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Michael Del GrandeToronto Catholic School Board

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TORONTO, December 13, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) – Michael Del Grande is a faithful Catholic trustee under attack from LGBT activists and their allies on the Toronto Catholic District School Board (TCDSB).

Del Grande, along with Theresa Lubinski, Garry Tanuan, and Nancy Crawford, voted November 7  against adding “gender identity” and “gender expression” to the TCDSB’s code of conduct.

But Del Grande went a step further and pointed out that the TCDSB was heading down a “slippery slope” by adding terms that endorse gender ideology in contradiction to Church teaching, and he facetiously proposed that the board add other categories of sexual preferences, such as bestiality and paedophilia.

It was “a rhetorical strategy to make his point that separating people into groups by shared characteristics is reductive and not consistent with a Catholic view of the human person,” pointed out Teresa Pierre, executive director of Parents As First Educators (PAFE).

Nevertheless the LGBT lobby, parent activists, and liberal trustees — notably former chair Maria Rizzo — were outraged, and have embarked on a relentless campaign against Del Grande, filing complaints against him, asking that the board publicly rebuke him, and launching a petition demanding he resign.

Meanwhile, the Archdiocese of Toronto released a statement four days after the vote that conceded it recognized the terms were in the code of conduct, which governs students and staff, but which added: “We do not accept the view of the human person which underlies this terminology, since that view is not compatible with our faith.”

On Monday, the 12-member board voted against publicly reprimanding Del Grande for alleged code of conduct violations, as reported in the CBC. However, the trustees voted to discuss code of conduct complaints publicly in the future — which means Del Grande may well have to endure future public attacks on his integrity and character.

Below is Mike Del Grande’s statement of defense against his critics.

In recent weeks I have received emails that have been very negative as well as those that have been very supportive of the stand that I took about adding specific terms to the Toronto Catholic District School Board. I have been called a “hero” by supporters.

I am not a hero. I am a faithful Catholic with an informed conscience standing up for Catholic education and Church teachings. The Church is the instrument of eternal salvation for humanity. Catholic educational institutions are what the Vatican would call, “the participation of the Christian community in the Catholic schools’ work. It is a genuine community bent on imparting, over and above an academic education, all the help it can to its members to adopt a Christian way of life. For the Catholic school mutual respect means service to the Person of Christ.”

My Baptismal promises, Confirmation, and Oath of Office have compelled me to speak up. A Catholic school cannot be Catholic if it is not faithful. Simply saying Jesus loves everyone does not mean Jesus condones sin. He loved and forgave the adulteress at the well, but he also told her to “go and sin no more” (John 8:11).

I have been told by “Catholics” that we have to “get with the modern times.” Ironically, Pope St. Pius X identified Modernism as the most dangerous threat to the Catholic Church, in part because, even as far back as 1907 (when his encyclical against the heresy of Modernism was written), Modernists “[belonged] to the Catholic laity, and, what is much more sad, to the ranks of the priesthood itself.” He said that “injury [to the Church] is the more certain,” because “the more intimate is their knowledge of her” as insiders.

We are at a critical crossroads. With modern media, the Internet, and the new gods of consumerism and relativism, our society is inundated with post-Christian elements which have a profound impact on those who identify as Christian. Terms like nominal catholic, non-practicing catholic, dissenting catholic are those on the “inside.” And non-believers and anti-catholics have united with those post-Christians to accommodate, change, and simply ignore our deposit of truths as explained by dogma, doctrine, and aiscipline.

The One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church must speak with one voice and reject that which is not keeping with the Creed that the faithful recite at Mass.

No, the real heroes are the ones losing their lives for living their faith. The secular media would have you believe that the number is not high, but the fact remains: a lot of Christians are killed because they are Christians. I am only harassed, hated, and repudiated for the stand that I took against a gender ideology which is incompatible with the Christian anthropology of the human person – a stand that was twisted by the media and believed by those who needed someone on which to focus their hate.

Each one of us cannot simply take the comfort of the pew on a Sunday, and say nothing or do nothing about the attacks on our faith taking place all around us. Fr. Dwight Longenecker put it best for me: “First we overlook evil. Then we permit evil. Then we legalize evil. Then we promote evil. Then we celebrate evil. Then we persecute those who still call it evil.”

I call it evil.

To send emails of support for Del Grande to trustees, contact:

Joseph Martino
Ward 1: Etobicoke

Phone: 416-512-3401
Fax: 416-512-3214
E-Mail: [email protected]

Markus de Domenico
Ward 2: Etobicoke

Phone: 416-512-3402
Fax: 416-512-3214
E-Mail: [email protected]

Ida Li Preti
Ward 3: North York

Phone: 416-512-3403
Phone: 416-222-8282 Ext.2660
Fax: 416-512-3214
E-Mail: [email protected]

Teresa Lubinski
Ward 4: Parkdale-High Park, Etobicoke-Lakeshore

Phone: 416-512-3404
Fax: 416-512-3214
E-Mail: [email protected]

Maria Rizzo
Ward 5: North York

Phone: 416-512-3405
Fax: 416-512-3214
E-Mail: [email protected]
Frank D'Amico, CD
Ward 6: York

Phone: 416-512-3406
Fax: 416-512-3214
E-Mail: [email protected]

Michael Del Grande
Ward 7: Scarborough/ North York

Phone: 416-512-3407
Fax: 416-512-3214
E-Mail: [email protected]

Garry Tanuan
Ward 8: Scarborough

Phone: 416-512-3408
Fax: 416-512-3214
E-Mail: [email protected]

Norm Di Pasquale
Ward 9: Toronto

Phone: 416-512-3409
Fax: 416-512-3214
E-Mail: [email protected]

Daniel Di Giorgio
Ward 10: Toronto

Phone: 416-512-3410
Fax: 416-512-3214
E-Mail: [email protected]

Angela Kennedy
Ward 11: East York/Toronto

Phone: 416-512-3411
Fax: 416-512-3214
E-Mail: [email protected]

Nancy Crawford
Ward 12: Scarborough

Phone: 416-512-3412
Fax: 416-512-3214
E-Mail: [email protected]