Catholic Schools Week begins on Sunday with Mass on RTÉ Television
Catholic Schools Week 2013 will begin this Sunday 27 January with RTÉ One Television broadcasting 11.15am Mass from its Donnybrook studios in Dublin. In addition CSW 2013 will take place next week in all 26 dioceses on the island of Ireland. The objective of CSW is to celebrate the contribution of Catholic schools to society and to our faith.
Father Kevin Heery, chaplain to Saint Joseph’s Mercy Secondary School, Navan, will be celebrant for this Sunday's televised Mass. Students and staff from Saint Joseph’s will be in attendance. Two choirs from Saint Joseph’s will participate in the liturgy: the Schola and the All Schools Choir. The Schola is a specialised choir made up of girls proficient in music who are given tuition in organ, cantoring, Gregorian chant, choral singing and choral direction. The Schola programme is supported by Bishop Michael Smith, Bishop of Meath. The All Schools Choir is made up of students who take music to Junior and Leaving Certificate. It offers the choir members the opportunity to improve the performing element of the music syllabi and correlates music learning in the class room. The choirs are under the direction of Mr Ephrem Feeley.
On each morning next week Mr Sean Goan of the CSW 2013 steering committee will contribute to RTÉ Radio 1's A Living Word broadcast.
For the conclusion of CSW 2013, RTÉ One Television will broadcast Mass from its Donnybrook studios on Sunday 3 February. Students and staff from the Cistercian College at Mount Saint Joseph, Roscrea, Co Tipperary, will participate in this Mass and provide the liturgical music. The celebrant will be the Abbott of Mount Saint Joseph Abbey, Roscrea, the Right Reverend Dom Richard Purcell.
Schools throughout Ireland have been furnished with dedicated CSW 2013 resources in English, Irish and Polish. These resources can be accessed by downloading material from a special web feature on: www.catholicbishops.ie/2012/12/03/catholic-schools-week-2013/ These resources include:
– Catholic Schools Week 2013 resources for Primary Schools
– Primary Schools Resources in Irish
– Primary Schools Resources in Polish
– Catholic Schools Week 2013 Post-Primary Schools Resources
– Post-Primary Resources in Irish
Pope Benedict XVI reminds us that during this year – the universal ‘Year of Faith’ – we are offered an opportunity to ‘rediscover the joy of believing’. Share the Good News highlights the synergy between the aims of the of the Year of Faith and the day to day work of the Catholic School: ‘Catholic primary schools in the Republic and in Northern Ireland are required to follow a religious education and formation programme that fosters and deepens children’s Catholic faith.’ (#100 Share the Good News p14). The directory comments further that ‘the local Catholic school, a constitutive part of the parish, contributes generously to the children’s faith development, seeking “to inculcate in pupils the qualities of personal integrity and moral courage which are marks of an authentic Christian personality”.’ (#91 Share the Good News p131)
ENDS
For media contact: Catholic Communications Office Maynooth: Martin Long 00353 (0) 86 172 7678
