New Catholic schools superintendent looking forward to the challenge

VANCOUVER—He’s spent 32 years in Vancouver’s Catholic school system and now Deacon Henk Luyten is about to take the wheel.

“I’m looking forward to the challenge,” said Deacon Luyten, currently principal of Archbishop Carney Regional Secondary in Port Coquitlam. Before that, he was a religion and biology teacher and a vice principal at Holy Cross Regional High School in Surrey.

He said years of experience teaching religion taught him about the everyday needs and struggles of students, especially when it came to faith.

“Quite often the whole teaching profession is aimed at helping young people follow the careers they want to follow,” he said.

In Catholic schools, “not only do they need to talk and think about those things and form their ideas while they’re in school, they’re also going to become saints and that’s what we want to help them do.”

When he realized this fact, Deacon Luyten began launching school initiatives that give students more opportunities to encounter Christ. He encouraged learning about faith and a love for the sacraments. When he became vice principal, he introduced weekly Masses with the students and Bible studies for teachers.

“From the beginning all the way through, for me in my heart, it was that sense of: ‘Can I find opportunities, can I look for ways to allow teachers and students and whoever I interacted with to encounter Christ, and to get to know him?’”

Deacon Luyten was chosen as the next head of the Catholic Independent Schools of the Vancouver Archdiocese after superintendent Dan Moric announced he is retiring. Moric will pass the torch to Deacon Luyten in time for the start of the 2018-2019 school year.

“It’s a privilege to serve and I’m very much looking forward to it,” said Deacon Luyten, who was ordained a permanent deacon in 2015.

“As a principal, I have felt Dan’s influence, trust, and belief in moving our system more and more towards fulfilling that mission that we have as Catholic schools.”