St Bede’s College students and staff presented Fr Pat Clarke with a cheque for £4,000, raised during Lenten fundraising, to support his work with the Street children in São Paulo in Brazil.
Father Pat is a member of the Holy Ghost Fathers and runs a Centre for Culture and Arts in the sanctuary known as ‘City of the Angels’. The centre provides a safe haven for the children of the shanty towns and works to keep them from entering a life of crime. He has been working in the area for the last thirty two years and was recently given the freedom of the City in recognition of his work.
Upon receiving the donation, Father Clark said, ”Dom Bosco said that there is no such thing as a bad young person, only one that we adults have failed to love sufficiently. This becomes obvious time and time again when we encounter the generosity with which young people, given a chance and a worthwhile cause, prove that they want to transform the world they have inherited, into something where there is justice for all and not only for the privileged few. The students of St Bede’s are to be congratulated on what they did for the sake of our shanty town children. Long may they continue to shine a light into the darkness of a too often greedy and cynical world, by their example of solidarity and transforming hope. May God bless them, their teachers and their families now and always.”
Headmaster Michael Barber said, “The College has been supporting Fr Pat’s work for just over ten years and we hope to further develop our links with Father Pat and the important work he does in São Paulo.”
St Bede's College
Telephone: 44 (0)161 226 3323
