Proclaim Lismore Staff

In the latest Proclaim Lismore initiative regarding mission, Fr Richard Leonard, Fr Frank Brennan, and Br David Hall touched on the various activities and influences of the Church, guiding staff into a deeper understanding of Catholic Social Teaching. In addition, all staff were asked to look at the school’s mission goal for 2022 going forward focussing on the Foundational Values documentation.

The Mission of Jesus Christ-Foundational Values are six ways of living the Gospel of Jesus Christ: evangelisation, tradition, worship, service, witness and community. It will be wonderful to see how schools plan and enliven the last three of these to complete this cycle of Proclaim Lismore. Hopefully, these will help animate the school’s Catholic Identity.

As Archbishop Michael Miller wrote in his seminal Five Essential Marks of Catholic Schools, “it is precisely because of its Catholic identity, that a school derives the originality that enables it to be a genuine instrument of the Church's evangelising mission…the first and most important task for Catholic schools is to maintain and continually strengthen their Catholic identity."

Over the next few editions of The Soul, I will touch on these marks, especially the first three of evangelisation, tradition, and worship. These are essential to the Mission, and the foundations of the Catholic School’s 'originality'.

In the meantime, I wish you well in working on the process of building stronger Mission goals for next year with your leadership team and the School Service Consultants.

Gary Reen

Assistant Director, School Evangelisation & Catechetical Services