Catholic Education : $20 Million Gift

A retired grocer who credits its Catholic schools for providing a crucial safety net for his family when his mother died has given $20 million to a center at Boston College charged with revitalizing Catholic education in America.
The gift from Patrick Roche, a co-founder of "Roche Brothers" supermarkets, and his wife, Barbara, will be used by the center for Catholic Education to help train Catholic school teachers and administrators, the "Boston Globe reports. President of Boston College the Rev. William P. Leahy said he hoped the gift would prompt others to support and promote thw mission of Catholic schools.
According to the Boston Globe, Roche is among a small group of wealthy Catholics devoting their philanthropy to Catholic schools at a time when the archdiocese of Boston - and dioceses elsewhere - are closing small parish schools in the wake of rising costs and falling enrollments.
Peter Lynch, the former Fidelity money manager and a longtime supporter of Catholic education in urban communities, says the newly named Barbara and Patrick Roche Center for Catholic Education at Boston College will improve the quality of Catholic schools nationwide.
Roche, who's now 80 and living in Florida, was 9 when his mother died, leaving his father with four (4) sons to raise. He told the Globe his parish and school, then called St. Francis Xavier, took them in during their time of need.
"It hurts, really, to think of what's going on with the financial trouble," Roche said of the struggling schools in Boston. "We want to see if we can correct those problems now, and I'm fortunate enough to be able to try."
My spin: It all has been said and there is a lot of students and others that will benefit from the generosity of the Roches; there are still people who made it and don't forget where they come from: But hey, that's just me.
Kicking back and keeping it real.