MESSAGE FROM CANON STEPHEN BAILLIE ON CATHOLIC EDUCATION WEEK 2020
Catholic Education 2020
Today, we celebrate Catholic Education Sunday. During this week we:
celebrate the God-given talents and achievements of our young people;
- acknowledge the hard work and faith witness of the staff in our schools;
- mark the unique contribution that Catholic Education makes to our families, our parishes and to wider Scottish society; and reflect on the mission of the Catholic school for the future.
This year, the theme of Catholic Education Week is Jesus Christ: the Way, the Truth and the Life. This theme reflects the vision and aim of Catholic education that Catholic schools, centred on the person of Jesus Christ, help and accompany young people to discover, and to follow the Christian vocation to live responsibly with and for others in accordance with the message of Christ and so to build up and transform society for the better.
This is a message to which our young people readily respond, as can be seen by the high levels of participation in the Pope Francis Faith award and the Caritas programme.
This has been a strange year for our schools, with a period so characterised by uncertainty, disruption and even fear. Our young people were separated from their friends and teachers, and their learning and exams were interrupted. It is precisely in times such as these that we search for direction and certainty, and the theme of this year’s Catholic Education Week reminds us where it can be found. In recognising Jesus as the Way, we need no longer worry about which direction we take, and where that will lead; in following Jesus’ teaching and example, we will inevitably come to the Father. At a time where it can be difficult to discern what is genuine, we find in Jesus a Truth to which we can hold firm. It is in living in relationship with God that we find the fullness of life for which God created us. Through the love and service to others we find in the life of Jesus, and reminds our pupils and teachers that they are a part of the Church in action.
I encourage you then to give thanks for Catholic Education and to pray for its ongoing success. I ask you to support the work of the Scottish Catholic Education Service and all that it does on behalf of our Church, our young people and our families to promote the positive contribution of Catholic schools in Scotland. I encourage you all to speak out positively on behalf Catholic Education, sharing the good news that Catholic schools remain good for Scotland.
