I don’t know what President Obama was thinking.Speaking in Northern Ireland last week, he said Catholic schools are divisive: “If towns remain divided - if Catholics have their schools and buildings and Protestants have theirs, if we can’t see ourselves in one another and fear or resentment are allowed to harden -that too encourages division and discourages cooperation.”Begorrah! What was he thinking?I was lucky to attend a Catholic elementary school through the eighth grade. I didn’t know it at the time, but our church and our school reflected a religious tradition that was brought to America by millions of immigrants, many of whom arrived to work in Pittsburgh’s mines and steel mills 100 years before I was born.The immigrants built magnificent Catholic churches that were the centerpieces of their communities - churches that advanced simple values that seeped into the local culture: Be charitable and kind, tell the truth, take care of those less fortunate, don’t cheat on your taxes.And they built Catholic schools.