Pope John XXIII High School deserves the aid of the Boston Archdiocese in order to remain open.
It deserves to come back from a death sentence that was placed upon it, and then removed, by the Archdiocese.
Cardinal O’Malley needs to reach out to the hundreds of alumni, present students, teachers and to the administration of the Catholic school who are now involved in a life or death struggle to keep the school open.
If the Boston Archdiocese and Cardinal O’Malley can spend $25 million to rehab Holy Cross Cathedral, then certainly $1 million can be found to keep Pope John XXIII High School open.
This is not just another Catholic school that has lost its reason to exist.
The outpouring of energy and emotion from everyone involved with the school leaves us with the strong sense that Pope John XXIII has a chance to sustain the reprieve given it by the Archdiocese – but this won’t happen without the direct intervention of the Cardinal.
Pope John XXIII isn’t financially unsound at this point because of its own financial ineptitude. In fact, the school was cruising along nicely… until a vendor the school did business with went bankrupt and stopped paying the school what he owed it to the tune of $600,000.
That vendor, who should be in jail, cannot be allowed to sink the school.
Heroic efforts by the Board of Directors, and by the school’s director, who put his own money into the school in an effort to save it, has all but fallen on deaf ears, and closed doors at the Archdiocese headquarters in Boston.
Last week’s rising up of the fund raising effort, and repeat television news reports that the school was closing down, caused the Archdiocese to raise its mighty head and to open its all seeing eyes – and the school was given a small chance.
If the Archdiocese can come even half way, a devout Catholic entrepreneur is willing to step in and put the school on a steady financial footing again with s strong and honest management and marketing team – and the Archdiocese knows who he is and should fully approve of him.
In the meantime, we urge every boy and girl attending Pope John and all those who have graduated from it, and all Catholics who care about it, to call the Cardinal’s residence and let him know what you are expecting him to do.
The Cardinal is duty bound to give aid and support to Catholic schools like Pope John XIII.
It fits every criteria the Archdiocese designates as a reason to be supported.
Cardinal O’Malley is not a man of sin – but it would be a sin for him to let it close.