Newsday.com has on the front page: No Prom for Chaminade High School

Amy Welborn linked to Fac ut Gaudeam on the cancellation of Chaminade High School's proms.

Dan at Shrine of the Holy Whapping (a fellow Chaminade grad), asks the $1,000,000 question -

"This culture of unmediated affluence is in some sense a dark side of the "American dream" removed from recourse to the moral and social teaching of the Church. In that sense, this particular issue ought to raise some thoughts among Catholics about why the Church in the Northeast is so dessicated compared to the Midwest and some parts of the South. Did the same comfort and affluence help to foster the general stifling of a distinctively Catholic culture and of evangelical zeal after the second generation or so of immigrants?"

While I applaud the schools for dropping the prom and trying to fight the culture of excess, I hope Kellenberg and Chaminade can come up with an alternative event. As Andrew Cusack comments on the post at the Shrine, students need to be taught how to behave at a formal event. For Chaminade men, a formal dance is especially important, what with being cooped up with no female students for 4 years! Anyway, both Kellenberg and Chaminade have Senior Proms that will continue - students from both schools go to a local nursing home and host a formal dinner/dance with the elderly residents. The students host the event and act as dates for the seniors. It is a popular event and I have yet to hear of any stories of excessive spending on food, limos or drink.