I was about to link this post to the DNT story of how Duluth’s Catholic Arch Diocese is investigating the start up of a K-12 school system in Duluth. But when I began linking the first story I found online about the Diocese it was a story about how its attempting to avoid compensating families whose children had been abused by Diocesan authorities.
Here’s the story I was looking for about a rival school system.
Its hard to know quite what to make of the idea of an expanded Catholic school system considering the self-inflicted travails of the Church. It is likely a good faith effort by loyal Catholics to rehabilitate the Church’s reputation. How they will fund such an enterprise as they undergo bankruptcy is hard to fathom. Certainly the self inflicted travails of Duluth’s public schools seems to give the Diocese an opening but its hard for even me to regard the effort as anything other than a little delusional. If they succeeded under these straightened circumstances it would be a sorry testament to the colossal miscalculations of the Red Planners .
I’ll share one personal reflection on the state of Catholicism. My brother married a fervent and loyal Catholic wife. There was no question that any children would be brought up Catholic. For years during their marriage my sister-in-law went to Church and evening masses regularly and by herself. Because my Brother was raised a protestant like me and is as casual in his theology that was no problem.
For a long time it looked like there would be no progeny but then there was a miracle. I was asked to be my surprise niece’s God Father, an idea a little remote from Protestant practice, that came with the expectation I would raise her as a Catholic in the event of her parent’s untimely demise. I stood by my brother’s side at my niece’s christening and again at a ceremony to welcome a five-year old into the Church.
In the last ten years I have heard almost nothing but grim disapproval of the Church’s handling of a growing and infamous scandal and cover-up of institutional pedophilia from my sister-in-law. Its as though the Church is dead to her. But maybe in Duluth that reaction is not so common. Time will tell.
Oh, and here’s a picture from 2005 of my brother and niece after I paid a surprise March 17th visit. Its a leprechaun;
She is heading off today to become a Hoosier at the University of Indiana. She’s joining the swim team as a breast stroker. She’ll have stiff competition. One of her new team mates, Emily King, just took gold in the 100 meter breast stroke.
