So What the Heck is Cristo Rey?
The ingenious work-study concept is saving Catholic education in poor neighborhoods across the country.
Last month, the Philadelphia Archdiocese announced the closure next June of Cardinal Dougherty and Northeast Catholic high schools. Within days, a rumor took hold that deep-pocketed alums were looking at the chance that Northeast - "North" for short - might be converted to a Cristo Rey school. The conversion - a complicated long shot that would no doubt greatly alter North in unexpected and maybe unwelcome ways - could breathe new life into the Torresdale Ave. institution.
(On a side note, maye I just say that North has the most fiercely potective and devoted alums I think I've ever met? With the exception, perhaps, of Cardinal Dougherty's, whom I've gotten to know better in these last few weeks than I know the alums at even my own alma mater, Bishop McDevitt - Go, Lancers!)
In today's Daily News, I wrote about the juicy rumor - which the archdiocese has said is, sadly, not true - but space constraints prevented me from explaining in greater detail just what Cristo Rey is all about. So I thought I'd provide a link here to the Cristo Rey Network, founded by one Rev. John Foley, whose outside-the-box business model is helpig to save Catholic education in poor neighborhoods throughout the country.
So click away. And tell me: what do you think of the model? Would you like to see it attempted in Philly? Why or why not?