Catholic Education: Walking Forward Together This year’s theme for Catholic Education Week, Catholic Education: Walking Forward Together, gives not only a direction for our future, but a reminder of how we have traveled in the past. While it is sometimes the case that we can walk faster when we go it alone; we know that we walk further and with clearer purpose when we travel together.

This has been the story for CARFLEO. We have a history of Catholic teachers coming together and walking forward in the hope of supporting and serving Catholic Education. We continue on this journey and hope that walking together, we may continue to serve.

In this issue of the CARFLEO Newsletter

Recapping the CARFLEO Conference 2017

CARFLEO Award Winners

CARFLEO celebrates its founders

Congratulations Bishop Miehm

Development and Peace Solidarity Trip

Walking Together with our Great Partners

CARFLEO on the Internet

2016/2017 CARFLEO Executive Committee: Paul Beaudette, MaryAnn Takacs, Les Miller, Peter Crane, Ann Boniferro, John Podgorski, Joanna Newton, Mark Siolek, Nancy Davie, Derek McEachen, Gregory Healey, Geoffrey Grant, Paul Mantha, and Bishop Daniel Miehm (ACBO Liaison)

Joe Bezzina, Chair; Sr. Pat Carter, Treasurer; Jan Bentham, Secretary,

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If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together!

African Proverb

2017 CARFLEO Conference: “Creating a Culture of Hope: Journeying towards Truth and Reconciliation”

CARFLEO held its annual Conference on March 23rd and 24th, 2017. This year our theme was Creating a Culture of Hope : Journeying towards Truth and Reconciliation”. Sr. Priscillia Solomon csj facilitated the conference guiding us in an understanding of the call to journey towards Recognizing, Respecting and Honouring Indigenous Peoples. These were the same three themes for the three days of the Kairos Intergenerational Conference at the closing of the TRC Commission in Ottawa in June 2015. And they are key to the process of reconciliation.

On the Friday Sr. Priscillia talked about the three “Rs of Reconciliation. They were similar: Recognize, Respect and Reconcile.

Trauma Rocks Exercise Through a Trauma Rocks Exercise, Sr. Priscillia helped us understand how trauma can be passed down from one generation to another. Acknowledging the harm that has been done, working towards healing and reconciliation, and working towards a renewed sense of solidarity can help in ending this cycle of pain. “The experience of reconciliation makes both the victim and the wrongdoer a new creation.”

For more about the CARFLEO Conference and Sister Priscillia click the icons below:

CARFLEO AWARD RECIPIENTS: At our annual CARFLEO conference, following our opening dinner and Evening Prayer liturgy, CARFLEO Awards were presented to the following recipients:

Archbishop Philip Pocock Award for Excellence in Religious Education: The Archbishop Pocock Award is awarded annually to honour an educator who has made outsanding contributions to the field of Religious Education here in Ontario. This year the award was presented to Ed Dufour of the Ottawa Catholic School Board Board. Al Dufour is a Religious Education teacher at Holy Spirit High School in Kanata at the Ottawa Catholic School Board. “Al is a revered colleague in the system and the wider Catholic community in the Ottawa area. He leads children's liturgy at the parish level,

accompanies student trips to the Dominican Repubic and El Salvador, leads adult faith with staff and is honoured by students as he is an examplary teacher. Many in the Ottawa Catholic School Board have been touched by Al's leadership. He is a true model of authentic Christian leadership.” Al was nominated for this award by Jan Bentham of the Ottawa Catholic School Board. Father Angus MacDougall Award for Excellence in Family Life Education:

The Father Angus MacDougall Award is awareded annually to an person who has made outstanding contributions to the field of Family Life Education. This year‘s award was presented to Teresa Hartnett. Teresa is an active Catholic who has been devoted to strengthening families in her community for more than thirty years and is equally passionate about evangelizing people and families in the faith. Through her role as Director of Family Ministry in the Diocese of Hamilton she is has provided many educational workshops for staff at the Diocesan

school boards on issues related to life and family. She has provided strong support for Religious Education Coordinators throughout the Hamilton Diocese in Family Life Education, and has presented at When Faith Meets Pedagogy. Teresa has chaired the HWCDSB Culture of Life Committee since 2004, and she helped to craft the Board’s Pregnant and Parenting Teen Policy Committee in 2001- 02. In 2014 Teresa was awarded an Honourary Lifetime Membership by the Ontario Association of Parents in Catholic Education for her recognized commitment to schools and students. Teresa has been married to Joe for thirty-five years and is the mother of four adult children. As a mother and grandmother, she embodies the principles of Family Life Education in her faith-filled commitment and devotion to her own family. Teresa was nominated for this award by Paul Beaudette of the Hamiltion Wentworth Catholic District School Board.

