Christmas generosity of Catholic school kids hailed

Catholic school leaders have praised the enormous work and generosity of school children and staff who throughout the country have been raising tens of thousands of Euro for those in need at Christmas.

“Across the country, in schools large and small, pupils and staff are actively engaged in fundraising for those less fortunate.  The type of fund-raising activities range from selling Reindeer Food for the St Vincent De Paul, to collecting non-perishable food for the Giving Tree in the local church, to collections at carol services across the country for a variety of worthy causes” said  Seamus Mulconry, General Secretary of the Catholic Primary Schools Management Association.

One school principal said ‘It is important that we raise awareness among our pupils and our school communities of those who are in need. This is central to who we are as a school, and this is expressed in a special way when we fund-raise for the local St. Vincent De Paul in the weeks prior to Christmas.’

Alan Hynes, CEO of the Catholic Education Partnership said that all this fundraising is “ very authentic and a very important expression of what it is to be a Catholic school … that sense of what we owe each other and what we owe our communities. As Pope Francis talks about, what we owe to the global common good.”

Mr Hynes said that Catholic schools are integral to the community. “Our schools are community schools – I know other people have tried to claim that title for themselves. Our schools have always been an integral part of their community and have been involved in the life of their community. That’s everything from these charitable activities and involvement in other activities in their communities, sports clubs and so on.

It’s not just the pupils giving, it’s also about the time that a lot of our staff, teachers, SNAs give to assist local causes. It’s a huge testament to how schools understand themselves as being part of the common good of the society they exist in. All of this flows from the ethos of our schools”

But Christmas is not the only time Schools fundraise.  “Christmas brings a particular focus to this in terms of charitable activities that are aimed at others, for a lot of our schools Christmas is the time that they intensify this activity but it’s not the only time of the year that you’ll find Catholic schools engaged in this type of work.

We’d understand this (charity) to be a key aspect of our ethos. Sometimes those who think about reforming the education system think ethos is just education and that the only change that will be made is to get rid of religious education.

Ethos should inform the whole culture of the school, the way it works, and certainly what is taught. We see this kind of charitable activity as being key to understanding the ethos. To have a concern for others, a concern for Catholic Social Teaching and social justice issues. We see this as the key in our schools, primary and post-primary. Both in terms of what’s taught but more importantly what’s done.”