Birmingham, Ala., Mar 27, 2017 / 08:02 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- After 111 years of serving the community of Birmingham, Alabama, the city's only African American Catholic elementary school could close due to financial struggles.
Over its long history, Our Lady of Fatima has become an integral part of the community, serving students from all backgrounds: of its 64 children, 11 percent are Catholic, and 89 percent are non-Catholic.
“It's looked at as a community school,” the school's principal Al Logan told the Birmingham Times.
“Most of these children are neighborhood children and their parents are struggling to send them here for a Catholic education,” staff member Cynthia Pinkard noted, according to CBS WIAT.
Closing the school “would really hurt the neighborhood,” she said.
Our Lady of Fatima is the oldest Catholic elementary school in Birmingham, serving students from pre-kindergarten through the fifth grade. The school is located in the Titusville area, and is also connected with Our Lady of Fatima parish in the Diocese of Birmingham.
“We've seen a decline in enrollment,” Logan said. “It's just because of the way our housing market went a few years ago. It all plays into that same arena. I don't think it has personally anything to do with Catholic or non-Catholic (schools); it just happens.”
Logan believes that the school can raise the necessary funds to keep the school open for at least another year. The school is asking for $150,000 in donations for the 2017-2018 academic year, which needs to be raised by August. The Diocese of Birmingham has chipped in over the years, but the school will need more to keep its doors open.
“I really think we will be able to keep it open,” Logan said, saying that they have already received donations from all across the country from places like Indiana and Florida.
“With the support of everyone who's interested in seeing a good, Catholic education be afforded to the kids, we'll find a way to keep the school open,” he added.
However, Our Lady of Fatima is not the only school on the chopping block. Across the country, private and Catholic schools in particular have faced financial trouble due to lower enrollment.
According to the National Center for Education Statistics, there has been a two percent enrollment decrease in private schools over the past 20 years for elementary or secondary students. Over 1,000 Catholic schools have also been forced to close or team up with other schools since 2006.
Looking to the future, Logan is hopeful that the school will receive the money necessary to keep the school open and asked for continued donations.
“We would like for the community to step up and to give us whatever they can donate, and likewise, anyone who would like to (donate) from any city or location in the country.”
Donations to Our Lady of Fatima Catholic School can be received by phone at 205-251-8395 or through the mail at 630 1st Street S., Birmingham, AL, 35205.
Article Archive
This historic black Catholic grade school could get shut down
Related Articles • More Articles
"The Chosen" actor Jonathan Roumie gives the commencement speech at the Catholic University of America on Saturday, May 11, 2024. / Credit: Denny Henry/The Catholic University of AmericaWashington, D.C. Newsroom, May 11, 2024 / 15:18 pm (CNA).Actor Jonathan Roumie, who plays Jesus Christ in the popular television series "The Chosen," encouraged graduates at the Catholic University of America (CUA) to emulate Christ and strengthen their prayer lives during the university's commencement ceremony Saturday morning."Last time I spoke [to] a crowd this big, there were loaves and fish and baskets of them," Roumie joked, referencing the Sermon on the Mount. "So many leftovers."Roumie headlined the commencement ceremony for CUA graduates held on the lawn of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., which sits adjacent to the university.The actor was also awarded an honorary doctorate in fine arts for his work evangelizing through his...
null / Credit: terazitu/ShutterstockSt. Paul, Minn., May 11, 2024 / 08:00 am (CNA).Jerry Laughlin, 46, who took over a fifth-generation farm near Imogene, Iowa, in 1999 and hopes to move more into farming crops for food rather than industrial use, is grateful for his Catholic faith amid the challenges of farm life. Seeing farming as a sacred profession is exactly what an "epic apostolate" founded 100 years ago aims to foster. Laughlin is considering, with his pastor, Father Lazarus Kirigia, starting a chapter of Catholic Rural Life at his parish.Built on Archbishop Edwin O'Hara's vision and philosophy of Catholic rural life, it continues his legacy of helping the rural Church promote U.S. farming and how it can foster virtuous living, while it also grapples with problems the archbishop identified a century ago, New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan said at a May 8 anniversary event titled "Rejoicing in the Harvest: Celebrating 100 Years of Catholic Rural Life" at the University of St...
Archbishop J. Michael Miller celebrates Mass at Sacred Heart Church in Delta before the March for Life in Victoria, British Columbia, on May 9, 2024. He prayed that they "may be worthy and effective messengers of hope." / Credit: Paul SchratzVictoria, Canada, May 11, 2024 / 09:00 am (CNA).At a pro-life Mass before the March for Life in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, Vancouver Archbishop J. Michael Miller prayed that those heading to the British Columbia Legislature "may be worthy and effective messengers of hope to a world where self-centeredness, greed, violence, and cynicism so often seem to choke the fragile growth of grace in people's hearts."The acceptance of abortion in particular in the law and the popular mind is "a telling sign of an extremely dangerous crisis of the moral sense, which is becoming more and more incapable of distinguishing between good and evil," the archbishop said.He told the pro-life worshippers that they are "praying in a special way that rever...