A Short History of Catholic Education in the United States

When and where the first Catholic "school" began in this country – or the names of the teacher and pupils – remains a mystery: Was it a Spanish Franciscan with a few children in a mission outpost? A member of an early French exploration party, quietly teaching and preaching? A chaplain holding class for young ship's apprentices on the beach where some 16th Century vessel had just anchored? It's hard to say.

What is clear is that Catholic education goes back deep into U.S. history – to at least 1606. That year, expressing their desire to teach children the basics of Christian doctrine, along with reading and writing, the Franciscans opened a school in what is now St. Augustine, Florida. Further north and a bit later, Jesuits instructed such dedicated Native American students as Kateri Tekakwitha, who then taught Indian children in a Christian settlement near Montreal.

Not long after the Revolution ended came the establishment in 1789 of the Catholic school of Georgetown, not so much a college then as an academy for boys aged 10 to 16. Meanwhile, across the continent, the Franciscans were busy establishing the California mission system, whose ministry included the education of Native Americans. The post-Civil War period brought the development of religious orders like Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, founded by heiress Katharine Drexel to meet the educational needs of blacks and Native Americans. In fact, the first school she established was St. Catherine Indian School in Santa Fe, New Mexico in 1887.

In 1900, an estimated 3,500 parochial schools existed in the United States. Nearly 400 years after that first known Catholic school opened in Florida – after two world wars, the election and assassination of John F. Kennedy, our first Catholic president, the reforms of Vatican II, the Vietnam War, the dawn of a new millennium – Catholic schools have been there for their families, community, nation and church.

Our Love Your Neighbor initiative for August is the support of St. Pius X High School and our young parishioners who attend the only Catholic High School in Albuquerque. Students will be selling raffle tickets to support the school on August 14th and 15th after all Masses. You may win a car, but even if you don’t, you have the satisfaction of knowing that your donation is supporting the formation of our young people attending Catholic schools.