Protect Catholic teaching on homosexuality in schools, trustee urges colleagues as vote looms

by Patrick B. Craine

• TORONTO, Ontario, August 30, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Parents are “longing” for the Toronto Catholic District School Board to ensure that the Catholic Church and its moral teachings remain the “compass for Catholic schools,” a trustee with the board has told her colleagues as the battle to protect Catholic sexual teaching in the schools comes to a head this week.

In an impassioned letter, Trustee Angela Kennedy urged the board to protect the role of Catholic teachings in the schools as the board prepares to pass judgment on crucial amendments to its controversial equity and inclusive education policy at a meeting Wednesday evening.

“As Catholic trustees, our mission is not so much political, as it is evangelical.  We have a sacred duty to God, to inculcate in the children entrusted to us, love for Jesus Christ, His Church and all her precepts,” she wrote.

The school board’s equity policy, passed earlier this year as part of the Ontario government’s sweeping equity and inclusive education strategy, has sparked an unprecedented mobilization of parents who fear that it will give homosexual activists a foothold in order to further subvert already weak Catholic sexual teaching in the schools.

The amendments, proposed by Kennedy and her fellow trustee John Del Grande, are designed to ensure that “equity” and “inclusion” are interpreted consistently with Catholic teaching.

Hundreds of parents turned out to board meetings in May and June demanding that these amendments be passed. Kennedy notes in her letter that trustees have been “flooded” with communications.

Notably, in May parents submitted a petition in support of the amendments signed by 2,418 Catholic stakeholders.  Then in June, the Toronto Chinese Catholic Task Force submitted a petition with a further 1,000 signatures.

The amendments are endorsed by leading Catholic education expert Dr. Robert T. Dixon, who has authored two books on Ontario’s Catholic education system and eight court affidavits on the Catholic schools’ constitutional rights.

They were supported in separate legal opinions by Oakville lawyer Geoff Cauchi and Toronto lawyer Michael Osbourne, and backed by the Toronto chapter of Ontario’s largest Catholic parents group, the Toronto Association of Parents in Catholic Education.

“What more will it take to convince you that our Catholic community wants these amendments to pass because they are longing to be sure that the Church remains the compass for Catholic schools?” asks Kennedy.

“At the end of the day we must not be afraid to [do] what we should do as protectors of our Catholic Students and our Catholic Board,” she added.  “We have only one master Jesus Christ.”

The board meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, August 31st at 7:00 p.m. at 80 Sheppard Ave. E.

Find Angela Kennedy’s letter to the trustees here.

Contact Information:

For trustees of the Toronto Catholic District School board click here.

Director of Education, Ann Perron: 416.222.8282 ext. 2296, ann.perron@tcdsb.org

Catholic Bishops of Toronto Archdiocese:
Most Rev. Thomas Collins,  (416) 934-0606,  archbishop@archtoronto.org
Mgr Vincent Nguyen, 416 724-0900,  eastern.region@archtoronto.org
Mgr William T. McGrattan,  (416) 769-6001,  central.region@archtoronto.org
Most Rev. John Boissonneau,  (416) 207-4983, bishop.boissonneau@rogers.com