Features
St. Brigid’s students’ environmental commitment ‘a spiritual imperative’
By Michael Swan, The Catholic Register
{mosimage}TORONTO - As Mass ended under bright sunshine outdoors and teacher-librarian Kathryn Zaleski-Cox announced St. Brigid’s Elementary School had made the grade as an Ontario EcoSchool, a cheer went up. For the 580 students of east-end Toronto’s St. Brigid’s Elementary, their teachers and two dozen parents participating in the May 17 Mass, they weren’t just cheering for something students had accomplished with a year’s worth of litterless lunches, reduced energy consumption and heightened ecological awareness. The cheer also recognized prayers answered.
Highlighting the pluses of French education
By Michael Swan, The Catholic Register
If C1+ reminds you of a mediocre grade you got in high school chemistry, that’s because you weren’t paying attention in French class either.
Catholics must be prepared for an attack on education rights
By Catholic Civil Rights League
Editor’s note: The following is a position paper produced by the Catholic Civil Rights League on “The question of Catholic school funding.”
As Ontario prepares for an election in October, several groups are trying to raise the question of continued funding for the province’s Catholic elementary and secondary schools. Some claim that all publicly funded schools would be operated more efficiently if there was one, non-sectarian system, with school boards drawn geographically and, in most localities, in French or English streams. Several public school boards have already passed resolutions to this effect.
As Ontario prepares for an election in October, several groups are trying to raise the question of continued funding for the province’s Catholic elementary and secondary schools. Some claim that all publicly funded schools would be operated more efficiently if there was one, non-sectarian system, with school boards drawn geographically and, in most localities, in French or English streams. Several public school boards have already passed resolutions to this effect.
Halton board split along old/new divide
By Catholic Register Staff
It’s not politics as usual at the Halton Catholic District School Board. A divided board in the region to Toronto’s west has voted non-confidence in the chair and vice chair voted in just four months ago.
Public boards seek amalgamation of Ontario’s Catholic system
By Michael Swan, The Catholic Register
TORONTO - Six Ontario public school boards have passed motions calling for abolition of publicly funded Catholic education and that has Rick Johnson a little upset and embarrassed.
China: Keeping the faith
By Barb Fraze, Catholic News ServiceBEIJING - Some time after Easter, Pope Benedict XVI was to issue a letter to Chinese Catholics that many hope will call for reconciliation and unity between those who have registered with the government and those who have not registered.
Crowd comes out in support of Catholic education in Ontario
By Michael Swan, The Catholic Register
TORONTO - About 500 Catholic parents, pastors and teachers in Toronto staked a claim on the future of Catholic schools in the last of a province-wide series of consultations by the Institute for Catholic Education seeking community insight into future directions for Catholic education in Ontario.
Teachers feeling pressures of Ontario’s work-driven society
By Michael Swan, The Catholic Register
TORONTO - The average full-time elementary school teacher in Ontario’s Catholic system is putting in a 55.7-hour work week, and what counts as a part-time teaching job averages 36.8 hours per week, according to a new study commissioned by the teachers’ union.
Social justice commitment marked Kennedy’s stay at OECTA
By Michael Swan, The Catholic Register
TORONTO - Special education, religion and history teacher Donna Marie Kennedy is leaving her current job as president of the Ontario English Catholic Teachers’ Association with the conviction that social justice is the cornerstone of her union’s existence.
On Catholic fundamentalism
By Fr. Thomas Ryan, CSP
“The opposite of ‘Catholic’ is not ‘Protestant’, but rather ‘sectarian,’ ” says Jesuit Father Mark Massa, co-director of the Curran Centre for American Catholic Studies at Fordham University in New York City.
The other side of the euthanasia coin
By Joe Sinasac, CR Editor and Publisher
In the growing debate over euthanasia and doctor-assisted suicide, one significant argument has too often been missing in action. In church circles at least, we forget to show the very human side of those most affected by any expansion of euthanasia.