St Mary's Christmas Lunch a true " EAT PRAY & LOVE" experience

Dear friends ,

This past Tuesday I attended St. Mary's Christmas lunch. This was a beautiful experience that touch my heart profoundly. The parent council along with the staff at the school worked together to make a delicious Turkey dinner for every child and staff member in the school. All of the students sat at round tables, decorated with white table cloths and center pieces in the gym. They prayed, ate sang, and even line danced together. ( Who says you have to go to Italy to "eat, pray & love" :) )

Others in attendance were Trustee Linda Zanella, Councilor Bob Callahan, Pastor Father Amaral, his uncle and Father Ricardo, our local police officers, "Super" Superintendent Geoge Prajza, the principal and vice principal from Cardinal Ledger, as well as the executives of the Knights of Columbus.

I felt like I was at one of the biggest family Christmas gatherings ever. The children were well mannered, and seems very happy to have turkey dinner. I was fortunate to speak to many of the teachers and volunteer in attendance.

I had the good fortune of speaking with many staff members and parents, all of whom recognize the role that the principal Patty Peroni plays in ministering to the needs of the children of the community.

According to staff, about 75% of the children of St. Mary's school come from families that struggle financially. Principal Peroni works endlessly to ensure that the basic needs of the students are met. She arranges for food program, both breakfast and lunch, she arranges for clothing drives so that they will have coats, hats and mittens, and she arranges for donations so that students will have food and gifts during Christmas. She knows that students can't learn if their basic needs are not met.

Staff members tell me that for many of these students this Christmas dinner is the only one that they will have this year. What a gift the Christmas Dinner is for these children and what better way to tell them that they are part of the St. Mary's family.

After hearing of principal Peroni's work, it came to me that Patty is more than a principal to these students she is a mother to them as well.

In light of this insight, I have decided to give Patty Peroni, the name of Mother Peroni of Brampton, as she embodies the spirit our our beloved Mother Teresa from Calcutta.

I would like to thank principal Peroni, the staff and the Parent Council for the generosity of time, their kindness, of love and dedication to the students of St. Mary's School.

I would also like to thank all of the people and organizations who donate to presents, foods coats etc.

May you all have a most joyous Christmas and a most prosperous and blessed New Year.

Yours in Christ

Anna da Silva

Inaugural Meeting

Hello everyone,

The inaugural meeting was awesome. Signing the oath next to the Canadian flag was a very emotional and brought home the responsibility we trustees have been given to serve our community, our country and our God. As Catholics we are very fortunate to be able to also celebrate this moment spiritually. Prior to the signing we participated in the Mass where by we made a spiritual commitment to uphold the dictates of our faith. This made the inaugural experience even more meaningful.

Hello

Tomorrow I will be inaugurated and will officially commence my term as your trustee. I really looking forward to serving our catholic school community. Thank you all for your support.

Part of our job as trustee is to be informed about events, issues and challenges that we as catholic school supporters face.

During my reading this week I came across a few articles that I think you might be interested. One article is about the persecution of Christians and the other is about the misguided politicians who want to put an end to catholic education in Alberta.

It is important that you are informed about these events as go forward we Catholics in Ontario could find ourselves in the same predicament.

In up coming blogs I will try and provide you with articles that have been published that show why it is our constitutional right to have publicly funded education.

In the mean time, I ask that you pray for the protection of our rights to Catholic Education and that God may open the eyes of those that oppose this freedom.

Article number 1

CBC.CA News

Former education minister calls for single school system

Thu Dec 2 2010, 3:50pm ET

Section: Canada

Former Alberta Education Minister Dave King is

calling for end to public funding for separate schools.

?We want little Catholic kids to be educated beside

little Protestant kids, beside rich kids, poor kids,

Indian kids, refugee kids,? said Dave King, education

minister during the Peter Lougheed era.

?I believe in our kids being educated together.?

King has created a website and an online petition to

put an end to religious schooling in Alberta.

?The second thing that concerns me is that we're

conveying an advantange to one religious group that

isn't available to others,? he said.

?There are no Mormon separate schools, or Jewish

schools or Sikh separate schools.?

Education Minister Dave Hancock says people have a

constitutional right to a Catholic education.

?It would require significant movement to change the

constitution,? he said.

?It's been done ? Newfoundland did it, Quebec did it

? but I don't see any political will any real public

groundswell saying that they don't want to have what

we've got now.?

© 2010 CBC. All Rights Reserved.

Article Two

Toronto Star

Thrown to the lions; Christianity is arguably the most persecuted

religion in the world

Sun Dec 5 2010

Page: IN1

Section: Insight

Byline: Ron Csillag SPECIAL TO THE STAR

Illustrations: Bullet holes scar a stone relief of the Virgin Mary at the Syrian Catholic Church in Baghdad on Nov. 1, 2010, the day after seven security force members

and 46 Christian worshippers were killed when U.S. and Iraqi forces stormed the cathedral. They were attempting to free dozens of hostages held in an attack claimed

by Al-Qaeda gunmen. AHMAD AL-RUBAYE/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

Earlier this month, Christians who are free to observe

their faith gathered in churches around the world for

the annual International Day of Prayer for the

Persecuted Church. They recited pre-written

invocations for fellow Christians who face violence

and oppression.

