Bishop Stephen writes:
This Sunday we remember in prayer and give thanks to all who are involved in Catholic Education. Our prayerful thanks to all the teachers, support staff, volunteers, school governors and directors and to all who work in our Academy Trusts and in our diocesan education department. We ask the Lord to bless them all.
Above all, of course, we pray for our children and young adults in our diocesan schools. A Catholic school offers them wholistic education. As they grow in knowledge and understanding they grow in their relationship with the Lord who is present in our catholic schools, rooted in faith and church teaching.
Pope Leo writes about the importance of Catholic education and Catholic schools in “Drawing New Maps of Hope.”
He reminds us, “The Catholic school is an environment in which faith, culture and life intertwine. It is not simply an institution, but rather a living environment in which the Christian vision permeates every discipline and every interaction. Educators are called to a responsibility that goes beyond the work contract: their witness has the same value as their lessons.”
“Educating is an act of hope and a passion that is renewed because it manifests the promise we see in the future of humanity… Educating is a labour of love that is handed down from generation to generation.”
Pope Leo challenges us that we are united in this holy endeavour, “Christian education is a collective endeavour: no one educates alone. The educational community is a “we” where teachers, students, families, administrative and service staff, pastors and civil society converge to generate life. This “we” prevents water from stagnating in the swamp of “it has always been done this way” and forces it to flow, to nourish, to irrigate.”
“Every person is capable of truth, yet the journey is much more bearable when one goes forward with the help of another. Truth is sought in community.”
We are blessed with our Catholic schools and with the Academy Trusts in which the right to catholicity is legally secured. We must never take our schools for granted and so we are called to support them.
With my thanks and my prayers to all involved in Catholic education,
Bishop Stephen Wright
Bishop of Hexham and Newcastle
