Catholic schools are marked by a spirit of hospitality to all

Having recently been gifted with the new title of “grandmother”, “granny” or “nana” (though I still can’t decide what I want to be called) the arrival this week of Catholic Schools Week 2020 has taken on a new twist.

I’ve been reflecting on the educational continuum which began with my first reluctant steps over the threshold of St Louis Primary School, Rathmines, back in the 1960s, continued in the next generation when our daughters embarked on similar journeys in the 1990s, and will hopefully begin all over again when our grand-daughter makes her way over the wall to the local primary school.

Notwithstanding the global tumult of the modern world’s crises, conflicts and challenges, Catholic schools - with a renewed ensemble of energies, both lay and religious - continue evangelically to engage the grandeur and grimness of our earth with the Easter confidence of Christian faith.

The theme of Catholic Schools Week 2020, “Catholic Schools: Living in Harmony with God’s Creation,” speaks directly to some of the deepest concerns of old and young alike, with the focus on the celebration of the interconnectedness of creation and the responsibility of everyone to address climate change in even the smallest ways.

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Catholic education is an invitation to flourish and to experience the world through the lens of a faith perspective

The scope of engagement is broad, grounded in our relationship with God, but radiating outwards to encompass school, neighbourhood, extended family, immigrants, emigrants, the “muchness and manyness” of Joyce’s vision, and Planet Blue herself.

The glory of God, said Saint Irenaeus, is a human being who is utterly alive. At the heart of its endeavour, Catholic education is an invitation to flourish and to experience the world through the lens of a faith perspective.

This is not static or "top down", but provides young people with a framework of meaning in the story of Jesus Christ who, by walking alongside us, provides the most potent role-model possible in an era of confusion and mixed messages. That faith journey is further strengthened and enriched by prayer, ritual, music, liturgy, and the sacraments.

When Pope Francis tells us that "the son of God, by becoming flesh, summons us to a revolution in tenderness", he is exhorting us to live in harmonious empathy, patience, and forbearance even with those who may vex and frustrate.

This is precisely the message of tolerance of and kindness towards the other which the final day of Catholic Schools Week seeks to encourage staff, students, and parents to reflect upon.

Students themselves are always quick to acknowledge behaviours which hurt and to identify how reciprocity can be restored. They strive to participate in the adventure of discernment.

The etymology of catholicity means “openness, broadmindedness or liberality, universality, and general inclusiveness,” and the Catholic school is characterised by a spirit of hospitality towards members of other traditions and of no espoused tradition at all. This is neither tokenism nor is it motivated by a desire to convert. It arises from a desire to engage with, and learn from, the other. Dialogue and student input are encouraged and emphasised so that young people can explore difficult things and difficult times as well as the moments of joy and celebration.

The impulse to make the world a better place, to come see and go tell, is very strongly sensed by students

By opening and disclosing the immense inherent giftedness of the students in their care, Catholic schools hope that those talents will eventually challenge and change the future under the sign of service to others, well beyond a singular preoccupation with only self and personal CV.

While Catholic schools have long been associated with the highest standards of teaching and learning and enabling students to realise their intellectual potential, the focus is always on the education of the whole person and the naming of their myriad gifts. Schools eagerly enable all students to showcase interests and accomplishments across the whole spectrum of human talent - dramatic, athletic, aesthetic, musical, scientific - so that today’s pupils may become tomorrow’s pastors.

The intellectual exhilaration of serious study isn’t only an important practical pursuit for the purposes of later livelihood, but also a summons to solidarity with the least of our species. Hence the call of Catholic Schools Week to live in harmony with our neighbours and to put community before the interests of individualism.

The impulse to make the world a better place, to come see and go tell, is very strongly sensed by students, and all schools across the sector are engaged in building a social awareness which leads to action at home and abroad. I remember how delighted students in my own school were when a visiting sister shared with them Pope Francis’s address at World Youth Day, when he told the young people that God did not want “couch potatoes”. Instead he challenged them to “get off the couch and put on your walking shoes – better, your boots laced up – and make your mark on the world”. They internalised this, and repeated it as a mantra.

The primary schoolchild who wrote in her diary – more than 50 years ago – such words and phrases as “John, Paul, George, and Ringo forever” or “was friends with Audrey. A good day”, looks forward now to dropping and collecting her granddaughter at the busy school-gates from the chatty lollipop lady.

Much has changed in the long meantime, and we give thanks for the growth that changes bring. Much more remains, and we are rightly grateful.

Patricia Bourden is acting CEO of the Catholic School Partnership