Post Graduate Diploma of Education (Primary), Mass of Thanksgiving

 1.     You are about to graduate with an academic grade which will qualify you to teach in a Catholic Primary School. I am sure that this is a source of the greatest satisfaction for you and your families, and I am equally sure that each of you richly deserves this accolade after your year of study, preparation and training. For you, the Lord has a special message today. “I call you friends….I call you friends because I have made known to you everything I have learnt from my father.” During your studies over the past year, you have engaged with your faith at a higher education level in order to prepare you to teach religious education in a Catholic school. “I call you friends.” The Lord calls you friends because your baptismal friendship with him ought to have been deepened by your religious education and formation. The Lord calls you friends because it can only be a friend of his who is entrusted to help little children come to love the Lord more by teaching them and by preparing them for the sacraments of First Confession, First Holy Communion and Confirmation. I call you friends, says the Lord. I call you, as teachers, to be his friends in your faith, your worship and your life.

2.     You will no doubt be aware of the great tradition of Catholic primary school teaching. Every one of us can think back to our primary school and point to one or more teachers who made a real impact for the better on our lives. I know I certainly can. And from what I have seen as a priest and as a bishop working closely with primary schools, there are some amazing Catholic teachers out there, who love the Lord and are dedicated to him, and who love the children and are dedicated to them. I hope you will be a teacher like that. I hope you will not just be a teacher with a job in a Catholic school, but a Catholic teacher who teaches in a Catholic school. It is not enough to put on a Catholic façade when you walk through the doors of the school and to satisfy the demands of your contract. It is important, in fact essential for the authenticity of Catholic education, that you are Catholic to your fingertips in the way you think and in the way you live.

3.     As a priest in the parish I considered the Catholic school to be a principal arena for my pastoral concern and I regarded the teachers as among my closest co-workers. You should expect that and even demand that of your local priest. As teachers I encourage you to use every opportunity to deepen your knowledge of your faith so that you can deliver the curriculum with full conviction, and indeed, where necessary, go beyond the curriculum and even make up for it where it may be lacking. Never be afraid to follow your instinct of faith as a Catholic. St. Paul’s advice to Timothy for his ministry as a presbyter-bishop is relevant to you too: “Keep as your pattern the sound teaching you have heard in Christ Jesus. You have been trusted to look after something precious; guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us.”

4.     You will have gathered that I have a great regard for Catholic schools. Their particular genius or ethos time and time again is found to bring out the very best in children and young people, and I just want all our schools to be excellent. I am even more convinced than ever now that Catholic schools are an eminently justifiable and important part of school provision in the public sector in this country. That is what you are getting into and that is you are part of. On behalf of Bishops of Scotland, I congratulate you on your achievements. I hope you find full-time employment without any problems, and I wish you every success in your career. Above all I look forward to your effective contribution to Catholic schools and I invoke on you the blessing of Almighty God and the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the saints.

 The Bute Hall, University of Glasgow

26^th June 2006.