Catholic Schooling
January 25, 2026
Jesus Christ: Yesterday, Today, and Forever ~
We are blessed to know, love, and serve Jesus Christ in the one and only Church He established with St. Peter and the Apostles. That blessing isn’t deserved; it has been freely given to us by others. We, in turn, must freely pass on what has been given to us.
All Catholic parents are responsible for their children’s religious upbringing. This is done in many ways. To name a few: praying at home, attending Mass, and educating children in the Faith. The Church, in turn, has a responsibility to help parents bring up their children in the practice of the Catholic faith. Fortunately, in addition to parish-based faith formation programs (catechesis), there are plenty of local Catholic school options.
Beginning this Sunday, January 25, the Church will observe Catholic Schools Week. This weekend and next, at both our Holy Redeemer and St. Thomas churches, we will have representatives in the narthex after Mass from various local Catholic schools: Columbia River Catholic Pre-school & Kindergarten, Regina Caeli Homeschool Academy, St. Joseph, Our Lady of Lourdes, and Seton High School. If you have school-age children that are not in a Catholic school, please consider stopping by the tables for information on your options. Grandparents, you can stop by these tables to see how you might be able to help get your grandchildren in a Catholic school.
This parish family helps parents to raise their children in the practice of the Catholic faith regardless of where or how they attend school. We take an “all of above” approach when it comes to supporting the decisions parents make in their educational choices. Parents have their children in public, parochial, hybrid, or homeschools for reasons too various to judge with a brush stroke. With that said, there is clear empirical evidence that good Catholic schooling produces a much higher probability of producing good practicing Catholic adults than non-Catholic schooling.
Consider Proverbs 22:6: “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” It is human nature to become part of what we are around. Children who attend school with non-Catholic children take on non-Catholic beliefs and practices. Children who attend school with other Catholic children and teachers, teaching and living the Catholic faith, are much more likely to take on Catholic beliefs and practices. For better or for worse, education is indoctrination. We need to be sure to indoctrinate our children in what is true, good, and beautiful.
Why are so many Catholic children in our public schools and not in a Catholic school? Like me in my childhood, many children don’t have an option. Many Catholic children grow up in rural areas and can’t access a Catholic school. But what about the majority of Catholic kids who could attend a Catholic school but don’t?
Parents who do not enroll their children in a Catholic school don’t for various reasons. Here’s a good one: with millions in tax-payer dollars, the public schools can offer specialized schooling for a disabled child.
Now the more likely reasons. Parents don’t realize the long-term value a Catholic education would have for their children, or did, but the convenience and lack of expense of the local public school was just too easy to bother with a Catholic alternative. Of course, once a child starts public schooling, having them change to a Catholic one can be fraught with conflict and struggle. Changing horses’ mid-race usually doesn’t work out. For most though, it just boils down to money.
For a majority of Catholic parents, choosing a “free” public school or a Catholic school where they will have to financially contribute something, even if it is something they can manage, is an automatic disqualifier. That’s so sad. Children are our greatest investment. Failing to invest in them is a failure to invest in their future on earth and in eternity too. It’s a failure for the parents’ future too, including eternity.
We need to be honest and clear-eyed about the public school system in Washington and what it means for our kids. 1) Mandated LGBTQ indoctrination from kindergarten on up, where kids are encouraged by their teachers and especially their peers to question their sexual orientation and even gender. If you disagree you are shunned or worse. 2) From middle school on up, abortion is presented as a right that needs to be protected, the right thing to do under the right circumstances, and if you disagree you are shunned or worse. 3) Profanity and sex-laced language and conversations are happening without censor, sometimes within earshot of a teacher. 4) Most kids have smart phones without filters. Many of the boys share pornography with other kids at lunch, on the playground, or school bus. 5) Militant agnosticism is the religion of all public schools; therefore, God is banned and even the virtues! Knowledge without faith and good character is wasted or worse.
I’m speaking now to Catholic parents or grandparents, whose kids or grandkids are in public school, or who plan to send them there. We can help you afford a Catholic education for your kids (or grandkids) if money is truly the reason they are not there already. Between tuition that is specific to your income and expenses, your children’s grandparent’s income, parish subsidies, and benefactors, between all this – no child will be turned away from a Catholic education through the 8th grade because of money. It is my hope that in time, the Archdiocese of Seattle will be able to address affordability of Catholic high schooling too. In the meantime, if there is a will there is a way.
