The life of prayer and worship is central to the school community,
both inside and outside of the educational setting, says Bishop Brendan
Kelly of Achonry.
The chairman of the Council for Education of the
Irish Catholic Bishops' Conference stated this Monday in Waterford City
at an opening ceremony for Catholic Schools Week.
This year's
theme for this week is "Rooted in Jesus Christ," and is inspired by the
pastoral letter from Benedict XVI to the Catholics of Ireland, which was
published last March.
Bishop Kelly underlined the importance of
helping young people "learn to stand and wonder at the beauty and
mystery of all that is."
"Rampant consumerism is destroying and polluting so much of creation," he lamented.
The
prelate noted that "people who learn that we are on this earth
primarily to worship, to give thanks to God," and "to marvel at our
environment are the people who are assuring the future of the earth."
He
asserted: "We cannot and must not create false divisions between the
secular and the sacred -- above all in the minds of children for whom
this sacred unity is as natural as the day is long.
"For us, all creation, the entire material world, is sacred."
God's vision
The
bishop pointed out that "Jesus had a vision for his hearers and all who
came to him, a vision of themselves that they needed to hear."
"It is the Father's vision for people, people who are his children," he explained. "It is the Creator's vision of his creation."
"There is a holiness about us as we are," Bishop Kelly affirmed, "in our very neediness."
He
continued: "We are children of God, first and foremost, and our destiny
is life eternal. That sense of identity is what gives hope, in the
midst of poverty, mourning, injustice and pain."
Looking at the Catholic educational system in Ireland, the bishop noted the "amazing diversity of schools and traditions."
He
observed, "There is Jesuit and Ursuline education; there is Mercy and
Presentation and Loreto education; there is Christian Brother education
and there is Holy Ghost and Dominican and Benedictine education."
The prelate affirmed the "great determination amongst these traditions that the richness of this diversity be not diluted."
However,
he stressed the "imperative that patrons and trustees of our sector
unite and work together for the sake of the parents and children who are
our constituents."
"We must work together to strengthen the
Catholic Education Service throughout the island and the Catholic
Schools Partnership here in the South," Bishop Kelly urged.
He
continued, "Unity is the most vital goal that we in Catholic education
must achieve in our overarching structures if we are to secure the
treasure that is ours for the young people of our country into the
future."
Ecumenical cooperation
Meanwhile, at the opening of
Catholic Schools Week in Strabane, Northern Ireland, Auxiliary Bishop
Donal McKeown of Down and Connor also emphasized unity, in particular
with other Christians.
He underlined the importance of working "increasingly closely with educational leaders in the Protestant churches."
"The
problem that all churches will face in the future is not one of
religious difference but the reality of religious indifference," the
bishop stated.
He continued: "All our churches have an interest in
ensuring that the ideology of secularism does not banish from education
any openness to the transcendent.
"In an age where children are
under enormous pressure to adopt very insubstantial heroes from the
saccharine world of light entertainment or the virtual world of war
games, we have the common interest of promoting an openness to love,
truth and beauty, to community and generosity, to being inspired by good
and by God."
Modern society
The prelate protested an
attitude he has heard lately that "implies that Catholic schools are
merely a relic of a divided past and that they will eventually wither as
we become a more mature society."
He asserted, "Catholic schools are not a phenomenon that we will get over when we grow up!"
"Access to faith-based education is a key characteristic of a modern, pluralist society," Bishop McKeown stated.
He observed: "Catholic schools thrive in the most modern and advanced societies.
"They
haven't withered away when societies make economic progress. They tend
to provide better value for the public money that they receive."
"Indeed,
in countries like Lithuania, governments have actually encouraged some
state schools to become Catholic because evidence has shown that they
can bring in all sorts of human and other resources that the state
schools can't access," the prelate noted.
He stated, "In Northern
Ireland, the real sign of maturity will not be when everybody just goes
to a secular state school, but when diversity of provision is seen as an
enrichment for society and not as a threat to its stability."
The bishop reiterated, "We are not going away!"
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