Catholic Schools Week is a time to celebrate the blessings of Catholic education. Along with the academic excellence that Philly Catholic schools provide, the affordability of the private education provided in the archdiocese of Philadelphia is another reason for prospective parents to take a look at how Holy Cross could be a good fit. With numerous financial aid options and scholarships, we believe that every student’s presence in the classroom is an investment not only in their own future but that of every person who will come in contact with them.

1. A Cause for Celebration

According to greatphillyschols.org, one in 10 Philadelphia students attends a Catholic school. Philadelphia public schools have an estimated 121,000 students in 2023 and a student to teacher ratio of 16 to 1. On average, Philadelphia Catholic schools ratio varies between 4:1 and 13:1.

Philadelphia has three Catholic schools devoted to special education. This is a tremendous blessing, especially if we consider that many Catholic dioceses and archdioceses around the country don’t even have one!

In addition to the high quality education provided by Archdiocese of Philadelphia schools, our school offers various financial aid opportunities. Check out the financial aid options available through Philly Catholic schools!

2 Hope for the Future in the Midst of Challenge

Graduates of Catholic schools in the Philadelphia area are serious about higher education. $449 Million in college scholarship money was earned by the 2022 class of all 15 Catholic high schools in the archdiocese of Philadelphia. This is an impressive metric of how Catholic education prepares students to aim towards the future and to be a positive impact in the world.

What about the challenges? The challenge facing Catholic education is not economical, it’s not finding ways to run enough fundraising drives.

The central challenge which every Catholic school must face in today’s society is the exploding ferocity of, to use Pope Benedict XVI’s words, the “dictatorship of relativism”, of the pernicious ideologies which dominate today’s world, cutting at the roots of Divine Revelation: the nature of man and woman, of an alluring and empty promise of boundless license to be free of every moral ‘inhibition’ and ‘constraint’. This promise is nothing but poison sugarcoated in that primordial lie first made in Eden by Satan: “You will be like gods” (Gn 3:5) by turning against God.

Therefore, the challenge facing every Catholic school is the same it has always been: to proclaim the truth of Christ who – contrary to the lie of the devil – has already made it possible, not to “be like god”, but to be one with God (Jn 17:21), to receive the same divine nature of Christ by the maturation of the baptismal grace we have received.

There is, however, something utterly unique and unprecedented about our current situation in 2023: the need for Catholic education has never been more urgently necessary for children and young adults.

Our children have a right to the truth, they have a right to know the dignity and beauty of their vocation to be a boy or girl, a man or woman. Every child has the right to be defended and protected by their parents and educators from the multi-billion dollar industry of media influence which is broadcasting anti-Christian ideologies and dogmas at a level of invasiveness unprecedented in human history.

At Holy Cross, we are committed to defending these rights. Despite the immense challenge we face as a Catholic school in today’s world, we are filled with hope by the words of Christ: “I am with you always; Yes, to the end of time” (Mt 28:20). We are filled with hope for the future by each one of our students. They are our mission. And we are profoundly humbled and honored to be able to say that.

Happy Catholic Schools Week!