Mission and Identity 

• Christmas Giving at the College
• Eucharistic Ministers Course
• Chapel Mass
• Founder's Day
• Year 10 Immersions

Christmas Giving at the College

Thank you to all families who are so generously supporting our Christmas Giving appeal. The appeal will continue to the end of next week.  Please note that each year group has been made responsible for supporting an organisation that assists those living on the margins. Goods can be bought into the College on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays where students will collect donations from homerooms. Of particular note is Year 10 students who are required to provide a wrapped present for an employee of Centacare – a Catholic organisation that provides meaningful employment for adults living with severe intellectual disabilities.

• St Vincent de Paul
• The Bowraville community
• Catholic Care
• The Burdekin Association
• Centacare
• St Michael’s, Darlington

Each of these organisations provide assistance to those experiencing hardship. Full details of requests per year group can be found in the document below:

Eucharistic Ministers

Congratulations to the Year 10 students who completed their training to be a Eucharistic Minister: Joe Lonergan, Cooper Anderson, Sam Cummins, Dominic Mitchell, Jose Monk, Riley Seeto, Lenox Makarewicz, Spencer Anderson and Liam Boswell. The boys were led by Fr David Ranson and supervised by Ms Guerrera. Their training was held in both the College Chapel and at Our Lady of Dolours Parish. They will be formally acknowledged and minister for the first time at our Closing Mass on 6 December. This significant role in the College will see these boys acting as Eucharistic Ministers at all celebrations, as well as significant days in the liturgical calendar such as Ash Wednesday. We look forward to their leadership.

Chapel Mass

Our final Chapel Mass of the year was hosted by the Student Leadership Team for 2023 and led by Mr Di Sano. Fr Marek Waldon celebrated Mass for us in which the Gospel presented the picture of the widow who gave all that she had to the collection. In his homily Fr Marek explained that this is what God desires of us, our faith that God will always be there for us. At the conclusion of Mass the student leaders were provided with a blessing for the year ahead in their tenure of leadership.

Founder's Day

Preparations are well underway for the College to celebrate the spirituality of Blessed Edmund Rice on Founder's Day, this Friday. As a community we very generously support organisations that assist those on the margins. Our day will have a particular focus upon the work of the Edmund Rice Centre in the area of supporting refugees. While we have donated to the Jesuit Refugee Services in our Annual Winter Appeal, the plight of many refugees is somewhat unknown. We will hear from representatives from the Refugee Council of Australia who will tell their story to the boys on how and why they find themselves in Australia today.

Year 10 Immersions

Next week the Immersion Program for Year 10 will recommence after a hiatus due to COVID. This will see representatives for the St Pius X College community visiting and working in communities such as:

• St Joseph’s Walgett
• St Mary’s Bowraville
• The Central Coast
• St Edmund’s Wahroonga
• St Gabriel’s Castle Hill

Please look out in future editions of Woodchatta for reports from each of these centres.

Mr Nathan Mulheron - Assistant Principal, Mission and Identity