The first reading of our Mass today, and the first symbols brought up at the beginning of Mass – the bible and the crucifix, both point to the Catholic ethos of St Aidan’s School. Faith is the foundation of a Catholic School – faith in God and faith in Christ. Like the tree planted beside flowing waters, a Catholic school is nourished by the teaching and values of Jesus Christ which we find in the Gospels. Christ’s teaching and his values are not compartmentalised and kept in a slot marked ‘religion’. There is no ‘God slot’ in St Aidan’s. Faith in God and in Christ touch every aspect of school life. I have experienced the Ethos of the school for myself on my occasional visits there. I have seen it in the warm welcome and hospitality that is so characteristic of the school. I have seen it in the preparation and participation by staff and students in the prayer and worship that I have taken part in. I have seen it in the dedication to teaching and learning of both staff and students, in the spirit of care for every student and especially for those most in need of care and support. I have seen it in the excellence of the school’s achievements, whether those achievements were academic, artistic, sporting or religious. I have seen it above all in the good relationships in the school community – and that is the acid test of any school ethos.
A recent document from the Congregation for Catholic Education in Rome states that, “education can be carried out authentically only in a relational and community context”. St Aidan’s is not just an education facility. It is a community which is linked in the closest way to the wider community of the parish and society. Within the school community and the wider community there is a variety of gifts – as the second reading reminds us today – that enrich the educational experience for everyone. We learn best by sharing our gifts. The symbols of academic learning, skills, sports and art in the procession point to the variety of gifts in St Aidan’s. St Paul tells us all these gifts come from the same Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit who shows us how use these gifts and to work together to build up the community.
We are particularly indebted to those who had the gifts of courage, vision and tenacity 50 years ago to set about providing a secondary school for this community. Today we remember them – and especially those who are no longer with us – with admiration and gratitude. We thank God also for the gift and talents of successive Boards of Governors who have steered this school – sometimes on stormy waters – over the past 40 years. You have done this on a voluntary basis and in doing so you have shown great generosity and real leadership as members of this community. We thank God for the priests in this area who have been involved with the school, both as members of the Board of Governors and providers of pastoral care. We acknowledge also today the great advice and support that the Board and the school have always had from the Council of Catholic Maintained Schools. We thank God for the gifts of our teachers and staff down the years – some of them now deceased – and for the Principals and Vice Principals past and present for your leadership. Your dedication and commitment, and that of your staffs, have made this school what it is. You have reason to be enormously proud of what you have achieved – in academic excellence, pastoral care, in sports and above all in the character and quality of the pupils you have formed.
It all comes back to pupils. Schools are first and last about pupils. The past students of St Aidan’s now number thousands. They are scattered far and wide, at home and abroad. They are found in all walks of life – two I’m glad to say are priests, and one of them Fr Enda is with us today and a priest of our own diocese. Fr Niall Green is a Spiritan Father in Brazil. The present students have inherited a great tradition and are building on it and making their own unique contribution to it. You enjoy new facilities and technologies that earlier generations couldn’t have dreamed of. But you also face new challenges and I am confident that, like your predecessors, you will meet those challenges and pioneer new achievements.
It’s not just the students who face new challenges. It’s the whole school community. Apart from the ordinary challenges of coping with a changing world and new educational developments, this school, like many others of its size, has been facing a challenge to its very existence and future. I can understand why you chose the Gospel you did for today’s Mass. St Aidan’s boat is on stormy seas. It is in imminent danger of going down. The school is fortunate in having a parent body and a community which has risen to meet these challenges. Like the community leaders who pioneered this school forty years ago, a new generation of community representatives have led the campaign to ensure the future of St Aidan’s within the new educational landscape that is being developed by government. I wish those efforts continued success so that St Aidan’s will continue to flourish and to be a vibrant and valuable resource at the heart of this community in the future as it has been in the past. Go mairfidh sibh an gcéad.
