Catholic education and a religious vocation
Pat Lynch
New Zealand has 239 Catholic Schools that educate 66,000 young people. In the last 16 years 11 new schools have opened with several additional schools now on the drawing boards.
Fundamentally, as a community of 500,000 people, we believe in the vital importance of Catholic education in passing on our precious faith to the new generations of young Catholics.
Those of us involved in running our schools stand on the shoulders of countless forebears, including priests, sisters, brothers, who during the 20th century largely staffed the nation’s Catholic schools.
The challenge our Catholic schools face today is to be more and more authentically Catholic, and unabashedly so, since they transmit the heritage of our Church.
How wonderful is the inspiration Pope Francis displays with his gestures of simple humanity ina our secular world. He has succeeded in capturing the
attention of billions of people through his demonstration of love for individuals.
Clearly, the world is thirsting to hear about the importance of love, kindness, compassion and human dignity, to combat blame, corruption and plain evil.
As Pope Francis has stated so succinctly, ‘There is an eclipse of the sense of God in the world’s affairs.’ Hence the need for standing up and being counted in what we do and say!
All Christians are called to do this. Today there are only about 20 priests, sisters and brothers working in our 239 schools, when 60 years ago there were many, many hundreds.
Often boards of trustees, principals and teachers say to me, ‘We would love to have some of these especially dedicated people working in our schools.’ This is because in a special way they are a sign of God’s presence in our communities and in the world.
As a De La Salle Brother, I am greatly honoured to be able to serve the New Zealand Church in my role with the New Zealand Catholic Education Office. The position has opened a vast number of doors both within and outside of the Catholic community. I am deeply grateful to the New Zealand Bishops and the other proprietors of our Catholic schools in giving me this wonderful opportunity to interact with a very wide group of New Zealanders. Previously, I spent over 30 years teaching and leading a Catholic secondary school.
Wouldn’t it be inspiring if some young people in our schools could come to see just what a great life being a priest, sister or brother actually is? Our Church, internationally, is able to display the great diversity of Christian callings there are in the Catholic community – expanding numbers in the religious life calling would be to reinforce this reality.
Catholic schools are a statement of Christ’s presence in the 21st century. Our students, their families and the Church community of our towns and cities are a tan
gible and visible presence of Christ in our daily lives.
May we boldly capitalise on the ‘Pope Francis effect’. This is a great time to be bold and confidently Catholic.
Pat Lynch is the Chief Executive Officer of the New Zealand Catholic Education Office based at the Catholic Centre in Wellington.