Newsletter 12: 6 September 2022
Dear Colleagues,
“Every Catholic School is a Sacrament of Hope.”
This week for the first time in six years, the National Catholic Education Commission gathered teachers, school and system leaders, as well as members of school governing bodies from across Australia for their national conference. The first morning of the conference featured a keynote address by Father Anthony Gittins CSSP and Ms Madeline Forde, both well known to Australian Marists. Father Anthony is renowned internationally as a theologian, anthropologist, and missionary. He has worked closely with Marists at different times over the past decade, sharing his spiritual insights and wisdom gained by many years of scholarship and living in service with peoples on the extreme peripheries of society in a variety of circumstances. Educated at Sacred Heart College Adelaide, Maddie is currently a Councillor for the Marist Association of Saint Marcellin Champagnat, a delegate to the International Youth Advisory body established by the Vatican’s Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life, and was a member of the recent Australian Plenary Council. In the words of Archbishop Pat O’Regan, “She is energetic, has a preferential option to stand with the marginalised and is a strong young woman of faith.”
Fr Anthony and Maddie throughout their presentation, invited the 1400 delegates to engage during the days together in a manner promoting deep thinking and respectful listening. There were many pearls of wisdom and moments of realisation for the listeners. In subsequent conversations with fellow delegates a number of key ideas and urgings emerged prominently.
Quoting Father Timothy Ratcliffe, it was asserted that “Every Catholic School is a sacrament of hope”. It is a sentiment all Catholic educators would spontaneously support whilst also challenging us to consider the inherent responsibilities in clearly and unambiguously promoting hope for all students, and especially those who feel marginalised in some way. For adolescents, feeling “left out or different” is acute. Some contributing factors include peer relationships and self-worth, family circumstances, poverty, ability to learn, identity, physical maturation, and sexuality. Father Anthony and Maddie affirmed the importance and success of our teachers in creating communities of hope. Reflecting on her own education and the influence of her teachers, Maddie said,
“Teachers are formidable witnesses of God’s love.”
At the Conference Mass, celebrated at Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, Archbishop Peter Comensoli highlighted again the vital and privileged role of the Catholic school teacher, recalling the words of Saint Pope Paul VI, in his 1975 Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii nuntiandi,
Modern man listens more willingly to witnesses than to teachers,
and if he does listen to teachers, it is because
they are witnesses.
The Chair of the Australian Bishops Commission for Catholic Education, Archbishop Anthony Fisher and the CEO of the National Catholic Education Commission the Honourable Jacinta Collins, encouraged all schools to continue to build success for all students, so that every child in a Catholic school fulfils their potential as a learner. Most importantly they called on all Catholic educators to continue to unambiguously “flavour” teaching and learning with and through Jesus, the great teacher, from whom we continue to be guided throughout our lives.