Catholic Education Week 2026 – Northwest Tasmania
There is something wonderfully appropriate about celebrating Catholic Education Week with St Clare.
Clare was a young woman with her whole life ahead of her. Her family had plans for her. Her society had expectations of her. Yet Clare discovered something greater. She discovered Jesus Christ. And once she had found him, everything else looked different.
That is precisely what St Paul says today: “I believe nothing can happen that will outweigh the supreme advantage of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.”
That is quite a statement.
Paul does not say that learning does not matter. He was a highly educated man. He does not say that achievement is unimportant. Rather, he says there is something that gives everything else its proper meaning: knowing Christ.
That is why Catholic schools exist.
We want our young people to learn mathematics and science, literature and history. We want them to discover music and sport, technology and the extraordinary world around them. We want them to do well. But Catholic education asks an even more significant question: What sort of person are you becoming?
The Church describes a Catholic school not simply as an institution, but as a community. It should have an atmosphere shaped by the Gospel, where knowledge of the world and knowledge of life are illuminated by faith.[1]
That means that the Catholic identity of a school cannot simply be something written on the sign at the front gate.
It must somehow get inside the gate.
It should be visible in a classroom when somebody struggles and another student helps. It should be present in the playground when the person who might otherwise be left out is welcomed. It should be there when a teacher sees something in a student that the student cannot yet see in themselves.
A recent Vatican document on Catholic schools says something especially important about you, our students. It says that students are not merely the recipients of education. As they grow, they become increasingly the “protagonists of their own education”.[2]
In other words, education is not something being done to you.
You are involved in becoming the person God created you to be.
That is true whether you are in Prep or Year 12.
Each of you has gifts. Each of you has possibilities that have not yet been discovered. Each of you has a vocation. And part of the privilege of Catholic education is having people around you who help you discover it.
That is why today I particularly thank our teachers.
The Church says that teachers in Catholic schools teach by their lives as much as by their instruction.[3] Young people notice whether the adults around them believe what they say. They notice kindness. They recognise integrity. They remember the teacher who believed in them.
And I thank our principals and Catholic Education staff because leadership in Catholic education is more than management. We see school leaders as “true educational leaders”, sharing in an ecclesial and pastoral mission.[4]
All of that brings us back to St Clare.
Clare discovered her vocation because she saw somebody living the Gospel with extraordinary freedom: Francis of Assisi. Pope Leo XIV has proclaimed this special Year of Saint Francis, eight hundred years after Francis’ death. Francis and Clare remind us that Christianity is not merely something we learn about. It is a life that catches fire.
Jesus says to Peter in the Gospel today that those who have left things behind for his sake will receive far more.
Perhaps that sounds frightening. What will Jesus ask me to give up?
But there is another question: What might Jesus be asking me to become?
Paul says that he is “straining ahead for what is still to come”. What a wonderful description of education. We do not remain where we are. God always has more ahead.
So, young people, learn everything you can. Ask questions. Discover what you are good at. When you fail, start again. And in the middle of all that learning, listen for the voice of Christ.
His Word can become the lamp that shows the next step when the whole road is not yet visible.
Come to this altar today and receive the One who gives himself to us as food for the journey.
Then go back to your schools carrying something of the fire that burned in Clare and Francis.
And perhaps, when people look at our Catholic schools across the Northwest of Tasmania, they will see more than good schools.
They will see communities where young people discover that their lives have meaning because they are known and loved by God.
They will see teachers whose work is a vocation.
Above all, they will see young people straining towards what lies ahead, because they have begun to discover the supreme advantage of knowing Christ Jesus our Lord.
Most Rev. Anthony J. Ireland
Archbishop of Hobart
11 August 2026
Footnotes
[1] Congregation for Catholic Education, The Identity of the Catholic School for a Culture of Dialogue (2022), nn. 16, 19–20: the Catholic school is an educational community in which the Gospel spirit informs human formation, culture and learning.
[2] Ibid., n. 41: “Pupils are active participants in the educational process. As they grow older, they increasingly become the protagonists of their own education.”
[3] Ibid., nn. 14, 23: teachers are called “by their life as much as by their instruction” to bear witness to Christ; education involves not only acquiring knowledge but “growing in wisdom.”
[4] Ibid., n. 48: “School leaders are more than just managers of an organization. They are true educational leaders” whose responsibility is also an ecclesial and pastoral mission.