Bishop should meet with Sacred Heart parents

It saddens us that we must publish this editorial only days before Christmas, but, alas, we must.

With little to no warning to parents, the Diocese of Rockville Centre recently announced that it would close the K-8 Sacred Heart School in North Merrick, which has provided the highest level of Roman Catholic education to children from not only the Merricks and Bellmores but across the South Shore for five decades. Sacred Heart parents love their school and desperately want to keep it open, and have formed a committee called Save Sacred Heart in an attempt to do that.

Parents sought a meeting with Bishop William Murphy, the diocese’s leader, to make the case that Sacred Heart very much deserves to remain open. Last Friday, parents received word that Murphy would not meet with them, reportedly because he did not want to give parents and students false hope about the school’s future.

At the very least, Murphy should meet with Sacred Heart parent representatives, if only to review the diocese’s case for closing one of Long Island’s most respected Catholic schools. To do so would be to acknowledge the extraordinary level of commitment to Catholic education that Sacred Heart parents have exhibited for years.

They have worked tirelessly to publicize the great works the school has accomplished, as well as to raise funds for it. And there is no doubt that the children feel at home there.

Because of a New York state property-tax cap, the North Bellmore School District was recently forced to close Gunther Elementary School. The decision was reached after months of public meetings in which the superintendent of schools, Arnold Goldstein, and the Board of Education went to great lengths to explain the need for the closure to parents, and still we saw tremendous frustration and anger among Gunther parents at recent board meetings. We can only imagine how Sacred Heart parents must feel to face the shutdown of their beloved school, with the only warning being a notice on the diocese website. Surely the good parishioners of the Sacred Heart community deserve better.

Several calls to the diocese from the Merrick and Bellmore Heralds went unreturned over the past two weeks.

No doubt, these are tough economic times that often require stringent fiscal measures. But when the budget ax must fall, those who are affected must be offered a compassionate embrace, not a cold shoulder.