Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools (MACS) has been established by Archbishop Peter A Comensoli to be responsible for the governance and operation of approximately 300 parish primary schools and regional and archdiocesan secondary colleges in the Archdiocese of Melbourne.

MACS governs and supports Catholic schools in the Archdiocese to continue the mission of Catholic education to proclaim the Good News and equip our young people with the knowledge, skills and hope to live meaningful lives and enrich the world around them.

This is reflected in the Statement of Mission contained in the MACS constitution. Our constitution captures the purpose of MACS and places students at the centre of our mission. Our intent is to continue the rich history of delivering a high-quality Catholic education in the Archdiocese of Melbourne.

MACS Statement of Mission

Catholic schooling seeks to provide the young with the best kind of education possible, one that fosters a formation of the whole person that is deeply and enduringly humanising.¹

Education is integral to the mission of the Church to proclaim the Good News. First and foremost every Catholic educational institution is a place to encounter the living God who in Jesus Christ reveals his transforming love and truth. This relationship elicits a desire to grow in the knowledge and understanding of Christ and his teaching. In this way those who meet him are drawn by the very power of the Gospel to lead a new life characterized by all that is beautiful, good, and true; a life of Christian witness nurtured and strengthened within the community of our Lord’s disciples, the Church.²

With parents and parishes, Catholic schooling seeks to fulfil this mission by providing an environment in which students are enabled to:

• encounter God in Christ and deepen their relationship with him
• pursue wisdom and truth encouraged by a supportive academic culture
• grow in the practice of virtue, responsible freedom and serving the common good.

A Catholic school:

• is actively embedded in the life of the faith communities of the local Church, which in turn is tangibly manifest in the life of each school
• is an essential place for the evangelising of children and young people
• prioritises the forming of missionary disciples of Jesus
• exists to assist students and their families to integrate faith, reason, life and culture³
• is conspicuously Christian in outlook, explicitly Catholic in faith and practice, and intentionally missionary in orientation
• cultivates spiritual, social and emotional growth in a safe and protective environment
• provides a learning environment in which the whole educational community is formed to embrace life in all its fullness (John 10: 10)
• offers a human formation that has the intellectual, practical and moral excellence of learners at its heart
• forms consciences, fosters peace and develops respectful dialogue at the service of intellectual charity
• encourages the discovery of Catholic cultural heritage, especially in art, music, literature and architecture.

Catholic schools, which always strive to join their work of education with the explicit proclamation of the Gospel, are a most valuable resource for the evangelization of culture.⁴

The good work of educating the young, undertaken in the light of the Gospel, is a co-responsible task led by every member of the Catholic school community. Modelled by parents, principals and teachers, in prayer and with wisdom, through witness and by example, Catholic schooling is at the service of the integral human formation of children and young people in Christ.

A Catholic school is eucharistic in character. The sacramental and prayer life of the local Church, especially in the gathering of God’s People in Sunday Mass, is integral to the mission of a Catholic school and indispensable to its richness. A fruitful sign of the living witness of faith with parents and parishes is the participation of students and families in the life, mission and work of the local faith community, especially in the call to worship God and to serve the poor and marginalised (Acts 2: 42–47).

By cultivating a maturing of faith and the intellectual life through the modelling of good relationships, Catholic school students are prepared for living fruitfully in the world.

¹Pope Francis, Christus Vivit, Libreria Editrice Vaticana, Rome, 2019, n. 223.
_²Pope Benedict XVI, Address to Catholic Educators, Libreria Editrice Vaticana, Rome, 2008.
³Pope Francis, Christus Vivit, Libreria Editrice Vaticana, Rome, 2019, n. 222.
⁴Pope Francis, Evangelii Gaudium, Libreria Editrice Vaticana, Rome, 2013, n. 134.