The 2022-23 school year is very special for the Prince Albert Catholic School Division. This school year, we are celebrating 135 years of Catholic Education in Prince Albert. As the oldest Catholic school division in the province, we remember our humble beginnings and look forward to future anniversaries.
Our new spiritual theme will be centered around a year of celebration. As the oldest Catholic school division in the province, we celebrate 135 years of “Sharing Faith” in Jesus Christ. Sharing faith is something we have in common with the schools in our past, our present-day schools, and our future schools. Sharing our faith means we share our values and focus on the foundation of our faith, which is the love and hope of Jesus Christ. Therefore, it is fitting that our spiritual theme for the 2022-23 school year is Sharing Faith.
To acknowledge our humble beginnings, a few Board Trustees and our entire school division staff gathered at the site of the first Catholic school in Prince Albert. There we had a Board member acknowledge the land and our Treaty commitments. We had Bishop Stephen Hero bless the area and those who gathered. We symbolically journeyed from that spot, the place of humble beginnings, to Sacred Heart Cathedral for our opening Mass.
That procession set the tone for our new school year. From that humble spot, we journey towards the Church. Just like in all the projects we undertake, we want all our actions and projects to lead towards the love and hope of Jesus Christ.
One of those projects will be the moccasin project. This project is a way for our school division to embrace Truth and Reconciliation and the calls to action. Over the course of this year, each school will construct a pair of moccasins at a school assembly. With each step being done at a school assembly, our principals will give an overview of Indigenous teaching. Then students will return to their classrooms, and there will be an age-appropriate follow-up lesson that goes deeper into that teaching. With the moccasin project, we plan to walk together to embrace the truth of residential schools and to embrace the calls to action.
As we plan to share faith, we want to journey with others so we can learn and grow. We look to the greatest commandment to guide us so we can grow in our love of God and each other. Overall, we are excited to begin this school year as we share the love and hope of Jesus Christ.
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