Maybe pew-bound Christians should instead heed the

sentiments of escaped American slave Frederick

Douglass: "I prayed for 20 years but received no

answer until I prayed with my legs."

Certainly, there are many reasons to take action:

Terrified Christians in Iraq are still mourning the

50-plus deaths in an Oct. 31 attack against

worshippers attending mass at Our Lady of Salvation

church in Baghdad, in which a militant group called

the Islamic State of Iraq sprayed the sanctuary with

bullets.

Asia Bibi, a 45-year-old Christian mother of five in

Pakistan, remains on death row - after spending more

than a year in prison - for allegedly blaspheming the

Prophet Muhammad. Last week, a court blocked a

presidential pardon until an appeals court hears her

case. Also in Pakistan, police said two Muslim

extremists shot a Christian to death in Punjab

province shortly after the victim was granted bail in a

"blasphemy" case - and less than a week after Islamic

militants in the same province killed four members of

a Christian family for their faith.

In Uzbekistan, a Christian man has been fined the

equivalent of seven years' salary for possessing a

movie about Jesus.

The Vietnamese government has announced the

continuation of a massive military operation to "wipe

out" Christians in the central highlands who refuse to

join the state-approved church.

Christianity is arguably - and perhaps

counter-intuitively - the most persecuted religion in

the world. And the reason for the blissful

obliviousness to that fact of well-fed Christians in the

West is "ignorance," says Michael Horowitz, a U.S.

Jewish activist who has written on Christian

persecution. Horowitz contends this lack of

awareness "is fostered by preconceptions and

conventional wisdoms that lead many in the West to

dismiss anti-Christian persecution as improbable,

untrue, impossible."

Persecution of Christians just doesn't compute. After

all, it's the faith of record in the world's richest and

most powerful countries, where Christians have been

ensconced for centuries.

And given Christianity's well-documented history of

brutality, modern-day elites are more conditioned to

think of Christian believers as the persecutors, not the

victims, says Horowitz.

But the face of Christianity has changed drastically.

"There's still the mindset that Christianity is white,

Western and European," says Paul Marshall, of the

Hudson Institute in Washington, D.C., and a former

senior fellow at the Center for Religious Freedom.

Today, he points out, two-thirds of the world's

Christians live outside the West. "The average

Christian, if one can use that term, is now a Nigerian

woman," Marshall says. And numbering 2 billion,

there are plenty of Christians to oppress.

Virtually every human rights group and Western

government agency that monitors the plight of

Christians worldwide arrives at more or less the same

conclusion: Between 200 million and 230 million of

them face daily threats of murder, beating,

imprisonment and torture, and a further 350 to 400

million encounter discrimination in areas such as jobs

and housing. A conservative estimate of the number

of Christians killed for their faith each year is

somewhere around 150,000.

Christians are "the largest single group in the world

which is being denied human rights on the basis of

their faith," the World Evangelical Alliance has

noted.

In a report to a conference on Christian persecution

hosted by the European Parliament last month, the

U.S. Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life put it

this way: while Muslims and Jews worldwide and

Baha'is in Iran certainly suffer too, Christians were

"harassed" by government factors in 102 countries

and by social factors, such as mob rule, in 101

countries.

"Altogether, Christians faced some form of

harassment in two-thirds of all countries," or 133

nations, the report said. Muslims also face

"substantial" harassment, the Pew report found, but in

fewer countries.

Christians face harassment in more countries "than

any other religious group," a Pew Forum

spokesperson told the Star.

FPinfomart.ca Page 21

Put in sharper focus, "at least" 75 per cent of all

religious persecution in the world is directed against

Christians, the conference was told.

The euphemistic term "harassment" encompasses

vigilante and terrorist attacks against Christians in

more than a dozen Muslim countries. In Sudan, an

estimated 1.5 million Christians have been murdered

by the Islamic Janjaweed militia, including some who

were crucified. In Nigeria, 12 states have introduced

sharia law. Thousands of Christians were killed in the

ensuing violence.

In Saudi Arabia, the only faith permitted by law is

Islam. Christians are regularly imprisoned and

tortured on trumped-up charges of drinking alcohol,

blaspheming or owning religious artifacts.

In Egypt, Coptic Christians are still reeling from a

church attack last January in which eight worshippers

were killed. "The situation is deteriorating and is very

tense," Sam Fanous, a leader of Toronto's Coptic

community, told the Star from Cairo. He said that

after Friday Muslim prayers, streets fill with

anti-Coptic protests.

