Home and school 'must work together'

The home and the school must work in close co-operation if pupils are to receive a full and balanced Christian education, Fr Bertignus O'Rourke OSA, headmaster of Austin Friars School, Carlisle, told parents, teachers and pupils at the school's annual speech-day last week.
"A school can do very little If the home is working against it. It can do almost anything if home and school are speaking with one voice," he said.
This was true not only of the academic and sporting life of the school but of theteaching of the Catholic Faith which, said Fr O'Rourke, "has a value which outlasts all else we do".
The religious principle on which the school was founded was more relevant that ever today when the stresses and neuroses of modern life multiplied, he said. "The challenge that tests a school like ours is how It translates its religious ideals into Its daily life and teaching."
However the development of a "pop" image of Christ as portrayed in teh musicals "Godspell" or "Jesus Christ Superstar" — that of an innocent man unjustly put to death, the symbol of man oppressed — might well be an obstacle to the search for the true Christ.
"The spread of this image Is possibly a greater obstacle to the genuine preaching of the Church than the neglect or rejection of Christ. As a man he is accepted, admired. Whether he is God Is passed over in silence. It almost is made to seem unimportant."
Charity adverts
Charities should be allowed to advertise on television and local radio, subject to strict conclidons, according to a report just published by a working party of the Independent Broadcasting Authority.
It recommends that even religious charities should be free to advertise welfare activities, for example, but the ban on publicity of organisations with a purely religious end would remain.