OFFICIAL OPENING OF ST MATTHEW’S ACADEMY, NORTH AYRSHIRE

ADDRESS FROM CARDINAL KEITH PATRICK O’BRIEN WEDNESDAY 21 MAY 2008

I am delighted to be here in North Ayrshire this evening for this very significant event.

It gives me great pleasure to be sharing this platform and the formal opening ceremony with the Right Honourable Alex Salmond MSP, the First Minister of Scotland.

I am sure that the First Minister would be interested to know that just yesterday morning I received a letter of thanks from a parish priest following on a visit to the Catholic primary school in his parish. He wrote to me:

“A few weeks ago at Mass, when praying for the Holy Father, I asked for the name of the Pope. A reasonable number of hands went up. We then prayed for yourself and more hands were raised. Then when I asked who was the First Minister, every hand in the church was raised. You will have to get yourself a better publicist!”.

Sharing this platform as we do, we also share the view that faith schools can make a valuable contribution to our rich Scottish culture. Here in St Matthew’s you are building on the foundations which have been laid by St Andrew’s Academy in Saltcoats and St Michael’s Academy, Kilwinning. Magnificent facilities have been provided for the 1,500 pupils who will attend St Matthew’s Academy – but also facilities are provided here, both indoor and outdoor, available to the whole North Ayrshire community.

However, a Catholic school is not just a very wonderful group of buildings – rather it has been rightly described as ‘a place of encounter with the living God, who in Jesus Christ reveals his transforming love and truth’. A Catholic school must be a place in which we meet Jesus Christ in others and are enabled to hand on that life-giving love and message of Jesus Christ to the world.

When speaking recently at the Catholic University of Washington, USA, Pope Benedict XVI met with representatives of the Catholic academic world. The Pope did not hesitate to present his own high ideals, which must be ours, when he stated:

“Education is integral to the mission of the Church to proclaim the Good News. Set against personal struggles, moral confusion and fragmentation of knowledge, the noble goals of scholarship and education, founded in the unity of truth and in service of the person and of the community, become an especially powerful instrument of hope”.

I wish all involved in St Matthew’s Academy every blessing now and for the years which lie ahead. May pupils, teachers and head teacher, parents, priests and the whole community, realise their obligation to live up to the highest ideals of Jesus Christ and to live true to that wonderful school motto ‘Lux Mundi’, the Light of the World. May each member of the school community of St Matthew’s Academy realise their obligation to hand on that light of the world, the love of Jesus Christ, to all with whom they come in contact during their years at this school and in the years which lie ahead in their service of the whole community.

Photographs from the Formal Opening

First Minister Alex Salmond with Elise Diamond,Rory Tait,Steven Mitchell and Tabitha Mc Intyre.

Cardinal O'Brien,First Minister Alex Salmond,Bishop John Cunningham,Head Teacher Eric Allan & VIP,s

First Minister Alex Salmond with Cardinal O'Brien and Bishop John Cunningham.

Cardinal O'Brien & First Minister Alex Salmond with Two of the Academy's Cleaning staff.

Head Teacher Eric Allan Leads the way.

Head Teacher Eric Allan,Bishop John Cunningham,Cardinal O'Brien,First Minister Alex Salmond,Head Girl Elise Diamond and Canon Matthew Mc Manus.

Cardinal O'Brien,Bishop Cunningham,Chaplain Fr Jim Hayes and the RE team.in the new Oratory.

St Matthews Academy Brass Band Perform for the Guest's.

All Photographs by Paul Mc Sherry

Photographs can be purchased by e-mailing paul.mcsherry@ntlworld.com