Madam Chair, Dear Trustees, Ladies and Gentlemen,
My wife and I are here tonight as Catholic teachers and parents of three children. Together we have taught a total of 65 years for the TCDSB. I would like to begin by sharing with you what we have learned is the most important factor in the well-being and success of every student: It’s whether they are loved and cared for at home. Home is the place where a child first learns the love of neighbour. These are central pillars of Catholic belief. And it’s this love, not a Ministry policy that protects all students from bullying of any kind. The Catechism teaches us that we are all made in the image and likeness of God, and that we must love our neighbor as ourselves: It’s this teaching that ensures respect for the dignity of all including those who are different in some way. There is no safer place for students than the Catholic school because of this fundamental moral principle.
Trustees, last month you passed the Equity policy, but the question now is whether you are going to let a secular government completely remove from our schools the very faith and the reason for their existence. To preserve our Catholic faith identity you must support amendments to ensure that any implementation of the Equity policy will in no way contradict the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Sure, the Equity strategy sounds good. After all, we all want equality, inclusive and safe schools, free of discrimination and any kind of bullying. This is the main argument for Equity education, but it adds nothing to Catholic teaching, except to reject its teaching about same-sex attractions.
Our Catholic schools should be places where everyone strives to love God and every neighbor. No Ministry or board policy can ever change that truth. It’s a truth that protects everyone. Catholics schools should not be forced to accept a policy that overrules the teaching of the Catechism on human sexuality and same-sex attractions. Our faith teaches us that we should be striving to conform to that truth, not to the sexual orientations of those who disagree with the Church. Doing anything else is hypocritical and not Catholic. The Catholic schools truly represent a much-needed and real alternative for parents supporting public education in Ontario. McGuinty, his Ministry of Education and board administrators were neither elected nor appointed to redefine our faith or to remove it from our Catholic schools.
The Equity Strategy is a way of normalizing the idea that human life and sexuality are merely human constructs, with the ultimate judge being those appointed to the OHRC. But the Catholic Church teaches that, like faith, life too is a gift from God and no amount of social engineering and re-labeling can change that. Catholic teaching about the human person, the family and human sexuality, including same-sex attractions, protects all students. It does not focus on one group or any single issue.
Let’s be clear. The aim of the Equity Education Strategy is to make same-sex attractions normal, accepted, encouraged and celebrated. Catholic teaching is against this. On this issue, both our elected government and board administrators have no legal authority to contradict the Church’s moral teaching because this is a denominational right.
No democratic government or board officials can force this policy with threats or intimidation simply because the Church and its faithful have a different belief. Catholics have this legal protection. As Catholic trustees it is the very freedom to practice our faith in all matters that you must protect tonight. As trustees you have the responsibility to Catholic ratepayers, to the children and parents supporting Catholic schools but most importantly to God, not to any director, board lawyers or board superintendents. You are accountable to Catholic parents who have entrusted you to protect the Catholic faith for the community and their sons and daughters.
This evening we urge each of you to pass amendments to safeguard Church teaching. If you fail to do so, the board will really face total government supervision by being completely controlled by the Equity policy, leaving no room for faith. In a flawed effort to redress discrimination against a minority, the Equity strategy discriminates against the Catholic minority by violating their religious rights. For Catholics, the policy is inequitable and exclusive. Remember that governments come and go, but the faith and its truth have been with us for over two thousand years.
The future of Catholic education at the TCDSB is in your hands. And so we ask you not to surrender like all the other Catholic boards have, but to defend the Catholic faith in order to protect everyone in the entire Catholic system: all students, teachers and other employees and not merely any particular group. So, vote to pass amendments so that anything done in our Catholic schools regarding EIE is done in total compliance with the Catechism of the Church.
Thank you,
Lou Iacobelli