In historically tolerant Indonesia, Islamic militias

have bombed churches in majority Christian regions

and killed or forcibly converted thousands.

China, meantime, continues to shutter "underground"

churches and ship pastors to prison.

Open Doors International, a group that reaches out to

persecuted Christians, lists the 10 most repressive

countries for minority religions and Christians in

particular: North Korea, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Somalia,

Maldives, Afghanistan, Yemen, Mauritania, Laos and

Uzbekistan.

The plight of Christians in Communist and formerly

Communist countries is "slowly easing," says

Marshall, but getting worse in India and across the

Muslim and Arab world, where even to own a Bible

means courting danger.

The reasons for this torment are complex, but

generally in these places Christianity is seen as a

proselytizing faith and a vehicle for Western

imperialism and colonialism. "There is a tendency to

associate Christianity with the West," Marshall says.

So why aren't Christians marching in the streets and

demanding action the way Jews did on behalf of their

Soviet brethren in the 1970s and '80s?

"Because most of the persecution of Christians is not

happening in our own backyard and the issue is not

generally reported in the mainstream media," says

Corey Odden, CEO of The Voice of the Martyrs

Canada, which is dedicated to raising awareness and

support for persecuted Christians around the world.

"The lack of understanding comes from a lack of

knowledge."

Greetings

Dear Parents,

I would like to take this opportunity to introduce myself to you. My name is Anna da Silva and I am the Trustee Elect for Wards, 1, 3 & 4. I am very thankful that I have been selected to represent the parents and students of this community. It is an honour to serve you as trustee and I promise that I will work tirelessly to help our families obtain the service that they expect and deserve.

I would like to tell you a bit about my background and what I feel are important issues that we are facing and that I hope I can address during my term in office.

Background

I am a devoted Catholic and a strong advocate of Catholic education. I am a child of Italian Catholic immigrant parents who attended Catholic school in Toronto. I am the mother of two boys who recently graduated from St. Augustine. I have served as chair and co-chair at St. Augustine for the last six years and represented the Secondary Schools of Brampton West at the Central Committee of Catholic School Councils (CCCSC) for the last three years. I also represented the parents of our board on the “Growing Success” initiative at the Ministry of Education and provided input into the design of the new report cards that are being implemented this year. With the help our council members, I have put together several events which increased parent involvement in our school by 98%.

Professionally, I run a Management Consulting Company which provides Organizational Development, Change Management and Training services to both business and government. I am also a part time professor at York University in the School of Human Resources. I believe that my professional background and experience will enable me to contribute in a meaningful way over the next four years.

Issues

There are several issues facing our Board which I feel need to be addressed. The first issue that we need to address is our ongoing problems with transportation. Our Board is chronically underfunded in the area of transportation and the new Ministry-appointed consortium does not allow us to address issues affecting parents at the community level. I feel that it is important that we work with the Ministry to obtain more funding for transportation and to change the policies that are hindering our ability to address bussing issues on a neighbourhood by neighbourhood basis. I intend to work on this issue so that we can reduce our transportation challenges for next September.

The next issue that must be addressed as soon as possible is the lack of availability of text books. It is imperative that we provide our students with the resources that they need to be successful. While there have been many changes to the curriculum which has affected text book availability, I feel that we cannot allow our students to go without the required resources to be successful. I intend to address this issue as soon as possible.

Another issue that I feel needs to be addressed is the use of technology in our schools. I believe that we need to develop a technology strategy that will incorporate the use of new technologies such as learning management systems, social networking, websites and email to build a stronger learning community. I will work to have this strategy developed and lobby the Ministry for adequate funding for technology in our schools.

Finally, there is a need to be proactive in addressing the ongoing threat to publicly-funded Catholic education. I believe that we will face a very serious threat to our education system in the next provincial election and it is imperative that we prepare for this threat. We must protect our right to Catholic education and I believe that the best way to accomplish this is to educate our parents, students, and teachers on the importance of Catholic education and on how to address the misguided arguments that are levelled against our system. I will work to ensure that everyone in our system has the information that they need to deal with these misguided threats.

I know that our community faces many more challenges than what I have noted. In Wards 1, 3 & 4 in particular, there is a need to address student academic achievement. Our tests scores are lower than scores in other regions and it is important that we identify the reasons for this and address them. This region also has a high proportion of students with financial and social needs that require additional supports. We must do more about providing these supports so that students can succeed. Additionally, the schools in our wards are some of the oldest in Brampton. They require repair and upgrading. Resources need to be allocated to address these issues if we are to improve the standard of education in our community. I will do my best to improve the Catholic education that is provided to our community.

I hope to be able to meet many of you at upcoming events and council meetings. In the meantime, if you wish to contact me you may do so via email at destacom@rogers.com.

Sincerely,

Anna da Silva

Trustee Elect, Wards 1, 3 & 4