Just a few short years ago there were four Catholic high schools in the Diocese of Springfield, only one will remain. Shocking! More than ever before, the future of the Catholic Church and the Diocese of Springfield is dependent upon Catholic education. Yet rather than looking at Catholic schools as being an investment in the future of the Church, the Diocese looks at them as being a financial liability while using the excuse, ad nauseam, of “low enrollment”. Yet the Diocese was shown examples of some 21 successful Catholic high schools with enrollment goals met, while being essentially self funded. There were some very revealing common strains of what made them successful by taking a different approach. The Diocese absolutely refused to look at the information.
I had been doing volunteer work supporting Cathedral High School and after the tornado hit the school on June 1, 2011, I inquired of then Bishop Timothy McDonnell about the future plans to rebuild. I received only vague responses, if any at all. I then contacted a Cathedral Board Member and his input was that the ONLY way to move the Bishop to rebuild was to bring about extreme public pressure. At that time I also received input from a very prominent business person in the Greater Springfield area and his input to me was, “I sit with the Bishop on a regular basis, and he has no intention of building a new school”. We then formed the Committee for Cathedral Action (CCA) with an objective to bring about pressure to build a new Cathedral High School in Springfield.
Along the way I talked with administrators of successful Catholic high schools to find out what made them successful. I also called and spoke with Mike Intrieri, President and CEO of Catholic Mutual Group Insurance, urging him to settle so we could get a new school built. I found him to be a very straight forward, religious and honest person who seemed to only want to do what was best and fair toward having a new school built. Yet there was a major difference with the Diocese. Catholic Mutual Insurance who deals with these types of issues routinely indicated that their engineers found that there were some parts of the school that were destroyed, others, however, could be saved, fixed up, with the results still being a beautiful new Cathedral. The Diocese, however, indicated that their engineers indicated that the total school was destroyed and an entire new school was necessary.
Another very interesting point…while wanting to work together to settle the insurance and get a new school built, Catholic Mutual found that right out of the gate the Diocese position and attitude was very adversarial. (This made me VERY suspicious, coupled with the Diocese refusal to make any position on actually rebuilding a new school, while at the same time pushing strongly for a full rebuilding insurance settlement. Also there seemed to be a history of the Diocese claiming highly questionable “structural damage”… the original Holyoke Catholic High School, other Churches and buildings, and more recently, the steeple / Church, of Mater Dolorosa.)
What I ask myself, to this day…was the Diocese pushing for a full settlement of Insurance for Cathedral, some $50 million for that portion of the tornado damage, with no intention of building a new school, therefore pocketing the $50 million?!
Another bit of irony and question to me, to this day….why is it that the Diocese would consider me (and CCA) an enemy when all we wanted to do is get a new Cathedral Catholic High School built in Springfield? We had no other motive! Was it because we, by bringing about immense public pressure, foiled their plan to pocket $50 million? I am absolutely convinced, so are MANY others, that if it were not for CCA there would be no new high school, Pope Francis, being built today.
So here we have today….Cathedral / Holyoke Catholic, now combined into Pope Francis, effectively closing one school; the recent closing of St. Joseph’s High in Pittsfield, and now the closing of St. Mary’s High School in Westfield. We will have one Catholic high school left in the Diocese since Bishop Mitchell T. Rozanski arrived, while a few short years ago there were four. In addition the church and elementary / intermediate Catholic schools are closing at an alarming rate. It all appears to be part of a “plan” that result in one adversarial conflict after another in the way they are handled. Just the opposite of evangelization.
Do we have a Diocese that is driven by our Catholic faith and belief in God? Or do we have a Diocese that is driven only by money? Do we believe in investing in our children for the future of our Catholic Church and Catholic faith? Investing means not only money, but allowing ourselves to be open for better ways of accomplishing our goals.
Here is something to chew on. The Archdiocese of Omaha Nebraska has a population about the same size as Western Mass, with about the same number of Catholics. They have approximately 16 Catholic high schools. We will have 1. Study winners, not losers, and understand why.
Al DiLascia
Chicopee, MA
