Philadelphia, Pa., Jan 12, 2012 / 20:08 pm
The announcement that dozens Philadelphia Catholic schools might close has caused “confusion, anger and grief,” Archbishop Charles J. Chaput acknowledged on Jan. 12, as he asked people to react with Christian charity.
“It's useful to wonder how many of our schools might have been saved if, over the last decade, Catholics had fought for vouchers as loudly and vigorously as they now grieve about school closings,” Archbishop Chaput said in his Jan. 12 weekly online column.
Catholics are “discriminated against” because they must pay once for public schools and again for Catholic schools, he noted.
“School choice may not answer every financial challenge in Catholic education; but vouchers would make a decisive difference. They'd help our schools enormously,” he said, characterizing vouchers as “a matter of parental rights and basic justice.”