Letter Given to Bishop Martino by SJB, Pittston and SMA, Avoca Parents
April 14, 2004 Meeting, Scranton Diocese Chancery
Shown below is a copy of the letter our committee representatives left with Bishop Martino and Staff of the Scranton Diocese.
Please Note: FALLACY 4 mentions that parents have little control over what might happen to Seton Catholic if the Bishop Martino closes St. John the Baptist, Pittston and St. Mary's Avoca because these two Catholic elementary schools traditionally make up at least ONE THIRD of the freshman class at Seton Catholic High School!
It should be noted that the Diocesan Education department was NOT represented at this meeting, which took place on April 14, 2004 in the opulent Diocese of Scranton Chancery Bldg.
The Education Department of the Diocese of Scranton was in Boston attending a conference, according to the Diocesean Office.
"To Followers of Jesus Christ, It Must Be About the Children"
Bishop Joseph F. Martino, D.D.
Bishop of Scranton
300 Wyoming Avenue
Scranton, PA
Re: Saint John the Baptist School
Dear Bishop Martino:
Six months ago, we eagerly looked forward to your tenure as Bishop of Scranton. In the Pittston area, we are surrounded by the churches and schools built by our great-grandparents from Italy, Ireland, Lithuania, Germany, and Slovakia. We recognize that these structures no longer suit an area with fewer priests, and a smaller, more homogeneous Catholic population. We recognize that the reorganization of our institutional structures is necessary for the preservation of our faith into future generations. We had hoped to approach reorganization, however, in a way that showed a respect for community, a vision for the future and a commitment to younger generations that would be worthy of our ancestors We were hopeful that you as a man of scholarship would be exactly the special representative of Jesus Christ among us for whom we and our pastors had prayed, one who could lead us in developing a comprehensive plan for the twenty first century. Instead, we come to you today sorely disappointed that, to use your words from the steps of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church, you have become the instrument of suffering among us.
We have heard you justify your decision to close St. John the Baptist School and your refusal to reconsider your decision on the following grounds: (1) The Diocese will be spending $4,254,617 instead of $5,296,194 for Catholic education in Region 7 next year (2) Parishes and schools in Region 7 have a debt to the Diocese of $1 million in the context of $11 million in such debt throughout the Diocese , (3) Reorganization of the schools was requested by our pastors, (4) The future of Seton Catholic High School has not been dealt a death blow but is in the hands of the parents, (5) Restructuring always causes anger, grief, and disappointment and (6) Trust in you requires that your public decisions be final and infallible. We believe that each and every one of these six justifications for your decision is based upon assumptions that are inconsistent not only with the sound economic principles you say you advocate, but, more importantly, with the fundamental beliefs of our Roman Catholic faith. We beg you to listen with an open mind to our reasoning.
Fallacy 1: The Diocese will be saving the difference between $5,296,194 and $4,254,617 by closing Saint John the Baptist School and St. Mary’s Avoca School, and the four remaining elementary schools in Region 7 will be unaffected.
It is a misrepresentation of the financial data provided to us to suggest that the Diocese will be saving approximately $1 million dollars next year by closing two elementary schools. The only actual savings in the "Plan" are $204,370 from (1) the decrease in the parish/other parish subsidy amounts by $186,000 and (2) the decrease in the Diocesan subsidy amounts by $18,370. The remainder of the supposed "savings" is actually a decrease in revenue due to lost tuition and lost fundraising. The reduction in subsidy is paid for in the "Plan" by assuming that 214 of the children currently in Catholic education will attend public school next year. Ironically, the same savings in subsidy could be paid for by keeping all the schools open and implementing only the tuition increases contemplated by the "Plan."
The plan does not properly consider the economic impact of the school closures on the four remaining elementary schools. The diocesan accountants have examined the total number of seats in the four remaining schools but ignored how many seats are available in each grade. The "Plan" places a burden of approximately $225,000 in severance pay on the remaining schools. Tuition will increase more than thirty percent at Sacred Heart and sixteen percent at Holy Rosary so that serious decreases in enrollment are possible. Pastors like Father Polmounter and Father Rokocz who have exhibited a talent for financial management of a school will no longer have control of the financial situations at their respective schools The problems at Wyoming Area Catholic that have caused students to leave in recent years have not been addressed by the "Plan." Most importantly, no parent can be confident that his child’s school will not be closed without notice, even after it has accepted contracts for the next school year. These are all problems that could be avoided with a long-range comprehensive plan for Catholic education in Region 7 and in the Diocese of Scranton.
Fallacy 2: The closing of Saint John the Baptist School will help reduce the $1 million debt of schools and parishes in Region 7 to the Diocese.
According to the financial data provided, Saint John the Baptist is the only school in Region 7 that is generating significant positive revenue. Its closing will, therefore, not aid in the elimination of the $1 million debt you have identified as the reason Region 7 was targeted by you for your first restructuring. Moreover, its forced closure is likely to exacerbate the debt situation rather than to solve it. The $1 million in debt represents 6.6 percent of the total revenue from all the parishes in Region 7. If you continue to focus the discussion solely upon economics, the backlash could easily lead to a 20% decrease in revenue. This would be more than $1.2 million next year alone in the Greater Pittston Area. Responses on our website from throughout the Diocese indicate that the response would not be limited to Region 7. Communities throughout the Diocese are exasperated by the continued arrogance of our Diocesan accountants in insisting that they know what is best for our children without a single discussion with our principals, teachers, parents, or parishioners.
Fallacy 3: Our pastors are responsible for the school closings.
