Cathal Barry
Archbishop Eamon Martin has urged Catholic schools to be “courageous” in trialling new ways of celebrating First Communion and Confirmation ceremonies.
Noting that “any attempt to get a national decision” on how best to celebrate First Communion and Confirmation ceremonies would fail, the Archbishop of Armagh insisted “the best examples of parish, home, school, linking catechesis are done at local level and then they spread up”.
“I think we just have to be open and creative to parishes who do wish to do something different and allow that to happen,” he said.
Archbishop Eamon made his remarks after delivering a key note address at the Annual General Meeting of the Catholic Primary School’s Management Association (CPSMA).
In his address, the archbishop warned that it was “easy” for schools to “pay lip service to Catholic ethos and to simply put on a good show when necessary”.
Intentional
However, what is much more important, according to the archbishop, is to be “an intentional Catholic school”.
“This is one which says, loudly and clearly, this is who we are,” Archbishop Eamon insisted.
“We are Catholic schools inspired by Christ. We know what that means for us, we celebrate our distinctiveness, we deliberately nurture and develop our Catholic ethos in the whole school community and we can name and demonstrate the experiences, the Gospel values, the knowledge, understanding, attitudes and behaviours which we want to pervade everything we do.
“An intentional Catholic school is one where the works of mercy permeate the totality of experience in the school community to confront the material, cultural, relationships and spiritual poverty that is so prevalent in the world,” he said.