Whimsical Quiz Gives Answers, Update

Trying a different way to educate Roman Catholics in San Francisco about how times have changed for church-run schools, the archdiocese’s monthly magazine provided a quiz whose correct answers reflect the situation in most dioceses.

Here are six of the (sometimes whimsical) multiple-choice questions devised by Charlotte Pace:

- Twenty years ago, the percentage of lay teachers to religious teachers was 15/85. It is now closer to: a. 25/75, b. 50/50, c. 85/15.

- Personnel costs comprise how much of a typical school budget? a. You mean teachers don’t donate their time? b. 50%, c. 90%.

- In 1965, the average tuition per month per child in a parish elementary school was $1. Now it is: a. $25, b. $500, c. $100.

- The traditional income sources for Catholic schools--tuition, parish subsidies and community fund raising--will carry the schools through another: a. eon--they’ve carried them this far, haven’t they? b. five years, c. that era is already past.

- The average Catholic schoolteacher is more like: a. Ingrid Bergman, as in “The Bells of St. Mary’s,” b. Sister Ignatius, as in explaining it all for you, c. a lay person, a credentialed educator who possesses an advanced degree, a living faith, and who helps to subsidize Catholic education by accepting a salary lower than that of public schools’.

- The purpose of Catholic schools is: a. to provide subject matter for B movies, b. to indoctrinate, c. to lead children toward an adulthood that integrates the Catholic spiritual tradition with a competitive academic foundation.

The right answer for all the questions is c., said Pace, an associate editor of the monthly San Francisco Catholic.

“For all its financial shakiness (the 90-school San Francisco archdiocesan system) is surprisingly sturdy,” Pace wrote. “Financial security is still elusive, and the very concept of Catholic education is no longer taken for granted” throughout the Catholic Church in the United States, she said.

American Buddhists in the Japanese tradition, following a lunar calendar date of April 8 for Gautama Buddha’s birthday, will hold observances at temples and meditation centers this weekend. Most temples affiliated with the Los Angeles Buddhist Church Federation will have religious observances this Sunday. The Los Angeles Zen Center will hold a special ceremony before its regular morning meditation today.

Most other Buddhist traditions will observe the birthday of the founder of Buddhism on the weekend of May 16-18.

The activities this weekend of Paulist Father Ellwood (Bud) Kieser, producer of the 22-year-old television religious drama series “Insight,” illustrate a little-known phenomenon--a religious element in Hollywood.

Kieser shared the roaming pulpit of the Synagogue for the Performing Arts on Friday night with Rabbi David M. Baron during a special service on the 20th Century-Fox lot. The Jewish congregation usually holds Sabbath services at the Wadsworth Theatre and other meetings at hospitable synagogues.

One of its latest projects is a Passover Seder video for shut-ins. Its first video, on the High Holy Days, included entertainers Buddy Hackett and Monty Hall.

Kieser on Sunday will be one of four honorees at the 36th Entertainment Industry Mass and Breakfast for “faith, courage and service” to the industry and the Roman Catholic Church. The other awardees are actress Betty Hutton, director Frank Capra and actress Ann Jillian.

Dick Butkus, football player turned actor, will be master of ceremonies for the breakfast at the Sheraton Premiere. Dennis Day, singer-comic on the old Jack Benny Show, and comedian Tom Dreesen provide the entertainment.

Archbishop Roger Mahony will celebrate the outdoor Mass preceding the breakfast.

Declaring that the letters to the editor sections of newspapers and general circulation magazines “are among our most effective means of getting our message to the American public,” Atheists United has announced an in-house contest that runs until the end of the year.

For the “most persuasive letter” relating to atheism or the preservation of church-state separation, the Sherman Oaks-based organization says it will give $250 as first prize, $100 to the runner-up and, for third prize, the two-volume “Encyclopedia of Unbelief” (Prometheus), edited by Atheists United Vice President Gordon Stein.