Celebrating some great catholic teachers.

One day, very early on in my teaching career, looked up from my desk to gaze at my entire class, only to ask myself why it is that out of all the great students I have in front of me, I allow myself to get hung up on the few who have no use for what I am teaching them. That was the start of a new direction in my life as a teacher.

I believe something similar can occur with respect to the way some people regard Catholic schools in Ontario. Indeed, I have been profoundly disappointed at various times over the years, but my Outlook address book does seem to get larger every year as I make new contacts with great Catholic teachers around the province who, I soon discover, are doing marvelous things for their students, inspiring many to study theology, or philosophy, or to enter into teaching, even the priesthood. Many students continue to be touched in ways that allow the Catholic

faith to become the very heart of their lives.

Perhaps it is possible to counter with statistics which show that my analogy above is not entirely accurate, but rather the complete reverse, namely that there is a 30% minority who practice their faith and faithfully assent to the teachings of the Church on matters of faith and morals, i.e., the Real Presence, marriage, life issues, etc. Although I maintain a healthy skepticism in the face of such figures--some may call it denial--let it be said nevertheless that 30% of light in a dark room is a lot of light, certainly enough for young people to make their way around without running into the walls and hurting themselves.

Allow me to provide a limited glance at just a fraction of those in this province responsible for creating such light for Ontario Catholic youth.

Paul Coates

Paul has been teaching elementary and secondary for 27 years. More than half that time has been devoted to teaching Philosophy and Religion at the secondary level. He is currently employed by the Durham Catholic District School Board. Many of us know Paul as the music director for the CTV Sunday morning Mass. He was the music partner of one of my greatest inspirations in teaching, Tim Crowley, who died in 1996 at the age of 42. Both of them conducted hundreds of retreats, concerts, and faith days for teachers over the years and have given talks for teenagers all over Canada and the United States, and both wrote most of the music for the Canadian Catechism.

Paul is a member of the Canadian Catholic Bioethics Institute, as well as past leader of the Catholic Teachers Guild, and he has been a teacher of OECTA Religion courses for years. He established the grade 11 and 12 philosophy course at Father Leo Austin Secondary School, and has been awarded Catholic teacher of the year for his school and twice teacher of the month.

I recall that during the years leading up to the Great Jubilee (1996-2000), Paul created a "Catholicity across the Curriculum" program. The idea was to get students to see the entire school curriculum through Catholic lenses. Thus, specific areas of Catholic teaching were linked to each subject area. The entire school was behind the idea, and so Business, Science, Social Science, etc., incorporated the many relevant aspects of Catholic teaching into their curriculum, thus achieving a more complete integration of it in the classroom, as their way of celebrating Jubilee 2000.

Over the years parents and students have approached Paul to offer their thanks for all they have received in their lives as a result of returning to Mass and the sacraments. Many students return from university to visit, very thankful to Paul for clearly teaching them the fundamentals of ethics and the principles of the Catholic faith. In fact, many students see this elucidation as the most important gift they received in high school--especially after attending atheistic lectures at the university level.

Recently, a parent of one of Paul's students approached him, tears in her eyes, and thanked him for having had such a profound influence on her daughter; for it was through her daughter that she herself returned to the Church, describing her return as "coming home again." And one day this year Paul discovered a letter on his desk, written by a former student. In it he wrote: "In January I'm starting theology in Ottawa in preparation for the priesthood. I just wanted to say thank you--think it was the synthesis of philosophy and theology you presented that set me on this path."

Paul has been involved in all sorts of charitable efforts through the years, financing a teen mother who decided to keep her baby, organizing fundraisers for various causes such as the building of a school in Sierra Leone, visiting prisoners and working with the homeless and the mentally ill, etc. This year he heads a pro-life committee that will articulate the 'culture of life' in the form of classroom activities and school assemblies, all of which will culminate in bringing students to the 10th Annual National March for Life in Ottawa.

