A national evening of faith, gratitude, and hope for Catholic education
On November 5, 2025, trustees, educators, and friends of Catholic education joined from their homes and offices to celebrate a significant milestone: 65 years of CCSTA. Though participants represented dozens of Catholic schools and school boards from coast to coast, the focus of the evening was our one, shared mission of Canadian Catholic education.
Hosted by Rose Burton Spohn, Executive Director of CCSTA, the national webinar brought together five esteemed panelists whose experiences captured the depth, resilience, and unity of Catholic education across generations in Canada.
“We come together this evening to celebrate the stories, milestones, and hope for the future of our national organization,” Rose said in welcome as participants settled in.
From the opening prayer, led by CCSTA President Harry Salm and Past President, Teresita Chiarella, to the closing words of gratitude, the event carried a spirit of joyful reflection and hopeful renewal that resonated deeply with attendees.
The Panelist Highlights
Dean Sarnecki on Faith and Mission
The first to speak, Dean Sarnecki — an educator, administrator, and trustee whose professional life has threaded through Edmonton Catholic Schools, Elk Island Catholic Schools, and leadership with ACSTA — grounded the evening in his own lived experience. His remarks combined biography, humour, and conviction, as he reflected on both the fragility and the resilience of Catholic education in Canada.
“Catholic education has been the thread that weaves throughout my entire life,” Dean said, recalling the classrooms where he learned to read, the systems where he served, and the national gatherings that “rocked” his world by revealing a countrywide community at prayer and work.
Dean emphasized that the vitality of Catholic education is “no accident,” but the fruit of decades of faithful work by trustees, parents, clergy, and educators.
“Our unity must come from the Gospel itself — from keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus, the centre and source of our mission,” he said, calling trustees to strengthen relationships, deepen personal faith, and champion the formation of the whole person.
Melinda Chartrand and the Francophone Legacy
A seasoned Franco-Ontarian trustee and advocate, Melinda Chartrand has long worked to strengthen French Catholic education in Ontario. She traced its roots back nearly 240 years to Sandwich (now Windsor), highlighting the courage of Francophone communities that fought to preserve language and faith.
Melinda recounted landmark moments: official recognition of Francophone education rights (1968), the creation of eight French-language Catholic school boards (1998), and the steady growth that followed — including new structures, programs, and supports serving diverse communities across the province.
“Imagine the work and the dedicated individuals involved in creating school boards — without offices, without policies, sometimes living out of their vehicles between meetings,” she said. Today, French Catholic boards in Ontario serve tens of thousands of students with a mission that is both rooted and forward-looking.
“One language, a thousand cultures,” she reflected. “The French-speaking community is rich, vibrant, and proud of our schools.”
Bon Fagan on Faith and Resilience
A longtime leader in Newfoundland and Labrador Catholic education, Bon Fagan addressed the painful reality of the province’s loss of constitutional rights to publicly funded denominational schools in the 1990s — and the enduring hope that followed.
“I don’t want to spend time on that, because to me, that’s a negative story,” Bon said. “I’ve always associated CCSTA with a positive vision about Catholic education in Canada.”
He turned instead to the challenge that arose in the same period: how to encourage and support Catholic schools in Atlantic Canada that continued without public funding — in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland and Labrador — and how to bring them into the national fold.
“We had very few schools. Our schools were all founded from scratch. There was no public funding… each school could tell their history, and they had to start and fight from the very beginning,” he recalled. It was during those difficult beginnings that solidarity across Canada was most deeply felt: “Truckloads of goods… from Ontario and other provinces” arrived as concrete signs of national support.
Bon highlighted the creation of the Roman Catholic Independent Schools Association in 2010, bringing the small schools of Atlantic Canada into contact, collaboration, and advocacy together — and into a deeper relationship with CCSTA. His message shed light to the endurance of this mission, even when the funding model changes.
“It is good to be sitting around the table with you,” he told the national audience. “We draw strength and inspiration from the really good work that you do… and hopefully you draw some strength from the kinds of things we do as well.”
Teresita Chiarella on Being Called, Formed and Sent
From Manitoba, Teresita Chiarella — past president of CCSTA and a longtime leader with Manitoba Catholic Schools — offered a concise history of the province’s path to partial operational funding (50%) for independent schools, including Catholic schools, and the reasons Catholic communities have chosen to maintain that model.
She revisited pivotal moments in Manitoba Catholic schools’ history: the 1890 Public Schools Act that dismantled denominational funding; the decades of advocacy that followed; the formation of the Manitoba Federation of Independent Schools; and the eventual funding agreement that, while operational-only, has enabled Catholic schools to safeguard their Catholic mission and identity while collaborating with other independent school partners.
Teresita concluded with the question: Why do we serve in Catholic education?
“You work in Catholic education because He wants you to help Him to save souls… We have been called, formed, and sent.”
Her hope is grounded in the visible growth of Catholic communities, including new Canadians who desire faith-filled learning, and in the daily witness of educators and trustees.
Quoting Pope John Paul I, Teresita shared, “Modern man listens more willingly to witnesses than to teachers… and if he does listen to teachers, it’s because they are witnesses.”
Pat Daly on Service and Catholic Identity
OCSTA Executive Director, veteran Catholic trustee, and CCSTA Past President, Pat Daly situated CCSTA’s story in unity: unity in Christ and unity in mission. He lifted up the annual general meetings as ongoing national milestones — opportunities to pray, learn, and strengthen bonds across the country.
Pat pointed to the 2002 CCSTA publication Build Bethlehem Everywhere, which helped shape a common conversation around Catholic identity, and he celebrated Toonies for Tuition, which expresses national solidarity by supporting families in non-funded or partially funded contexts.
“The unity provided by CCSTA has given a common voice in times of challenge and an engine for positive change in times of opportunity,” Pat said. He encouraged leaders to keep asking Saint John Paul II’s question — “What are you doing to evangelize the culture?” — and to be bold, strengthening relationships, renewing adult faith formation, and keeping Catholic identity at the centre.
Faith, Unity, and Hope for the Future
As the evening drew to a close, Rose captured the sense of unity, celebration, and renewal that had filled the virtual gathering.
“Though our members span coast to coast, tonight reminded us that our mission is one — to nurture and protect Catholic education in Canada,” she said.
The webinar also offered a moment of practical solidarity as participants heard from — and offered support to — Frassati Academy, a new Catholic school in Halifax, NS navigating the inception and operation of a school with no public funding. It stood as a living sign of the Church’s creativity and hope in Catholic education.
In the end, “65 Years of CCSTA: Stories, Milestones and Hope for the Future” reminded all who serve in Catholic education that this shared mission is still bearing fruit in Canada. Many encouraged CCSTA to host another national evening like this, recognizing how powerfully a single hour online can draw together a coast-to-coast community and spark hope for the future.
Thank you to all who joined our webinar and all who have celebrated this special anniversary year with us. We’re truly grateful to be part of this vital national mission and we’re looking ahead to the future of Canadian Catholic education with tremendous hope.
Here’s to the next 65 years of Canadian Catholic education!
If you missed the webinar, you can enjoy the full recording below.