
The children from a range of schools had taken up the challenge to undertake corporal and spiritual works of mercy throughout the year, as requested by Archbishop Malcolm Malcolm, and they now gathered for a celebration of their efforts led by John Burland, a musician and religious educator from Sydney, Australia, who had previously visited schools in the Wigan area of the Archiodiocese.
At the host school, St Oswald's, each class had to perform a work of mercy – from collecting unwanted clothes and taking them to a charity shop, to making cards to send to sick people in the community, to creating a remembrance garden. The activities at other schools included the following:
• Pupils at St John Fisher, Widnes collected clothes for charity and the homeless, as well as food for the hungry, and wrote prayers for the sick.
• At Bishop Eton, Childwall, pupils made a spiritual bouquet of prayers for sick people in the parish and gave them to the SVP to deliver.
• Children at St Mary's, Newton made a model of Pope Francis and wrote down all the things they hoped to achieve during the year on his vestments.
• St Michael and All Angels, Kirkby pupils retweeted Pope Francis's words on the Year of Mercy, wrote prayers for prisoners on a chain of freedom, took part in Cafod's Make a Splash campaign, raised money for refugees and went on a pilgrimage praying for the homeless.
• At Our Lady of the Assumption, Gateacre, pupils gathered items to donate to the British Heart Foundation's charity shops.