Catholic Education Week: May 9-15, 2026

GrACE Champions: Making the Mission Visible Across Western Canada

Across Alberta, the Northwest Territories, and Yukon, Catholic schools are not simply operating — they are witnessing. The GrACE Champions initiative was created to make that witness visible.

Each month, GrACE highlights a Catholic school, division, or community partner that is intentionally living the mission of Catholic education. These stories reveal something deeper than activity; they demonstrate formation. From Eucharistic Adoration and Reconciliation, to Advent service projects, Scripture study, saint-inspired leadership, and works of mercy, Catholic identity is being woven into the daily rhythm of school life.

The Champions initiative was designed to provide structure and equity — ensuring that school divisions across regions have an opportunity to share how faith is lived publicly in their communities. But it has grown into more than a calendar. It has become a movement of gratitude and accountability: gratitude for the gift of publicly funded Catholic education, and accountability to steward that gift faithfully.

What emerges from these monthly features is a clear pattern. Catholic schools are forming the whole person — mind, heart, and spirit — through sacrament, service, leadership, and prayer. Students are encountering Christ not as an abstract concept, but as a living presence. They are learning that faith calls them to act, to serve, to lead, and to belong to something greater than themselves.

In a cultural moment where Catholic education can be misunderstood or reduced to infrastructure, the GrACE Champions initiative reminds us what is actually happening inside our schools. Communities are praying together. Students are studying Scripture voluntarily. Classrooms are engaging Catholic Social Teaching in practical ways. Service is not seasonal; it is formative. Leadership is not self-promotion; it is rooted in humility and mission.

By sharing these stories across Alberta, the Northwest Territories, and Yukon, GrACE is strengthening a collective voice. Catholic education is not sustained quietly. It is strengthened when it is witnessed publicly.

The invitation is simple and direct: every Catholic school community has a story worth telling. The Champions template provides a clear framework — 100–150 words and a few images — to make that witness visible. When schools participate, they contribute to a growing record of lived Catholic identity across Western Canada.

GrACE Champions is not about recognition for its own sake. It is about renewal through testimony. It is about reminding one another that the mission entrusted to Catholic education is alive, active, and bearing fruit.

And it is about encouraging every school, parish, and partner to step forward and say: this is how we are living the faith.