Because many still misunderstand it, I want to address Catholic homeschooling. We support it. Some people still think homeschooling is unhealthy, but the statistics bear out the success of children, now adults, who were homeschooled. Homeschooling, Catholic or not, was growing steadily before Covid. Since then, it has taken off. Whether you are open to trying homeschooling alone or with others in a consortium like Regina Caeli Academy, we support you.
Homeschooling isn’t for everyone, as more factors have to be present for it to succeed: both parents on board, single income household so one parent can teach, a parent who can actually teach, children who will respond to the parent that is their teacher, etc. Yet for those for whom it can succeed, I encourage you to look into it. It might be the best educational option for your child. There is a group of homeschooling parents and children that meet on Fridays at Holy Redeemer’s parish center for socialization. If you are interested in joining them with your homeschooled children, or curious about starting homeschooling, give the office at Holy Redeemer a call and they will connect you.
Unique Opportunities for Columbia River Catholic Families
In addition to our extensive faith formation programs for children from Kindergarten through High School, Columbia River Catholic also has two wonderful schools: Columbia River Catholic (CRC) Pre-K, and Regina Caeli Homeschool Academy. Both use our school building on St. Thomas Aquinas’ campus.
CRC Pre-K is an authentic Catholic preschool and Kindergarten that we hope to grow into a regular Pre-8 parochial school. We don’t have permission from the Archdiocese at this time to do that, but we do have permission (recently granted) to explore the possibility. So we are. If we do get permission to move onto 1st grade and beyond, then I don’t imagine that will start until the 2027-28 school year, so not next year. While there is much yet to figure out, if we are able to expand our Pre-K to 1st grade and beyond, then for financial reasons, we’ll likely need to begin by sharing grade levels under a teacher. For example, grades 1-4 under one teacher, grades 4-8 under another teacher, etc. Many factors need to be considered, including our neighboring Catholic school’s receptivity, how many students would we have, and how we would fund it. If we can have a Catholic parochial school, then we are committed to it being 100% practicing Catholic, regardless of size and finances. Here’s the website and phone number https://www.stthomascamas.org/st-thomas-preschool or 360-360-2787.
Did you know that Columbia River Catholic might already have the largest Catholic School in Clark County as measured by Mass attendance? That school is our own Catholic homeschooling consortium, Regina Caeli Academy. While our neighboring parochial schools and high school have between 400-200 students each, most of those students don’t attend Mass on Sundays. That’s because many of the students are not Catholic, and because many of the Catholic students don’t regularly attend Sunday Mass.
We are honored and blessed to host Regina Caeli Academy (RCA), a Catholic homeschooling consortium that meets two days a week on St. Thomas’ campus. RCA is a national program with only one chapter in the greater Portland metropolitan region. While RCA is a national program, it is not a foreign entity occupying St. Thomas’ campus, but our own community using our own campus. There are roughly 90 students, most of whom belong to one of our three communities in our parish family. All of the students attend Mass on Sunday and take their faith seriously (at least their parents do 😊). This is how it works. On Tuesday, Wednesday, and Fridays RCA students, Preschool through High School, are schooled at home by a parent. On Mondays and Thursdays, they gather at St. Thomas Aquinas’ campus for classic (traditional) Catholic schooling. On those two days, many of the parents share their talents to teach a grade level or two. RCA isn’t free. Because it is a national program with national staff, and because the parents who teach on Mondays and Thursday are compensated, RCA does come with tuition costs. Don’t let that intimidate you. Just as we do with all other Catholic parochial schools that we send our kids to, CRC provides generous tuition assistance to our RCA kids too. The principal and vice principal are parishioners of Holy Redeemer Parish, and they’d love to hear from you. Here’s the principal’s contact information: Linda Anderson at landerson.por@rcahybrid.org or 971-238-9249. And here’s their website https://www.rcahybrid.org/portland-oregon.
I opened this pastor’s column with a passage from the book of Proverbs. I will close with a passage from the book of Deuteronomy 6:4-7: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. And these words which I command you this day shall be upon your heart; and you shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.”
In Christ, I Love You,
Father Thomas Nathe
