Catholic school educators and administrators took a close look at the challenges facing Catholic schools today, particularly school closings, during a June 23-25 summit at Boston College.

The three-day session, co-sponsored by the college, the National Catholic Educational Association and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, focused on new initiatives to improve Catholic schools such as restructuring school systems to meet changing demographics and finding new ways to raise funds.

The annual summit, called SPICE, for Selected Programs for Improving Catholic Education, typically highlights programs that work so other educators may replicate or adapt them in their dioceses.

Jesuit Father Joseph O'Keefe, dean of the Lynch School of Education at Boston College, said the hope for Catholic schools was summed up in the words of Atlanta Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory, who attended a Catholic school as a non-Catholic and was led to enter the church through his education.

"It brought home the great treasure that these schools are and how important these schools can be in the lives of kids," Father O'Keefe told The Pilot, Boston's archdiocesan newspaper.

Archbishop Gregory, president of the USCCB during 2001-04, encouraged summit participants to continue to educate the poor.

"As one who was once an inner-city kid in a Catholic school, I hope you continue to invite my colleagues who sit in those desks today to believe in Christ, to believe in the future and to believe in themselves," he said.

Catholic schools play a critical role in the church's duty to model the person of Jesus Christ, to teach the Gospel and evangelize our culture, he added.

"I want those Catholic schools to be available, accessible and affordable to as many children as possible both today and tomorrow, whether they are Catholic or not," he said.

To do that, the church must respond to school closings in urban centers such as Chicago, where he grew up. He said the Chicago Archdiocese recently developed a plan to renew schools that involves building new schools in strategic locations and marketing those schools as viable, accessible and affordable.

Schools and parishes face the additional challenge of a declining weekly Mass attendance, which has a negative impact on the number of children who receive religious education. Archbishop Gregory said the church needs to impress on parents that they should pass on the most important treasure they have -- their Catholic faith.

Bishop Robert J. McManus of Worcester, Mass., chairman of the USCCB's Committee on Education, also spoke at the summit, saying its theme, "Endangered Species: Urban and Rural Catholic Schools," was both timely and important.

He said the collaboration of the summit's sponsors reflected what the U.S. bishops said in their 2005 statement on education. They called on Catholic school leaders to work together.

He also stressed that the wider Catholic community should have access to and understand the importance of the bishops' statement so they can participate in a broader discussion of Catholic education. As more people become involved, he said, they will "lead to a greater sharing of the church's collective wisdom."

Bishop McManus said his hope is that all Catholics will "realize that they have a vested interest, indeed they have a responsibility, for supporting Catholic school education."

-- CNS