Henry ups the ante for local schools

He will skip school opening liturgy due to lack of unity

- file photo "Right now we are not(one in Christ)." Bishop Fred Henry

By RAMON GONZALEZ
WCR Staff Writer
Calgary

The bishop of Calgary is standing by his decision not to preside at the school year opening liturgy of Calgary Catholic Schools in August unless the district bans casino fundraising.

Bishop Fred Henry also says schools that continue using casinos and bingos to raise funds may be blacklisted.

"I'm not just talking this time," Henry said in a June 27 interview.

The bishop said he does not want the district to use his participation in the liturgy to suggest that everything is fine in the Catholic community.

"We have some serious problems we have to sort out. Reconciliation has to precede the celebration of the liturgy where we are supposed to be one in Christ because right now we are not."

But Henry said he is giving the board time to reconsider. "I am telling (them) that I am not going to preside at this liturgy. But (they) still have got some time to get (their) act together and, if they don't, then other consequences will follow such as the blacklisting of schools."

On May 31 the Calgary Catholic School board decided to let individual schools make their own decisions on casino fundraising despite repeated requests by Henry to outlaw the practice.

'Parents have options'

Board chair Cathie Williams said trustees have shown leadership in giving parents options and said the dispute does not constitute a rejection of Henry's spiritual authority.

"We have never said that we are defying the bishop," she said. "In fact we have said all along that we hope to work with the bishop on resolving this in a mutually satisfactory way so that we are following the teachings of the Church and also allowing our parents to be what they are; in other words, the primary educators for their children."

Parent councils at 59 of 97 Catholic schools raised more than $2 million through casino and bingos last year.

Edmonton Catholic Schools has never had a policy on fundraising and the majority of its schools use casinos and bingos to raise funds for things such as athletics, bands, field trips and drama productions, said board chair Debbie Cavaliere. "So far this has not been an issue here."

Failure in leadership

In a June 20 letter Henry labelled the Calgary board's decision "a failure in Catholic leadership."

He says Church law gives him the power to remove the Catholic designation from schools that disobey Church doctrine.

In the interview, Henry said he purposely has not defined what blacklisting might mean.

"The blacklisting could entail anything from just simply saying as a bishop I'm not going to accept any invitation from any school that's involved in casinos. Or it could mean that I'm going to order my priests to withhold all services from any parish that's involved in this immoral activity. It could mean any one of a number of different things."

The bishop agreed his measures are drastic, but he said he's been talking to the district for seven years about outlawing bingo and casino involvement.

The first time he made the request, "They more or less patted me on the head and sent me on my merry way and said, 'Well, we just can't do that' and nothing more was made of it."

In the meantime he got all his parishes out of casino reliance and casino dependencies. "We don't have one parish that's relying upon bingo revenues in any fashion," he noted. "And the Knights of Columbus, of course, are moving to disengage totally from casino and gambling revenues."

Back and forth

He went back to the school district and told them the problem of gambling was getting so bad in some instances parents were being offered money to work at casinos. "And again they said, 'Let's study this' and I said okay and I didn't say anything publicly for six months.

"Finally they come back and they said, 'Well, we can't do without this money. We are sorry bishop, we understand where you are coming from but we are going to carry on.

"And I said well, actions have consequences."

Williams said, "The only difference that we have with the bishop is he asked us to ban it completely and come up with a sort of drop-dead date, if you will, and we as a school said that at this point in time that was impossible."

"The question was is it a decision of the board or is it the decision of the parents? And we chose to say that it was a parents' decision as to whether they participated (in casinos and bingos) or not.

"What we were told by parents is that (banning casinos or bingos as a fundraising method) would have no effect on the proliferation of gambling or the addicts, but it would have a profound effect on the ability to serve the needs of the students."

Henry said it is unacceptable for a board with a budget of $348 million to rely on $2 million from bingo and casino revenues.

"And I am quite sure that they can find all kinds of ways to save $2 million (and stop engaging in this activity) that takes advantage of some of the most vulnerable people in our society."

Henry also said the board has to continue lobbying the government for more money. "I think the government is committed to chronic under-funding of education and is quite happy when we start going out trying to raise funds on our own."

He called the under-funding of education in Alberta "obscene."

The bishop also thinks schools that don't engage in fundraising through gambling should teach the rest how to do it. "If we have schools that we would say are have-schools or affluent schools, they must be put in a position where they are willing to share with the have-not schools," he said.

Independence

The bishop has suggested that it may be time to consider establishing an independent Catholic foundation with the power to request and receive funds and disburse them accordingly to Catholics schools in southern Alberta.

"We have been criticized for not just banning (casinos as a fundraising method)," lamented Williams. "What is banning going to do? It's not going to stop what's going on right now.

"The school boards that have just banned it, what have they done to deal with the proliferation of gambling other than banning it?"

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