Note: February 2008

This message will be updated shortly following the ordination of the new Bishop of Achonry, Most Reverent Dr. Brendan Kelly.

Message from the Most Reverend Dr. Thomas Flynn
Bishop of Achonry

It is the policy of St. Joseph's Secondary School to continue the work in education initiated by the Sisters of Charity. This means the growth of a Catholic Secondary School with Christian values and a Christian ethos in all its activities. This will call for the creation of a community climate within the school which integrates good educational values with the teaching of the Gospel. This spirit is intimately dependent on participation in the prayer and liturgical life of the Church.

Catholic ethos is a personal and communal disposition to share, through education, in Christ's work of building up His Father's kingdom of love, freedom, justice, peace and joy. This will be reflected in the respect which all members of the community should be a model of Christian living in which the staff and pupils share and which the parish community should want to imitate and support.

The Irish Education Act of 1998 gives us a legal definition of a Roman Catholic School:
"A Roman Catholic School (which is established in connection with the Minister) aims at promoting the full and harmonious development of all aspects of the person of the pupil: intellectual, physical, cultural, moral and spiritual, including a living relationship with God and with other people. The school models and promotes a philosophy of life inspired by belief in God and in life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The Catholic school provides Religious education for the pupils in accordance with the doctrines, practices and traditions of the Roman Catholic Church and promotes the formation of the pupils in the Catholic faith".
(Deed of Variation for Primary Schools - 1st schedule. There is no Deed of Trust for Catholic Secondary Schools because these schools are in the sole trusteeship of Church Bodies. If and when the Department of Education and Science leases these schools, I am sure that this definition will transfer over as it stands).

The greatest challenge facing education is the rapidity with which the culture which surrounds us is changing. What kind of roots will give young people nourishment in the unimaginable world of 2020 or 2030?

The forces that shape a society have to do with peoples attitude to the most fundamental questions of meaning - what is a human being? What is the purpose of human life? Is there anything worth living or dying for?
These questions about ultimate meaning lie at the very root of every choice and every free action. When a society fails to appreciate this truth about human beings it is doomed to superficiality. An education which is not inspired by and based on an understanding of the meaning of human life will not support young people or older people as they move into an uncertain future.

"Large numbers of today's youth are very worried about an uncertain future. They have been influenced by a world in which human values are no longer rooted in God; the result is that these young people are very much afraid when they think about the appalling problems in the world; the threat of nuclear annihilation, vast unemployment, the high number of marriages that end in separation or divorce, widespread poverty, etc. Their worry and insecurity become an almost irresistible urge to focus in on themselves, and this can lead to violence when young people are together - a violence which is not always limited to words"
(The Religious of Education in a Catholic School 1988 - a Document from the congregation for Catholic Education at the Vatican).