13 Things Aussie Catholic School Kiddos Remember

For all 12 years of my schooling life, I was placed in a Catholic school. Every now and then, I drive past them and end up thinking about all the things we use to do like random uniform checks, Ash Wednesday mass, and the many arvos spent on church rehearsals.

Recently, ex-Catholic school students have shared their religious schooling experiences on TikTok. One user, in particular, @Julianooali, brought back the iconic tune  ‘Shine Jesus Shine’, a song that would blast throughout the speakers during school mass.

@julianooali #catholic #primaryschool #foryou ♬ Shine Jesus Shine (Reprise) – Graham Kendrick

Growing older and jumping into the workforce, I realised that a lot of these core memories are extremely niche to only former Catholic school students. It’s now an accidental trigger when someone mentions World Youth Day or Lent.

So for those who want a hit of religious nostalgia or are simply curious as to what goes down in Catholic school, here are some things only Catholic school students would remember:

1. Iconic gospel hymns

As discussed previously, how could we forget the iconic gospel hymns. Sometimes my Catholic school would make us rehearse the mass before actually going to mass.

Sometimes teachers would make us walk into church to practice lining up, sitting down, rehearsing the songs, and basically tell us how to act properly during mass. These constant practices would drill the songs into our minds. Some of the iconic songs included the ‘These Hands’, ‘This Day’ and most importantly, ‘Setting Hearts On Fire’, which would require you to clap on the ‘fire’ part of the song.

Luckily, at my school we did have a choir that sang more modern songs, one of them being the iconic ‘Joyful Joyful, We Adore Thee’ hymn made popular by Sister Act: Back In The Habit. 

2. Unnecessary uniform policies and rolling your skirt

Every Catholic school student knows that uniform policies made our lives a living hell and we’ve definitely experienced feeling envious of the public school students who could express their individuality much easier.

Some Catholic school students even went as far as to roll up their skirts shorter to make it more of a ~look~.

@alana.luu catholic school = uniform over education #fyp ♬ original sound – Jaelin joyner

And the amount of times we would hear “tuck in your shirt” or “tie your hair up” was endless. And the fact a lot of Catholic schools wouldn’t allow girls to switch it up and wear pants, or even have it as an option, was kinda BS. Like what about the super cold day, amirite?

Check out this old photo I dug up of my long skirt in Year 7, LOL. I also got dress coded for the bow in my hair because it was polka-dot and not plain red.

3. Asking what your friends are confessing

When the time finally came to confess, a lot of us struggled with what we should be asking forgiveness for. Especially in primary school. Although it was suppose to be a time of reflection, repenting always had a scary vibe to it.

It was such a big thing and honestly I was stressed when I didn’t have anything prepared, like my life depended on it, but my ‘sin’ would always be saying a bad word. LOL.

4. Asking your friends what they’re giving up for Lent

Same as confessions, I wasn’t too sure what to give up. Lent was a very important time for my school. So important that we had to write actual paragraphs on the holiday using the TEEL (Topic, Explain, Evidence, Link) method to explain what I was giving up for Lent and why.

I think Lent trained me to dislike chocolate, as it would be my go-to if I couldn’t think of anything else on the spot. Oh well.

5. Fish only Fridays during Lent

For those who didn’t go to a Catholic school or who don’t know much about the religion. Lent is a period of fasting and reflection in preparation to Easter. One of the things that were practiced was not to eat meat on Fridays.

To combat this loss in the food pyramid, fish was used as a replacement so canteens would only sell fish burgers or fish fingers. YUCK! (Sorry not sorry to fillet-o-fish fans).

Ppl who order filet o fish from mcds will be the first to eat other people in a famine

— Pastor Kyle. (@itsqail) August 15, 2022

6. Rosary beads

What Catholic schoolgirl didn’t want their own pink crystal rosary beads back in the day? Really, we didn’t even know it at the time but they were low-key a fashion moment. Too bad they were so damn expensive.

7. (A new one) The Angelus Prayer

So this may not apply to all Catholic schools across Australia, but around the 2010s Sydney Catholic School were made to participate in the Angelus prayer at exactly 12 PM. I just remember having to listen to the prayer and recite it. Also the bell to announce it was time to pray, were reminiscent of the bells that chimed in The Village or the sirens that wailed in Silent Hill. 

8. Excursions or retreats

These excursions and/or retreats centred heavily on religion. Usually, a mass service would take up one night of camp, or there would be some form of daily prayer doing actual camping activities, which would eventually link back to religion.

Thinking about this makes me wonder what public or non-religious schools focused on when they went camping, because the majority of our itinerary for these excursions were about God. It was like Man Vs. Wild + The Power of Christ.

9. World Youth Day

World Youth Day was described to almost be like a pilgrimage to see the Pope and learn more about religion. It was also an opportunity to travel, meet new people, and experience staying with a host family.

I didn't go to Sydney for the Olympics but I did go for World Youth Day in 2008. Lol.

— Ellen Sowersby (@EllenSowersby) September 15, 2020

10. Caritas and Project Compassion

Caritas Australia is a Catholic based charity that would help aid those in disadvantaged areas in the world. Every year Caritas would give us these donation boxes for Project Compassion and whichever class raised the most money would get a pizza party. Sometimes we would also watch a documentary to see how the money helped those in need.

Project Compassion, like Lent, was very important to our school. Luckily in Year 8, my class was one of the ones to win the pizza party.

11. Shrove Tuesday

The one Tuesday when we knew we were gonna eat good! This also is celebrated before the official start of Lent, maybe as a way to indulge yourself before you enter fasting or for like most participants, give up your chosen luxury item/need.

You know your school was boujee if they properly cooked them too and didn’t just use the microwavable ones they’d heat up on the grill.

12. Trying not to scratch the cross off your forehead

Ash Wednesday would kick off the holiday of Lent, with the priest putting an ash cross on the foreheads of everyone attending the service.The crosses could get super itchy, and you’d feel either guilty for rubbing it off or forget it was on your forehead for the rest of the day.

13. Struggling to get up after kneeling in church

It gives me PTSD thinking about being packed into a hot, crowded church and having to continuously stand, sit, and kneel. The struggle to get up from kneeling was all too real. Especially if was on those painful wooden pews or on itchy church carpet. And God forbid (no pun intended) if your teacher caught you slumping or falling asleep.

Catholic school grads wouldn’t deny that Catholic school was a struggle at times. But on the bright side, at least now we’ve moved on, the girlies can have their hair down whenever they want and we will forever be allowed to have our shirts untucked.

And our experience gave us one of the most important things in life. The banger, ‘Shine Jesus Shine.’