Religious Education News

Mr Andrew May

Friday 24th of March is the Feast Day of Saint Oscar Romero. Many of our Catholic saints are people who lived many hundreds or thousands of years ago, but Oscar Romero is much more modern than that.

Romero was the Archbishop of San Salvador and was murdered by masked gunmen whilst he was saying Mass on 24th March 1980 - only 43 years ago. His crime was that he spoke out against the violence and corruption of the military government of El Salvador, and actively protested against government policies that favoured the wealthy minority and kept the majority of the people in terrible poverty. To this day, Romero's murderers remain unpunished.

In Chapter 9 of Luke's Gospel, Jesus challenged his followers to 'take up their cross' and follow him. Jesus never said that following him would be an easy thing, especially when it isn't the popular or fashionable thing to do. Oscar Romero was certainly someone who took this teaching seriously, to the point of losing his life.

As Catholic Christians we use the lives of the saints as role models for how we should try to live our lives. Very few, if any, of the saints had easy lives. St Stephen was stoned to death, Paul beheaded, Peter crucified upside down. Mary McKillop was thrown out of the Church for a while (excommunicated) and then later on in life suffered a stroke. Father Titus Brandsma was killed by the Germans in a Concentration Camp for speaking out against the evils of Nazism. Romero was gunned down in his very own Church whilst saying Mass.

We aren't being asked to go to these extremes, but we are challenged to do what is right, even if it does mean that it may make life difficult for us. Nowhere in the Gospels do we see Jesus saying things that the popular people of the time agreed with. Jesus was a realist - life is hard, and we are often criticised when we seek to do what is right, rather than what's popular or easy.

At school in the last few weeks we have seen many examples of students choosing to do what's right rather than what's easy. I've seen students banding together to find enough money to buy tickets in the Pauper's Banquet (thanks year 10!). The whole school a few weeks ago did an amazing job of picking up litter around the school grounds. Our student leaders, from yr 7 to 12, give up their time to serve the school community. All of these things are examples of people taking up the cross and following in Jesus' footsteps.

Mr Andrew May

Religious Education Coordinator

Our Founders - St Angela Merici and St John Baptiste De La Salle

Saints Mary and Joseph Cathedral Parish

Keeping in touch with what is happening in the Cathedral Parish is easy through their website and Facebook pages.

With such a difficult year and a half it has been harder for parishioner's to give to the parish through the plates, particularly when the church is closed as it is at present. The Parish account details are available on the Parish bulletin.