(LifeSiteNews) — A group of Catholic educational entrepreneurs are developing a network for assisting the independent Catholic schools’ movement in Ontario.
The Consortium of Independent Ontario Catholic Schools (CIOCS) is a network of schools whose primary purpose is to foster collaboration and communion among member schools while upholding shared values, mission, and commitment to Catholic education.
John Pacheco, one of the Consortium’s directors, explained one of the motivations of the group.
“There’s a lot of discussion today about identity, and we believe that every child’s identity is to be rooted and conformed into the image of Jesus Christ, in whose immutable image we are created,” he said.
“From a practical standpoint, what we’re seeking to do is to develop a support structure to assist our existing and prospective member schools in a variety of areas. One key objective for CIOCS is to find ways of lowering the costs to make private Catholic education within reach of parents.”
By drawing on the collective experience and knowledge of existing schools and their founders, CIOCS hopes that existing and new members can gain invaluable insight from each other; collaborate; plan common initiatives, events, and annual gatherings; leverage and share professional teaching development; grow a nascent economy rooted in legitimate Catholic social principles and natural law; enjoy financial benefits through economies of scale; present a collective voice to engage third parties to further members’ common objectives; and provide moral support and encouragement to one another.
Another objective of the network is to provide a venue and outlet for new schools and what CIOCS calls “missionary parents” – parents who seek an alternative to the existing publicly government funded schools by establishing their own schools with like-minded parents.
Pacheco states that CIOCS “exists to grow its network membership to empower and enable parents who wish to establish such schools and other educational venues where they live. The Consortium exists in part to answer their first question: ‘Where do we possibly begin?’”
Another objective for the Network is to represent member schools when dealing with third parties, including other like-minded associations, government, and even the Catholic Church’s hierarchy in areas of common concern for the schools.
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Concerns about Catholic education in Ontario have been raised by parents in the last several years in response to the transgender movement’s success in promoting gender confusion in government-funded schools, as well as the reluctance of school boards to listen to parents’ concerns. Recently, state-run Catholic schools have declined even to affirm Catholic teaching on the sanctity of human life, with three Toronto Catholic District School Board (TCDSB) trustees publicly rejecting a colleague’s proposed pro-life initiative for all schools in the district to fly the pro-life flag in May.
Asked about this ideological colonization of government-funded Catholic schools, Pacheco remarked:
CIOCS believes that Catholic parents—and not the state or the school boards—are the primary and principal educators of their children. This is Catholic teaching, and it is not very well understood or acknowledged. All third-party agencies exist to assist and co-operate with parents in their primary role of educators, including imparting the authentic Catholic values they wish to share with their children.
The education roles have been blurred in recent years, and we want to provide a choice and a path for Catholic parents to recover these traditional roles. CIOCS is about school choice, transparency, informed decision-making, and accountability in service of the truth as expressed in the great Catholic tradition. Education needs to have alternatives for a healthy and prosperous society, and we are hoping to provide a foundation for that alternative. We also hope that our presence and success will assist the publicly funded Catholic schools recover their identity as Catholic schools.
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CIOCS’s first major event, a “Catholic Community Day & School Fair” will take place in Ottawa on May 18. Organizers envision this as an annual meeting that will bring Catholic ministries, businesses, and schools in the Ottawa region together to provide a venue to promote collaboration and cooperation within the entire Catholic community and to support the growth of independent Catholic education in Ottawa.
Commenting on the upcoming event, Pacheco said, “We need to address the fragmentation in society and in the Church – especially over these past several years – with something which brings the Catholic Faithful together for a common mission and genuine spiritual fellowship and communion. I think this Community Day is just what we need, and hopefully we will be able to replicate it across the province in the coming years. I’m hoping Ottawa-area Catholics will respond by attending and showing their support.”
More information about CIOCS and its first Community Day & School Fair can be found by visiting its event page at ciocs.ca/events