ARCHBISHOP Mark Coleridge of Brisbane officially launched his first Queensland Catholic Education Week during a memorable celebration of the 2012 theme.
The launch, held at The Little Flower Church, in Kedron, Brisbane, attracted the three elements of that theme, “Celebrating Community – Family, Parish, School”.
Among the dignitaries who joined families, students, school staff and religious were CEW ambassador General Peter Cosgrove, Queensland Governor Penelope Wensley and Queensland Ed-ucation Minister John-Paul Langbroek.
In introducing the winners of the annual Spirit of Catholic Education Awards, Queensland Catholic Education Commission executive director Mike Byrne said there were 61 nominations this year from across Queensland.
Mr Byrne said the awards recognised the outstanding contribution of individuals within the Catholic education community.
Award recipients were Samantha Andre, St Andrew’s Catholic College, Redlynch; Sophie Basford, Marist Col-lege, Emerald; Sharyn Bell, St Catherine’s Catholic College, Whitsundays; Ben Gray, St Peter’s Catholic Primary School, Caboolture; Dan McErlean, St Mary’s College, Toowoomba; Missionary Franciscan Sister Pauline Robinson, Mt Alvernia College, Kedron; and Karl McKenzie, Catholic Education Office, Townsville.
Mr Byrne said the 2012 awards included the inaugural Aunty Joan Hendriks Spirit of Catholic Education Reconciliation Award.
“Aunty Joan Hendriks is an Aborig-inal elder of the Ngugi people from Moreton Island and is well known to many of us,” he said.
“Aunty Joan has made a significant contribution to strengthen relationships between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island communities and Catholic education.”
Mr Byrne said Aunty Joan had over many years held roles across Church, state and national arenas in the area of education and reconciliation.
After his first CEW launch Archbishop Coleridge said the week was a magnificent series of celebrations.
“I was amazed by how much happened in a short time,” he said.
“It’s been a magnificent celebration and rightly so because there is any amount of stuff to celebrate in Catholic schools so it has been a few days where we can celebrate, where we can give thanks, where we can remember what we are on about, when we can focus on what is really the heart of Catholic education.
“Catholic education and Catholic schools are a very busy process. A lot happens in a Catholic school and in the midst of all that rush sometimes we can forget and sometimes the focus can blur but these days I think have been a wonderful moment to remember in order to secure our sense of the future.”
Archbishop Coleridge said the week was a chance to focus on what really mattered in Catholic schools.
“The education of the whole person and the human destiny as taking us into eternity and the love of God and that spiritual depth or dimension of the human being without which there can’t be – in the Catholic understanding – a full education of the human person,” he said.
