Catholic church is reducing funding for religious schools?

Hm.

Interesting.

Well, yes, I do think it's indicative of their priorities. I vehemently disagree with the Catholic church on this issue - I'd rather see them caring for kids who ARE born over those who aren't, but it's their doctrine and their conscience that they need to look out for, so they certainly have the right to put their funding where they deem it necessary.

Why would we need funding if there's no children to attend?

Everywhere is facing economic problems, the Catholic Church is no different. Because there is an economic crisis and people cannot give as much, the Church must now redistribute the money received to help make it last. If we run out of money, it won't just be the schools that receive nothing, it will be hospitals, soup kitchens, orphanages, AIDs & HIV clinics, Pro-Life movements and more. All of these will shut down because there is no funding.

Because private school costs, people are sending their kids to public schools and thus not as many children are going to private schools anymore. If there's no children, there's no need to fund.

And yes, education is important, but the life of a human is more important than anything. The importance of life does come before anything else and the Church has her priorities straight.

Life comes first.

1) The Catholic church has announced it is eliminating funding for many religious schools in America in the face of economic problems.

OK - a heads-up, I suppose, though this is (as far as I know) a local issue. In other words, I don't believe that there is any national funding of Catholic schools in the U.S. Funding is local to the diocese, as far as I know. This is just a warning that, because of the economy, many dioceses will not be able to fund their schools as well as previously.

2) Is the fact that they're eliminating funding for schools before eliminating funding for Pro-Life advertising campaigns

? Evidence that this is a fact, please?

3) indicative of their priorities?

No - it is indicative of your desire to find a reason to disparage the Roman Catholic Church. I will admit, however: given the choice of

a) educating more children in a Roman Catholic school verses a public school

b) putting a stop to abortion

I will pick "b" every time.

Jim, http://www.bible-reviews.com/selector_rc.html

I think you're reading too much into something that jsut isn't there.

The Church finances it's American Catholic schools via the charitable donations of Catholic parishioners and tuition fees of students.

Given the economic hard times going on in America, people are tightening their purse strings. Regular charitable donations are always the first thing to "go" as people look for ways to cut back.

Catholic schools are not the only schools around. If a given Catholic school does close, those students can still attend public school.

What you have to understand is that an education in and of itself is morally neutral. The value of an education is measured by what an "educated" individual does with it.

When it comes to abortion, there are no circumstances in which abortion can be considered the morally proper alternative. Hence, abortion is intrinsically evil. That is why the Church places a higher priority on abortion than it does on education.

You don't know that they are doing that. Besides, pro-life advertisements do not cost nearly as much as the thousands of Catholic schools, which exist with little or no government funding, on tuition alone. If you don't have students, then you can't keep the schools open. The problem is that parents have to pay extra for Catholic school. They are already forced to pay for the public schools even if they don't send kids there.

No, that is NOT what the Catholic Church teaches. The Church teaches that you can forfeit your salvation by mortal sin: the Catholic who kills someone and waits until the last moment to confess may not receive absolution if his confession is prompted by fear, not true repentance. The Church also says that we will be judged by the measure of truth that we are given. If the Buddhist and the Hindu genuinely believe that they are serving God and have not actively rejected the Gospel of Christ, God's judgment of them will be tempered with love and mercy. God is our Father in Heaven, and His judgment of all of us will be done with His love and compassion. He will be fair and just, but at the same time, He will also be loving and merciful -- a combination that's hard for us human beings to understand. Edit: Please ignore the anti-Catholic bigots who flock to a question like this so that they can spew their hatred of the Church. You've been given good, solid answers from the Catholic perspective by a number of Catholics here. Listen to them and not the ones who have no clue about what Catholics really believe.

This is not true.

There is no nationwide funding of Catholic schools to be reduced.

Catholics schools:

+ Mostly support themselves

+ Occasionally, receive additional funds from the local parish

+ In rare cases, receive additional funding from the diocese

For example, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles collects a special fund for schools and parishes that are not self supporting and none of these funds can be redirected to other purposes. http://www.la-archdiocese.org/stewardship/developm...

With love in Christ.

Well, our parish school is so subsidized, I only pay $600 a year to send two children ($400 for the first kid and $200 for the second). That's only $60 a month. I could pay somewhat more than that, so I have no problem with them cutting some of our subsidies.

The schools being eliminates have much higher success ratings for their students than the unionized public school systems.

True, current US values find funding for abortion has high political value.

Sad consideration for the future of the US.

That depends. Are the schools losing funding private institutions that receive most of their funding via tuition? (hint: yes, they are)