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Leading education expert urges Toronto Catholic board to protect Church teaching
BY PATRICK B. CRAINE
Thu Jul 07, 2011 18:09 ESTComments (1)Tags: Catholic, Equity, Ontario
TORONTO, Ontario, July 7, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A leading expert on Catholic education in Ontario has urged the Toronto Catholic District School Board to pass key amendments to its equity policy designed to protect Catholic teaching in the schools.
In a recent letter to trustees, professor and former director of education, Dr. Robert T. Dixon, lauded the board for the fact that the policy makes clear that “the Board … gives pre-eminence to the tenets of the Catholic faith,” but says it is “essential” that the rest of the policy be consistent with that statement.
Dixon is an adjunct professor at St. Augustine’s Seminary who has focused his career on Catholic education in Ontario. His doctoral thesis in 1974 was on the separate school system, and he is the author of “Catholic Education and Politics in Ontario, Vol. IV” and “We Remember, We Believe. A History of Toronto’s Catholic Separate School Boards, 1841 to 1997. “ He has authored affidavits for eight court cases regarding the separate schools’ constitutional rights, all of which were accepted by the court.
His letter comes after the board’s equity policy 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.
In Dixon’s letter, also addressed to Archbishop Thomas Collins of Toronto and director of education Ann Perron, he says it is “obvious,” based on quotes from authoritative Church documents, that the equity policy “must be free from any doctrinal error and implemented in the schools in accordance with the teachings of the Magisterium and the Catechism of the Catholic Church.”
He says Canada’s courts have treated Catholic schools’ denominational rights “with great care and respect,” and that they have accepted the Catholic curriculum as an “essential element” of the Catholic school, and therefore deserving of Constitutional protection.
Dixon describes one clause of the policy affirming that the Board is “committed to establishing and maintaining partnerships with all members of our diverse Catholic community” as “alarming” in its current wording.
“There is some evidence that [t]here are ‘members of our diverse Catholic community’ who may believe that they are propagating Catholic teaching but who, in fact, are not,” he writes. He urged them to include a statement that partnerships will only be maintained if they are “consistent with and reinforce” the Church’s teaching.
Dixon says he is particularly alarmed by Regulation 9 of the policy, which currently affords students “freedom from discriminatory or harassing behaviour based on religion” (emphasis added).
“As worded, this in effect singles out religion as the cause of discrimination or harassment. This is neither fair nor accurate,” he explained. He suggested it be changed simply to “freedom from discrimination or harassment.”
lifesitenews.com/news/leading-education-expert-urges-toronto-catholic-board-to-protect-church-tea
BY PATRICK B. CRAINE
Thu Jul 07, 2011 18:09 ESTComments (1)Tags: Catholic, Equity, Ontario
TORONTO, Ontario, July 7, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A leading expert on Catholic education in Ontario has urged the Toronto Catholic District School Board to pass key amendments to its equity policy designed to protect Catholic teaching in the schools.
In a recent letter to trustees, professor and former director of education, Dr. Robert T. Dixon, lauded the board for the fact that the policy makes clear that “the Board … gives pre-eminence to the tenets of the Catholic faith,” but says it is “essential” that the rest of the policy be consistent with that statement.
Dixon is an adjunct professor at St. Augustine’s Seminary who has focused his career on Catholic education in Ontario. His doctoral thesis in 1974 was on the separate school system, and he is the author of “Catholic Education and Politics in Ontario, Vol. IV” and “We Remember, We Believe. A History of Toronto’s Catholic Separate School Boards, 1841 to 1997. “ He has authored affidavits for eight court cases regarding the separate schools’ constitutional rights, all of which were accepted by the court.
His letter comes after the board’s equity policy 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.
In Dixon’s letter, also addressed to Archbishop Thomas Collins of Toronto and director of education Ann Perron, he says it is “obvious,” based on quotes from authoritative Church documents, that the equity policy “must be free from any doctrinal error and implemented in the schools in accordance with the teachings of the Magisterium and the Catechism of the Catholic Church.”
He says Canada’s courts have treated Catholic schools’ denominational rights “with great care and respect,” and that they have accepted the Catholic curriculum as an “essential element” of the Catholic school, and therefore deserving of Constitutional protection.
Dixon describes one clause of the policy affirming that the Board is “committed to establishing and maintaining partnerships with all members of our diverse Catholic community” as “alarming” in its current wording.
“There is some evidence that [t]here are ‘members of our diverse Catholic community’ who may believe that they are propagating Catholic teaching but who, in fact, are not,” he writes. He urged them to include a statement that partnerships will only be maintained if they are “consistent with and reinforce” the Church’s teaching.
Dixon says he is particularly alarmed by Regulation 9 of the policy, which currently affords students “freedom from discriminatory or harassing behaviour based on religion” (emphasis added).
“As worded, this in effect singles out religion as the cause of discrimination or harassment. This is neither fair nor accurate,” he explained. He suggested it be changed simply to “freedom from discrimination or harassment.”
lifesitenews.com/news/leading-education-expert-urges-toronto-catholic-board-to-protect-church-tea