Catholic Schools Face Closure Amid Pandemic Financial Strain

LOS ANGELES, CA — Without help, the nation's Catholic schools may have to close en mass due to the financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Los Angeles Archbishop Jose H. Gomez said Wednesday.

Gomez called for nationwide support to keep Catholic schools open in his weekly column in the Archdiocese multimedia news platform Angelus News in reference to an Supreme Court expected by the end on education funding.

"Catholic schools are not just a concern for Catholics," said Archbishop Gomez in the column, "Catholic Schools and America's future."

The pandemic has hit many private schools hard. Several dioceses in the nation have announced closures at the end of the 2019-2020 academic year, according to the National Catholic Educational Association and of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. In Southern California, at least one Catholic school in Laguna Beach announced plans to close for the year.

SEE ALSO: St. Catherine School Shutters Until 2021 Amid Coronavirus

"America's 6,000 Catholic schools play a vital role in our national education infrastructure, giving young people the chance to realize the American dream, especially those from minority and low-income families," Gomez said.

Gomez also offered praise for the Class of 2020 in his graduation message, which included his prayer that this year's graduating class will be remembered as "a heroic generation that used the gifts of a Catholic education to love, serve and build a better world at a time of national distress."

The column is available online in English at https://angelusnews.com/voices... and in Spanish at https://angelusnews.com/archbishops-esp/las-escuelas-catolicas-y-el- futuro-de-estados-unidos/.

For more information on Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, visit https://lacatholicschools.org/.

City News Service and Patch Staffer Paige Austin contributed to this report.