Archbishop Dolan visits Westchester school

The newly appointed New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan paid a visit to Our Lady of Fatima School in Scarsdale Thursday to discuss Catholic education. Dolan?s visit comes at a time when Catholic schools

News 12 Staff

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Jun 4, 2009, 11:50 PM

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Updated 5,683 days ago

The newly appointed New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan paid a visit to Our Lady of Fatima School in Scarsdale Thursday to discuss Catholic education.

Dolan?s visit comes at a time when Catholic schools are facing a number of challenges, including decreasing enrollment as more parents are opting for public education to save money.

"We can't count on a lot of money from above, from the government," Dolan says. "So we scrape, we save...there's a generosity in our parents and our parishes."

The archbishop was joined on the tour of the school by Timothy McNiff, the superintendent of schools for the archdiocese.

"Economies go up and they go down, and as the [arch]bishop said, we've been challenged many times in the past, so this isn't really that different, or that acute," McNiff says.

Monsignor Hugh McManus, the pastor of Our Lady of Fatima, says the archbishop?s visit will have a lasting impression on his students.

"He radiates a lot of affection for the kids, and they reciprocated," McManus says.

Upon assuming his post less than two months ago, Dolan already visited parishes throughout the 10 counties that make up the New York Archdiocese.