Eugene Pivato

Eugene has been teaching Religion, English, Family Studies and Computer Science for 12 years and has just become a Vice Principal with the York Catholic District School Board. Initially, Eugene studied psychology, specializing in the study of anti-social personality disorder. He turned down a scholarship in his last year of his B.A program and decided to run an oil painting business with a friend. He soon realized that the actual paintings were being made through cheap labour, on an assembly line, in Hong Kong and Korea, so he left the business and worked as a modern jazz guitarist. But Eugene was so appalled at the 1988 Supreme Court decision to strike abortion from the criminal code that he applied to the Right to Life Association in Toronto, which is where I met him for the first time. He began to speak in schools on various life issues, at times engaging in public debates with pro-abortion advocates. He has the rare distinction of having been arrested for blocking two abortion clinic entrances in Toronto during his five years with the Right to Life Association.

But it was during these years that Eugene felt called to teach Religion in high school. After only six years into his career as a teacher, he was offered the position of department head of Religion at St. Augustine's Secondary School in Richmond Hill. It was at this time that Eugene began teaching OECTA Religion courses to Catholic teachers (Social Justice, Religion Part II, Sexual Ethics, and Religion Part III).

In 1992, he wrote the "The Development of the Preborn Child," which was published by the Toronto Right to Life Association and used by a number of prolife groups in the United States. Eugene also wrote a research paper in 1993 entitled, "Canadian Government Participation in China's Human Rights Violations," which documented the use of Canadian tax dollars given out by the Canadian International Development Agency to the United Nations Population Fund and the International Planned Parenthood Federation for use in Chinese "population programs." He submitted his paper to the Canadian Government in hopes that they would end such funding. Two years later, as a result of this paper as well as the consistent Eugene Pivato pressure from such groups as Real Women of Canada, the Canadian Government withdrew $8.3 million in yearly financing to the IPPF.

Eugene is a very gifted teacher who has had a profound effect on the teachers who underwent his instruction, and his students continued to speak very highly of him long after he had left the school at which he first taught. He was chosen by the St. Augustine's graduating class of 2005 to be the keynote speaker at their graduation ceremony. What he has done during these past twelve years is far too extensive to be included in an article of this size, but what inspires me most about Eugene is his profound love for the Church, his loyalty to Catholic teaching, and his passionate devotion to the moral and spiritual well being of today's youth.

Francis Hill 

Francis is originally from Vancouver and has been teaching English, Media Studies, Religion, and Philosophy for 16 years. He established an honours Religion program at St. Thomas Aquinas High School in Vancouver, and there he ran a Respect for Life Club for 10 years. Many of those students involved in his club went on to establish Right to Life clubs in their respective universities. One of those students, Athena Macapagal, who became the VP of UBC Right to Life, went on to become a member of the Sisters for Life in New York.

Francis inspired a relatively large number of his former students to become high school Religion teachers. A few of those students are currently teaching at his former high school, and one in particular--his most troublesome student, a former atheist and communist--is now teaching many of the courses that Francis used to teach, in the very same classroom that he once occupied. This particular student is now in the process of discerning a vocation to the priesthood and will soon be studying at the John Paul II Institute in Washington, D.C.

Six years ago, Ontario was fortunate enough to acquire the talents of this highly educated and gifted teacher. He was hired by the York Catholic District School Board and has been teaching full time Religion ever since.

Francis has always maintained that when students are given truth, they are dramatically revitalized and begin to blossom. And this is precisely what has impressed me most about Francis as a teacher, namely the sheer number of students of his who have been turned on to the pursuit of truth. I have been particularly impressed that Francis has his students reading from such great authors as Allan Bloom, Peter Kreeft, Janet Smith, C.S. Lewis, and George Weigel, among others. And after reading a few papers that his students had written on moral issues, I had to wonder whether or not I should be demanding more from my own students. Over the Christmas holidays, 15 of his former students wanted to meet with him for dinner to discuss what was happening in their universities with regard to relativism, the new orthodoxy, political correctness, etc., and how to deal with it.

Francis was delighted when the York Catholic District School Board introduced a philosophy course. It was through his clear and articulate presentation of this course and his profound faith that one student in particular, Dave Messina, was inspired to study for the priesthood. Dave would often describe himself as one who was a "professional sinner." Indeed, Francis describes his conversion as the most radical he has ever witnessed. Recently, he returned to the school to talk to Francis' Open level students, after which Dave was greeted with resounding applause.

