Catholic Outlook September 2015

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CATHOLIC EDUCATION www.parra.catholic.edu.au @CatholicEdParra facebook.com/CatholicEdParra Faith and action STEM from Catholic education At our recent Priests, Principals and RECs Forum, we had the opportunity to listen to the Archbishop of Vancouver, Most Rev Michael J Miller CSB, speak about the future of Catholic schools. During this address, Archbishop Miller shared a powerful statement from Pope Francis to Jesuit teachers and alumnae in 2013: “I also want to encourage you educators to seek new unconventional forms of education so as to comply with the needs of places, times and people. This is important. Always go a step further and never be satisfied with conventional things.” When Archbishop Miller went on to call for “boldness, creativity and courage” in Catholic education, my mind immediately turned to a new project we have announced at the Sydney Science Park in Luddenham. We will be establishing an innovative new STEM school inside the Science Park, which will offer students unprecedented learning opportunities in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. So how does STEM relate to Catholic education? American presidential candidate Rick Santorum recently dismissed Pope Francis’ leadership on climate change with the comment that the Church should leave “science to the scientists”. Mr Santorum was quickly reminded that Pope Francis is a university graduate in Chemistry. Not only does the Holy Father draw on scientific learning in his recent papal encyclical Laudato Si’, he advocates for environmental education for young people. I’m excited about the growth of STEM education, and the Sydney Science Park project in particular, because STEM education is about problem solving: education in action. Pope Francis in his encyclical, The Joy of the Gospel, said “there can be no true evangelisation without the explicit proclamation of Jesus as Lord”. He also said that the very essence of evangelisation is bringing Jesus to those we meet in the every day. “It has to do with bringing the Gospel to the people we meet, whether they be our neighbours or complete strangers … constantly ready to bring the love of Jesus to others, and this can happen unexpectedly and in any place: on the street, in a city square, during work, on a journey.” Catholic schools offer opportunities for young people to put faith into action. A deep dive into formation By Kim Brownlie Across the Catholic Diocese of Parramatta, schools and parishes have partnered with diocesan agencies to focus on the evangelisation of young people and support the formation of students. The first session had an unexpected 150 students attend and the initiative has had a profound effect on the personal formation of the students. St Mark’s School Captain, Alex Surdich, said the youth group was an opportunity to connect with students from across the school. “Youth group is not centred towards a certain year group, it’s different individuals from different year groups professing their faith and sharing how they got to that journey,” Alex said. “Everyone’s faith journey is different.” As Archbishop Miller reflected on curriculum, he spoke with passion about the study of Science from a Catholic worldview. I’d like to think of Catholic STEM education as faith and education in action, an opportunity to lead on what Archbishop Miller called “the complementarity of faith and reason”. The NSW Minister for Planning, Rob Stokes MP, announced the approval of the first stage of the project, which will see this semi-rural spot hold 3400 homes, 12,000 high-skilled jobs and places for approximately 10,000 students, including those to be enrolled at the Catholic STEM school. As Western Sydney has some of the highest youth unemployment rates in Australia, the Catholic STEM school is an innovative way to meet a community need for pathways to employment, particularly in the areas of Science and Mathematics. The Sydney Science Park school is just one of a number of projects we will be developing in the coming years that will enable new models of schooling to support the needs of today’s learners and the community. It is part of our response to the call from Archbishop Miller to be bold, creative and courageous. Greg Whitby Executive Director of Schools @gregwhitby blog: bluyonder.wordpress.com Catholic schools play a key role with families and parishes to offer opportunities for young people to deepen and explore their faith and to put their faith into action. Here are some of many formation initiatives across the Diocese. St Mark’s Youth Group The Catholic Learning Community of St John XXIII, Stanhope Gardens, is uniquely placed where the primary school and college accommodates for the evangelisation of students from Kindergarten through to Year 12. The students of St Mark’s Catholic College, Stanhope Gardens, the secondary school within the learning community, has started an initiative that invites students from Years 7-12 to join youth group to support social justice activities. Leading the initiative in his first year of teaching is Anthony Ndaira, who said the youth group started in Term 2 and offered students the opportunity to talk about the ‘big questions’ in life and to help students deepen their personal formation. “When we evaluated where the students were at in their spiritual journey, we thought a youth group would act as the hands and feet of social justice in the school and help students deepen their faith,” Anthony said. Year 11 student Chloe Nguyen said although her faith was already strong, she wanted to discuss her faith in a group setting with other people experiencing the same journey. “It was a chance for me to open up about my beliefs and to be with others who are also on the same page as me,” Chloe said. “In this day and age, it’s hard to talk about things like faith with others who don’t experience it or who don’t feel the same way.” Anthony said that although the initiative was still in its infancy, the future of youth group was bright. “What it needs to have in the future is the idea that it will always continue to unite people from Years 7-12 and the teachers; it brings the school together,” he said. “Another part of the future is to train up young people specifically to be leaders of ministry in the school to help sustain the movement in the school in the long term, we want them to be agents for change.” Encounter pilot program The Encounter Student Leadership pilot program commenced this year in Our Lady of Queen Peace Parish, Greystanes. The program is a joint initiative of Catholic Education and Catholic Youth Parramatta (CYP) with students attending three Saturday events and a commissioning ceremony at Campion College, Toongabbie. 12 CatholicOutlook | SEPTEMBER 2015 www.parra.catholic.org.au @parracatholic facebook.com/parracatholic
