The Melancholy Rite

Mary Valle: I recently voted in my state’s primary election, because I like voting. Where I vote is in the gym of my local Catholic school, which, since the last election, has closed. Been consolidated. I noticed the cornerstone as I walked in: 1957. Boom times in America; boom times for Catholics. It seems that most of your less-endowed (public and parish schools) date from this era, unreconstructed: chipped linoleum floors, scuffed stairwells, the walls themselves weary with decades of cleaning and children. Usually I’d see colorful bulletin boards and statues and crucifixes and maybe even some students, in uniform, selling baked goods to voters, but this time the walls were bare, the icons removed. I felt a twinge of sadness. Continue Reading →