Some Children Left Behind

As everyone seems to know, a Catholic education is not as cheap as it used to be. In fact, at North today, close to 70% of our boys receive some sort of financial assistance. Families usually have to sacrifice much more now than they did back in the day when there were more religious vocations, and back when Catholic high school was supplemented by the parish where the student’s families belong. But, as the number of priests and nuns has diminished over the years, the number of families practicing and supporting the church has significantly declined, the changing demographics of the neighborhoods, and with the popularity of charter schools, our parishes could no longer bear the entire cost of tuition for their parishioners; parents had to make some tough decisions. Many families just sucked it up by creating additional income streams (second and third jobs), while others modified their spending and gave up certain material goods, all in the name of a good Catholic education for their children. But, there were, and still are, many families who are stretched thin as far as money goes. Those families needed some sort of tuition assistance. There are many options for students’ families when it comes to financial aid, but for this article, I’ll discuss just a couple.

 First, you have the Northeast Catholic Alumni Association Memorial Scholarship Fund. This fund, as I pointed out in a previous article, has provided millions of dollars to Northeast Catholic students over the past 15-20 years. And, as I pointed out in that previous article, any current NC student who is receiving one of these scholarships, will still receive that financial assistance, provided that the student is still academically eligible, and will be attending a school in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia next year. In addition, because of the generosity of the Northeast Catholic Alumni, this fund will expand to include children and grand children of dues paying NC Alumni members, for tuition at elementary and high schools in the Philadelphia, Camden and Trenton dioceses. Further, this fund will award money to eligible and needy NC grads, as well as their children and grandchildren at one of the many Catholic colleges and universities in the Philadelphia region. This is just an example of how the alumni of Northeast Catholic has lived up to the values that they were taught throughout their lives and their responsibilities to the boys who sacrificed to attend North, much of which was a direct result of the Catholic education that each of us has been blessed to receive in our lifetimes.

Now, let’s take a look at what happened within a month of the announced closing of North Catholic. Back in the fall of 2009, a letter went out to the parents of current North Catholic underclassmen, stating that every student who decided to transfer to Father Judge would receive a $500 credit towards their tuition, compliments of the Oblates of St Francis DeSales. That’s a big chunk of change for an order who supposedly takes a vow of poverty. If every current underclassmen (about 350) at North transferred to Judge, that would amount to about $175,000.

Now, there’s another, but lesser known source of financial aid, which is provided by the Oblates of St. Francis DeSales. This form of financial aid is so unknown, that I, as a parent of a former NC student, never even heard of it. It’s called the Roboloto awards. These awards are generally given to NC students in $1,000 annual installments. Unlike the Alumni scholarships, which are promised over “x” number of years, the Roboloto awards are renewed each year. Earlier in the school year, several concerned parents approached Fr. Smith, the President of North (partly responsible for the closing of North because he did not do his job or raising funds to keep North viable) about the continuation of these awards. Father Smith, in writing, advised that this commitment would be honored for the upcoming school year. To no one’s surprise however, just this past week, the Oblates decided that they would only honor their promise if the boy elected to attend Father Judge. I don’t know about you, but doesn’t this break a commandment or two. I guess these commandments only pertained to the non-ordained, the real folks who live the vow of poverty.

Now, will some of the current NC students transfer to Judge next year? You betcha. But, the one thing that the Oblates don’t get, at least the Oblates at North, is that many of the current students decided to go to North due to the long tradition, academics and development of the whole person, which they could only get at a school like Northeast Catholic. They also chose to go to North because it wasn’t Judge, and Judge couldn’t offer the same intangibles that you can only get at a school like North. Now, many will go to Judge, but not because it’s their first choice, but because they are either being forced to go there because of the financial situation, or because it’s now too late to get into Roman, which is at their capacity. To hold a carrot (financial aid) over the heads of these families to try to force them to go to a school that they previously rejected is nothing less than a pathetic, self serving act for this order of supposedly “holy” men. I have several questions for the “good men” who are in leadership positions with the Oblates order. 1. Where are the Christian values in this decision? 2. Where’s the commitment to the students and families that were committed to you? 3. Where’s your spirit of giving? 4. Doesn’t this decision conflict with the values that you taught us all of these years? And, finally, I have to ask you if this is what Jesus would do, because it appears it doesn’t matter what St. Frances De Sales stood for?

This is the same order of priests who receive a nice chunk of change each year from the NC Alumni Association. My suggestion is for NC Alumni to cut out the middle man and stop contributing to the Oblate fund. Your money can be directly given to the Alumni Memorial Scholarship program. At least the money will not have the same restrictions as the money that the Oblates provide (much of which comes from NC alumni). Also, with the money that the Oblates seem to throw around, they don’t seem to need our help.


Throughout the sex scandal, the school closings, and now this self serving decision by the Oblates, my faith in the Catholic Church has not been diminished, but I can’t say the same about my faith in the men who are supposedly the leaders in my church. Toward them, I am somewhere between saddened and disgusted. I’ll continue to attend church, and I’ll even continue to support my parish, but as for the Oblates, I have one final question for you. Can we continue to have faith that the Oblate hierarchy will follow through on their commitment to open a Cristo Rey school at North Catholic in September, 2011? Or, is this just more lip service intended to collect even more money from the NC alumni? I guess time will tell. Up to this point, the track record of the Oblates has been a little less than stellar with regard to their commitment to the North Catholic community. Until then, we will all continue to pray that they do the right thing in the coming months and years.