Towards the end of February, the Diocese released the 2018 State of the Diocese Report.  We had copies in the back of both churches (you still might find one there). With all that was happening during Lent, my copy pretty much just sat on my desk.  Now that I have time, I have been reading it, and thought I would share the highlights. The Report actually had several reports, including from the “Faith in Our Future” committee, but I am just going to focus on the Bishop’s report.  The Bishop noted that the primary “job” of a diocesan bishop is to carry on the mission of Jesus: “to teach; to govern; to sanctify.” He organized his report around those three tasks, so I am going to do the same with these summaries.

    The primary way that the Bishop, and the priests authorized by him, “teach” is through their preaching, particularly at the Sunday Mass.  Other means of teaching is through other diocesan publications, such as the Monitor, the diocesan newspaper; the really well-done, newly designed diocesan website, www.dioceseoftrenton.org; and the Bishop has a monthly radio program on Domestic Church Radio.

    Another primary means of teaching the Faith is through our Catholic schools and parishes’ religious education program.  Currently there are approximately 10,000 students in the 31 diocesan elementary schools (parish and regional) and private Catholic elementary schools.  There are over 40,000 students in the religious education programs of the 106 parishes. The seven diocesan high schools have 4,500 students, and there are another 1,500 students in the four private Catholic high schools.

    Shortly after Bishop O’Connell took office, he commissioned a “Catholic Schools Sustainability Plan” by a nationally recognized expert.  They developed criteria for evaluating the schools in the Diocese to see which ones were at the greatest risk. Last year, the Bishop commissioned another task force to review and update that study, so that the focus and content remains current.

    It should not surprise us that Catholic schools continue to face serious issues, the biggest being declining enrollments -- due to shifting demographics, rising costs, shrinking financial resources, competition from public schools, and the growing secularization of society.  The Diocese does a great deal to support our Catholic schools through tuition assistance grants and other aid to the schools, but Diocese’s resources are not unlimited. Difficult decisions sometimes have to be made.

    This year, some of those difficult decisions affected our neighborhood.  In December the Bishop announced that the Diocese could no longer subsidize Holy Cross Academy here in Delran.  In the last few years, the Diocese had given Holy Cross Academy $13.8 million, but the money is not there to continue that level of support.  With the Bishop’s support, as of July 1, 2018 Holy Cross Academy will transition from being a diocesan high school to being an “independent Catholic high school,” with a group of dedicated alumni and benefactors taking over the responsibility for the school.  The same thing happened with Mater Dei Prep High School in Middletown in 2015.

    Pope John Paul II Regional School was also placed under a careful review.  They have also been experience low enrollment. In March 2018, the school submitted a plan for keeping open, at least for another year, which the Diocese accepted.  Hopefully they will be successful so that they continue much longer than that.

    The Bishop also noted, that with over 4 times as many Catholic children attending parish religious education programs, the Diocese continues to offer support for training and resources for these programs.