Catholic Schools Join Statewide Celebrations For Education Week

Queensland’s Catholic Education Week 2024 is being celebrated from 21 to 27 July. Catholic Education - Diocese of Rockhampton (CEDR) kindergartens, primary schools, and college communities joined in statewide celebrations to honour their distinctive mission.
This year’s theme, Communities of Faith, Hope & Love, saw over 18,000 CEDR students, along with teachers, support staff, and volunteers from regional, rural, and remote centres ranging from Mackay to Bundaberg and west to Longreach, participating in a range of celebrations. These included liturgies, award presentations, special assemblies, gatherings, fun activities, and outreach to the wider community.
Diocesan Director of Catholic Education, Michael McCusker, said that Catholic Education Week is always a special date on the calendar as it provides school communities the opportunity to celebrate what is at the heart of a Catholic school.
“In Catholic Education Week we focus on our Catholic identity and the unique role of Catholic schools in their local communities. We reflect on our beliefs and values and seek to deepen our understanding of what it means to be part of the Ministry of Catholic Education within the Catholic Church, and to share that more widely with our parishes and communities,” Mr McCusker said.
“We celebrate the faith dimension of a Catholic education where we seek to be true witnesses to Christ’s message of hope and love for the world, to be the face of Jesus to those we meet in our everyday lives,” he added.
Catholic Education Week also called us to reach out to those in our parishes and wider communities.
“Catholic Education Week calls us to reach out to those in our parishes and wider communities to say thank you for their support and, inspired by Jesus’ example, to look for opportunities to help others in need through our acts of kindness and social justice which are a key feature of our schools but especially highlighted in Catholic Education Week,” Mr McCusker noted.
“The carrying out by our students and staff of these acts of kindness and care is an aspect of Catholic Education Week which is loved by all our communities, the opportunity to do something for someone and the sense of joy and happiness that always follows,” he said.
This year’s Diocesan Catholic Education Week Mass, held at St Joseph’s Cathedral, Rockhampton, at midday on Wednesday 24 July, was livestreamed to Catholic school communities across the Diocese.
Catholic Bishop of Rockhampton, Bishop Michael McCarthy, presided at the Mass, which included a special presentation to Jan Whelan OAM.
Jan, well known in the Mackay region for her gifts and talents in music that she generously shares with her local Catholic Parish, Catholic Primary Schools, and Colleges, and the wider community, received the Diocesan Recipient of the Statewide Spirit of Catholic Education Award.
In congratulating Jan, Mr McCusker acknowledged all 32 award nominees from the Diocese for their outstanding contributions to Catholic Education and for making a real and lasting difference in the lives of students and their families.
“We are abundantly blessed to have such committed and dedicated people in our kindergartens, schools, and colleges,” Mr McCusker said.
Mr McCusker also paid tribute to students, parents, families, teachers, staff members, Board and Parents and Friends members, volunteers, priests and religious, and parish and community members for their great contributions to, and ongoing support of, Catholic education. He wished everyone in the Catholic Education and wider community a joyous and meaningful Catholic Education Week 2024.

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Diocesan Director of Catholic Education Michael McCusker

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