Catholic schools. Almost half of all Catholic high schools in the United States have closed since 1965. The student population has fallen from 700,000 to 386,000. Parochial schools suffered an even greater decline. Some 4,000 have disappeared, and the number of pupils attending has fallen below 2 million – from 4.5 million.
We have made the brave decision to send our three children to two Catholic schools - one in which a homosexual priest anally raped six teenage boys almost every weekend over a period of years, and another in which two teenage boys were molested and approached sexually by a monk. In the first instance, a brave priest (scorned by the hierarchy at the time) made public the horrific sexual abuse which had occurred and strove to find and comfort every victim of the monster who preceded him. He has zero tolerance for sexual abuse and has proved it (though he seems at times virtually alone among priests). He is one of the bravest Catholic priests I've met, and he still is in charge of the school. In the second case, we have seen personally the real horror and disgust by those in charge over what happened some years ago with the aforementioned monk. Finally, our sons know fully well (from us and from Boy Scout videos) that any man (including a priest) who approaches them in the wrong way should be repulsed and reported immediately to us. We hope we are not fools, but we are not sure. In both these schools, the eyes of hundreds of parents are focused squarely, intensely and unblinkingly on the priests who work there. Please pray that we made the right decision.