Retired National Director of Marist Schools Australia, Dr Frank Malloy, with Prof Br David Hall, Chair, and recently appointed National Director, Dr John Kyle-Robinson.
Every two years the leaders of our Marist Education Family gather. Following on from Brisbane in 2022 and Alice Springs in 2024, the 2026 Marist Schools Australia (MSA) Biennial Conference was recently held in Perth and Fremantle. This special gathering called us from across this beautiful country to pray, to listen, to share and to discern how we can best serve the young people in our Marist Schools. Over 180 delegates from 19 Dioceses and 45 Catholic schools educating in our Marist tradition spent three days exploring our theme: Full of Grace - Transform the world with God’s love. The conference was hosted in Western Australia, with a commitment to hearing the voices of the local church and Marist communities.
Sunday
We experienced the wonderful hospitality of Newman College students, who showed us their spectacular new facilities. This led into a Welcome to Country ceremony and then the Conference Eucharist. Most Rev Timothy Costelloe, Archbishop of Perth, was joined by Most Rev George Kolodziej, Bishop of Bunbury, Very Rev Fr Vincent Glynn, Vicar General for the Archdiocese of Perth, and Fr Anthony Casamento, to lead us in a beautiful Eucharistic celebration. This concluded with an emotional commissioning of Dr John Kyle-Robinson as the new National Director for Marist Schools Australia. We then enjoyed an inspiring, and invitational keynote presentation by Professor Francis Campbell, Vice Chancellor of the University of Notre Dame. Francis called us to consider what we hope is said of us when we are gone:
You were a link in a chain
You were part of a tradition that transformed lives
You, through grace, gave people hope and a chance
You stopped and reflected but went on living forward, but had to reflect backward
You lead in the ordinary, but with grace you did the extra-ordinary
You were prophetic for the age
You did not just teach about dignity, you lived it
Monday
After an inspirational first day the conference continued with two brilliant keynote presentations from Archbishop Tim Costelloe and the Most Rev Kay Goldsworthy AO, Anglican Archbishop of Perth. Archbishop Tim challenged us:
In the light of all this then, can I leave you with a question which Pope Leo recently posed to a group of bishops but which is really a question which every Christian disciple and certainly every Christian educator should ask: what face of God do you allow to shine forth through your life and work? The question is perhaps more challenging than might appear at first glance. It doesn’t ask what face we think we should allow to shine forth; it doesn’t ask what face we would like to allow to shine forth; it doesn’t even ask what face we think God would want us to allow to shine forth.
Archbishop Kay provided us with a menu for abundant life and invited us:
Let’s all take our part in influencing the children and young people more about who they are and are becoming in the love of Christ, and let’s do it for the joy of knowing that from the fullness of God’s love we receive grace upon grace. That grace which means not having to manufacture ourselves, and which I hope can mean the same becoming in God for your students.
These were followed by a panel of seven senior students from our WA Marist schools, helping delegates understand the life of a Catholic student in a Marist school in WA in 2026. They encouraged us to continue to provide our students with a deeper understanding of our faith, and expressed their gratitude for the gift of our Marist spirituality each of them had been given and could articulate.
The afternoon included the first of three breakout sessions that would involve 27 offerings over the next two days. A guided tour through the historic streets of Fremantle led delegates to a formal welcoming reception hosted by Professor Campbell and senior staff of The University of Notre Dame.
Tuesday
The inspirational keynote speeches continued with an insightful and passionate address from Professor Brother David Hall, MSA Board Chair. With his usual flair and wisdom Br David called us to:
allow our true conversion to becoming, slowly and honestly, the person God is calling us to become
Adopting the language of our Association Strategic Plan he invited us to discern:
• Who do we want to be?
• What do we want to care about? and
• What do we want to do?
A beautiful and prayerful commissioning of our delegates by the young students from St Marcellin Catholic College was the final of a series of very moving prayers and liturgies. This was followed by two more breakout sessions where staff shared examples of best practice in their school communities. The conference then concluded with a formal dinner. This included a fitting acknowledgement of the tremendous leadership of Dr Frank Malloy as the outgoing MSA National Director. The dinner celebrations also included a wonderful address from Star of The Sea Provincial and Leader of the Marist Association of St Marcellin Champagnat, Br Darren Burge.
In Summary
The 2026 MSA Biennial Conference was a sacred experience. We were blessed with the presence of four outstanding keynote speakers. Each brought great wisdom and thoughts, but more importantly, each brought themselves into our presence. This humility and presence inspired each of us to respond by entering into the conference with our own vulnerabilities, wonderings, prayers and openness to the Holy Spirit.
We became living examples of the quote by Anne Lamott provided by Archbishop Kay:
“I do not at all understand the mystery of grace - only that it meets us where we are, but does not leave us where it found us”.
We left in a new place, open to living our lives Full of Grace, ready to transform the world with God’s love.
Darren McGregor
MSA Regional Director
WA/SA/Vic