Another student of his, an agnostic of Muslim heritage, set out on the intellectual journey that Francis opens up for students, only to be led directly to Christ; Francis had the honour of being his sponsor as he was received into the Catholic faith, with so many of his peers joyously celebrating with him.

Francis currently runs a Philosophy Club at school, the primary purpose of which is to arm young students with "an apologetic arsenal so that they could ably, intelligently and courageously participate in the culture wars being waged in the universities." Their most recent project aims to develop a presentation on chastity, a virtue that his students believe the young desperately need to learn about.

Joe Bissonnette

Joe has been teaching Religion and Philosophy for 16 years and is currently employed by the Brant Haldimand Norfolk Catholic District School Board. He has been running a Right to Life Club for about 8 years, training high school students to give talks to grade eights on teen chastity and abortion. The students in his club deliver 15 to 20 presentations to the feeder schools every year.

Not only have I been personally inspired by Joe to start my own Right to Life group, I continue to be inspired by the insightful ideas generated by his rather penetrating mind, many of which I have used (or stolen) for my own articles. I have been particularly struck by the amount of energy he must need to be able to think, teach, and raise seven children, not to mention the cows, horses, chickens, dogs, and the llama that he keeps on his large property in the country.

Joe was inspired by Professor William Mathie of Brock University's Liberal Studies Program, but his biggest inspiration was his own father, Jim Bissonnette, who was a Religion teacher for the York Catholic District School Board. It was his father who taught Joe the importance of friendship with one's students, certainly not the kind of friendship that obliterates a healthy professional distance, but rather the kind of friendship made possible by a genuine professional demeanour. Joe recalls growing up with students regularly at his home, some even living there temporarily while going to school until they were able to find suitable residence.

Joe always maintains that Catholic schools belong to the Church, which is why he refuses to allow himself to feel alienated or persecuted, and why he feels at home in the halls of the Catholic school, despite taking a lot of ribbing from staff for his politically conservative views. He rolls with the ribbing and consistently maintains a very joyful demeanour, one rooted in the conviction that Christ is risen, that victory belongs to the Church because the Church and her schools belong to Christ.

Many of Joe's students have returned to the Catholic faith as a direct result of his joyful witness and his intellectual articulation of the harmony between faith and reason. Over the years, he has found that the students he expects to be most receptive--high achieving honour roll--often are not, while the students he is tempted to dismiss will often turn out to be the most receptive. The ones who tend not to work too hard and who make the lives of administrators very difficult are often the ones who end up carrying the banner of faith. These, he says, are the students who are looking for a single fixed point on which to anchor their lives, and many of them find that the truth of the Catholic faith is precisely that one true point they are looking for.

Joe regularly receives phone calls from former students in university, and one of his students, Andrew St. Thomas, an atheist before entering Joe's philosophy course, will be received into the Church this Easter. Next year, Andrew will be off to Santa Paula, California to study the "Great Books" at St. Thomas Aquinas College.

Barry White

Barry has been teaching for 23 years and is currently employed by the Toronto Catholic District School Board. He is the principal of St. Paul Catholic Elementary School, but he is best known for his role as president of the Catholic Teachers Guild, a lay organization that was established to support Catholics in their vocation as teacher. The Guild has been active for about six years now, and part of its mission statement reads:

... Catholic Education is anchored in the personal witness, not only in the Word proclaimed but also in the Word lived. We seek to support the vocation of the Catholic teacher through special events, lectures, study groups, a web site and, ultimately, by the establishment of an institute for such activity.

In his presentation to Cardinal Ambrozic's Council of Priests (2006), Barry said that every Christian who becomes involved in leading another person to the truth participates, in some limited way, in the teaching identity of Christ. Being a teacher, he says, is not simply a job, but is a way of living out one's baptism.

Catholic education is anchored in the witness of the teacher. He writes: "I have young male teachers on staff who play such a powerful role in the lives of young teenage boys who are fatherless. The admiration they have for these men as coaches spills over into the classroom where these teachers are passionate about the various subjects they teach. The boys also know that these teachers are practising Catholics. We cannot underestimate the evangelical power of such examples."

