text: Alceste: Public schools are in fact not religious institutions and some will reasonably object to religious rites of any sort being conducted in these buildings. I attended separate (Catholic) schools decades ago and as time went on religious observance was increasingly confined to actual churches. Where once mass on "holy days" was celebrated in the school, we were eventually expected to attend mass on holy days like Ash Wednesday and the Epiphany (when it fell on a weekday), on our own time and at church. When I was very young, we were given time off school for "Catholic holidays" but this was phased out as the separate school schedule and curriculum were aligned with Ontario Ministry of Education requirements. Few Catholics, except perhaps the clergy, objected. In the context of Western culture, religious freedom is for very valid historical reasons held to be synonymous with separation of church and state. To me, this is the basis of social peace and progress.