www.parra.catholic.edu.au @CatholicEdParra facebook.com/CatholicEdParra CATHOLIC EDUCATION Students at the commissioning ceremony of the Encounter program. St Mark’s students participate in their Friday lunchtime youth group initiative. Encounter was developed as a means of forming secondary school leaders in a way that helps them learn more about Jesus Christ as a key model for Christian leadership. Year 10 students from Catherine McAuley Westmead, Cerdon College, Merrylands, Parramatta Marist High, Westmead, St Pauls Catholic College, Greystanes and Our Lady of Mercy College, Parramatta, who had attended primary school at Our Lady of Queen Peace Primary, Greystanes, were invited to be involved in the program. CYP Director James Camden said Encounter acted as a stepping-stone for students who wanted to participate in and attend other youth evangelisation events and leadership roles in the coming years. “Encounter opens up opportunities for students to attend other festivals that are directly tied to the Diocese,” James said. “We believe the program trains the students to become leaders either within their school or in the community.” Year 10 students from St Pauls Catholic College, Lucas Bertoncelj, Kieren Gerardis and Luigi Vella, said the program gave them a greater understanding of the Catholic faith and taught them how to become leaders within their own communities. “I have been part of the parish youth group since I was in Year 6 and I feel like the parish is looking to me to step up and become a leader one day,” Kieren said. “Something I really took away from the program was ‘don’t just say it, be it’ and it is something I want to apply to my life after Encounter,” Luigi said. “The more I learned about Catholicism, the more I started to believe and to see what Jesus did as a leader, and this showed me how to become a leader,” Lucas said. The pilot program is being evaluated to see how it will run in the future. Special Religious Education Secondary students from across the Diocese have been involved in teaching Scripture in government primary schools as part of the Special Religious Education (SRE) program for more than 17 years. The joint initiative with the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine (CCD) has grown from 50 students in one school to more than 500 students across 19 schools. CDD Director Paul Worthington said he hoped more students would choose to be involved in SRE in the future and the program would continue to grow. “I’m hoping students will one day be able to teach SRE in state secondary schools and not just primary so that they can do a bit of youth to youth ministry,” Paul said. Australian Catholic Youth Festival The Australian Catholic Youth Festival, established by the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, is a national gathering of young people which aims to deepen their faith and empower them to be evangelisers in their dayto-day lives. The festival includes plenary sessions, workshops, dialogue spaces, prayer experiences, live music and social justice activities. It is hoped that 130 young people from the Diocese of Parramatta will join around 3000 young people from across Australia at the festival hosted by the Archdiocese of Adelaide in December. For more information visit http://youthfestival.catholic.org.au/ Prayer is a day to day part of the school community. World Youth Day In 2016, World Youth Day (WYD) will be held in Krakow, Poland. Millions of young people from around the world will join Pope Francis for a week-long festival of faith. The Diocese of Parramatta is hoping more than 350 young people aged 16-35 from Western Sydney will attend. Following on the success of WYD 2013 Rio and immersion in Lima, Peru, the Diocese will include a mission immersion experience to the Philippines in the lead-up to WYD2016. The immersion to Bohol Island, which was devastated by an earthquake in 2013, will allow the pilgrims to spend four days working with young people in schools, parishes and orphanages. Following the mission immersion the pilgrims will travel to Poland for World Youth Day week in Krakow, the homeland of St John Paul II who founded the first World Youth Day. The WYD2016 Coordinator for the Diocese of Parramatta, Mark Tuffy, said it was a terrific opportunity for young people to come together to share their faith, to share the sacraments, to pray, to be involved in liturgy and to meet the Pope. “The four-day mission immersion and pilgrimage will be a cultural exchange of the Filipino and Australian cultures where there are many differences, but where we all share the same faith,” Mark said. “In Krakow, pilgrims will visit a number of shrines, including the Shrine of Divine Mercy, and will visit Auschwitz. “The young pilgrims will visit the concentration camps, which show the worst of humanity, contrasted with the best of humanity through their outreach to the Filipino community and the joy of World Youth Day.” For more information about WYD2016 visit http://worldyouthday.com/krakow-2016 For more school news, visit: CatholicEdParra @CatholicEdParra www.parra.catholic.edu.au www.parra.catholic.org.au @parracatholic facebook.com/parracatholic CatholicOutlook | SEPTEMBER 2015 13
Page 1 and 2: CatholicOutlook The official public
Page 3 and 4: Warm welcome for Archbishop Miller
Page 5 and 6: YEAR OF CONSECRATED LIFE Religious
Page 7 and 8: Fatherhood: A journey that changes
Page 9 and 10: Great resources for parishes and gr
Page 11: CARING FOR THOSE WHO CARED THE FATH
Page 15 and 16: CATHOLICCARE SOCIAL SERVICES DIOCES
Page 17 and 18: Citation of Merit for Youth: from l
Page 19 and 20: DIOCESAN HONOURS The inaugural Dioc
Page 21 and 22: Conference to focus on domestic vio
Page 23 and 24: SOCIAL JUSTICE MYC has created soci

Catholic Outlook September 2015

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