WCR logo
  

Thursday - 05/23/2013

Click for Edmonton City Centre, Alberta Forecast

St. Paul - Mundare St. Paul
Jubilee
2008-2009
Catechism Logo Exploring the
Catholic Catechism
Compendium-Cover
Compendium
of the
Social Doctrine
of the Church

Last Updated: Friday - 09/24/2010

Week of March 14, 2005

COLF pushes for funding for stay-at-home parents

By DEBORAH GYAPONG
Canadian Catholic News
Ottawa

The Catholic Organization for Life and the Family (COLF) is asking the federal government to provide financial assistance for families who have a parent stay at home to raise children.

In a March 7 letter, Bishop Pierre Morissette, chair of COLF, applauded Social Development Minister Ken Dryden for the $5 billion commitment in the February federal budget towards a national child care program. But Morissette urged the minister to offer "real freedom of choice among childcare options for all Canadian parents."

Dryden has said the money committed to the program will not go to parents who wish to stay home with their children, but to regulated public and private daycare facilities. He has yet to come to an agreement with the provinces on how to distribute the money.

Parents first

Morissette pointed out that under Catholic teaching, "parents are the first people responsible for their children's education and that they must be able to count on the state's support in this endeavour. For this reason, we would ask the government to put in place a series of fiscal and social measures in order to help those parents who wish to fulfill this mission themselves."

The bishop said that while seven out of 10 mothers with children under age six work outside the home, polls show that most would choose not to if financial pressure didn't force them.

Morissette noted Dryden's vision of quality, affordable childcare with an educational component would contribute to the social and intellectual development of children.

However, he said society must respond to children's emotional needs. This is a "primordial parent responsibility on which we do not place enough importance, especially during the first three years of a child's life, when the parent-child bond is formed."

"Given the Catholic Church's preferential option for the poor, your initiative provides an excellent opportunity to help our poorest families," Morissette wrote.

Copyright © 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 -- Western Catholic Reporter

Our mission: To serve our readers by bringing the Gospel to bear on current issues in the Church and in secular culture through accurate news coverage and reflective commentary.