Charlotte Catholic wants to be more Catholic. That shouldn’t be a bad thing. | Opinion

For years, North Carolina’s largest Catholic high schools have occupied an unusual place in the education landscape. They’re high-performing private schools, but relatively affordable ones. They’re religious, but not in a way that made anyone uncomfortable.

That balance is shifting. And not everyone likes it.

Over the last few months, Charlotte Catholic High School has begun taking steps to strengthen its Christian identity — touched off by switching to a Catholic-led accreditation system rather than the secular, college-prep one it had previously. There are other changes too, like requiring weekly Mass and adding a ninth-grade philosophy course.

To some parents, this is exactly what a Catholic school should be doing. Others see it as a departure from the school’s purpose, an unwelcome shift toward ideology over education. Some have pulled their kids out entirely.

Now, after months of controversy, there are signs that the school may be backing down. The principal has resigned, and leadership is under pressure to roll back some of the changes.

It’s a microcosm of a larger dynamic playing out in Catholic education — and in the Church itself. Whenever an institution tries to reclaim its religious identity, there’s backlash. And too often, the loudest voices win.

Catholic schools at a crossroads

Catholic schools have long wrestled with an identity crisis. Are they schools for Catholics? Or schools that just so happen to have a Catholic background?

Many have tried to split the difference, especially as Catholic school enrollment nationally plummeted between the 1960s and the early 2000s. To attract a broader base of parents, they marketed themselves as elite private institutions with a Catholic heritage — primarily strong academics, but with a helping of moral values on the side.

Oh, and a much cheaper price tag. Charlotte Catholic tuition comes in at just $14,000 for registered Catholics and $19,000 for non-Catholics. Compare that with $31,000 to $33,000 for elite private schools Charlotte Country Day, Providence Day and Charlotte Latin.

The strategy has perhaps worked a little too well, especially in North Carolina.

Demand for non-public schools in our state has skyrocketed across the state, fueled by a confluence of factors. The General Assembly has poured money into its Opportunity Scholarship program, which helps parents pay for private school.

And non-public schools generally had a much smarter approach to the COVID-19 pandemic. Catholic schools often did not shut down.

That’s all translated into massive growth at North Carolina Catholic schools.

Enrollment in the Raleigh-area Catholic school system jumped more than 10 percent in just two years immediately following the pandemic lockdowns. The Charlotte diocese’s schools grew by nearly 18 percent over a four-year span — and Charlotte Catholic has recently welcomed its largest-ever freshman class.

This is the same tension that has played out in the Catholic Church itself. Decades of trying to accommodate the culture have left many parishes struggling for identity. Church attendance has declined sharply, mirroring trends in mainline Protestantism.

But among those who remain, a divide has emerged. Younger priests and parishioners tend to be more conservative than their predecessors — including Pope Francis — fueling a renewed interest in traditional liturgy and orthodox teaching.

This dust-up at Charlotte Catholic is a symptom of all these tensions. Growth brings with it new perspectives, and Christianity has historically been counter-cultural. It shouldn’t be a surprise when a Catholic says Catholic things, and yet it still is.

We saw it earlier this year when Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker gave a commencement speech at Benedictine College, a Catholic university in Kansas. His speech — focused on faith, family, and virtue — shouldn’t have been controversial at a Catholic school. But it became a national firestorm.

The reaction from some Charlotte Catholic parents is part of the same pattern. The new accreditation and religious instruction set off alarms for some parents, who saw it as a shift away from academics. One parent told The Charlotte Observer that the changes sounded “indoctrination-y.”

A Change.org petition signed by 2,000 people and counting expresses concerns about whether Charlotte Catholic will maintain its reputation as a rigorous college-prep school.

But that’s a misunderstanding of what Catholic schools are supposed to be. Parents who thought they were getting a top-notch secular education on the cheap may think they’re getting a raw deal, but they have no reason to be surprised.

What comes next

I reached out to Charlotte Catholic to talk about the long-term outlook for the school, but didn’t hear back. I don’t blame them for hunkering down.

The Catholic Church has survived 2,000 years, and it will weather this, too. But it’s fair to ask: Will Charlotte Catholic? The resignation of the principal, the backlash from parents, and the pressure on school leadership all point to the possibility that the school will pull back. That would be a mistake. It would be an all-too-familiar story: a Catholic institution making bold moves to reclaim its identity, only to reverse course under pressure

Catholic schools can’t be everything to everyone, and they shouldn’t be a cheaper version of the best prep schools in town. Their value comes from their distinctiveness.

Charlotte Catholic is making a choice. Some families will leave. Others will be drawn in. But a Catholic school shouldn’t be afraid to be Catholic. Hopefully, Charlotte Catholic won’t be.