Fr. Joe Mallia has had a ringside seat in the struggle of Catholic schools survivability.

Nay, more than that. He was in the middle of the ring. It was personal.

Come June 30, he will mark the end of an assignment five months shy of 13 years as pastor of St. Frances Cabrini parish in Allen Park. It’s not too often when a priest is appointed the shepherd of the parish where he grew up.

“No school has had a greater influence on my life than Cabrini has,” said Fr. Mallia, who attended Cabrini for elementary and high school (’80), speaking to 500-plus people two weeks ago as he was inducted with 15 others into the Catholic High School League Hall of Fame. “I only wish I could have done more for them, for the students and the community.”

James Wasukanis, principal at Cabrini High since 2005, said he’s never met a pastor as dedicated to Catholic education as Fr. Mallia. The schools experienced a rebirth through Fr. Mallia’s insistence on three vital elements: strong faith formation, academic excellence and extracurricular activities.

The high school enrollment of 189 when Fr. Mallia came to Cabrini “more than doubled in a few years,” Wasukanis said. Bus transportation “brought in an extra hundred kids each day” and economic measures were implemented to make tuition affordable “to all who wanted a Catholic education.”

“We are extremely proud of the Cabrini Dream Mentor Program,” Wasukanis said, in which students from eighth grade through 12th undergo “yearly intensive counseling” to help them determine a direction for higher education and career goals. “It was Fr. Mallia’s idea, and counselor Greg Campbell designed it,” he said. “As a result, scholarships have gone up from a few hundred thousand dollars in the past to $4 million for this year’s 100 graduates.”

Athletic director Dean Allen credits Fr. Mallia for kickstarting a campaign to improve athletic facilities, including new baseball, football, soccer and softball fields.

“He gave his life to this place,” Wasukanis said. “I don’t know where he got the strength to do all of this.”

Fr. Mallia shrugs. “It’s always about the kids,” he told me. “It’s painful to see Catholic schools struggling these days.”

To the Hall of Fame audience, Fr. Mallia said that if Catholic schools work against one another in recruitment or athletics, “we will surely end up killing more of our schools in the process. We are losing our grade schools and this is directly affecting our high schools.”

Cabrini’s projected enrollment in September is about 370, down from a little over 500 in 2011. The closing this spring of four parish grade schools in neighboring Westland, Garden City, Livonia and Redford, all feeder schools to Cabrini High, will have an impact.

In addition to Cabrini, just three of the 24 Catholic high schools in the archdiocese are directly tied to a parish: Dearborn Divine Child, Royal Oak Shrine and Waterford Our Lady of the Lakes.

The remaining 20 are exclusive regional schools that, Fr. Mallia said, are often unaffordable for middle-class Catholics who might not qualify for financial aid.

Fr. Mallia urged cooperation among the archdiocese and parishes to “work together a

nd not simply hope to hang on long enough to garner students from another school’s closure.”

Finally, he urged Catholic schools to hold themselves to a higher standard: “First and foremost, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, then academics, then family, and then sports, and in that order,” he said.

On July 1, Fr. Mallia begins his new assignment in northern Macomb County at St. Augustine Parish and its elementary school in Richmond and Holy Family Parish in nearby Memphis.

“I look forward to helping the parishes and the Blue Water Vicariate wherever I can,” he said.

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Don Horkey may be reached at [email protected].