As you may know, the annual education issue of the Catholic Courier has just been published. In this issue Bishop Clark’s Along the Way column is titled “Catholic Education is Strongly Supported”. I’m sure many of us would question the accuracy of that headline.

Apart from the dubious headline, this issue of the Courier also contains another curiosity-advertisements by three non-Catholic private Christian schools.

Although these schools may be fine educational institutions, why is the Catholic Courier allowing them to effectively evangelize our young Catholic students? Would General Motors allow advertising by Toyota or Nissan in a company sponsored publication? Of course not.

These Christian schools are in direct competition for the minds and hearts of our young people. Their theology is at odds with the Church’s teaching in many areas such as the priesthood, the sacrifice of the Mass, our sacramental system, sola scriptura, and papal authority. These variances in theology cannot help but be communicated during the educational processes of these institutions. These conflicts could easily result in a very confused Catholic student who would eventually reject his or her Catholic faith.

Perhaps the Monroe County Catholic School system should run some ads for its schools in some Protestant publications. That would be in the true spirit of ecumenism.