The decision to send a child to a Catholic school is a choice to immerse that child more deeply in the great Christian story and, in so doing, to offer him or her the context for the development of a strong cultural entity.
Mercy is central to the Christian story and, where Mercy describes the particular characteristic or identity of a school, it does so in relation to an understanding of God as merciful. It is also named in connection with the educational endeavours of the Sisters of Mercy, a group of women who have an historic commitment to the expression of mercy in their schools. Students at Mercy schools can be invited into a lively and rich educational culture which they share with a long line of other women and men who have been educated in the Mercy tradition.
Today, those associated with this tradition of the Sisters of Mercy, are the inheritors of the legacy of the vision and practice of Catherine McAuley.
Mercy Education Limited (Mercy Education) is an incorporated Ministry of Mercy Ministry Companions (MMC). MMC is responsible for ensuring, as faithfully as Catherine McAuley and her sisters, that the Catholic identity charism and spirituality of schools previously under the stewardship of the Institute of Sisters of Mercy of Australia and Papua New Guinea (ISMAPNG), thrive into the future.
In November 2011, Mercy Education, a company limited by guarantee and constituted under the Corporations Act 2011 (Cth), became registered with ASIC. Prior to this, and from 1997, Mercy Education operated as Mercy Secondary Education Inc (MSEI), an incorporated association under Victorian State legislation and served the needs of the Education ministry of the former Melbourne Congregation of the Sisters of Mercy.
Mercy Education is the Employer of the Principal and staff of thirteen Mercy Colleges. These are:
Several secondary colleges have chosen to be affiliated with Mercy Education, particularly in order to retrace their roots and to gain a greater understanding of the Mercy ethos and the philosophy and mission of the Sisters of Mercy. The following Colleges are now an Affiliated school of Mercy Education Limited.