CARFLEO celebrates its founders

At our annual Conference we briefly honoured seven stalwarts who have travelled with OCFLEN (the Ontario Catholic Family Life Education Network) and CRECO (the Catholic Religious Educators Council of Ontario), and after they merged to become CARFLEO, served on the CARFLEO Executive Council for a number of years. The CARFLEO Seven include:

Sherry Chapman, who is still active with the Simcoe-Muskoka CDSB in Adult Faith Formation;

Peter Crane, retired member from the Peterborough-Victoria-Northumberland-Clarington CDSB, who works with teacher candidates from the Faculty of Education at Trent University and still serves on the CARFLEO Executive;

Bronek Korczynski, retired member from the Algonquin-Lakeshore CDSB, who was the project lead for the Secondary Religious Education Policy Document which was released in the fall;

Sharron McKeever, retired member from the Durham CDSB, who was one of the writers for the ICE Secondary Health and Phys. Ed. Curriculum Supplementary Resources which were released in 2015, and just finished her term on the CARFLEO Executive this past year;

Les Miller, retired member from the York CDSB and past CARFLEO Chair, still serves on the Executive and manages the CARFLEO website which is probably its greatest asset as an organization. Les has a number of publications from Novalis;

John Podgorski, retired member from the Ottawa Catholic School Board, who has produced a number of video resources to support educators in the area of Family Life Education, which can be found on the CARFLEO websit; and

Mary Ann Takacs, retired member from the York CDSB, who still volunteers with that board, and was recently recognized for her more than fifty years of service in Religious Education. This will be her last year serving on the CARFLEO Executive.

Congratulation Bishop Miehm

Earilier this year His Holiness Pope Francis named the Most Reverend Daniel J. Miehm Bishop of the Diocese of Peterborough. At the time of his appointment, he was Auxiliary Bishop of Hamilton and for the last two years has been serving as the Assembly of Catholic Bishops of Ontario liaison to CARFLEO. The installation Mass was celebrated on April 19th. Thank you Bishop Miehm for your guidance and leadership as we continue to work together to serve the Catholic community.

Development and Peace – Solidarity Trip (Paul Beaudette –

Photos by Les Miller)

In January a few members of the CARFLEO executive had the opportunity to participate in a Development and Peace Solidarity Trip to Cambodia. We had been invited to meet the partners of Development and Peace in Thailand and Cambodia, and learn about their work:

o in youth leadership and capacity building; o with indigenous people, small-scale farmers, fisher folk and labourers working for social,

economic and environmental justice; o in human rights, democratic participation and peacebuilding; o in women’s leadership and inclusion in social and economic life and gender-based violence; o in food sovereignty and ecological justice; o with prisoners, victims of human trafficking and displaced peoples.

The theme of Development and Peace’s Share Lent 2017 campaign wass “Women at the Heart of Change.” Certainly that theme was borne out through what we learned and the people we met during out time in South Asia. The majority of social change agents with whom we met were women. I found myself being continually impressed with the intelligence (they described their programs in what was usually their second language with a sophistication and articulateness that I would be hard pressed to emulate in my first) and the passion for justice among the partners we met. And it was not just the workers in the NGO sector who are at the heart of change. We listened to the stories of women and men who had lost their land and their livelihood to economic concessions to local developers and foreign corporations, and others who toil for long hours in substandard working conditions in the garment factories of Phnom Penh so they can send money home to help their families. Amidst all of these struggles, they continue to work for more just social structures. Our last day of meetings was spent with the Youth Research Development Program, which was initiated in 1992 to develop students’ capacity to analyze and reflect on their own and their country’s situation and to act for social change. That, for me, was one of the most inspiring experiences we shared. Listening to about forty young people of late high school and early college age, most of whom had come into Phnom Penh from the surrounding areas to further their studies, talk about their stories and their vision for themselves and their country, I was awed by their critical awareness and the depth of their social analysis. One young woman, Bun Nary, twice proclaimed to us a recent realization she had come to: “Charity is not the way to change society.” Despite their experience of widespread political corruption, and a legacy of silence about political discourse from the Khmer Rouge regime forty years ago, they were clear and outspoken about their convictions, and hopeful about the possibility for change in Cambodia. Now that we have returned, so much richer for this experience, and grateful for the opportunity to see Bangkok, the magnificent temples of Siem Reap as well as the sombre memorials of the Khmer Rouge genocide in Cambodia, we give humble thanks for the learning we have received, and the opportunity to share it with others.

Walking and working together with our Partners.

Thank you all for your partnership and your support in making our 2017 Conference a success!

CARFLEO on the Internet

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