Chris Stefanick encourages parents who send their kids to slacking Catholic schools to bring their complaints to the administration and demand better education of the faith for their children.
Transcript:
Host: Katie in California listening on Immaculate Heart Radio, you are on with Chris Stefanick, what’s your question?
Caller: Good afternoon. My question is this: this comes up over and over, in fact you just mentioned it, about his, I think he said nephew, but I’ve watched this for years… our children going to Catholic school, being put in Catholic school from K to 12 and coming out not only with no real foundational knowledge of their faith, but not even attending Mass. I mean it’s this idea–and I heard this that I believe you said, “Well you know, Vatican II showed we have a relationship.” I was right before Vatican II, and to tell you the truth, my parents were so knowledgeable in the faith, in the midst of that, they pulled us out of Catholic schools. My father said, “This is dangerous. They’re not teaching the Catholic faith anymore.” And I didn’t understand it at the time. I have our children–and by the way they’re all adults, they all practice their faith– but the neighbor kids all went to Catholic schools, these kids, none of them go to Mass even. And they come to me and ask me questions that would, I’m not kidding you, be fourth grade questions. And they want the truth, they’re hungry for it, but why aren’t we calling to account real teaching in our Catholic schools?
Chris: Amen. I mean, I would say that’s a great question for everyone listening, parents who are listening: Why aren’t we calling people to account? I know I think it’s time to start complaining about this, because you’re paying money for a Catholic education. And if you’re hoping that one of the things you’ll get for your money is a kid who actually practices the faith, and it’s not being taught, complain to your Catholic school.
Now again, it’s all gonna be taught in an evangelistic way, in a way that’s not just delivering facts, but we want to bring them to a relationship with Jesus, where we’re bringing kids on, you know, on retreats so we’re trying to jolt them into experiences with God, we’re bringing them to experiences of prayer. You know, but a lot of times it’s not even on the radar of school administration that the kids who are sitting there–you know I have them for four years in Catholic High School, and they’re not even thinking, “How can I make these kids holy? How can I make these kids disciples?” They’re thinking, “How can I make them good students?” I think it’s one of the biggest financial drains in the Church today.
And I’m sorry to get you up in a rant here. I mean there’s–how much money do some of these schools, you know, drain out of Catholics’ pockets who are investing in the future of the Church, or so they think? And then these–the kids they’re churning out could care less about the faith. So if that’s what your school looks like, you know, we gotta be careful in how we complain, because if we do it the wrong way people will just, you know, they’ll just close the door. But I think it’s important that we complain about this, because a lot of times administration’s clueless that this even really matters a whole lot to parents, because they just don’t hear anything. So if you’re a minority at that school with the parents who really care about the faith, please be a vocal minority. And thanks for bringing that problem up.