Catholic apologist and academic Christian Elia appeared on Sun News Network’s June 17th episode of Holy War to discuss/debate “prostitution, Catholic teachers in Pride, and more” with secularist Justin Trottier. In an answer to a question from Michael Coren, Elia attempted to explain and justify Catholic schools:
The reason why we still have a Catholic school system, or the reason why the plug hasn’t been pulled is we’re hopeful that [. . .] somewhere down the road the door is left open; they can come back and embrace Catholic teachings.
Elia’s message is not particularly clear, but the implication is Ontario is funding a separate, public Catholic school system, so lapsed Catholics can have a place to come back to and embrace Catholic teachings, Really, that’s what churches are for! The Ontario tax payer should not be expected to fund a refuge for those who want to return to the Roman CatholicChurch; it’s bad enough that the Ontario tax payer should have to pay for Catholic education in a public funded school. The Ontario taxpayer should watch the June 17th Holy War and pay special attention to Elia’s statement @11:30 to find out what Catholics like Elia think the Ontario public should support with their tax dollars.
Several provinces have successfully eliminated publicly funded Catholic schools and are the better for it (to say nothing of huge tax savings). Time for Ontario to fund ONE high quality system.