No wonder the Puerto Rican community rejoices with our own Justice Sonia Sotomayor. All of us in Catholic New York should. She studied hard at Blessed Sacrament Elementary School and Cardinal Spellman High School. Her dear mother sacrificed to send her there, and her own beautiful Catholic faith gave our new Supreme Court justice the character, values and morals she holds close.
In the run-up to Sotomayor's confirmation hearings, Senator Jim DeMint R-S.C. quizzed the Wise Latina on whether or not she thought the unborn possessed any rights. Her reply was that she had, in fact, never thought about the matter. Really? Frankly, this is tough to swallow, but let's give Sotomayor the benefit of the doubt and assume that she's telling the truth, that indeed, she has never thought about the most fundamental moral issue facing our nation today, i.e., the defense of the unborn. What does this admission say about the state of Catholic education in the United States? What does Sotomayor's response say about the priorities of Blessed Sacrament and Cardinal Spellman High School?
And if she wasn't being truthful...? What does that say?
Why should serious Catholics continue to support with their hard-earned money the scads of Catholic schools from coast to coast that are failing miserably in their duty to pass on the patrimony of the Church's moral teaching to its students? I speak from experience when I lampoon the joke that is Catholic higher education in the United States. Milwaukee, Dolan's former archdiocesan stomping grounds, boasts a wide array of milquetoast "Catholic" schools that are far more concerned with fish fries, prestige and sports than with Augustine, Aquinas, and Newman. For my part, I will "rejoice" when our national church leaders put the kibosh on patronizing encomiums aimed at minorities and focus instead on reforming America's dysfunctional Catholic schools, so that students will finally start thinking seriously about important moral issues.
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