And while the teachers made their presence felt countrywide today - the Catholic Bishops, Wright and Glancey sent out a letter this evening saying it's time to go back to school. The letter opens by saying, "we want to reiterate our support for all those pushing the Government of Belize to implement policies and laws to monitor and enforce good governance." But, after that, it takes a turn. It says: "Now that the Prime Minister has expressed a willingness and desire to go back to the negotiating table, we support the appeal for students and teachers to get back to the classroom. The education of our young people is our primary concern. Other means besides strikes can be used to pressure the government for reforms to insure good governance. We call on the BNTU and other unions, other social partners, the opposition and the Government of Belize to work together to see that these reforms are set into law in the coming weeks and months. The commitment of GOB to sign the United Nations Convention Against Corruption on December 9, 2016 is one good sign of movement in this area."
We note that this comes the day after the Papal Nunce, Archbishop Kalenga visited basically to put the Catholic house in order after conflicting messages came out between the Catholic Diocese and the Catholic School Management. This joint statement echoes his message to teachers.
And it seems Kalenga has also put a new protocol in place to make sure there is uniformity in messaging going forward. The letter states, quote, "In order to avoid confusion in the future, all communications from the Roman Catholic Church in Belize will be signed by both the bishop and the auxiliary bishop. If one or the other is unable to sign or out of the country, one of the senior priests Rev. Noel Leslie or Rev. Lawrence Nicasio will sign with one of the bishops. This is the desire of the Apostolic Nuncio. No one else is authorized to speak in the name of the Roman Catholic Church in Belize."
And while the largest bloc of unionized teachers are from Catholic management, it remains to be seen how the Union will respond.
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