Students must be applauded – Apr 22 | ![]() |
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By Vernon Khelawan The children of the Archdiocese played their part in carrying out the Synod mandate as it relates to the Second Pastoral Priority “Revitalising Catholic Culture and Identity”. Several Catholic schools in various vicariates completed projects which all reflected that the culture of our Catholic Church in Trinidad and Tobago is very much alive and can be easily identified. The children must be applauded for their bravery, their talent and their dedication in ensuring that the Church continues to serve as a bright beacon in T&T. In Port of Spain students of the Nelson Street Girls’ RC, as part of their Lenten retreat, mounted classroom displays on the theme of the priority. This school has long been recognised as a leader when it comes to catering to its students’ social, emotional and spiritual needs. Carapichaima RC took the lead in Central when the students in their Lenten retreat dealt with repentance, prayer, fasting, almsgiving and divine mercy. But more than that, they were able to encourage adults to participate in their programme. In the East, Brazil RC did their thing a little differently when scores of students took to the streets of the village with their “Peace, Perfect Peace” walkathon, complete with placards which begged for peace in homes, schools, our country and in the world. By their actions, today’s adults seem not to readily hold out much hope for the young people of our nation, but the recent public demonstrations of solidarity by our school children should lead to a second think about placing limits on the Catholic values that our children can demonstrate, and do everything in our power to encourage them to continue with many more similar displays of faith. But it wasn’t the children alone. They did not do it by themselves. So praise and thanks must go to those dedicated school principals and teachers who played such important roles in seeing these projects through to fruition. Let us then as adults, pledge to assist in the many ways we can, to not only assist the children, but also do our part in our workplaces and our parishes to revitalise our Catholic culture and identity. |