In your letter to the Pittston Dispatch, you placed the blame for the closing of Saint John the Baptist School upon our hardworking pastors. You now rely upon their promise of obedience to you to keep them silent and prevent them from defending themselves publicly. Two years ago, the pastors requested that the school situation be studied. They voted against the plan that was presented to them at the time. One year ago, our pastors again voted against the plan that was presented to them. You did not even allow them the opportunity to vote on March 25, 2004. At the meeting, you presented them with a letter, which already had their names on it, but was authored by the diocese without any input from them. A two-year-old request for a study was never intended as carte blanche to do anything the Diocese wanted in their region. It is not the type of collaboration advocated by the Second Vatican Council.
You gave the priests of this Diocese hope when you said that they were your first priority. Now with your first public act, you have made them the betrayers of their parishioners. Despite your lack of experience in parish administration, it appears that the only priest you may have consulted before the meeting of March 25, 2004 was Bishop Dougherty who personally created the serious situation at St. Patrick’s School when he was pastor. You never consulted with Msgr. John Bendik whose parish sends more students to Saint John the Baptist School than any other. Msgr. Bendik has eliminated the parish debt he inherited, merged three ethnic churches into one cohesive community. Msgr. Bendik also developed a strategic plan five years ago for Region 7 Catholic elementary education in the hope that our new Bishop would be interested in listening.
Fallacy 4: The future of Seton Catholic is in the hands of the parents.
Your spokeswoman has announced that the future of Seton Catholic High School is in the hands of the parents. You say that the responsibility to solve the problem is ours as parents yet give us no authority to find a solution. This violates the fundamental principle of leadership that responsibility for a problem cannot be separated from the authority to solve it. One third of the student body at Seton Catholic has come from the two schools you are closing. The Diocesan "Plan" expects that 214 fewer students will attend Catholic elementary school next year. Without even recognizing that Seton’s customers are our children, sound financial strategy requires that existing customers be maintained. Expecting us to save Seton after you send 214 more students to public school is akin to amputating a person’s right arm and then saying it’s up to him whether or not he learns to drive again.
Fallacy 5: Anger, grief, and disappointment are the unavoidable consequence of school closings.
All restructuring may cause some level of anger, grief, and disappointment, as you suggest, but you have caused outrage. This was avoidable. You have suggested that we should have known change was coming because of the size of our children’s classes. Yet because we had faith that you would follow the principles of Vatican II, we expected change to come in the form of a process that involved dialogue. We expected that pastors, principals, faculty, and parents engaged in real collaboration.
Your argument implies that every school with small class size is subject to being closed without notice via a Friday afternoon letter. How surprised would you be to discover such a letter from the diocesan accountants closing the diocesan seminary with its 7 students?
It is commonly thought in our Diocese that the lesson of /St. Patrick/St. Ann’s in West Scranton and Nativity/St. Mary’s/St. Mary’s in South Scranton is that school mergers are not successful. So now, the Diocese is attempting school closings rather than mergers. We suggest that what does not work are plans imposed by Messrs. Early and Quinn without any collaboration from the people affected. We have heard that the closing of our school was described as triage. The schools in region 7 have a loss of $47,000 per year. This is $47 per student even if we assume that tuition will not increase. This is not triage. It is more analogous to the amputation of two arms.
Fallacy 6: Trust in our Bishop requires that you refuse to reconsider your decision.
You say that our ability to trust you depends upon you adhering to a decision once it has been announced. We believe that our ability to trust you depends upon your willingness to engage in real collaboration. We believe that your letter stating that the decision is not reversible indicates a closed mind that is inconsistent with (1) your duty as a Bishop in the Church to engage in dialogue with us and (2) your responsibility to reconsider your administrative decision that has aggrieved us pursuant to the principles of Canon Law.
Our Diocese has lost one of its most intelligent and moving preachers due to Msgr. Kevin O’Neill’s ill health. When he was pastor of St. John the Evangelist Church in Pittston, he preached that the fundamental message of Jesus Christ is that we all get another chance. We beg you to give yourself another chance to work in cooperation with the pastors, principals, teachers, parents, and parishioners of the Greater Pittston Area and to know that we are not just "Region 7" but a community of faith eager to have you listen. We have previously seen our former Bishop make the correct decision and pray that he would have the courage to execute it. Now we see you making a wrong decision and pray that you will have the wisdom to recognize it as such. We pray also that you will have the sense of right judgment to start over with a collaborative process that demonstrates to the entire Diocese of Scranton that you are committed to the principles of the Second Vatican Council.
Truth: To followers of Jesus Christ, it must be about the children.
In every explanation the Diocese has provided, the rationale for the closing of Saint John the Baptist School has focused solely on economics. There has been no recognition of the disruption your decision has caused in the lives of our children. They have not been offered any counseling at school. When the Church should be a fundamental supporter of the stability of family life, it is ignoring this objective. The sleepless nights and daily suffering that you and our pastors are currently experiencing will pass. Diocesan spokeswoman Ms. Orzel predicted that the diocese would only have to endure two weeks of complaining over this decision. This devastation will cause suffering and pain for our children for years. They should be our primary concern.
The Diocesan "Plan" concludes that two schools will close and 214 children will leave Catholic education and go to public school. How can this be consistent with a faith that so often preaches the parable of the prodigal son? Even when the son had been profligate with the father’s resources, there was great rejoicing over his return to the family. How can we even call this a "Plan" when it abandons 214 of our children so easily and does not look beyond 2004?
We respectfully request that you reconsider your decision to close Saint John the Baptist School in June, 2004. Please allow the school to remain open for one year for a period of real study recognizing that "the various groupings which constitute the educational community are, according to their several competencies, to be associated in decision-making concerning the Catholic school and in the application of decisions once taken." Thank you for your consideration.
Respectfully yours,
The Committee to Save Saint John the Baptist and Saint Mary's of Avoca Catholic Elementary Schools
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