It’s been a little more than a week since the fire at St. Margaret Mary School. A second person has been charged in the arson, this one a 17-year-old friend of the first suspect. Classes resumed on Tuesday with the displaced youngsters shoehorned into existing classrooms in the main building while they await the arrival of temporary classrooms. Daily and Sunday Masses are being offered in the main sanctuary, and the community continues to rebuild physically and emotionally from the loss.

Last Saturday morning there was a quarter-page display ad in the local paper. In bold letters and two colors, it asked “WHAT HAPPENS WHEN A CATHOLIC SCHOOL CLOSES?” Paid for by the “Friends of St. Margaret Mary School,” it announced that the school had to close because of the fire. (This is not exactly accurate -- the school postponed classes for a few days, not unlike what happens in any school in foul weather or when a water or heating problem develops.) 

The ad wondered if the nearest public school would be able to handle the 364 students at St. Margaret Mary. It then enumerated all of the area’s youngsters currently enrolled in Catholic schools, a total of about 3000. (There was no mention of the number of children served by other non-public schools, among them a Jewish academy, several Christian schools, and some private non-religious schools.) What if all these students had to be absorbed by the local public schools -- what would be the cost for construction, teacher salaries, books, and the like? Just a thought, it said. The ad ended with a reminder that St. Margaret Mary School needs financial help right now, and stated that “businesses, corporations, foundations, individuals, schools, and churches should send donations today.”

I had already written a check for this very purpose, motivated by my history with and continuing love for the school and the Catholic community of this area. But the arrogance and the adversarial tone of the ad offended me, and were I of a different attitude of heart, I might have torn the check up.

Although I am a proud graduate of a Catholic high school, I spent my professional career as a public school educator, as did my Catholic father.  It offends me to see Catholic schools portrayed as performing a service for public schools, as graciously taking students off their hands and sparing them the cost and the burden of their education. I am also offended by the faint whiff of superiority, the implication that Catholic schools have, simply by existing, a more wholesome environment or deliver a more moral education than do the godless public schools, as well as a better secular education.

That is not, in my view, why Catholic and other religious-based schools exist. These schools exist to offer sectarian instruction in the principles of the particular faiths which sponsor them and to present secular subjects in an atmosphere driven by those principles. Public schools, on the other hand, exist to provide a free basic education for all citizens. 

Although public schools do not teach particular religious truths as truths to be followed, they are operated by men and women of principle, most of them faithful followers of one of the various religious traditions whose individual communities contribute to our larger one. These school personnel do not check their ethics at the door and go about their business in a moral void.

Public schools are not, by definition, places empty of ethics and values where no moral code is followed. If they were, I would not have spent thirty years teaching in one, and my Catholic school graduate husband and I would not have chosen to send our daughter to the very public school which would be obligated to accept many of the displaced youngsters at St. Margaret Mary.

What would happen if St. Margaret Mary School and the other schools named in the ad suddenly shut their doors? Those children would be accommodated by the public school districts where they live, because that is the mission of the public schools. There would be adjustments, and those adjustments would be made with the best interests of the new students in mind.

As it happened, the question that the ad asked was answered in a story that appeared in yesterday’s newspaper. Help has poured in from all corners of the community, including gifts of art supplies from the Jewish academy, cleaning supplies from an individual, professional assistance from active and retired public school teachers, and offers of space from the public school district where St. Margaret Mary is situated (the same public school my daughter attends). 

I have a suspicion that the “Friends of St. Margaret Mary School” acted without authorization from the parish or the diocese. And I hope that the powers behind the organization have learned that while they might have meant well, their actions have possibly done more harm than good. 

The vista this morning was visited by two deer. Their appearance is always a moment of wonder, as if there is something magical about them. 
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