It has been a hard week for my home city of Springfield, Massachusetts. Three tornados blazed through an otherwise quiet "city of homes." The swath of destruction that fell on neighborhoods where I once played and learned as a boy caught me up short. The news of this event traveled around quickly. I had signed up for Facebook only a couple of days before and I was inundated with information and pictures of the destruction. Among these was a photo gallery of my high school, which today is a condemned structure.
Cathedral High School is (was) a somewhat modern structure built in 1959 by direction of then Bishop Christopher Weldon (not 1884, as some news reporters mistakenly claimed). Weldon was the last of the "brick and mortar" bishops in Springfield. The school accomodated nearly 3,000 students at its peak. My era--I graduated in the 100th class in 1984--had about 2000. I left the school accompanied by some 500 others. When the tornado struck, the entire student body was less than my one graduating class. The fact that several combined parish schools have come together in the facility as a new "St. Michael's Academy" does little to assuage those of us who appreciated a Catholic education at full complement.
I do not want to ruminate on some deep meaning to this tragic event. But I will say that I agree with many of the Cathedral alums that this moment is one of opportunity. There is no likelihood that the school will be rebuilt by Fall and so I think it would be perfectly suitable to let the land and the prospect of rebuilding lie fallow for a year. I think that is the best prospect at this stage. Let's just see how desparate the Diocese is to have the main institution of Catholic education (aside from parents themselves) make a come back. I think I once heard that in 1959 the physical plant cost $5 million. That's about $38 million today. This is a test of Catholic will. What price Catholic education?
