Attendance at Catholic Schools

The Third Plenary Council of the American hierarchy held in Baltimore in 1884 directed each parish to set up a parish school and each Catholic parent to send his children to these schools. The goal of a school in every parish and every child in a Catholic school has never been fully met. In 1964, for example, only 58 per cent of the parishes in the country had elementary schools, and in 1961, 45 per cent of the Catholic children in elementary school and 31 per cent of the Catholic children in high school were attending Catholic schools.