics in the surrounding part of the state. The schools were different in their styles of education--from uniforms and discipline--to the orders of nuns who once solely commanded them.) Having older children separated from their younger colleagues in the Faith will also be a decided difference--as the campuses and buildings are a city apart. (What of families with kids in both places--isn't this simply a greater set of difficulties, not to mention transportation and time-tables?) How can this "solution" be seen as a positive plus?
I have held my tongue most of my life when it comes to the inconsistencies, brutality, hypocracy and illegal actions of the Catholic Church (as opposed to its parishioners and adherents...). I have not protested against the organization--mainly in honor of my family and the nuns and priests and friends who have benefited from and added to the humaneness of the religion. However, there comes a time when one has been mentally buffeted by, physically judged and cast aside from, emotionally ostracized, financially abused, publically embarrassed and spiritually robbed, so one must speak. While I can say that as many good, solid, educated and caring people have entered my life who are Catholic and whom have made a positive difference, I can point out an entire organization which has made me feel guilty, separate from, not as good as, and ever "bad", simply for who I am; who I was born as; who I will forever be.
Even if the Catholic Church as left me in its shadow, my parents and their generation, who have supported and safe-guarded its traditions, are being betrayed. The Church is moving too fast and furious. Too quick to lop off, to close down, to eradicate the very things the elders created or fought so long to uphold.
My parents believed in Catholic education--still do. Though their children and their grandchildren have been out of Sacred Heart School for a decade, they still support it. (As do they the Church, itself.) They are forever suggesting its programs to family friends moving into the town. To have the school suddenly "morph", without so much as a vote in the parish that has kept its corridors open and filled, betrays the decades-long history of both parishes--and denies the cultural traditions that created both schools in the first place--traditions of diversity and richness.
I attempted to explain sociological theory to the Pastor in my interview. He is new here. He is younger than me. He is good friends with the Bishop, who lives an hour away, in a mansion, in a city that is thriving and much larger than this poor factory town. Sacred Heart Church survived because Sacred Heart Parish thrived. Its identity was clear and clearly formed. It's parishioners loyal and proud and needing the personal contacts of the Church at the center of their lives. So, too, with Holy Rosary Church. The very identity of the parish was different, and larger, and culturally connected.
Yes, both are Catholic. However, it was more than Rome that made them important fixtures in the community. Today, while the community begins to disappear--the older generation which created it is in most need of these institutions. The older generation supported and ran and breathed life into these institutions. Now, they need that energy--they need the priests and nuns whom they welcomed and opened their homes and hearts to, in past years. They need the bolstering of their identities within those spiritual hallways. They need the cultural sensitivity that helped foster their organizations and on which this generation built its families.
The Bishop doesn't need what is here, in Gardner. (Only the dwindling funds--and therein lies the core of this problem.) By combining the schools, without a game plan anyone has seen--and surely without a cultural game plan, let alone a publicized educational blueprint in place-- it drops the first shoe. The second will be, surely as the Catholics of this town fear, a closing of several of the distinct houses of worship--cultural meccas for the population that was once the richness of this town--and which might have brought this town back, someday.
People don't support generic sports teams. They hold no loyalty to generic beauty products, foodstuffs nor manufactured goods. Generic items are items you turn to when the best in show are out of your reach, when you are on hard times and a budget and can't afford the top of the line. Do you want to pay premium tuition to a generic school? Do you want to say you are a graduate of such a place? (Would the Bishop attend? Would the Pastor?)
Perhaps I still resonate at the betrayal of those sisters of mercy (Whatever our mixed memories of them are...) who gave up their lives and their comforts, for the children of our school, living lives of poverty, chastity, and obedience? Nuns, who, suddenly after spending their productive years in service and obedience to the Roman Catholic Church, were cast out of convents, the Church no longer willing to support them, and told to "find service in the world"--without support or funding to do so... I can own all of these emotional undertows.
But it seems to me, that to homogenize and consolidate the very things which stood out as precious, and increasingly rare, is stupid. It is short-sighted. It is queasy and common. It smacks of politics, money making, and a sullied bottom line--even as the Catholic Church seeks to remove the mire from its boots. Seeks to right the moral wrongs it once overlooked or hid away. It is the betrayal of a town down on its luck. It is a sucker punch to people who are too old and needy to fight back--and to their legacy passed on to their grandchildren.
The Church I grew up in, for all of its sins, was better than this. There were aspirations and hope.
In Gardner, that is going the way of plain-wrapped obsolesence.
There IS a reason I didn't get that job, a few months ago.
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