Bad Year

EDUCATION WEEK, May 21 — Some 140 Catholic schools merged or shut down in 2002 — the highest number in five years — while 47 new schools opened, reported the trade publication, citing an upcoming report from the National Catholic Education Association.

Reasons for the closures include changing demographics and a faltering economy.

While enrollment at Catholic elementary schools has dropped during the past two school years, enrollment in Catholic secondary schools has increased slightly.

Overall enrollment dropped from 2.61 million in the last school year to 2.55 million this year — a difference of 63,050 children — in 8,000 schools, according to the statistics reported by the Catholic Education Association.

Hard Core

THE BOSTON GLOBE, May 25 — New Hampshire's Magdalen College is representative of a “small but growing conservative Catholic counterculture, including a dozen or so colleges [that] have sprung up to cater to…kids from families who are looking for a traditional religious and secular education in a strict social environment,“ according to the daily.

While the article opined “the isolation and conservatism of Magdalen is extreme even by the standards of America's conservative Catholic colleges,“ the piece was objective and often positive.

It even pointed out that the new Catholic colleges are “an outgrowth of the Second Vatican Council…because they are generally run by independent lay groups, not religious orders,“ and because they promote the council's intention to elevate the laity “without bringing down the clergy.“

No Thanks

ASSOCIATED PRESS, May 22 — Bishop Daniel Reilly of Worcester, Mass., declined to attend the commencement ceremony at College of the Holy Cross, which featured an address by pro-abortion jour-