Catholic Schools’ Mission to Serve Needy Children Jeopardized by Closings

Chicago

The challenges of keeping Catholic schools open in working-class neighborhoods were brought home here last month, when the Archdiocese of Chicago announced it would close 23 elementary schools and merge or consolidate four others in June.

Two weeks earlier, the Diocese of Brooklyn in New York City decided to close 26 elementary schools in Brooklyn and Queens at the end of the school year, although four will be reopened as regional schools.

Such announcements are raising grave concerns over the toll that rising costs, changing demographics, and declining enrollments are taking on the longtime Roman Catholic mission of providing...