A creative partnership between Whitby, Ont.'s St. Bernard Catholic School and Father Leo J. Austin Catholic Secondary School has seen students recreate Rome’s iconic Holy Doors for this Jubilee year. 

Directly beside one another, the two schools within the Durham Catholic District School Board (DCDSB) joined forces to craft a physical replica of Rome’s Holy Doors.

Together, Grade 7 students from St. Bernard’s Student Voice Council and Grade 11 and 12 technology and construction students at Father Leo J. Austin collaborated to assemble the replica Holy Doors, with the former producing the embedded artwork and the latter constructing the fixture itself. 

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Grade 7 teacher and St. Bernard faith ambassador Victoria Dyment pitched the idea to Patrick Lawlor, the construction and auto teacher at Austin, after having seen the idea completed in the Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board. 

“We really wanted to look at how we could collaborate and how both sets of students could help to support this idea going forward. Patrick was a very willing partner, and we are happy to reignite this partnership through a project that could benefit everyone,” said  Carol Caputo, a teacher at St. Bernard’s who assists with the participating Student Voice Council. 

With the partnership set, students from St. Bernard began pulling inspiration for their artwork from various books in the Bible, starting in January. For Caputo, seeing the students work collaboratively by sharing their strengths and delegating among their peers was one of the high points of the initiative. 

The feeling was shared by Dyment, who took joy in seeing each of the 20 students use their God-given talents to contribute to a project so reflective of the current liturgical year. Since Dec. 24, the Holy Doors in Rome's four major basilicas of St. Peter's, St. John Lateran, St. Mary Major and St. Paul Outside the Walls have been open, symbolizing the Jubilee’s spiritual renewal and a time of deeper connection with God.

In just a little over a month, the students completed 16 unique canvas artworks, complete with faith symbols of forgiveness, solidarity, hope and justice, all ready to be embedded into the Holy Door replicas. 

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“ They were able to see the importance and value of this project and were willing to give up their lunch hours and free time to allow this to come to fruition during Lent. It was a beautiful thing to see their reaction and to celebrate each other's work,” said Dyment.

Across the driveway at Father Leo J. Austin, Lawlor and his students used their woodworking skills to measure, cut, glue, paint and nail together the two Holy Door replicas. Even under a tight deadline, Lawlor says his students displayed exemplary teamwork and practical application, all the while conceptually understanding the elements that make the Holy Doors so important to the Catholic faith and pilgrims. 

“To see them work, and work as a team, was incredible. Many students would be assembling a frame while others would be cutting them for the second door, and then another would be painting, another doing assembly or sanding and back and forth and repainting,” he said. “It was a project that lent itself to these students working together, and they did it so effectively.”

The doors were presented at a school Mass where they were blessed by Fr. Laszlo Nagy, pastor of Holy Family Parish in Whitby.  

“ To see it all come together with the beautiful presentation and to have a stronger understanding of (the doors) while having Father bless it was a very special moment," Dyment said.

“This was a connection to our faith. It was a building of an understanding of something so important in our Catholic tradition, and it was another opportunity for the students to step up and show that they are leaders;  it was their hands that really created the final product,” Caputo said.

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Reflecting on the project’s lasting impact, Caputo shared her parting, heartfelt wish for the students as Holy Week approached amidst this Jubilee Year.

“I hope that one day each student at that Mass, or who has heard about this initiative, gets to walk through the Holy Doors wherever they may be in life, and that they have a fond memory of their time here during this project.”