PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Daily News
Yant Kinney, Inquirer Columnist
Two months ago, Archbishop Charles Chaput and a blue-ribbon commission delivered a death sentence to 49 Catholic schools, 20,000 students, and 1,700 teachers. Two weeks ago, the diagnosis for nearly half the afflicted was dramatically upgraded, from terminal to alive and kicking.
Should relieved families credit a modern miracle? Or is the rightsizing of religious education being handled as clumsily as the clergy sex scandal was cynically?
Put another way, did archdiocesan leaders know the threat of widespread school closures would generate millions in emotional donations at a time when the church – presumed to be sitting on a fortune – is actually hard up for cash?
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