Ontario Minister of Education Laurel Broten is quoted in the Canadian Press as saying: "Taking away a woman's right to choose could arguably be considered one of the most misogynistic actions that one could take; I don't think there is a conflict between choosing Catholic education for your children and supporting a woman's right to choose." (to murder the child in her womb with the help of a doctor whose oath is to "do no harm").
This is the same Education Minister that only a few months ago forced Gay-Straight Alliances on Ontario's Catholic Schools. Many of us saw this coming, but none of us could have guessed it would be this soon.
As reported on LifeSiteNews.com, Jim Hughes, National President of Campaign Life Coalition said, “This is absolutely unbelievable and shocking; the rights of the Catholic schools are protected in Canada’s Constitution. Especially coming from somebody who’s a purported Catholic with her children in Catholic schools.”
The Premier of this Province, Dalton McGuinty is a Catholic. He knows full well what this means. So, in fact, is the Minister and her husband! Both the Premier and the Minister have other connections to Catholic education. They both are wrong, they both are setting themselves up against their own history and their Church.
On this issue, Premier, you must order her to retract her statement and you must clarify that this will never happen.
As for the Church, the Bishops of Ontario rolled over on the Gay Straight Alliance issue. They opened the door to this one by their inaction. However, burned by that experience it is clear that the Archbishop of Toronto, His Eminence Cardinal Collins learnt quickly that McGuinty and his ilk, no matter that they are Catholic, cannot be trusted. Only a day after the comment, His Eminence delivered the address at the annual Cardinal's Dinner saying, "Both the constitution and the Education Act make it clear that the Catholic identity of the school must be respected." He further corrected these two Catholics stating quite clearly referring to our mission as Catholics that "It is also true when it comes to protecting the freedom of all in the school community to engage in pro-life activities in order to foster a culture of life in which the most vulnerable and voiceless among us are protected and honoured throughout their whole life on earth from the moment of conception to natural death."
His Eminence has made provided with clarity the facts. The question is now, what will McGuinty do; will he reprhimand Broten or is this part of some deeper, darker plan at the Mowat Block.
The Cardinal has made it clear; now you must act be making it clear in no uncertain terms to these two that any move against our faith will result in their political abortion.
Dalton McGuinty, Premier of Ontario
Tim Hudak, Leader of the Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition
tim.hudakco@pc.ola.org
Hon. Laurel Broten, M.P.P. Minister of Education
lbroten.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org
Hon. Laurel Broten, M.P.P. Minister of Education
lbroten.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org
5 comments:
I have a question for you; do you think it would help if the Catholic schools were paid for directly by parents/parishioners instead of funded by the government? Some protestant friends of mine insist that it makes a difference.
It's a relevant issue for me because my wife and I have just put our son into kindergarten in the public school in the village where we live. There's a Catholic school about 15 minutes away. He would have to take a bus and change schools (for the 3rd time since starting JK.) We're not sure if it's worth it. If we knew that the Catholic school were going to offer a sound Cristian education, I don't think we would hesitate. But just going on what others have said about Ontario's Catholic schools in general, we're in doubt about that part. We haven't looked into the situation of the local Catholic school yet.
Jacob,
The simple answer to your question is yes. In B.C. for example, a subsidy is givin to the parents as a sign of their tax support but the schools are managed by the parish, the priest and principal are partners in this.
The problem in Ontario is that we, as Catholics, have never had to pay directly. Collections in parishes are pathetic in general and barely cover those needs, would Catholics step up?
Even more a problem than the governmment, is OECTA and the Bishops who do not execute their authority over religous education. OECTA cannot be called Catholic, it is nothing more than a radical leftist, ecoist teacher union that would please any Alinsky sycophant.
In Toronto, there are some private elementary Catholic schools, Mary, Mother of God School in Parkdale and two Opus Dei affiliated schools in Don Mills. These tuitions at the low end are $5,000.
This means that OECTA can have no part. Teachers cannot be paid $98,000 per year in tuition funded Catholic schools.
So, it is a question of paying up or dancing to the tune for which the piper pays. The other option of course, is for Catholic parents to rise up and tell McGuinty and Broten to go fish.
But, the public hates us and we would be hard pressed to fight off the fight for a constitutional amendment to kill us off.
For the record, here is Cardinal Collin's response:
http://www.catholicregister.org/news/canada/item/15219-cardinal-collins-defends-the-rights-of-catholic-education
Jacob,
You've hit the nail on the head. There's no question that the publicly-funded nature of the Catholic schools in Ontario makes them essentially government-run schools. It's an inescapable rule that whoever controls the money also controls the soul of an organization. Right now, the soul of Catholic schools are in the hands of Dalton.
However, our law is such that we have the right to publicly funded Catholic education. We are the public, after all, and we fund it by paying our taxes, which are collected for the common and public good, by the sovereign, who has the legal right to collect it and obligation to use it properly.
Old fashioned language, perhaps, but the constitutional and legal fact.
So we should _not_ withdraw from our Catholic schools. The Minister of Education 's plainly stupid assertions are not the law, and no teacher, school, or school board needs to pay the them the slightest heed.
(In which Ontario Catholic schools is the truth about the transmission of human life actually taught, anyway? The real problem is not the idiocy of the Education Minister but the weakness of Catholic teaching in our Catholic schools.)
AM
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