The Roman Catholic Church is planning to abandon the most ethnically, culturally, racially and economically diverse neighborhood in Chicago.
East Rogers Park is one of the few integrated communities in Chicago. Surely we are one of the very few communities that is truly integrated as opposed to a community that is merely in a transition period to resegregation.
As formulated, the school consolidation plan of the archdiocese closes St. Ignatius School in East Rogers Park. The only other Catholic school in the neighborhood, St. Jerome School, has been designated as an “overflow” site. (Are we talking about human sewage here, rather than children?) Effectively, this is abandonment of the neighborhood.
The church should support the existence of a stable integrated community. Catholic schools are an important part of maintaining this stability. To abandon the neighborhood at best suggests an attitude of insensitivity to the needs of a multicultural and multiracial community; at worst, abandonment suggests an attitude of racism.
The archdiocese should reconsider its consolidation plans. There is strength and beauty in cultural diversity. Efforts to create a truly integrated, multicultural Christian community should be encouraged. Do not abandon us.
