The Gullible Theme - Part 3: Examining the Calgary SSPX School Policy - Context

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JMJ

Context

The SSPX School in Calgary (St. John Bosco Private School) has been in operation in various forms for around 20 years.  I am aware that the school has, like many Traditional Catholic schools, faced challenges - such as how to pay for professional teachers and navigate the Albertan education system at the same time.

With a long history of conservative governments there was little to fear from accepting government funding for the school. 

However, that changed dramatically in 2015 when an NDP government was elected (Wikipedia).

Just a quick refreshers on Catholic Doctrine on this point: Lawful Governments, even those elected by the governed, receive their authority from God.  It would be the height of liberalism to believe that, just because they pass illegitimate laws we can disregard the laws of the land.  That would lead to anarchy.  Government ministers are our superiors and their laws need to be assessed with the same principles as religious superiors.

 In other words, we have an obligation to be ready to obey the lawfully elected authority.

If you don't think so, then you're following neither the Catholic Faith, nor the path of Archbishop Lefebvre. As I once told a modern Catholic, I'm talking about Catholic Teaching, you don't like it find another Church.

As far as I've been able to reconstruct, the inclusion of 'alliances' was first put into the School act in 2015 (CANLII link to Alberta School Act). In 2017 changes were made to the act in order to close loop holes being exploited by Christian and Catholic schools.

The following is the guidance that I found on the Alberta website.

Now, as St. John Bosco was supported by government funding (as noted in part one of this series) and as noted in the first line (above) it DID fall under the legislation.  Gullible's statements to the contrary are now demonstrated to be false. He should have done his research.

It was at this point in time that the SSPX school in Calgary incorporated the text into its policy, along with a number of caveats that bracket the mandated text as well as provide more context as to the purpose of the school and its education of the students.

To round out the context, Fr. Couture stayed in Calgary for about a year prior to the arrival of Fr. McMachon (sp).  I cannot recall if his stay pre-dated the updated policy, but I am aware he was there to try and resolve some issue(s) with the school

I believe that this sets the stage for us to assess the key points of the St. John Bosco school policy in the light of Catholic principles and the context.

P^3