Many are aware that there are a number of groups trying to ensure the election of "committed" Catholics to the Toronto Catholic District School Board in the upcoming municipal elections. Unfortunately, their efforts have seldom been successful in the past and are unlikely to be successful again. The reason is that they have never established a unified political strategy. Many question, for instance, the advisability of a recent workshop organized by the newly established “St. Monica Institute”, which was designed to prepare candidates for the job of Catholic School Board trustee. A similar initiative four years ago not only failed, but may well have contributed to the current problem facing the Board. The encouragement of inexperienced candidates has often had the effect of merely splitting votes, leading to the election of seasoned candidates whose real motivation is a future political career at the municipal or provincial level. These political ambitions almost always necessitate a disavowal of ones "Catholic" values on such issues as abortion, gender ideology and other “life” issues. Given these challenges, “good intentions" are simply not enough. The inexperienced layperson is seldom equipped to deal with the financial, administrative, and constitutional issues which now impinge on matters coming before our Catholic School Boards. Any hope of securing Catholic Education will require that there be a single Catholic candidate in each ward who can count upon the support of an informed Catholic laity. This is something that the Archdiocese and the laity have consistently failed to achieve. Indeed, in the last election, Campaign Life Coalition endorsed a candidate in Ward 2 on the basis of a naïve questionnaire, who went on to win the election with 3,943 votes while 9,318 votes were split among four other candidates! Similarly, in the Cathedral’s own Ward 9, a candidate won with 2,309 votes while 7,406 votes were split among another six candidates! In both cases, the trustees who were elected not only ignored all advice from the Archdiocese on denominational issues, but supported policies that seriously compromised Catholic Education. The well-intentioned efforts of the parent group PAFE have also contributed to the problem by backing its own candidates, and achieved little during the recent debate over the revision of the Board’s Code of Conduct which now compels employees to accept as morally licit, all forms of “gender expression”. These facts reflect a failure of the part of the Archdiocese to address the root cause of the "crisis" in Catholic Education. It's not one which can be addressed with a workshop encouraging "well-meaning" laypeople to run as trustee - further splitting votes in wards which year after year, have returned trustees who consistently betray Catholic values. It's perhaps time for the Archdiocese to reassess the nature of the crisis, and more importantly, its strategy for addressing it. The crisis is in fact a long standing one. The main cause is the ever-widening gulf between School and Parish which has accompanied the secularization of society. Until a way is found to bridge this gulf, little can be achieved to "re-evangelize" the local Catholic Board! Indeed, many pastors have become so disengaged from Catholic Education, that they often don't even know the names of their School Board trustees, let alone the policies these trustees have championed. This lack of engagement lies at the heart of the current crisis. The parish must re-establish itself at the heart of the local Catholic school for there to be any hope of electing “Catholic” trustees to govern those schools. Only by doing can the Archdiocese ensure the fidelity of our Catholic schools to the faith. The following suggestions might serve as first steps to re-establishing this relationship, thereby ensuring the election of genuine Catholic trustees in the upcoming elections, upon which the future of Catholic Education may well depend. 1. The Archdiocese's "St. Monica Institute" should direct its efforts towards its pastors, rather than the laity, to ensure they are familiar with the critical issues facing Catholic Education. Only by doing so can they assist the laity in identifying and supporting a candidate in each Ward who has the administrative, political and theological credentials to faithfully serve as a Catholic School Board trustee. 2. Pastors should be encouraged to build a working relationship with the School Board by choosing a parishioner to serve as liaison on the Parent Council (CSPC) of each of the schools under their pastoral care. 3. The Archdiocese might be well advised to review its policy of political non-involvement in trustee elections, and in the light of its pastoral responsibility towards our Catholic Schools, return to the past practice of permitting qualified clergy, whether priest, deacon or nun, to pursue elected service on our Catholic School Boards. Without the church's presence and participation in the governance of our Catholic schools, the evangelical mission which is the sole justification for their existence, will have been voluntarily forfeited. TCDSB BoardWatch Editor