The Gaudete Trust
The Gaudete Trust is a family of 18 schools from five Religious Orders who have come together to share a common vision of education and with a strong desire to ensure that the unique charism of their founding order continues to shape the education that they offer.
Those five Religious Orders are The Christian Brothers (CFC) Sisters of Charity of St Paul the Apostle (SP) De La Mennais Brothers FICP (Brothers of Christian Instruction) The Faithful Companions of Jesus (FCJ) and The Congregation of La Sainte Union (LSU).
The mainspring of the Trust is the desire of Religious Orders to continue to put their charisms at the service of the Church. By adopting a collaborative approach to trusteeship, the Gaudete Trust offers those Religious Orders an alternative way of continuing to serve Catholic education.
The Laetare CMAT will enable Religious Orders to create a new family of schools which will offer a distinctive and transforming experience of Catholic education. The schools in the Laetare CMAT will be united by a shared vision of education based on that of the Gaudete Trust and each school will be fully supported in continuing to develop its own mission for education in line with the charism of its founder. This commitment will be a key distinguishing feature of the Laetare CMAT together with our intention that the Religious Order Trustees will continue to play a major part in the life of their schools.
The Trust is a legal entity with the authority to take on those legal, financial, and inspirational responsibilities of educational trusteeship that were formerly exercised by these individual Religious Orders. It is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) recognised by the Charity Commission and a Public Juridic Person recognised by the Catholic Church.