Catholic Schools Week 29Th January – 4Th February 2012

Catholic Schools Week 29th January – 4th February 2012

A Pastoral Letter to Teachers in the Catholic Post-Primary Schools

Diocese of Down and Connor Diocese of Down and Connor

For private circulation only Illustrations

Two photographs of Down and Connor youth at World Youth Day, 2011 Last Supper , Main Altar, St Peter’s Cathedral, Belfast Icons corresponding to the four stages of the Pastoral Preparation Programme for The Eucharistic Congress, 2012

Acknowledgement

I wish to acknowledge the contribution of Mr Frank Donnelly, Diocesan Adviser for Religious Education at Post Primary level, to the preparation of this Letter. I thank him for his contributions to discussions on content, to drafting and illustrating the text. Thanks are also due to Mrs Kathleen Hagan, Miss Catherine McGinnity and Mrs Breda McKay, Diocesan Advisers for the Primary Sector, for their contributions to preparatory discussions. I also wish to acknowledge the contributions of Bishop Donal McKeown and of Bishop Anthony Farquhar.

@ Noel Treanor Bishop of Down and Connor January 2012 To Principals and Staﬀ of Catholic Post Primary Schools in the Diocese of Down and Connor

Dear Principal and Staﬀ

It is with great pleasure and immense respect that I write to you during this Catholic Schools Week, beginning on 29th January and ending on 4th February 2012, with its theme: Christ’s Living Body Active in Our World.

I should ﬁrstly like to thank you for the dedication, energy and commitment you bring to the work of educating the young people placed in your care. I am very aware of the pressures which teachers are experiencing in these times of change. I realise that they arise for you in delivering the curriculum and also from the administrative requirements entailed in fulﬁlling your duties. In this regard I know that you too are conscious that some people publicly disparage the idea of Catholic education as being merely a fossil from a divided past.

Secondly, I wish to acknowledge your role as Catholic teachers and the example you set in maintaining the ethos of the school by your words and actions witnessed by our young people in and outside the classroom. Parents and guardians recognise the creative and excellent work that you do in educating, guiding and inﬂuencing their daughters and sons in preparing for life and work as valued Christian citizens of our society. The Church has always valued most highly its provision of Catholic schools and the excellent work done by teachers and staﬀ.

1 As a Christian community, the people and clergy of this diocese recognise the challenge, responsibility and mission of sharing the Good News of the Gospel with our young people of all ages and abilities. As teachers you play a daily and key role in this creative work, a work that at once ennobles pupil and teacher.

In sharing and living the Gospel and its values with your pupils, you, as teachers, are helping them to develop as persons of faith; you assist them in developing a Christian vision of life that gives meaning and purpose to their lives.

World Youth Day, Madrid 2011

2 As I write to you for Catholic Schools Week 2012, like you, I am keenly aware that we are now intensifying our preparations for the Eucharistic Congress, to be held in June 2012. The two themes - Christ’s Living Body Active in Our World , of Catholic Schools’ Week, and that of the Eucharistic Congress - The Eucharist: Communion with Christ and one another - help us all to explore our relationship with Jesus Christ in our world today. Indeed, these two themes challenge us to look more closely at how we understand our Christian faith and how we live out this faith in the community, in society and in our world which is becoming more and more a global village. In the context of Northern Ireland, the Eucharistic Congress is a call to us to strengthen our eﬀorts to promote reconciliation through co- operating with the grace of Christ, and thus to build peace and shape the future in justice and peace. There is no room in our schools for anything that would encourage lack of respect for others, sectarianism or racism. Indeed our Catholic schools must be power houses for questioning prejudice and for liberating our society from its poison.

The Catholic school should be a vital instrument in the Church’s mission in the world today. Inspired by the teaching of Christ, the school’s ethos should seek to promote a more just and

Main Altar, St Peter’s Cathedral, Belfast

3 humane world in which young people are valued and respected for who they are. In this respect I suggest Pope Benedict XVI’s 2012 Message for World Peace Day for your own consideration. This year he entitled it Educating Young People in Justice and Peace. This Message is worth presenting and examining with senior pupils in the General Religious Education Programme. Indeed a study Christ gathers us as a of the annual World Peace Eucharistic Community Day Messages might make for a formative project for our youth. These texts, published for World Peace Day (1 January), treat very diverse subjects. They underline the signiﬁcance of the gift of Christian faith for humanity in the world of today.