Barry also points out that fidelity to the teachings of the Church is an "occupational responsibility" for the Catholic teacher. "It is an expectation of parents who entrust their children to the instruction of others to continue the teaching that they have begun."

The Guild sponsors the annual Education Mass every September and it has presented various lectures over the years, lining up such great thinkers as William May, Father Tom Lynch, Professor Donald DeMarco, Professor Janine Langan, Father Tom Rosica, and Father Raymond DeSouza. Recently, the Guild put on a series of four workshops on the Theology of the Body for teachers at the Catholic Education Centre of the Toronto Catholic District School Board.

What I found particularly striking about the Guild's presentation to the Cardinal's Council of Priests were the words of Camille Matthews, a colleague of mine from York Catholic and a member of the Guild who spoke as well: "... you, dear Fathers are those teachers we young people need. We love priests! You are men who have sacrificed your lives to bring us the sacraments, who are committed to the Church, who are the visible representations of Christ on earth. It is a privilege to be here. You are truly heroes of the world today."

Mark Shaw

Mark has been teaching for 20 years and is currently employed by the Halton Catholic District School Board. I first met Mark at McGill University in 1986 where both of us became certified to teach Religious Education. Over the years, I would often wonder how Mark was doing in Montreal, but it was by divine providence that we were recently reunited.

He began his career at the Sacred Heart School of Montreal as a Religion teacher as well as co-chaplain. He planned and ran retreats and all major liturgical events in the school. He also coached extensively. But once again, Ontario got the better end of the deal; for he is now department head of Social Studies, Philosophy and Family Studies as well as Religion, and he continues to be a very effective teacher of OECTA Religion courses.

Mark has always maintained that what is most important in what he does in the classroom is not the course "material," but the way he presents himself to his students. That is why, he says, he must lead the kind of life that truly models what it means to be a genuine follower of Christ. He continues to coach and assists with school musicals, and he is part of a committee established to ensure that the school continues to grow as a Catholic community. He participates in writing curriculum, designing new courses and revamping old ones, and like all of the teachers above, he is actively involved in his parish. He and his wife are active with Catholic Engaged Encounter and other Marriage Preparation courses in the Hamilton Diocese.

Over the years, Mark has counseled students suffering from depression and at risk for suicide. Shortly after coming to Ontario, he received a letter from one of those very students who, while on retreat, was instructed to write a letter to someone who had made a difference in her life. She wrote to Mark because, as she said, if it was not for him, she would not be alive today.

Concluding thoughts

I had planned to focus on six more teachers, but space will simply not permit. At this point, I can only mention Dave Fischer, a teacher at St. Michael's College School with whom I have been deeply impressed over the years. Instead of writing about him, he tried to persuade me to write about his colleagues in Religion, Mr. Peter McCann, and especially Father Cecil Zinger, who has given more than four decades to Catholic education and who is the most beloved teacher of all at the school. I have to mention Brian Anderson of the London Catholic District School Board who has been teaching for 28 years, as well as Rado Krevs, who is the department head of Science at Brebeuf College School in Toronto, both of whom have always witnessed a love for the Church and Catholic teaching and who have influenced students to the same. I must mention Religion and Philosophy teacher Blaine Barclay from the Algonquin and Lakeshore Catholic District School Board, Dave Markle and Bohdan Lechman from York Catholic, Patrick Phillips from London Catholic, as well as Mark Sherlock from Toronto Catholic who has put together a very rich and challenging Philosophy course. And of course, I could have focused on my own colleagues, both past and present, such as Patty Ann Dennis, Elena Tullio, Lorraine Thompson, and many others.

Every one of these teachers I mention, however, has four or five other names of faithful and devoted Catholic teachers that can be written about. How many names would these others in turn be able to provide? And so I tend not to believe that Catholic education in Ontario is in the darkness of a winter season; rather, there are many signs of spring. Nevertheless, even in winter, if we look up and gaze at the night sky, we see a multitude of bright stars, at one time the very guideposts of celestial navigation. Although miles of darkness may separate them, there is tremendous beauty in the night sky when seen at a glance.

Doug McManaman teaches the philosophy of religion at Father Michael McGivney Catholic Academy in Markham, ON.