Southern Schools gather for annual Mass

Students of Catholic Schools in southern Tasmania gathered for a Mass celebrated by Archbishop Julian, to mark Catholic Education Week on Thursday 18 August.

St Mary’s was filled to capacity, with representatives from each school in attendance.

During the homily the Archbishop spoke of his recent pilgrimage with young Tasmanians to World Youth Day in Krakow, Poland.

He described the pilgrimage to World Youth Day as an extraordinary experience, where pilgrims encountered both the great suffering and the heroic sanctity of World War II and its aftermath.

“Evil is overcome by mercy,” he said.

“The city of Krakow offered us two saints – St Faustina and the message of Divine Mercy, and St John Paul II, one of the great popes of history. And nearby in the sombre places of unspeakable evil and suffering [during World War II) a saint was born, St Maximillian Kolbe offered his life so that another might live,” he said.

In closing, Archbishop Julian encouraged student to seek to be merciful in their own lives.