The Catholic Education Office of Sydney hosted a reception for executives in Catholic education on Wednesday evening in conjuction with all the WYD activities. One of my bosses is the Superintendent of Catholic Schools for the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston, so she had asked me to attend and represent her. She also wanted me to give her personal grettings to the director in Sydney with whom she had studied when they both were working on their doctorates. I had sent in my RSVP and received the information I needed, so Wednesday evening I was off to the reception.
I was a little surprised when I got there to discover that I was the only non-Australian who had responded affirmatively to the invitation! I had the chance to meet a whos-who of Australian Catholic education. The director of every diocesan office was there, as were the members of the national board. They were all very curious to see and speak to this Yank who was in their midst. All were very friendly, and all spoke of the impact WYD was having on their home dioceses. Many from outside Sydney said how much their people appreciated playing host to pilgrims during the Days in the Diocese that preceded the days in Sydney. One of the more touching stories involved a group of pilgrims from Africa who arrived by plane in Sydney knowing that they were supposed to go to Adelaide. They thought it was a suburb of Sydney and not the capital city of the state of South Australia, about 800 miles away. The good people of Adelaide took up a collection to get them there and back.
I was impressed with some of the old fashioned formality that it appears is still very much in style in Australia. At one point the head of the Sydney school board was invited to come and make a toast. He gave a couple of minute speech and then said, “I bid you all, charge your glasses if that be necessary.” He paused for a moment for people to make sure they had something with which to toast and then, raising his own glass said, “To Catholic education everywhere.” Everyone in the room responded by raising their glasses and repeating, “To Catholic Education everywhere!” They then drank. There was no clinking of glasses as in the United States. It reminded me of something from out of a movie.
I heard a very interesting story while I was at the reception. While I was speaking with one gentleman I asked him how it was that Catholic Schools in Australia came to receive government funding. He told me that it had not always been that way, but was something that began only 40 years ago. The story goes that Catholic schools were struggling financially in a very deep way in the mid to late 60s. The departure of many women religious who had been essentially a free teaching force put a great strain on things. There was one diocese in particular in which there was a school whose bathroom did not pass the state health inspection. The state told them they needed to upgrade the bathroom, but the diocese said that they did not have the funds to do so. The state threatened to close the school as a result. The bishop then decided that he was going to close every Catholic school in the entire diocese and send a letter home to all the parents telling them to present their children to the nearest state school for enrollment. The state schools of course paniced, knowing that they did not have near the resources necessary to accept such a sudden influx of students. The state approached the bishop and asked him to reconsider his decision to close all Catholic schools. From the negotiations that followed state funding of Catholic schools began. That first year the Catholic schools received a state grant of $12 per elementary student and $18 per high school student. Today in the state of New South Wales the Catholic schools receive a state grant of $6500 per elementary student and $8000 per high school student. This state funding accounts for 85% of the budget for the Catholic Schools.
All-in-all it was a very interesting evening.
