Can The Rule of St. Benedict save inner city schools?

A new documentary evidently makes a persuasive argument: 

One of the most astonishing things about how Catholic schools educate kids in our country’s worst neighborhoods is that they’re by and large serving a population that isn’t Catholic.

It didn’t have to be this way. In fact, it almost wasn’t. That’s one bottom line of the powerful new film “The Rule,” from Jerome Bongiorno and Marylou Tibaldo-Bongiorno of Newark.

Released last week, “The Rule” is a documentary about St. Benedict’s, a Catholic high school in Newark’s heart that for a century and a half has served as an academic haven for the often-embattled young men there.

The school is run by the monks of Newark Abbey in accord with the principles set out in the 1,500-year old Rule of Saint Benedict. Originally intended as a guide for creating self-governing communities of faith in 6th century Italy, the rule can also turn poor, sometimes neglected boys into young men of integrity and promise.

St. Benedict’s graduates virtually all its students and sends them on to college, where 85 percent finish. By comparison, less than a third of Newark’s public-high-school students graduate in four years.

The secrets to St. Benedict’s success are no mystery. The teachers are dedicated and invested in the students’ lives. Some students live on campus, removing them from the distractions of chaotic homes. There is zero tolerance for drugs, violence or gangs. One offense and you’re out.

As one monk says, “You can only be in one gang — ours.”

Read more.  And to see what all the fuss is about, check out the promo below.