Are you familiar with the Saint-Joseph's Bursary?

What is the purpose of the Saint-Joseph's Bursary and how do they work?

The sole purpose of the Saint-Joseph's Bursary is to provide financial assistance to Canadian parents, or parents residing in Canada, who want to send their children to Traditional schools, but cannot afford to pay all the tuition or boarding fees. In order to achieve this goal, the Saint-Joseph's Bursary must first raise funds by organizing, for example, special collections in our chapels, or other forms of fund-raising campaigns.

The second part of the work consists of collecting the files of the applicant families, and then sharing the available funds equitably, taking into account the tuition and boarding fees charged by the schools, and the financial capacity of the families on a case-by-case basis. We also take into account, to some extent, the financial situation of the schools themselves.

Is the scholarship money sent directly to the families?

No, we send the scholarships directly to the schools, and the schools credit the families' accounts with the same amounts.

So it is the schools as well as the families that benefit from the scholarships?

Exactly so. That is why helping Saint-Joseph's Bursary through donations is not only an act of charity to individual families, but even more so to the common good of our traditional schools and all the families of Tradition. The donations we receive thus allow the survival of our traditional schools which, as everyone knows, do not receive any government subsidies for the most part, and which cannot survive without the generosity of many benefactors.

Do the scholarships awarded cover the totality of the tuition and boarding fees requested by the schools?

No. On the one hand because the funds available do not allow it, but also because we want to follow the principle that parents, if they receive a scholarship for their children, must also do their part, according to their means.

But is there not precisely a danger that some parents will take advantage of the scholarships to save money by neglecting to pay what they could, and would pay if they did not receive a scholarship?

This danger is quite small, since the applicant families have to submit a financial report. Before awarding a scholarship, we evaluate, together with each family individually, their ability to pay for the school. Furthermore, we insistently remind them of their serious duty to spare no effort to pay the difference between the required schooling and the allocated scholarship.

When will the Society of St. Pius X organize the next special collection for the Saint-Joseph's Bursary?

During Lent. Lent is indeed an eminently propitious time to give alms. 

Our Lord will not forget what we have done for these little ones, the children, who are so vulnerable and who have the right to receive the bread and honey of a totally Catholic education.

Moreover, let us remember that the alms we give with good heart will return to us in spiritual riches of infinite and eternal value. 

Send all donations to the Saint-Joseph Centre (1395 Notre Dame Street - Saint-Césaire, QC, J0L 1T0 - Canada) mentioning on the cheque: for the Saint-Joseph's Bursaries.

Or online here

May God bless you!

"In this school in harmony with the Church and the Christian family, there will be no contradiction, to the great detriment of education, between the lessons of the various teachings and those of religious education. If it is thought indispensable, out of a scrupulous sense of professional conscience, to make known to the pupils certain works containing errors which it will be necessary to refute, this will be done with such preparation and such preservation of sound doctrine that, far from being weakened by it, the Christian formation of youth will benefit from it. " (Divini illius Magistri, Pius XI encyclical on education, 31 December 1929).