What does it mean to be a Paduan?
Coming up on our calendar is a very important date for Padua College. Many would say the most important date. On June 9th we celebrate Padua Day as a whole college, Rosebud, Tyabb and Mornington junior and senior campuses on one site, all 2600 students and 400 staff to acknowledge what is our point of difference of not just being a Catholic place of learning but also what it means to be a school named after St Anthony of Padua. It is a day to recognise how we continue as a community the legacy of St Anthony, a person known for his leadership, his faith, his courage, his understanding of what it means to be a good human person. At 12:00pm on Padua Day we will all come together as a Catholic community to celebrate Mass in the Paul Girolami Hall. Our Padua Day Mass this year will be celebrated by Bishop Tony Ireland, which has a special touch to it with him having relatives who attended Padua College.
Padua Day will also acknowledge the significant anniversary that we are celebrating in 2023 – 125 years since the arrival of the Mercy Sisters to provide a Catholic education on the Mornington Peninsula.
Over those 125 years, thousands and thousands of students and staff have called themselves Paduans. A guesstimate to that number could be close to 100,000.
The thousands of families that have sent their children to Padua College and continue to do so, have many reasons for selecting Padua College as the education provider for their most cherished assets in life. Pull back the covers and you commonly get a response about the ‘why’ they have chosen a Catholic education to being based around respect for the care and attention that is given to each individual student in a Catholic school environment. This care that is spoken does not just magically happen. All schools across all education sectors provide a care for the student. It is a school’s bread and butter.
Our care provided by Padua College is underpinned by rich teachings. Rich teachings in the Catholic Christian tradition centred on Catholic Social Teachings that gives us our point of difference. It is of utmost importance to us that all staff are aware and immersed in these teachings and how they inspire and have impact on their vocation with working in a Catholic school.
We will continue to have our Catholic identity at the centre of all that we do, to continue Padua College to thrive and flourish as a faith community which was the hope of the Mercy Sisters when commencing the journey 1898.
I encourage all in our Padua community to be aware of the 125-year anniversary celebration dinner to be held at the Mornington racecourse on August 26th. Buy some tickets, come along and reminisce a story with some old Paduans! For more information contact: alumni@padua.vic.edu.au
