Bishop Silva spreads his two-point vision on how Catholic schools should live up to their mission

By Patrick Downes | Hawaii Catholic Herald

Bishop Larry Silva is mustering new energy in the support of Hawaii’s Catholic schools. Over the past 12 months, at education convocations he has hosted on four islands, the bishop presented his ideas to pastors and school administrators.

On July 17, he shared some of those thoughts with the Hawaii Catholic Herald.

“I wanted to emphasize two points,” he said, explaining why he convened the gatherings on Oahu, Maui, Kauai and the Big Island — “Catholic identity” and “collaboration.”

While these two goals are not new in this diocese and have been on Catholic school agendas for years, Bishop Silva brings to them his own perspective, formed in part by his experience as a pastor of parish schools in his previous diocese of Oakland, Calif.

Catholic identity

A school’s Catholic identity, the bishop said, goes beyond a crucifix in each classroom and a prayer before each class session.

It’s a good education “from a Catholic point of view.”

“That means the centrality of the Eucharist and the sacraments,” he said.

Catholic schools should have “not only a good catechesis but a spirit of sharing of the living Christ with the children and their families.”

The bishop cited the familiar tale of Catholic school graduates who say they “know all about Jesus” but “don’t know Jesus.”

“We need to make sure that Catholic schools are places where the student and their families can experience the risen Jesus Christ,” he said.

What grade would he give Hawaii schools on the subject of “Catholic identity?”

A mixed one.

“Some are very good at emphasizing their Catholic identity,” the bishop said. “Others could work on it a bit.”

Catholic identity is often taken for granted and it should not be, he said.

At the convocations, the bishop relayed a little show-and-tell demonstration to make his point. Scouring five school parent handbooks picked at random for “explicit” references to Catholic identity, he came up short. He wasn’t surprised.

“Well, as I suspected,” he said, “most had lots on academic policies, disciplinary policies, safety policies, but very little about sacramental policies or prayer experiences that the school would offer.”

“That doesn’t mean that they don’t offer them. But they have not put them out in the pubic arena.”

“So here is some work to be done in that area,” he said.

Collaboration

“Collaboration,” the dynamic working relationship among schools and between schools and the greater community, was Bishop Silva’s second objective.

“We have many wonderful people working in our schools and sometimes they are so busy that they concentrate only on what is happening at their own school,” he said, when “there are best practices that can be shared with others and can enrich everyone.”

He suggested that Hawaii’s schools share resources, talent, promotion efforts and even enrollment waiting lists.

“Sometimes one school will have a waiting list while another school will have very few students and many empty places,” he said. “I think if there were more cooperation and collaboration that maybe the list could be shared.”

The bishop said that, as the pastor of two Oakland inner city parishes with schools, he found it necessary to share resources to cope with the ever-present financial challenges.

“It’s a struggle and if you are doing it all by yourself, you can get very discouraged,” he said. “But if you have other people who have the vision and are working toward accomplishing it, I think you can get more support.”

Closing a school is not one of his solutions.

“I would be loathe to close a school because I think Catholic education is important,” he said “We have to do whatever we can to make sure the school is healthy and good. Sometimes it takes time to turn it around and bear fruit.”

However, it is possible for a school to reach a point of no return, he said.

“If it came to the point where there were so few students that it was impossible to run a good program then we would have to consider closing it.”

Value of Catholic schools

Catholic schools are indispensable as preservers of the faith, vehicles for evangelization and beacons for the broader community, Bishop Silva said.

The schools were founded “to educate our Catholic children and give them a sound foundation in Catholic values,” he said.

But with non-Catholic enrollment in some Hawaii Catholic schools as high as 30 percent, they are also opportunities to spread the faith, he said, and should not be “ashamed” to do so.

“We have to not be apologetic about evangelizing,” the bishop said. “That it is the nature of the church, to be evangelical, to share the Gospel, to initiate others.”

“So it is a great resource for evangelization, but I am not sure that we have tapped into it as profoundly as we could.”

A Catholic school, as part of a universal faith community, also has lessons of global responsibility it can teach the rest of society. Values “gleaned from the Gospels” can be applied to political, social and life issues, he said.

The Catholic perspective emphasizes that, he said. “While we are Americans, we are also brothers and sisters of Africans, and South Americans and Europeans and so on.”

Finances

While stressing the schools’ spiritual mission, Bishop Silva summarized their biggest challenge with a very secular word — “finances.”

It’s a complex problem that the entire Catholic community must address, he said, not just parents of students, or pastors with schools, or principals with mounting bills.

“It’s a ministry of the whole community and we need to engage the whole community to find solutions,” he said.

He cited the Augustine Educational Foundation as a “good example of the wider community being involved in providing scholarships for those who need them.”

He also suggested that parishes without schools help those with schools. Some already do, he said.

“It is really the responsibility of us all.”

This kind of collaboration was called “co-responsibility” when it was advanced as Proposal #7 of the Diocesan Synod 2000.

“The intent of co-responsibility is to provide more funds for schools to use for tuition assistance so that more Catholic children can have a Catholic education,” the plan read.

The plan recommended certain financial incentives for parishes that gave money to Catholic schools, and a diocesan fund of half a million dollars to be disbursed to qualifying schools in need. The fund was never implemented.

Bishop Silva said he had no specific proposals in mind for inter-school and inter-parish cooperation this time around.

“These convocations were the first step,” he said, which is why pastors without schools were also invited. “Hopefully, there will be more collaboration as we go.”

More schools?

A Catholic education for every Catholic child is probably an impossible goal, Bishop Silva said, considering the sheer number of children and lack of resources. But opening new schools in new places enjoys an open, if limited, discussion.

Molokai and Lanai are probably too small to support Catholic schools. The entire Kona coast of the Big Island has never had a Catholic school, although the desire for one surfaces with some regularity.

The bishop sees many hurdles to get over before a second Big Island school (Hilo has the only one) becomes a reality – among them buying the land, raising the money to build the facilities, and finding a flow of funds to sustain it.

He finds more grassroots support for a Catholic high school in Leeward Oahu. It’s an idea that has been circulating for at least 15 years and the present diocesan strategic planning process has raised its profile once again. But the price tag — vicar general and planner-in-chief Father Marc R. Alexander has been telling leeward parishes it’s $100 million – induces second thoughts.

The bishop said he is also “looking into the feasibility of” a Catholic high school in Waialua on Oahu’s north shore that a group independent of the diocese has been quietly planning for a decade.

Praise for parents

The bishop applauded parents who recognize the value of a Catholic education and support it.

“I think many parents are making a tremendous sacrifice in sending their children to Catholics schools and you just have to convince others that the sacrifice is worthwhile.”

He also had words of admiration for the providers of Catholic education in Hawaii.

“I just think that our administrators and teachers and staffs should be commended for all the wonderful work that they do. They have many challenges. It is just amazing how they meet those challenges so well and provide schools that people are rightfully proud of.”

“We can be very thankful,” Bishop Silva said.