Concerns about excessive centralization in the education system, with Queen’s Park encroaching on school board autonomy, are getting kid-glove treatment from Catholic trustees’ associations while the union representing Catholic teachers is raising red flags.

Pretty much a primary requirement for all-candidate debates in any election is that a government candidate be there to debate why the government should be re-elected.

Politics is in the air — power-sharing deals in Ottawa, a federal Conservative leadership campaign and a provincial election campaign in Ontario that is sure to garner national attention.

As the writ drops for Ontario’s June 2 provincial election, the political junkies at Catholic Conscience are ready — ready to help Catholics discern their votes according to Church teaching.

With the passing of Bill Davis on Aug. 8, education and Ontario lost one of the last voices of reasonableness and optimism in an otherwise adversarial and tribal approach to problem solving. 

Step One of Ontario’s reopening plan is in effect as of June 11 and will see a return to worship services much like they were after earlier openings following pandemic lockdowns.

The new president of Brescia University College is a political scientist who wants to liberate social justice from politics and an educator who wants to free teaching from the classroom. Lauretta Conklin Frederking has been named the 13th principal and the new president of Canada’s only Catholic women’s college. The London, Ont., college was founded by the Ursuline Sisters in 1919. Its 1,500 students also attend Western University.

OTTAWA -- A Catholic church that dates back to the early 1800s in eastern Ontario is Canada’s newest basilica, becoming one of only 27 Catholic churches in Canada to be designated as a minor basilica.

With Ontario going into hard lockdown to combat a disturbing rise in the number of COVID-19 cases, places of worship will once again be limited to a hard cap of 10 people in attendance.

OTTAWA -- Ontario's government used the newly declared National Human Trafficking Awareness Day Feb. 22 to unveil major new funding and legislation as part of the province’s anti-human trafficking strategy, as governments in Canada continue to take action against what Pope Francis has called “a crime against humanity.”

There’s no question the strain of the pandemic is hitting every area of Canadians’ lives as the year draws to a close.

A bill that would define how palliative care should be delivered in Ontario is a great first step, but Cardinal Thomas Collins and a parade of palliative care experts who came to testify on the Compassionate Care Act, Bill 3, were insistent they want more.

It’s unclear exactly what Ontario classrooms are going to look like in the fall with the realities of COVID-19, but one certainty for school boards is an extra $736 million in funding from the province.

Partners in Catholic education are in agreement with Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s decision to cancel in-class learning for the rest of this school year. 

It isn’t just during a time of pandemic that the world has an overwhelming need for hope. It’s something that is always on the agenda in Ontario’s Catholic schools, says Anne O’Brien.