RITE AND REASON: In a world of economic crises and threats to peace, Catholic schools play a significant role, writes BISHOP LEO O'REILLY.
CATHOLIC SCHOOLS Week 2009 opened yesterday in Dublin and Belfast with two seminars on education addressing the role and contribution of Catholic Schools. In previous years Catholic schools across Northern Ireland celebrated the distinctive richness and diversity of Catholic education by taking part in a series of events and activities in schools and parishes over a period of a week.
This year is the first time that the work and contribution of Catholic schools is celebrated and marked at an All-Ireland level.
The context for this week was set by the 2008 pastoral letter of the Irish Bishops’ Conference Vision 08 - A Vision for Catholic Education, available on www.catholicbishops.ie along with a brief video overview of the week.
The theme of the week is Catholic Schools - A Vision for Life. The involvement of students is crucial to its success and so resources have been circulated to schools and dioceses to help implement the key themes of this important document in the everyday life of our Catholic schools.
But why do we need to celebrate a Catholic Schools Week? Our aim this week is to encourage all associated with Catholic schools to reflect on what it means to be a Catholic school and to mark the important contribution that Catholic education offers to our nation; to highlight the Catholic school’s mission of combining faith and reason in its pedagogical project and its constant pursuit of the truth.
It is also intended to reiterate that Catholic education will continue to play a vital role in preparing students for lives of compassionate leadership and service; to affirm the commitment of Catholic schools to continue to provide young people with the moral, intellectual and spiritual foundation that propels them to seek the truth and bring hope to those who suffer.
The main events of the week take place in parishes and schools. Resources prepared encourage all in the school community to reflect on two key questions: What makes a school Catholic? and what does it mean to be a Catholic school? All partners in Catholic schools are invited to reflect on those questions and find responses that give meaning to their various roles.
The Furrowand the bishops' magazine Intercomhave published homily and liturgical notes for use at parish Masses next Sunday, February 1st. Importantly this special week gives us an opportunity to consider the indispensable role of teachers in the life of the school and parish through their committed service to the education of the young.
Vatican II’s declaration on Christian education says of teachers “. . . that the Catholic school depends upon them almost entirely for the accomplishment of its goals and programmes”.
This week’s celebration concludes with RTÉ One television broadcasting Mass from St Mary’s Parish, Lucan, at 11.00am next Sunday. A special liturgy has been prepared reflecting the theme of this week.
In a world beset with economic crises and threats to peace Catholic schools play a significant role as “powerful instruments of hope”.
Pope Benedict XVI in his address to educators at Washington on April 17th, 2008, challenged Catholic leaders to promote Catholic education as a “place to encounter the living God”.
In his letter of January 23rd, 2008, to the diocese and the city of Rome on the vital importance of education, he referred to hope as the “soul of education”, indicating that “our hope today is threatened from many sides and we too, like the ancient pagans, risk becoming men without ‘hope and without God in the world’ ”.
He concluded that “at the root of the crisis of education lies a crisis of trust in life”.
He said “hope directed towards God is never hope for me alone, it is always also hope for others. It does not isolate us but unites us in goodness, stimulating us to educate one another in truth and in love.”
In his 2007 document Sacramentum CaritatisPope Benedict said that "the aim of all Christian education, moreover, is to train the believer in an adult faith that can make him a 'new creation'; capable of bearing witness in his surroundings to the Christian hope that inspires him".
- Bishop Leo O'Reilly is Roman Catholic Bishop of Kilmore, and is chairman of the Bishops' Commission on Education