Tuesday of the Third Week of Lent: 10.03.26
Mass @ 9.30am – Mount St. Anne’s Conference & Retreat Centre
Catholic Education Partnership (CEP) reception of Croí Project – Vision Document
‘A Vision for Catholic Schools In Ireland’
Introduction:
We gather in Mount St. Anne’s in this, the 250th anniversary, since Venerable Nano Nagle lit her lantern and began her mission of compassion, courage and conviction. Nano was just one woman walking those dark alleys and lanes of Cork 250 years ago; today her Presentation Congregation is a global network who continue to nurture her flame.
This morning we come from many sectors and represent various stakeholders, under the umbrella of CEP (Catholic Education Partnership) to launch the Vision Document ‘A Vision for Catholic Schools in Ireland’ and much more importantly to prepare for the reception of this vision document into all our Catholic Schools and Colleges and among the various bodies that support Catholic education. The Vision Document is the first fruit of the Croí project, a project that has been cradled here in Mount St. Anne’s.
Azariah’s powerful yet tender prayer in our first reading from the Book of Daniel is a cry from a broken heart. He feels all is lost and perhaps we who are passionate about Catholic Education might at times empathise with Azariah’s plight and prayer. Matthew’s gospel brings us upfront with mercy, and the inter-human dimension that is mercy.
And so we pray …
- Is tusa Tobar na Trócaire – you are the wellspring of mercy: A Thiarna, déan trócaire
- Is tusa Slí na Fírinne – you are the way of Truth: A Chríost, déan trócaire
- Bí linn i gcónaí, ós ár gcomhair amach – be with us always, showing us the way. A Thiarna, déan Trócaire
Homily:
“I only teach him religion” the teacher apologised to the parent as she ushered the mother off to the queue for one of the core curricular subjects. We must have the passion and belief that what happens in religion class at Primary and Post Primary and what happens in our Teaching Training Colleges is core to the education of that young man and every young man and woman.
The teacher, the chaplain, the staffroom, the classroom, the student, the pupil all must grow to realise that religion is core to the development and well-being of every young person, made in God’s image and likeness. Our schools begin with an invitation into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, into a friendship with God who is love, and into a local community where young people are accompanied in their search for purpose and meaning in life. And they are accompanied in so many wonderful ways by our schools who are welcoming and inclusive of all faiths and none.
The last time we had a launch of a vision for Catholic Education was in May 2008 with the launch of ‘Vision 08’. That’s eighteen years ago. Todays Leaving Certs were born in the same year as Vision 08! It envisaged then “a fruitful dialogue about the best way of ensuring that our Catholic schools can develop in the coming decades”[1]. Like all visions, they are aspirational, we realise quickly a decade is a long time and eighteen years is very much another world, the world of Gen Z.
Two years before ‘Vision 08’ the then Minister for Education & Science, Mary Hanafin T.D. speaking at one of the Easter week teachers’ conferences, commended the commitment of the Catholic Church to education in Ireland. She said “there are people and places in Ireland who would not have been educated or who would not have a school provided only for you (the Church)”[2]. We can too easily forget all that has been achieved, opportunities that have been afforded, offering young people a deeper appreciation of their faith and their place in the unfolding story of creation. And yet we allow the secular voices to cauterise these messages in mainstream media, as if to suggest Catholic Education is equivalent to indoctrination!
That’s why today is so important. Because we are passionate about Catholic education, we find ourselves challenged by the 2022 Genesis Report and the later findings of the Grace Research; we are equally conscious of a recent Iona Institute paper asking ‘Will Modern Ireland tolerate Catholic Schools?’[3], and despite the very significant challenges facing the Catholic education sector, people still seem to vote with their feet for a kind of ‘cultural’ or ‘light touch’ Catholicism. For some our schools are too Catholic and for more they are not Catholic enough!
As we await the findings of the more recent Department survey on school patronage, I will be very surprised if in the broad scheme of things there will be any great demand for change. I meet parents and families at Confirmation these days, they unashamedly tell me of their memory of the last confirmation of an older son or daughter. Have they engaged with Church much since? Perhaps the Children’s Mass on Christmas Eve! Yet they are ‘on side’ and would wish to retain their Catholic School, why wouldn’t they. Perhaps we need less schools, but we need schools that are intentionally Catholic.
My prayer and hope is that this vision document for Catholic Schools in Ireland will by using the seven strands build up these intentionally Catholic Schools. The only way this will happen is through proper resources to support each of these strands, offering training around ethos and identity. Research findings tell us ongoing training/CPD is critical for all school personnel.
Learning to be merciful, learning to forgive is central to any school setting. It starts at an early age: “I didn’t let so and so play in my games”. Mercy is at the heart of education, sometimes mercy like in our gospel is hard learned. This year’s Confirmation theme is ‘Loved, Necessary, Chosen’, very much focusing on wellbeing. I invite all the confirmandi to write to me before Confirmation, I read all their letters. Often the teacher doesn’t want to let her school down and you can easily sense a template or dare I say a ‘straightjacket formula’ unfold! I had one recently where the local priests surname was misspelt in every letter!
A letter from a recent confirmandi that underpins the need for our un-apologetic belief in the value of Catholic education as a core subject in all our schools speaks volumes of our vision and mission today.
[1] Pastoral Letter from the Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference, ‘Vision 08’, May 2008, pg.8.
[2] Address of Mary Hanafin TD, Minister of Education & Science at the CPSMA AGM, 25 March 2006
[3] Murray, John: ‘Will Modern Ireland tolerate Catholic Schools?’, Iona Institute, September 2022