Principal

Feast Day of Mary of the Cross, MacKillop 

The Feast Day of Mary MacKillop is held every August 8th, in honour of the revered Saint Mary of the Cross, MacKillop who is the Patron Saint of our College and therefore a role model to us all. The day marks her death on 8 August 1909. We will celebrate this day and recognise Saint Mary of the Cross, MacKillop’s enormous contribution to helping those in need with a whole school liturgy, followed by our Walkathon and then activities in afternoon. 

Mary was born of Scottish parents, Alexander MacKillop and Flora MacDonald in Fitzroy, Victoria on January 15, 1842 and is the first Saint of Australia. Her influence in Australia has spread far and wide. She is recognised for her commitment to the poor, helping those who needed it the most in any way she could. 

With the encouragement Fr Julian Tennison Woods, Mary worked in partnership with him to initially establish in 1866 the first Saint Joseph’s School in a disused stable in Penola. Soon, young women came to join Mary and this saw the commencement of the commencement of the Congregation of the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart, known to many as the Josephites or the Brown Joeys (on account of colour of the habits they wore), in that year.

Since those humble beginnings the work of the Sisters spread throughout not just Australia. Currently there are 600 Sisters of St Josephs living in communities in Australia, Aotearoa New Zealand, Ireland, Peru, Timor-Leste and Brazil. The Sisters provide services in pastoral work as well as in professional roles which include teaching, administration, social services, law, psychology, nursing, aged care, community development, adult education and support for new arrivals in Australia and New Zealand. 

In June 1995 Mary MacKillop was beatified by Pope John Paul II. In February 2010, after evaluating the testimony of an Australian woman who claimed that her terminal cancer had disappeared after she called upon MacKillop in prayer, Pope Benedict XVI recognized MacKillop as a saint. She was canonized in October in that year.

Mary exhorted all her worked with her to “never see a need without doing something about it” and there is no doubt that this desire has been achieved. Her work and life is an inspiration to who we are and what we do at Mary MacKillop Catholic Regional College.

I look forward to participating in the Feast day on Monday and being part of and witness to not just the activities, but the important fundraising efforts that we dedicate ourselves to over the next several weeks.

Year 10 Camp

Thank you to Ken Myors and all the staff involved in our Year 10 Camp last week at CYC Forrest Edge. Speaking to staff and students this was a very worthwhile time and to further build relationships.

Deputy Principal Wellbeing - Staff and Students

As advised in our last Newsletter we are advertising for applicants for the new role of Deputy Principal Wellbeing – Staff and Students. There has been wide-ranging interest in the role with applications due to close next Tuesday 9 August with interviews to take place on 23 August 2023.

Year 7 2023 Enrolments

On Monday and Thursday evenings this week we have had the great pleasure of interviewing the students and their families who applied to be part of our community next year.

It has been wonderful to listen to the young people talk about themselves and their hopes for the future.

We still have more interviews to undertake, but I want to take this opportunity to thank the staff who assisted with the interviews and recognise the work of Carly Kitchingman and Claire Cassidy in regard to the organisation.

We are looking forward to welcoming the students, many of who are from new families to our College, later this year at our orientation and transition day.

Sapientia Domini Docet Nos

John M Freeman