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Many of the "predominantly minority children" in those closed schools weren't even Catholic to begin with, so I see the closure of these schools as little more than a formal acknowledgement that the Catholic Church simply doesn't have a reason to be in these neighborhoods right now.

Would you say such a silly thing about Catholic hospitals in non-Catholic areas? Charity is Charity.

The trouble with Catholic systems like the schools and hospitals is that they weren't designed for paid staff. Dedicated and willingly poor nuns and monks handled the work. Now the few nuns left, rather than recruiting more teaching and nursing nuns, generally complain that the Catholic teachers aren't unionized and well-paid.

Catholic education is not "charity" at all -- it's supposed to be part of a Catholic mission to educate people in Catholic doctrine. It's no coincidence that a secular "education" is nowhere to be found in any of the Gospels as a charitable endeavor. It's not one of the seven Corporal Works of Mercy in Christian tradition, and was never mentioned by Christ in any of His public statements on human charity.

"Converting the sinner" and "instructing the ignorant," however, are Spiritual Works of Mercy -- in a Christian context. "Instructing the ignorant" doesn't mean teaching them to read and to master subjects like mathematics and geography, it means educating them with the explicit intent of passing along the timeless truths of Christian doctrine.

So there is absolutely no need to spend a moment of my time or a dollar of my money on any non-Catholic who wants to take advantage of the opportunities offered by Catholic schools in education regarding secular subjects -- while openly rejecting any religious aspect of a Catholic education.