Schools and Colleges

A Catholic school is a community of love and hope. It provides young people with a Catholic education which perceives life as a faith journey. The ultimate aim of a Catholic school is to develop the full potential of all young people, leading to their life-long activities being guided by the Spirit and presence of Christ, in the service of God and of others.

Catholic education is distinctive in placing all learning and teaching in a Catholic moral context and in both challenging and supporting young people to develop in mind, body and spirit. The role of a Catholic school is to help everyone in the school community to discover the true value and dignity of each and every human being who, loved by God, has a mission on earth and a destiny which is eternal.

The Catholic school is an open community, concerned with the education of the whole person. It presents a unique, clear vision of God, people and life, centred on Gospel values and reflective of the teaching of the Catholic Church. Hence, the formation of each person is regarded as being as important as the information which is transmitted through the teaching offered.

The Catholic school is supported in its mission by the active partnership of the home, the school and the parish. Together, they provide support for the faith community, helping to form and develop in all a mature Christian conscience, in addressing the increasingly secular influences of popular culture.

The Catholic school
. . . is a school for all, with special attention for those who are weakest . . .those who have lost all sense of meaning in life and lack any type of inspiring ideal, those to whom no values are proposed and who do not know the beauty of faith, who come from families which are broken and incapable of love, often living in situations of material and spiritual poverty, slaves to the new idols of a society which, not infrequently, promises them only a future of unemployment and marginalization. To these new poor, the Catholic school turns in a spirit of love.
(The Catholic School on the Threshold of the Third Millennium 1998)