Dear Parishioners,

This past week, to the surprise of many, myself included, the Department of Catholic Schools (DCS) at the Archdiocese was temporarily closed. Simply put, it was a sweeping decision to begin a comprehensive overhaul of the DCS and how it can help our Catholic schools. Unfortunately, some media “reports” have been putting together other factors that were unrelated and simply coincidental in order to further a message that the Archbishop has been scheming a plan. More on that later in this reflection.

This present decision by the Archbishop comes after several meetings (which I attended) stretching over a year with the Archbishop and pastors with schools. In short, some pastors voiced their frustration that their schools were operating as if they were independent of the parish and sometimes disregarded the directives of their pastors in favor of the DCS. Some pastors shared their concern about the lack of Catholic identity in the culture and praxis of the schools.

In an online meeting attended by school-pastors with the Archbishop on Thursday, June 22, we were informed of the temporary closure of the DCS. He acknowledged the issues previously mentioned as the reasons for his decision. In that same meeting, he wanted to make it clear that this wasn’t an indictment of any specific school or all our schools. In fact, he praised that some schools have been doing very well—the connection between pastors, principals, and DCS have been healthy and the Catholic faith has been very much part of their culture. Yet, the Archbishop acknowledged that there has been an ongoing dissatisfaction that a “school district” approach to the DCS was not working sufficiently enough to help pastors lift up the Catholic faith in their schools.

So, the Archbishop, after consultation with pastors and his own leadership team, decided that a grand overhaul of the DCS was needed and that real change simply could not be done in a piecemeal way. He wants the DCS to be more flexible to support a variety of needs and models of schooling. He believes this action will help the DCS to become a more effective resource for our schools’ evangelizing mission.

We live in a very secular time. I share the Archbishop’s desire for our students and their families to experience an encounter with Jesus Christ that is life-changing, ongoing, and is infused by the Holy Spirit from our weekly Masses. I see the wonderful job our school administration, staff, and teachers are doing to inspire the faith of our children and families, and I look forward to what kind of new help the DCS can offer us in this most important mission going forward. So, the closure of the DCS, while startling, is intended to make our Catholic schools stronger, and put our faith more in the forefront of what our schools do.

Unfortunately, the press is conflating two other events with the closure of the DCS. The first is the release of the Archdiocesan gender document. This document has been underway since 2021 at the urging of many us priests and crafted by a committee in cooperation with other entities. In fact, the DCS, and specifically the Superintendent, participated in writing/editing this document. The DCS has been nothing but supportive of it.

A second event that is being conflated with the closure of DCS is the experimental shift of philosophy and praxis at one of our parish schools (Christ the King). With the approval of the Archbishop, they want to shift to a classical Catholic liberal arts approach in their school. I have been at separate meetings for all of these events, and never were they linked. Yet, the media and other detractors are conflating them as one planned-out scheme by the Archbishop. I urge you to resist filling the gaps of information with the negative narrative being fashioned.

I hope this helps clarify the events that have been going on and how the press and other detractors choose to report or understand them. In the coming interim year for the reformation of the DCS, we here at Holy Trinity will continue to go forward, as we have been planning. We have a strong Catholic identity, strong enrollment, and strong desire to keep improving. Please pray against any spirits of division and pray for a reinvigoration of our Catholic faith in our school children, their families, and beyond.

Image: Pastoral Center of the Archdiocese of Portland in Oregon; Wikipedia user Farragutful