South City Catholic dad takes his appeal to the Vatican

A parent with two children at the soon-to-be-closed South City Catholic Academy is taking his case to the Vatican. 

In January, Andrew Magdy and many other SCCA parents were outraged when the Archdiocese of St. Louis announced it would be closing the school in the city’s North Hampton neighborhood. The announcement stunned parents, who thought that the school’s enrollment was healthy enough to stave off closure. The timing also meant that it was too late in the academic year for parents to try to get their children into the St. Louis Public Schools’ magnet programs. 

Within a week of the announced closure, Magdy, a restructuring attorney, contested the Archdiocese’s move by sending them a “Formal Request For Revocation Or Amendment Of Administrative Decree,” which is essentially the equivalent of a lawsuit, only under canon law, which governs the Catholic church.

Magdy contested the closure on two grounds: that the school’s finances aren’t as dire as the Archdiocese made them out to be and that the church violated its own rule requiring meaningful discussion and consideration with parish members before a closure. He and many other SCCA families say that never occurred. (In January, the Archdiocese issued a statement acknowledging the school’s closure “feels sudden” but that they wanted to announce that it was happening in time for students “to be able to enroll in a Catholic school that is a good fit for them and their families.”)

The Archdiocese never responded to Magdy’s initial formal request. So now Magdy has taken the next step, appealing his case to the Vatican, more specifically the dicastery, an administrative department that aids the pope in church operations. Magdy snail-mailed the paperwork to Rome via DHL. The system, he says, is “old school.”

If the dicastery were to side with him, it’s his understanding that would essentially require the Archdiocese to “reconsider.” He acknowledges his effort is highly unlikely to reverse the school’s closure in time for next academic year—or even reverse it at all. His fight really isn’t about that. He wants the Archdiocese, the next time they close a school in the city, to handle it better than they did with SCCA.

“They still need to follow their own rules,” he says. “This isn’t going to be the last time they do this. There’s going to be more closures in the city. That’s where they’re going with this.” 

He hopes that efforts like his will make it more likely that “they won’t be so flippant about it, and leave everyone high and dry.”

When SCCA opened in 2017, it was intended to be a more sustainable approach to Catholic education. The school combined the resources of St. Joan of Arc in North Hampton and Our Lady of Sorrows in Princeton Heights, with the Archdiocese itself actively involved in running it. Later, when St. Joan of Arc, Our Lady of Sorrows and St. Mary Magdalen parishes merged to form a new parish, St. Lucy, the school was able to withstand that upheaval.

But some school families aren’t sure whether St. Lucy’s leaders had their best interests at heart. Until recently, Fr. Brad Modde served as the reverend of St. Lucy. Just this month he became the chaplain at St. Dominic’s High School in St. Charles. 

Magdy says that Modde’s own statements indicate he was first approached about the transfer in October. Now he can’t help but wonder if the Archdiocese knew three months ahead of time that the SCCA closure was coming. While three months might not seem like a lot, it can make a world of difference when it comes to kids transferring schools. 

“The timing was purposeful,” says Magdy. 

The Archdiocese itself disputes that assertion. Says spokesman Brecht Mulvihill, “Reassignments are a common part of priestly ministry.”

Come August, Magdy’s own kids plan to attend St. Ambrose Catholic School. He says it’s his understanding that’s where the majority of SCCA students are headed.