Merry Christmas: Did fellow Catholics Bishop Guilfoyle and Bishop McCort sabotage Bishop Carroll?

… LHAC schools caved because of fears of "anti-Catholic" charges 

Well, the Laurel Highlands Athletic Conference (LHAC) will survive, and two of the three Catholic schools will continue to compete in the conference after a meeting yesterday.

The LHAC had threatened to eliminate three of the Catholic schools from the league -- Bishop Guilfoyle, Bishop McCort, and Bishop Carroll -- but in the end, only Carroll was voted out, with the help of its two diocesan cohorts.

Previously, the three Catholic schools had voted together when the league initially attempted to vote Carroll out of it earlier in the fall. Since a vote to eliminate a school must be unanimous, the attempt to eliminate the Huskies failed.

Until Wednesday.

At a meeting yesterday, two of the Catholic schools sabotaged the efforts of their fellow diocesan school to remain in the league and voted to eliminate Carroll from the conference.

Did the change of votes on the part of BG and McCort result from LHAC threats to eliminate all three?

McCort and Guilfoyle were no doubt more concerned about their own athletic survival than about anyone else's. That is understandable on one level, but duplicitous on another.

It is understandable because the schools would have problems setting up a football schedule without a conference. It would have been a disaster for both schools trying to find independent teams to play in the state.

So, fear was the motivating factor for both BG and McCort.

So much for Catholic loyalty and camaraderie.

It was duplicitous in that they voted against it the first time. What changed to allow them to join with the public schools against Carroll?

Good question.

Merry Christmas to all.

Carroll has one more year in the league

This realignment will not take effect until the 2018-19 school year, so BC will have another year in which to appraise its future. It has been a successful member of the conference over the years in a number of sports, including football, but had struggled mightily in recent years in football.

Setting up a football schedule will not be easy.

LHAC feared anti-Catholic backlash

So, why did the LHAC cave and allow McCort and Guilfoyle to survive after telling them that they were history? Here is my analysis of the situation.

The ADs and coaches in the LHAC wanted to eliminate the Catholic schools because they believe that those schools can recruit and do not compete on the same level playing field as do the public schools. That is understandable. The private schools in the state do have an advantage in that students are not limited to a particular geographical area as public schools are.

However, eliminating all three Catholic schools would have been a PR nightmare for the league, which is where the administrators above the ADs and principals became involved.

Here is the headline that would have generated some true heat for the LHAC since it would have likely been seen not just statewide, but nationally: "Public high schools in West-Central Pennsylvania vote to eliminate three Catholic schools from league." This would have outraged not just Catholics, but many Christians throughout the country who believe that they are constantly being discriminated against by anti-Christian forces in the U.S.

The public school administrators and school boards no doubt became alarmed when they thought about what could happen if all three Catholic schools were eliminated. They would be portrayed as bigots, and some are probably Catholic. No one likes to be portrayed as a bigot, even if they are.

Hence, by adding public school Chestnut Ridge, a Bedford County school that bolted the league once when they felt that they could not compete, to replace Carroll, it could be looked upon as being practical, not anti-Catholic.

Most of the LHAC teams are from Cambria County, which is a Catholic county, at least nominally. Blair, Bedford, and Somerset are not, so the heat there may not have been as intense for the public school districts.

Involvement of Pa. Catholic Conference (PCC)

Perhaps the threat of involving the controversial Pennsylvania Catholic Conference was a reason for the public schools caving. The PCC is a lobbying group that plays hardball with state legislators.

Earlier this year, they blocked the bill that would have retroactively extended the statute of limitations for child-abuse victims. That would have allowed for many lawsuits against the Catholic Church.

So, they are powerful.

Did McCort and Guilfoyle contact the PCC for help with this, attempting to portray the LHAC move as an anti-Catholic action?

Why the sudden vote?

When the LHAC decided in November to table the situation with the Catholic schools, I asked the league director, Scott Close of Somerset, for a comment. Here is what he said,

"No action was taken at last Wednesday's meeting, so at this time there is nothing to provide comment on. The next LHAC meeting will be on January 11, 2017."

So, did Close lie about the next meeting being held in January? Seems that way.

However, it could have been that the public school administrators wanted to settle this before Christmas and eliminate their danger of being called anti-Catholic when so many are singing, "Peace on earth, good will to men."

The optics on this for LHAC public schools were terrible with the fear of being called devil-worshipers by Christians from Alabama and Mississippi. Yes, it could have extended that far. The World Wide Web has changed our communication patterns.

Break with other Catholics

McCort and Guilfoyle did not engender any good will with their duplicity, but again, it was more likely called survival.

The next time McCort needs other Catholics in the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese to stick up for it during the trial next year against the Franciscan order regarding alleged pedophile Brother Stephen Baker, a trainer at McCort who abused many athletes there, it will not be able to look north to find any support from Catholics in that area.

That trial will be embarrassing for McCort and many people who were there during the Baker years.

Wow, local Mainstream Media finally picked up story

When this story was a Catholic vs. Public narrative, the major media outlets in the counties of the LHAC schools were silent. Nothing from the newspapers or TV stations.

I did a Google to see if I missed something, but nothing was present in that search.

Now, they are all over this story since it is no longer Catholic vs. Public. Since it is just the removal of one school, Scott Close is out there justifying the removal after the LHAC was very reticent after other meetings -- with the aid of the media.

I am going to call out the local media: Why were you afraid to touch this story earlier this year? Why did people have to rely on websites and blogs to discover this information?

Disclaimer: I have no ties to Bishop Carroll or to the other Catholic schools. My late brother was a priest, teacher, administrator, and coach at Carroll, but I am not an alum, nor do I have any ties there.

I was a coach in public schools, but not since the 1980s. I also coached eight years at a Catholic college.

I do not belong to a diocesan church and have not since the days of the Luddy trial in the 1990s.