Catholic Identity & Mission News
Last Friday, St Peter’s College staff enjoyed their annual Staff Spirituality Day. This year, there were two ‘keynote’ addresses the first of which was about St Paul. St Paul is often ‘twinned’ with St Peter as a co-founder of the early Church. There was tradition in the early Church that Peter and Paul had superseded the mythical founders of Rome, twins ‘Romulus and Remus’, and that Rome’s real foundation came from the lives and sacrifice of these two Christian saints. Tradition holds that Peter and Paul were martyred together in Rome, and they even share a feast day on June 29 each year.
Peter and Paul were very different and lived two diverse missions in spreading the Good News of Jesus Christ. Peter, like Jesus, was from a small village, worked with his hands, and never seemed to have travelled very widely. Paul, on the other hand, was an urbanite, a cosmopolitan and a prolific traveller. He could probably speak Aramaic, Hebrew and Latin but his primary language would have been one of the greatest international languages of all time, Koine – common Greek. According to the scriptures, Peter and Paul met at least twice – once was about 3 years after Paul was converted when he went to stay with Peter for 15 days, and the other was between 11-14 years later when they argued about whether Gentile (non-Jew) converts to Christianity had to follow Jewish rituals to be fully accepted into the early Church community.
The idea of debate and discussion about the composition of the Church, and what its ‘rules’ should be, linked to the second keynote address called, ‘Signs of the Times’ which discussed Pope Francis’ upcoming Synods in Rome in October 2023 and 2024. Synods and Councils have a long tradition in the Church and in our session last Friday, we took a closer look at the processes and outcomes of the Second Vatican Council (1962-65) before moving to how Pope Francis is organising his synods over the next 15 months. It’s been noted that, “It has become impossible for any gathering or institution to be "politically" representative of a large and diverse body. And in today's world there is hardly a community of people as large and diverse as the Catholic Church”. We know that to be true just on a local scale here at St Peter’s!
Our diverse community exists in an increasingly diverse local community within greater shifts in demographics and values. A day like Staff Spirituality Day complements our ‘everyday’ work at the College – our classes, co-curricular programs, and liturgies like we’ve had recently for the Feast of the Assumption and MacKillop and Kolbe House Feast Days. It’s so easy to get caught up in the busyness of school life and not prioritise being informed about where we’ve come from and where we might be going! I’m so pleased to report to the College community that Staff Spirituality Day was very well attended and that attendees have already reported back a great enthusiasm for their learning not only through the whole staff addresses, but also in the 7 workshops that they could choose from during the day. My immense thanks to the Mission and Identity Team, workshop facilitators – Greg Nelson, Jean-Paul Antoine, Laura McDonald, David Fini, Matthew Hocking, Denise Tan and David Hansen, and catering supremo, Jeannette Valencia, for their invaluable contributions to a wonderful day!
Fiona McKenna
Deputy Principal - Catholic Identity & Mission