Catholic education is inspired by Jesus Christ and the message of his Gospel for all of us. Christ-centred and inspired, it presents a vision of the human person and of human life that shapes a person in the image of Jesus Christ who lived, suﬀered, died and was raised from the dead. It aims to develop the full potential of each person with whom you have contact, as teacher, in your classroom and in school. Catholic education takes place in open, happy, stimulating and mutually respectful communities. Here I recall the Pastoral Letter written by the bishops of Ireland in 2008.

4 That Letter, Vision of Catholic Education for the Future , reminded us that Catholic education takes place in communities inspired by the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Christ’s command- ment to love God and neighbour inspires a faith ethos and also a caring ethos, expressed in relationships within and beyond Catholic schools. In so doing Catholic education is: Christ gathers us to listen, to hear, to be nourished and to be formed into community by God’s Word

• Christ-inspired : its vision of life, of the human person, of knowledge, science and culture is inspired by a recognition of the human person with her/his talents as made in the image of God, who is revealed in Jesus Christ, known through the gospels and the Christian heritage of thought, devotion, culture, repentance; in short, through the living tradition of the Church;

• Person-centred : it fosters and promotes the dignity, self- esteem and full development of each person who is made in God’s image and who is uniquely loved by God;

• Inclusive : it respects and engages with people of all beliefs; it encourages the religious development of all in their own faith;

5 • Rooted in Gospel values of respect for Life, Love, Solidarity, Truth and Justice; it aims to foster exchange between faith and culture, build a better society and pursue the Common Good.

Within the life of our diocese and our parishes, Catholic Schools provide high quality, rounded education for all young people, so that they develop their full uniqueness and potential. I know that the Post-Primary Review has given rise to concerns for many people. Those who built many of our current schools in 1950s and 1960s showed great courage in facing new challenges. This is a similarly critical time when we have to take major decisions in order to plan for the future and ensure a holistic education for all children. Together we can make decisions that are true to our principles.

In pursuing this vision, Catholic education values intellectual and practical reason, promoting dialogue and understanding between faith, reason, tradition, culture and heritage. It places great value on inclusiveness and tolerance and on education for peace and justice. That integration of faith and the wider curriculum is recognised as being one major factor in the consistently high level of achievement within Catholic Christ gathers us to be nourished by the Bread of Life schools. Therefore, Catholic

6 schools welcome pupils of other traditions, faiths and none, seeing such diversity as oﬀering opportunities for deeper understanding among people holding diverse convictions.

While our schools share many characteristics with other schools in oﬀering public service, in addition Catholic schools seek to reﬂect a distinctive vision of

Christ gathers and strengthens us for life and a corresponding Mission by the Word and the Bread of Life philosophy of education. This is based on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Gospel sees the world in which we live as God’s creation. As human persons we are made in God’s image and we are destined for everlasting life with God. Life in this sense is a pilgrimage in the footsteps of Jesus, who is “the Way, the Truth and the life” (John 14:6). He came among us so that, in his own words, we might “have life and have it in all its fullness” (John 10:10).

I know that your school will become fully immersed in the life of the parishes, not just during this Catholic Schools Week of 2012, but also in preparation for the Eucharistic Congress in June. The journey in preparation for this event has already started back in the autumn of 2010 and it will continue to gather momentum during the coming months in your parishes and in your school. I hope that your school will fully participate in the preparation for this very special event. For us in Down and Connor, the Eucharistic Congress can be a major milestone in

7 our Living Church process as we seek renewal through God’s grace.

I conclude with a quotation from the Prayer of the forthcoming 50th International Eucharistic Congress:

‘May your Holy Spirit inﬂame our hearts, enliven our hope and open our minds, so that together with our sisters and brothers in faith we may recognise you in the Scriptures and in the breaking of bread.’

May God bless you in all the work you do in fostering and enriching the Catholic faith of our young people in your schools.

May you ever be inspired by Pope Benedict’s words in this year’s World Peace Day Message : “a witness is someone who ﬁrst lives the life that he proposes to others”.

Together with parents, grandparents, clergy, religious Sisters and Brothers, Diocesan Advisers for Religious Education, Bishop Anthony Farquhar and Bishop Donal McKeown, I thank you for your skilled dedication to assisting our youth to deepen their understanding, appreciation and love of faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour.

Yours in Christ,

@ Noel Treanor January 2012