"Vatican Official Decries Lack of School Funding"

The October 3 issue of America has a blurb about a recent speech by Archbishop J. Michael Miller, secretary of the Vatican Congregation for Catholic Education.  Archbishop Miller stated that Europeans are "absolutely amazed at the situation in the United States," for its anomalous refusal to provide any public funding for children in religious schools.  Our policy puts us "in the company of North Korea, China, and Cuba," the Archbishop reported.  (Here is another report). 

Citing "the enormous contribution to society made by Catholic schools," he said providing public funding for that service is a matter of distributive justice. The right to a Catholic education "is so fundamental to the life of the church that this struggle cannot be given up," he said.

Being a hard-core vouchers supporter, I'm sympathetic to the Archbishop.  Still, there is a "flip side":  I think it is fair to say that Catholic schools in the United States enjoy more independence from state control than do the publicly funded schools in other countries.  A tricky situation . . .