Page 13 - The Gonzaga Record 1986
P. 13
ege, but under the control of the Rector. It was now proposed to change
this structure for a Board of Management and a Headmaster.
There were several reasons for this change of administration, which
was a radical departure from what the Jesuits were used to. One was a
sincere effort to come to terms with profound changes that were happen-
ing in the Church after the experience of the Second Vatican Council. It
is not easy to be absolutely precise about this, but there can be no doubt
that there started a movement to bring the laity into a more responsible
partnership in the running of the Church. It would be naive to expect
ready-made structures to bring this about. And the inertia of large bodies
both of clergy and lay people made immediate and startling results
unlikely. But a beginning was made, and it is still going on. Centuries of
tradition cannot be pushed aside easily, and maybe that is not a bad
thing, once there is forward movement nevertheless. People of a more
cynical turn of mind might relate the new structures to the decline in the
number of religious vocations which began around the same time. It is
true that these Interim Boards of Management, as their very name
implies, were intended to lead on in time to Boards of Governors. It is
also true, of course, that the rather sudden and alarmng drop in both
male and female vocations to the religious life from the early 1960s
onwards did call for some forward thinking. But it would be quite unfair
to deny the genuine desire there was to make the laity real sharers in the
Church's work. And it could be pointed out that at the time that Fr
Provincial set up these Interim Boards of Management there was no
immediate necessity of his doing so. The ordinary structure of Rector and
Prefect of Studies could have gone on for many decades without any
interruption.
One of the reasons for these Interim Boards was precisely this desire.
It was envisaged that they would give way to proper Boards of Governors
in time. But it was a new departure for Jesuits, and Fr Provincial wanted
the colleges to learn by actual experience what a Board of Management
was like; what were the difficulties of arriving at decisions; what would
be the precise relationship of the Board to the Headmaster. Only after
some years of actually working such an Interim Board would one be in
a position to start drawing up a constitution for the college, and set up
a Permanent Board, probably composed of a majority of lay people.
These Interim Boards of Management were composed of Jesuits only,
though each Board usually had at least one of its five members from
another Jesuit college.
One might have expected that the transition would take place without
much upheaval or notice. And one would be quite wrong! While the
ordinary boy in the college went on his way with no more than the usual
grumbles, there was the most profound activity going on in the back-
ground of which he was quite unaware. It would be literally true to say
that the College has never before or since undergone such a profound
scrutiny and re-appraisal than that which started shortly after the Interim
11
this structure for a Board of Management and a Headmaster.
There were several reasons for this change of administration, which
was a radical departure from what the Jesuits were used to. One was a
sincere effort to come to terms with profound changes that were happen-
ing in the Church after the experience of the Second Vatican Council. It
is not easy to be absolutely precise about this, but there can be no doubt
that there started a movement to bring the laity into a more responsible
partnership in the running of the Church. It would be naive to expect
ready-made structures to bring this about. And the inertia of large bodies
both of clergy and lay people made immediate and startling results
unlikely. But a beginning was made, and it is still going on. Centuries of
tradition cannot be pushed aside easily, and maybe that is not a bad
thing, once there is forward movement nevertheless. People of a more
cynical turn of mind might relate the new structures to the decline in the
number of religious vocations which began around the same time. It is
true that these Interim Boards of Management, as their very name
implies, were intended to lead on in time to Boards of Governors. It is
also true, of course, that the rather sudden and alarmng drop in both
male and female vocations to the religious life from the early 1960s
onwards did call for some forward thinking. But it would be quite unfair
to deny the genuine desire there was to make the laity real sharers in the
Church's work. And it could be pointed out that at the time that Fr
Provincial set up these Interim Boards of Management there was no
immediate necessity of his doing so. The ordinary structure of Rector and
Prefect of Studies could have gone on for many decades without any
interruption.
One of the reasons for these Interim Boards was precisely this desire.
It was envisaged that they would give way to proper Boards of Governors
in time. But it was a new departure for Jesuits, and Fr Provincial wanted
the colleges to learn by actual experience what a Board of Management
was like; what were the difficulties of arriving at decisions; what would
be the precise relationship of the Board to the Headmaster. Only after
some years of actually working such an Interim Board would one be in
a position to start drawing up a constitution for the college, and set up
a Permanent Board, probably composed of a majority of lay people.
These Interim Boards of Management were composed of Jesuits only,
though each Board usually had at least one of its five members from
another Jesuit college.
One might have expected that the transition would take place without
much upheaval or notice. And one would be quite wrong! While the
ordinary boy in the college went on his way with no more than the usual
grumbles, there was the most profound activity going on in the back-
ground of which he was quite unaware. It would be literally true to say
that the College has never before or since undergone such a profound
scrutiny and re-appraisal than that which started shortly after the Interim
11
