The faith formation of staff and teachers at Catholic schools must be improved if Catholic education in WA is to fulfil its purpose, according to Archbishop Timothy Costelloe SDB.
The Archbishop addressed about 200 of the State’s leaders in Catholic education on August 20 at the University of Notre Dame in Fremantle, speaking on the topic of the future of Catholic education in WA.
The audience included members of the Catholic Education Commission, staff of the Catholic Education Office of WA, trustees and directors of the University of Notre Dame, and numerous school principals and teachers.
The Archbishop stressed the importance of allowing the past, present and the future to “interact with and mutually inform each other”.
He shared his vision for Catholic education with those present, saying that such a vision cannot be attained unless God remains at the “heart and soul of all our educational institutions”.
During the question and answer session, Archbishop Costelloe acknowledged the unfortunate situation the Church faces regarding the retention of young people.
“We often hear principals and teachers saying the Catholic school is the experience of Church for most young people today,” he said. “Now that’s true, but it’s not a good situation.”
As a consequence of this, it becomes even more vital that teachers, and especially principals, whom the Archbishop described as the “faith leader” of the school, are well formed.
“If we’re going to be able to continually work towards this vision that I’ve been trying to outline tonight, one of the big challenges… is the formation of our teachers,” he said.
“If there was one thing that I would identify as the big challenge for us in terms of our Catholic education… it’s that we need to form the formators, we need to form our staff, our teachers, better than we’re doing.”
Archbishop Costelloe also said the difference between Catholic schools and public schools should not just be the inclusion of religious education classes in the former.
“That’s not what makes a Catholic school. What makes a Catholic school is the Catholic culture,” he said.