Mission / Vision & Theme

I Belong Here – Together we are God’s good news!

As a Catholic learning community, we know that we are called to faith and good works. The Good News that is the message of hope for all of us, lived by the example and witness of Jesus, must also exercise an essential component of Catholic Social Teaching: the preferential option for the poor, the poor in spirit, and those who are marginalized or have experienced oppression that has placed them outside and away. 

Our theme, I belong here, together we are God’s Good News, unifies faith and action and, in doing so, renews the promise of Catholic Education as a common good. 

Belonging moves us past inclusion, into co-creating and re-creating spaces of belonging for all of our students, staff, and families.  

Pope Francis articulates this conviction of belonging in his encyclical, Fratelli Tutti: 

Love also impels us towards universal communion. No one can mature or find fulfilment by withdrawing from others. By its very nature, love calls for growth in openness and the ability to accept others as part of a continuing adventure that makes every periphery converge in a greater sense of mutual belonging (95). 

These days mark for us particular challenges that are connected to the responsibilities we share as members of this community, province, country, and world, but if we value belonging, we are obliged to move beyond the trappings of our own needs and into those of others. 

May all of us who learn, serve, nurture, and believe at CDSBEO feel the belonging that comes with relationships we have with our God and with each other. 

Yours in Catholic education,

Laurie Corrigan
Director of Education