Bush mentions Catholic schools, Catholic Charities in New Orleans

President Bush, in New Orleans yesterday for the Katrina anniversary, spoke about the recovery, clean-up, and the importance of several institutions, including the Catholic Church. The president praised both Catholic Charities and the Catholic school system.

The New Orleans school system is enriched by the religious schools here. And the Cathedral Academy has been educating in New Orleans for nearly three decades. There’s an interesting story I’m about to tell you. Last October, Cathedral Academy became the first school to re-open. That was last October. Sister Mary Rose is the principal, and she believes this: No child would be turned away from her school’s front door.

For 10-year-old Aalilyah Carr, who is with us today here, the return to school was a day she will never forget. I love what she said—she said, “I was so happy I could hear the choir singing in my head. It was a long time before I thought I’d see a school again, and I’m so glad to be walking these halls.” Aalilyah says it better than I can. Education is the gateway to a brighter future. Education provides the light of hope for a young generation of children.

It’s really important—I look forward to working with the federal government to provide opportunity scholarships for the poorest of our families so they have a choice as to whether they go to a religious school or a public school. It’s good for New Orleans to have competing school systems. It’s good for our country to have a vibrant parochial school system. And I applaud those who are very much involved with the Catholic school system here in the great city of New Orleans.

Sounds great, but you know that the ACLU and the NEA are right now trying to find a way to counteract the influence of the Catholic system. Yes, parochial systems provide vital competition and what’s amazing is that they are competitive despite the fact that the alternative is free. Think of that. Imagine that you were a butcher, say, and the meat you sold was of a superior quality, but that your competition was taxpayer-funded and gave his inferior meat away for free. How long do you think you would stay in business? How bad would the competitor’s product have to be for people to still come to you?

Catholic Charities

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As for Catholic Charities, the president recounted the efforts of the volunteers and workers to help their friends and neighbors.

One woman who’s come back is a woman named Samantha George. She is with us today. A year ago, the future looked bleak for Samantha and her four young daughters. Their home in Mid-City had five feet of water in it. Everything they owned was gone. And so they left, and they went to Mississippi and Georgia, as this good mother searched for work. At one point, Samantha and her daughters were living in cars. She felt alone and abandoned. And that’s when she walked into the office of Catholic Charities and met a lady named Peggy Matthews, who’s also here.

Peggy wiped the tears off Samantha’s face. She gave her love and encouragement. Samantha agreed to enroll in Peggy’s job-training class and give it one more try. And within two weeks, she found work. And at the same time, Catholic Charities helped her with food and clothes and diapers, and a gift card to Wal-Mart that allowed her to buy the uniform she would need for her new job. She found help and love.

Catholic Charities also helped Samantha find a house in the Carrollton neighborhood near Lafayette Academy. It’s a new charter school that her daughters will be attending very soon. Recently she found a new job she loves—she’s now a nurse. For the first time in her life, Samantha says she feels a sense of ownership and control over her future. Here’s what she says: “I was just hoping for some motivation so I could keep going. I think God sent me to Catholic Charities, and I think of myself as blessed because now I’m able to help other people who cannot help themselves.”

This is what Catholic Charities should be about. Instead, in certain places like San Francisco, it’s become a tool for social re-engineering and undermining the Church’s teachings. In other places, it’s become indistinguishable from the secular government bureaucracy with nary a mention of God lest we offend. But on the Gulf Coast such distractions were stripped away by Katrina and attention was re-focused on what is most important.

Meanwhile, I find it curious that Archbishop Alfred Hughes was absent and not mentioned. Perhaps he was there at the president’s previous stop at St. Louis Cathedral. That’s probably the case.

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