St. Hubert Catholic School in Hoffman Estates is set to close at the end of the academic year. But parents and supporters have taken their case more than 4,000 miles away to the Vatican — a Hail Mary attempt to save their school from closure.
When the Archdiocese of Chicago made it clear last month that its decision to shutter six financially strapped and underenrolled Chicago-area schools was final, a coalition of St. Hubert’s parents and supporters said they aren’t giving up.
Searching for options to save the school, St. Hubert parents Jillian Bernas Garcia and her husband, Angel, discovered a lesser-known reconsideration process within canon law — the internal legal system of the Catholic Church — called “remonstratio.”
“Remonstratio” allows those affected by a church decision to formally request that their archbishop — and, if necessary, the Vatican — review and potentially reverse it.
Aggrieved parties are allotted 10 days from the date of the decision to file an appeal to the archdiocese’s cardinal. But by the time they came across this option on Jan. 28, Bernas Garcia said it was already six days into the allotted 10-day time frame.
But St. Hubert parents and donors quickly mobilized, pulling together the necessary funds to hire a canon lawyer, have the school’s finances independently audited and submit their formal remonstration request on Jan. 31, just a day before the deadline. The whirlwind process cost $11,000 altogether, Bernas Garcias said.
The independent audit of St. Hubert’s 2025 fiscal year showed that the school could remain open for more than five years at its current deficit and become cash‑flow positive within two years with a 10% reduction in salary expenses, Bernas Garcia said.
“The evidence is clear: St. Hubert is viable. The decision to close is a choice,” Bernas Garcia said. “Does the archdiocese value saving dollars over saving schools and souls? An independent review shows we can do both.”
But the archdiocese denied the appeal on Feb. 24, citing that the “case lacks merit and does not entail a properly placed remonstratio of a decree of a diocesan bishop,” it said in a statement to the Tribune.
That’s when canon lawyer Laura Morrison, who’s based in Yardley, Pennsylvania, stepped in to help St. Hubert school’s supporters take their fight to Vatican City. Morrison and her team, which includes a liaison who shares information from the Vatican and a Rotal advocate who’s licensed to appear before the Rota — the highest appellate court in the Catholic Church — are experts trained in canon law, the legal system of the Catholic Church.
Currently, Morrison and her team are representing a small Colorado Catholic school whose case was accepted by the Vatican in February. This has given St. Hubert community members hope that they, too, might have a chance to be heard by the Vatican.
But with the end of the school year approaching and no clear timeline from the Vatican on when it might decide to take up the case, St. Hubert parents are left praying for a miracle.
A fight to remain open
For now, the St. Hubert community is waiting to hear whether the Vatican will hear the case. Their appeal includes the school’s potential to remain open despite its financial woes and a religious argument about what closure would mean for Chicago’s Catholic community. Specifically, the coalition hopes the Vatican reverses the closure decision and reviews the archdiocese’s school-closure policies and procedures to ensure they align with the Catholic Church’s mission.
Like most school closure appeals, St. Hubert’s case will be considered by the Vatican’s Dicastery for Culture and Education, which oversees the policies and principles of Catholic education. Morrison said a final decision usually comes within six months, but a backlog could slow down the process.
Several factors make the outcome of the appeal difficult to predict, Morrison said.
“As in all legal systems — whether Civil Law or Canon Law — the chances of success for a lawsuit depend on many circumstances: convincing evidence, solid arguments, and corroborative evidence,” Morrison and her team said in a statement to the Tribune.
But there is hope, Morrison said.
She and her team are representing St. Louis Catholic School, a small community of 100 students in Louisville, Colorado, facing closure, who, after three months of waiting, recently learned the Vatican decided to hear their appeal.
St. Louis Catholic School’s struggle has revealed how important it is for parents to push to understand their school’s financial situation, according to Amy Keuhlen, a parent at the school. “When you get into a community, and you want to be part of it, try to find out about what the realities are of the community,” Keuhlen said.
Back in Hoffman Estates, St. Hubert supporters sent their appeal on March 9 and are awaiting a response from the Vatican. As Flowers sees it, their effort is bigger than just saving St. Hubert from closure. It’s a fight to protect Catholic education and religion in Chicago.
“Where do they think the future Catholics are going to come from if they keep closing schools?” Flowers said. “It’s not just about the future of our school — it’s about the future of Catholicism in Chicago, which is hopefully something the pope cares about.”
