Pastor is welcome in public schools

It's not exactly big news that Rev. Charles Gaffigan, pastor of Holy Mother and Child parish in Lake Luzerne/Corinth, regularly visits schools, joking with the students about how upset they are about being taken out of class and telling them about the importance of religious education.

What is unusual is where Father Gaffigan does this - in the local public schools of the Hadley-Luzerne School District - and the fact that, in 15 years, the specter of separating church and state has never been raised.

Father Gaffigan has met cooperation from local public school officials who welcome his presence, and his actions are backed by a 1995 statement by then-Education Secretary Richard Riley spelling out the rights religious groups have in public schools.

Despite public perceptions to the contrary, public school districts are not "religious-free zones," and religious bodies have similar rights as other community organizations in public schools, said Father Gaffigan.

Free in faith
He told The Evangelist that the cooperation he's experienced in Lake Luzerne could serve as a model for public school/church cooperation throughout the Albany Diocese.

"We don't have freedom from religion, but freedom for religion," said Father Gaffigan.

Back in 1995 and after reading about the federal education guidelines in The Evangelist, he visited the local school district superintendent, Doug Huntley, and asked permission to address students and distribute material about religious education.

He's been met with cooperation ever since, he said: "It's perfectly okay as long as we don't try to convert."

Every year, the priest goes to the two school district facilities and, in an assembly designated for Catholic students, distributes forms for the students to bring home to their parents describing the parish religious education program.

For high school students of confirmation age, he gives a talk encouraging them to consider preparing for the sacrament and to make a public commitment to their Catholic faith.

He doesn't keep numbers, but every year the public school pitch brings in a batch of extra students, this year about 35.

"The key to the whole thing has been cooperation," he said about the role of the public school district, now under the direction of superintendent Earl Sussman.

Reaffirmed
Issued in the Clinton administration, the religion/education guidelines were intended to show that the First Amendment "does in fact provide ample room for religious expression by students while at the same time maintaining freedom from government-sponsored religion," noted Mr. Riley in an official statement reaffirming the principles three years after they were issued.

Mr. Riley noted that public schools "may not forbid students acting on their own from expressing their personal religious views or beliefs solely because they are of a religious nature. Schools may not discriminate against private religious expression by students, but must instead give students the same right to engage in religious activity and discussion as they have to engage in other comparable activity."

The guidelines note that public school teachers and administrators are forbidden to organize prayer and religious education in classrooms and that students are to feel no compulsion to participate in the activities of a religious group allowed inside a public school.

"Public schools can neither foster religion nor preclude it," said Mr. Riley.

Core values
Mr. Sussman said Father Gaffigan's presence in the schools is welcome and promotes positive values.

"It sends a universal message to young people that the core values are essential," he explained, noting that religious values can foster positive attitudes among children "that they value each other, that they don't pick on each other, that they don't bully."

Mr. Sussman said that allowing religious groups to operate in public schools within constitutional guidelines fosters good citizenship.

"The most important thing we have to do is work together for the student," he said. "The coach, the play director, the clergy - all of us share in a community attitude to help, guide and nurture."

As a public school administrator, he welcomes community groups who are interested in the moral development of students, including the Catholic parish.

"Everything you do is to move the fence out rather than to move the fence in. It's up to us as caring people to move the fence out," he said.

(Read Mr. Riley's statement on religion in public schools at www.ed.gov/speeches/08-1995/religion.html)

(11-12-09)