Second Collection (Catholic Education Service)

There will be an optional Second Collection for the Catholic Education Service, to be taken 10th-11th September, Education Sunday. The Catholic Education Service acts (nationally) on behalf of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference to support Catholic education. Catholic schools make up 10% of the national total of maintained schools in England and Wales, educating over 850,000 pupils; in our own Diocese of Portsmouth, almost 32,000 children are educated at 71 Catholic schools.

The focus of this year’s Education Sunday is “Enlightening the Mind”, based on the Gospel Acclamation for the Twenty-Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time: the Catholic Education Service has produced a variety of resources to assist you to mark this occasion, including prayer cards and suggested bidding prayers: these are accessible here. Bishop Marcus Stock, Chairman of the Catholic Education Service, has written that ‘[the] enterprise of Catholic education, whether in the home, school, college or university, is built on the belief that it is God our Father who enlightens the eyes of our minds. Through His gift of grace, He enables us to discover Him and come into a relationship with Him in Christ, the one source of all truth and freedom. For truth enlightens our intelligence and shapes our freedom, leading us to know and love God. A Catholic education facilitates truth and freedom above all when it places the Eternal Word of God, Jesus Christ, at its centre.’

If you prefer to make a donation online, you can do so here until Friday 16th September. Thank you for your support for this appeal over the course of the last year, which raised £4,109.76 across the Diocese in 2020-21!