Purpose: Diocesan systems of Catholic schools in the USA have been trying to make urban elementary schools more sustainable in an era of declining enrollment. This paper sought to better understand how system and school leaders conceptualize what it takes to "sustain the legacy" of these schools. Design/methodology/approach: We conducted a qualitative analysis of interview data collected from 44 Catholic system and school leaders, comparing leaders' perspectives about what they believed urban Catholic school principals should be doing to contribute to sector reform initiatives. Findings: We found system and school leaders agreed principals should take responsibility for "sustaining the legacy" of urban Catholic schools, but they disagreed about the ultimate purpose of sustaining these schools. These disagreements shaped the decisions each group believed principals should prioritize. Originality/value: We demonstrate in this paper that a systemic reform lens is useful when attempting to make sense of whether or how certain conditions within diocesan systems as currently designed may account for ongoing and persistent organizational crises within the Catholic sector.