Scottish Catholic Observer

The ceremony, now in its second year, was presented by BBC Scotland sports presenter David Currie and his broadcaster wife Maura, and featured musical performances from the North Lanarkshire Primary School Choir.

Among those honoured during the ceremony, were two young Catholics who passed away last year. The families of Maurissa Clark, who died last year aged 20 following a diagnosis with Hodgkins’ Lymphoma when she was still at St Mungo’s High School, and Josh Irving, a sixth year student from Taylor High School in Motherwell’ received awards from Bishop Joseph Devine.

The young people at the ceremony received praise from bishops across Scotland led by Archbishop Philip Tartaglia of Glasgow.

“By showing loving kindness to children, to those with special needs, to the sick and elderly, and to those in the developing world, these young people have been able to reflect God’s love in their lives,” the archbishop said. “I am sure that, through prayer and by participating in their local faith communities, young people of all faith traditions will see that a life of faith will pay dividends for themselves and for others.”

The Bishops’ Conference of Scotland and the Scottish Catholic Education Service (SCES) are keen to expand the reach of the Caritas Award to parish communities as well as schools, in order to involve communities that are not attached to Catholic secondary schools. Michael McGrath, director of SCES, also told the audience that the programme is hoping to expand to Scottish primary schools and there has also been interested expressed by English Dioceses.

Bishop Joseph Toal of Argyll and the Isles and the Rev Lorna Hood, new Moderator of the Church of Scotland, were among those who helped distribute the awards.

—Full report in Friday June 7 print SCO