Must the Head of a Catholic School Be a Practicing Catholic?

“Perhaps not.”

So suggests Bob Regan, then a senior search consultant for Carney-Sandoe, who wrote on the subject a few years back (“The 22% Factor: Hard Choices for Catholic Schools”).

 

Regan’s argument was both practical and philosophical. Practically, he pointed out that only 22% of the country considered themselves “practicing Catholics.“ Precisely at a time when so many Catholic schools needed entrepreneurial, innovative leadership, did it make sense to eliminate 78% of the talent pool? Could a faith-filled, serious minded ecumenical candidate do the job?

 

Philosophically, Regan raised the intriguing metaphor of “the ship of Theseus.” Theseus was the mythical king and founder of Athens, who rescued the children of Athens from  King Minos after slaying the minotaur, and escaped onto a ship going to Delos. Each year, the Athenians commemorated this victory by taking that ship on a pilgrimage to Delos to honor Apollo.  But as the ship aged and the wood rotted, as it harbored in the Athenian port over the ages,  planks had to be replaced, one at a time, to keep the vessel seaworthy. Ancient philosophers asked: After centuries of maintenance, if each individual part of the ship had been replaced, was it still the ship of Theseus?

 

Regan asked, what are the “planks” of our schools that make us “Catholic?” Was it the sisters, who are no longer with us? Was it lay Catholic ministers? But now we have many non-Catholic teachers in our schools. Is it the students we serve? But now we have a broad ecumenical outreach; there Catholic schools today that are less than 50% Catholic.  Despite these tectonic changes, we are still “Catholic schools.” Perhaps, Regan suggested, the faith of the head of school is another “plank” that could be replaced without changing the essence of our institutions. 

 

Though he wrote this article in 2016, let’s give Regan his due: His arguments are even more poignant today! Few people would better understand the landscape of independent and Catholic school leadership than him, as he was head of the “Catholic practice” for Carney-Sandoe for many years.   I met him when my school hired him to search for my successor at Pope John Paul II in Nashville. I found him to be a thoughtful, committed advocate for our schools. 

 

And indeed, good leaders for our schools are hard to find! Perhaps it is the post-Covid effect, but I cannot remember a time when there were so many open school leader positions as there have been these last few years.  It doesn’t help that Catholic schools pay dramatically less for its leaders than some of our private school counterparts. According to the National Association of Independent Schools, the median salary of school “heads” in their schools was $288,000 in 2022-23! Some make more than $700,000 in the Dallas area!

 

I also find Regan’s philosophical argument intriguing. There’s no question that shifting the leadership in our schools from the nuns to the laity has jolted us in fundamental ways—but do we claim that we are no longer “Catholic” as a consequence? I suppose some might get snarky and  shout “Yes!” but I don’t believe that’s what most people believe. We work hard to carry on the heroic work the sisters began.  

 

In the end, however, I disagree with Regan!   

 

I think it is wrong to understand the Catholicity of the school as a "component part” of the operation that can be outsourced by the leader to another person, such as a "Director of Mission Effectiveness," or made the responsibility of the principal if the school uses the president-principal model. Building a joyful, authentic Catholic culture is the very essence of creating a Catholic school, the whole “kit and caboodle” that makes us distinctive from other schools. To be the architect in building such a culture requires someone who understands the Catholic faith--its idiosyncrasies, rituals, feast days, sacramental practices, songs, and common prayers--from the “inside-out” --that is to say, someone who has lived it and who has been formed by it. 

 

There are hundreds of decisions a school leader makes which tell the tale: how that person evaluates a prospective teacher or coach, what that person talks about in school assemblies, what is prioritized in professional development, how that person leads his or her school through a tragedy, what that person chooses to celebrate as a school, what he or she prioritizes in spending, whether the leader builds a partnership with priests or bishops, how actively the school leader supports the efforts of the parish or the diocese. All of these “tributary” decisions flow into a larger “river” that becomes the culture of the school and the air that students breathe. 

 

Tasking a person to lead our schools without this lived experience would be like hiring a GM of a baseball team who had corporate leadership experience but didn’t know anything about baseball. He may have executive skills, but ultimately, he wouldn’t have the slightest idea how to evaluate talent, or fathom what ignites the passions of its fans, or understand baseball’s reverence for its history. 

Could he task his manager with all of those “baseball specific” things? No, the manager is too preoccupied with handling players and strategizing for games—in other words, the day to day.

 

If Catholic schools were just about what occurs in the classroom like any other school, then perhaps an ecumenical leader might have the technical skills to lead it well.  But Catholic education is fundamentally about formation as the end goal. The classroom teaching and what occurs in the daily life of the school is a means to this end. 

Let me add this comment, too, at least for diocesan schools:  We don’t lead our schools apart from the bishop or pastors! We are institutions of the Church, not Boards of Trustees. We must communicate well with the Church and try to speak in one voice. It strikes me that trying to do this as a non-Catholic would be analogous to having a native speaker and non native person trying to communicate, with the non native person having only a rudimentary vocabulary and little comprehension for the nuances of the dialect. 

It would be quite hard for an ecclesial leader to hand over the “keys” to such an important “vehicle” for raising kids in the faith to someone who isn’t of that same faith! Frankly, I don’t know of any pastor or bishop who would do so. I don’t think it’s a good idea for independent Catholic schools, either, but whatever theoretical argument one may make for them, it’s a non-negotiable from the diocesan side. 

 

And what of the ship of Theseus? My response to the conundrum is this:  It ceases to be the ship of Theseus when it is no longer commanded by Theseus.  Without its leader, it becomes a relic, a museum piece, a part of Athenian history. 

 

Still, we would do well to pay heed to what Regan has told us. There is burning need for good Catholic leaders. Dioceses would do well to think through innovative means to improve the pipeline, perhaps by incentivizing assistant principals with better pay and on-the-job certification, requiring only a minimum of classwork.  Moving toward the president-principal governance model, even for elementary schools, is also a great way to onboard new principals, if the president has principal experience. 

 

Whatever works!  But we cannot let supply and demand issues change the fundamental nature of our schools. If we’re willing to do that, we may as well close up shop now.