Bronx Pastor Speaks Out on the Immigrant Experience

Reverend Jos Kandathikudy, pastor of St. Thomas Syro Malabar Catholic Church in the Bronx, gave an in-depth interview in January 2012 on issues concerning the current state of Catholic schools.

Q. In your parish, are most of the parents able to shoulder the burden financially or do you have some type of program set up to help students who want to go to Catholic schools, to raise money for them?

A. The parents of this parish are mainly from India. The Indian community is a very stable community. Both of the parents may be working, either as a nurse, an engineer, a doctor.  All are working class people, not very poor, not very rich, but middle class.  Whatever earnings the parents make are mainly meant for the development of their children. They work hard. The Indian group has a special way of looking at things. They do work hard. They do want money and it is always for their children. They spend money for their education. We don't run a school in the parish. Our children go to different, other Catholic schools.

Q. Now I know Archbishop Dolan is a very big supporter of Catholic schools.  Do you think he's had much influence in terms of convincing families to live up to their obligation to send their children to Catholic schools?

A. Yes, I do.

Q. In your experience with the Catholic schools in your area, Catholic schools continue to outperform the public schools.  What do you attribute that to, academically?

A. I think nowadays the Archdiocese of New York is trying to help schools. Instead of having a school in every parish, an area has five or six parishes together. For them, the Catholic school is promoted, that every parish cooperate and contribute money to run the school efficiently.

Q. That makes sense. I've found that where they have sort of consolidated parish schoolings and where they've had to close schools, they pull from different parishes. Now academically, Catholic schools, even though they only have a fraction of the budget that the public schools have, they outperform the students in the public schools.  What do you attribute that to?  Is there something in your approach to education that makes that difference?

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A. I don't run any school here now. There is one Catholic academy close by and another, Immaculate Conception School, and St. Barnabas School is our northeast regional school and also Holy Rosary.

Q. You brought up an interesting point.  You mentioned your parish is largely, heavily Indian. Do you feel the Catholic schools are diverse in terms of their student populations? When I say diverse, years and years ago when you spoke of the Catholic schools in New York City, there were only about two ethnic groups, the Irish and Italians. One thing I have found talking to pastors in different schools in different parishes is the diversity in the student population. You mention an interesting group because most of the Bronx schools that I've come across have been Italian or Hispanic.  Your students in your area are mostly of Indian descent.

A. Yes, because this parish itself was twelve years ago known as St. Valentine’s Church.  It was mainly a Polish community. All of the Polish population had moved out to other places, so they had to close this church.

Q. What ideas do you have or you've heard discussed about Catholic schools that have met with success?

A. Our parishes have teachers in the Catholic schools. A few of them are teachers in the public schools. Those who teach in the public schools tell me that they get better facilities than the Catholic schools. In Catholic schools the salary is very low but yet they prefer to be in the Catholic school because they can do something regarding the Holy Bible. They can impart the Gospel message to the children. They can point them in the right direction, so they prefer to be in the Catholic schools.

Q. So what you're finding is that both students and teachers are being attracted to the Catholic schools because of the belief in traditional morality and church teachings?

A. Not only that, also the Indians consider our most important value is respect for elders. You may not be able to understand me when I say at home in India when an elder comes, we as youngsters will all stand up.  That's the system traditionally imparted to us by our ancestors, respect for the elders, parents, teachers, rules and that's very important.  Not only in Catholic education, it's in Indian cultural education, too. For in the Catholic schools we get it.

Q. Have you found that the Indian community, have they run into any kind of discrimination coming into the Catholic school system?

A. No, nobody reported to me any discrimination.

Q. I want to read something to you and get your feedback on it. Last summer there was some controversy up in the Bronx. It was a Catholic school principal, Frank Borzellieri, who was fired by the archdiocese because of past writings on racial matters. Mr. Borzellieri stated that “diversity is a weakness” and that increasing numbers of blacks and Hispanics will bring a “new dark age” to America.  The archdiocese spokesman, Joe Zwilling, said that Mr. Borzellieri's views are “found to be incompatible with the philosophy and practices" of the Catholic Church and the schools.  Do you agree with that view and can I ask you why? Just based upon those comments, do you think they are compatible or incompatible with church teachings? 

A. Oh no, I don't think so. Especially now there is great openness is what I experience. You can state any issues, you can raise any issues. You can find a solution and opportunity to discuss and solve our own problems. In olden times past, there was discrimination, but now I don't think there is any discrimination. The dark people, the Indians, because of our color, because of our ethnicity, we never felt disregarded or disrespected.

Q. Father, I want to thank you very much for taking the time to talk with me. Thank you, sir.

A. Thank you.