Praise the Lord for our Catholic schools, and thank you to the Catholic News Herald for coverage of our Catholic high school graduations.
It’s heart-breaking to hear what our sister public school students have endured during the pandemic. Our Catholic school leaders – with courage and clarity of thought – opened at the beginning of the school year for face-to-face instruction with measured safety protocols. The overall welfare of students and other stakeholders was obviously paramount in their decisions and actions.
The same cannot be said for our public-school brethren. Imagine the disruption parents encountered. They were often unable to balance the conflicting demands of working outside the home in order to financially support their children while simultaneously having to supervise their children’s learning via computers. This predicament was dropped into their lap. Some students thrive in a self-learning environment, but many need the personal attention of a teacher.
While Catholic school students enjoyed social interactions with fellow classmates, the public schools prevented this contact, lashing children to inferior digital mediums of communication that resulted in loneliness. We are social beings, and isolation drains the will, intellect and memory.
The latest encroachment on our public school children (under the guise of social justice) focuses on sexual orientation. Again, praise the Lord that Catholic school students are taught the truth that God made us male and female, and that feelings are forever fickle. In fact, the Church recently celebrated the martyrdom of St. Charles Lwanga and his 22 male companions, recognizing their purity against homosexual acts.
Our Catholic schools are islands in a sea of culture turmoil. We are being assaulted on all sides, creating the chaos which is the necessary element to build a tyrannical world. By maintaining our allegiance to God, our schools can continue to be as a city set upon a hill (Mt 5:14).
Bill Fountain is a member of St. Mark Parish in Huntersville.