PERTH, WA: July 26, 1990
Registered by Australia Post Publication No. WAR 0202
Number 2698
POST ADDRESS: PO Box 50, Northbridge, 6000 W.A. LOCATION: 26 John St, Northbridge (east off Fitzgerald St).
TELEPHONE: (09) 328 1388
FAX (09) 328 7307
PRICE 60C
Sitting tall ... Moving house has its ups and downs, besides backaches and headaches. But for Catholic Migrant Centre's staffer Nena Newmann staying up is the way to go. After a presentation ceremony and in the midst of CMC moving house, Nena with cap and all sat tall — five seats high — in her room. • See Page 11 for pictures and story on CMC's big move and the Catholic Job Club celebration.
Challenge of Catholic education ...
Call for clarity on priests' role • Page 4
Small snub for Madonna
MONSIGNOR KEATING TELLS OF SERIOUS QUESTIONS TEACHERS FACE
• Page 5
The duke meets pope • Page 6
Parish gets a new look • Page 7
•
Jesus Christ and His Word should be on Christians' lips as often as the Wildcats or the West Coast Eagles, Catholic teachers were told last Monday. "We call people to hunger for the bread of life but their hunger for the eucharist is so weak because they are too busy and too tired, because they have football and their other sports," Monsignor Michael Keating told over 350 teachers and staff from the Fremantle region of Catholic schools at Mass in St Patrick's to start term three. He also said that Catholic schools could not be a substitute for parents who were not living an evangelical Catholic lifestyle. Nor were Catholic schools to be identified merely as a disciplined environment and a safe haven from state schools. Monsignor Keating said that his experience visiting parishes and conferring confirmation made him say "I have not stopped giving thanks to God for you" to Catholic teachers and staffs. He praised God for Mass being celebrated in Fremantle where the Church would be entering into tertiary university education.
On the other hand he told the teachers, they are faced with some serious questions: • Are Catholic schools effective agents in carrying out the evangelical mission of the Church? • Are schools preparing the young to witness to Christ in today's society? • Why are many from Catholic schools joining the 'legions of disenchanted and unchurched Catholics of Australia'? • Will Catholic schools limp into the 21st century or will they surge forth with parishes to reach every person with Christ's message? Schools were called to evangelisation and evangelisation called for conversion, he said. For teachers it meant a conversion to be evangelgers, to want more faith foundation and education. Monsignor Keating said Catholic schools ought to be the setting for the formation of Christian lives of staffs, parents and students. "If parents are not living an evangelical Catholic lifestyle then children will not be easily inspired to do so," he said. Formation and Christian education had
been identified as a big challenge for Perth archdiocese and the missing link between baptism and the last rites of the Church. said Monsignor Keating in conclusion. "Far too many Catholics fail to reach their fullest potential as gifted members of the priesthood of the faithful." On the other hand Catholic schools were not substitutes for what should be taking place in parishes, he pointed out. The schools must work in harmony with the parishes. Catholic schools had many gifts and strengths, he said: • A clear identity founded in Jesus Christ and Catholic teaching. • Highly trained and motivated teachers who had a ministry as well as a profession. • A less expensive and more effective provision of education than that provided by government schools. • Triral support from priests, parishes, parent bodies and past pupils. • A built-in foundation of truth on faith and morality for Christian living.