This is a straight-ahead news report that could be used as a component of a general magazine-style show or special on changes in education or religion. The piece has the makings of a very interesting story, but hits some marks and fall short of others.
The story is interesting: a Philadelphia pastor notices that Catholic families were moving out of his neighborhood and thus reducing the number of people his church serves. As a result, St. Thomas Aquinas opened its church and school up to the community--to any student or family in need of their services. Instead of primarily Italian-American, African-American, and Latino students, the school now has a more diverse student body--including Vietnamese, Indonesian, and Filipino. The parish offers Mass in four different languages.
The piece itself is well-produced and well written. The producer obviously knows how to put together a solid piece of work. However, the content of the piece itself only offers us the "what" of the story, but devotes to time to exploring the "why." The situation at the church lends to some contextual questions that the piece doesn't answer, such as: What is the impact of their action? Is this the first Catholic church to try this? Will other inner-city parishes be forced to make similar moves? And so on. Further, the piece lacked a solid premise or purpose. It told the story of the parishes change, but it was hard to see what the point was. It is a rich story, it should have more of a point or punch to it than what I heard.
This piece is a solid piece of reporting, but I wish there were less detail and more depth.