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It鱿鱼视频app funny how 200 years can sneak up on you, but the Basilian Fathers plan to celebrate their bicentennial quietly, modestly, prayerfully, humbly.

Published in Features

Every Saturday a group of people gather at the Marian Shrine of Gratitude in northwest Toronto to pray the rosary.

Published in Canada

Last week鱿鱼视频app record financial award to a man abused by a monstrous priest 50 years ago is cringeworthy on many levels.

Published in Robert Brehl

TORONTO - After 123 years the Basilian Fathers are moving on from Toronto鱿鱼视频app Holy Rosary parish. But 鈥渁s one door closes, another one opens,鈥 said Basilian general superior Fr. George Smith.

Published in Canada: Toronto-GTA

TORONTO - The Basilian Fathers are working on a professional development curriculum for teachers that will focus on the distinctiveness of Catholic education.

鈥淲e are moving from being the teacher of the students to the teacher of the teachers,鈥 said Fr. George Smith, C.S.B., who pitched the new curriculum at a Basilian conference held last March. 鈥淚t鱿鱼视频app easier for us to be the teachers of the teachers because there are fewer of them (than students).鈥

Using contemporary adult eduction techniques, which Smith described as 鈥渁nimation and facilitation,鈥 the course aims to re-evangelize teachers, including those in administrative positions.

鈥淲e want to bring teachers together to explain what they do. Hear what is distinct about the school that we teach in,鈥 said Smith. 鈥淚t鱿鱼视频app about empowering teachers to stand up and say 鈥業鈥檓 a teacher in a Catholic school and here is why.鈥 鈥

Expected to be ready for the fall of 2013, the curriculum will first appear in North America鱿鱼视频app three Basilian-owned high schools: Toronto鱿鱼视频app St. Michael鱿鱼视频app College School, St. Thomas High School in Texas and Catholic Central High School in Detroit.

The curriculum will be explained to staff by two Basilian Fathers who will facilitate the program. They will be among 10 to be selected for the role during a Basilian conference in Houston in December.

During the professional development days, the Basilian facilitators will offer their opinion of what a Catholic education should be. The aim is to have teachers re-energized about their faith, which Smith said has become 鈥渓ukewarm鈥 for most.

In the paper he presented in January, Smith blamed advances in social communications, scientific and technical research, problems of globalization, new and emerging political, economic and religious forces and secularization for weakening the faith among teachers. By reigniting the teachers鈥 faith, Smith hopes to see a trickle-down effect throughout schools.

鈥淚 really see this as a wonderful example of the New Evangelization,鈥 said Smith. 鈥淲e鈥檙e trying to create an environment where children feel as if they鈥檙e in a community of faith.鈥

Although only Basilian schools will be offered this service at first, the intention is to make it available to publicly funded Catholic schools in the long run.

鈥淲hen I look five years down the road I would like to see this (curriculum introduced) into areas with socio-economic challenges,鈥 said Smith, calling this a preservation of the Basilian roots of educating the impoverished.

But this is about more than preserving Basilian ideologies, said Smith, referring to the 鈥渆ducational  emergency鈥 of a Catholic school system that is growing weaker in the faith, a topic Pope Benedict XVI has often discussed.

鈥淲e are convinced that if our teachers don鈥檛 know why Catholic education is distinctive, then Catholic education will disappear in this country within a generation,鈥 said Smith, adding that it鱿鱼视频app the Catholic system鱿鱼视频app attention to values which sets it apart.

Published in Catholic Education