Page 8 - The Gonzaga Record 1989
P. 8
reached the quarter-finals for the third year in succession, losing 12-0 to
Clongowes in Donnybrook.
Rugby was in the news on a different note later in the year with the
controversial visit of the IRFU President and other officials to share the
South African Rugby Board's celebrations. The Headmasters of
Belvedere, Clongowes and Gonzaga, among others, wrote to the news-
papers to protest the visit in the following terms:
"As schools with strong rugby-playing traditions, of which we are
proud, we wish to place on record our keen sense of having been let
down by the president and his colleagues. Whatever their disclaimers
and sincere as they may be in their denunciation of racism, it is very
clear to us that their visit is regarded by both sides of South Africa's
political divide as an endorsement of the apartheid system, which as
Christian schools committed to the values of the Gospel we find
abhorrent.
It is true that individuals have a democratic right to join the present
rugby tour as players or in any other capacity. In their case, however,
we would like the IRFU to have stated its clear disapproval of such
participation.
In the case of the IRFU itself, there was, we feel, a middle position
between the kind of collusion in which they are now engaged and a
blank refusal to sustain any contact at all. It should have been possible
to send good wishes to the SARB encouraging them to redouble their
efforts to dismantle apartheid, explaining the impossibility of joining
their celebrations under present circumstances and looking forward to
the day when such celebrations could be held with dignity in a truly
multi-racial South Africa.
We would like to assure Archbishop Desmond Tutu, his fellow-
Churchmen and all other South African opponents of apartheid that
those representatives of Irish rugby at present in their country are, in
this matter, no representatives of ours nor, we believe, of the great
majority of Irish people:'
The IRFU later expressed regret at their earlier decision to associate
themselves with the centenary celebrations.
The education offered in a school has to do with values. All the
activities of a school are, we hope, coloured by these values - a fortiori
in a Christian school. If in Gonzaga we are trying to form our pupils in
a 'faith that does justice', it becomes increasingly evident that to
compartmentalise our lives into separate categories such as sport or
politics is to distort them.
Looking towards the future, a most significant decision for Gonzaga
was announced by the Manager, Fr Paddy Crowe SJ, in an August letter
to staff and parents, saying that there would be a change of Headmaster
in summer 1990, and that the next Head would be a lay person, not a
Jesuit.
There are already many lay Heads in Jesuit schools around the world,
6
Clongowes in Donnybrook.
Rugby was in the news on a different note later in the year with the
controversial visit of the IRFU President and other officials to share the
South African Rugby Board's celebrations. The Headmasters of
Belvedere, Clongowes and Gonzaga, among others, wrote to the news-
papers to protest the visit in the following terms:
"As schools with strong rugby-playing traditions, of which we are
proud, we wish to place on record our keen sense of having been let
down by the president and his colleagues. Whatever their disclaimers
and sincere as they may be in their denunciation of racism, it is very
clear to us that their visit is regarded by both sides of South Africa's
political divide as an endorsement of the apartheid system, which as
Christian schools committed to the values of the Gospel we find
abhorrent.
It is true that individuals have a democratic right to join the present
rugby tour as players or in any other capacity. In their case, however,
we would like the IRFU to have stated its clear disapproval of such
participation.
In the case of the IRFU itself, there was, we feel, a middle position
between the kind of collusion in which they are now engaged and a
blank refusal to sustain any contact at all. It should have been possible
to send good wishes to the SARB encouraging them to redouble their
efforts to dismantle apartheid, explaining the impossibility of joining
their celebrations under present circumstances and looking forward to
the day when such celebrations could be held with dignity in a truly
multi-racial South Africa.
We would like to assure Archbishop Desmond Tutu, his fellow-
Churchmen and all other South African opponents of apartheid that
those representatives of Irish rugby at present in their country are, in
this matter, no representatives of ours nor, we believe, of the great
majority of Irish people:'
The IRFU later expressed regret at their earlier decision to associate
themselves with the centenary celebrations.
The education offered in a school has to do with values. All the
activities of a school are, we hope, coloured by these values - a fortiori
in a Christian school. If in Gonzaga we are trying to form our pupils in
a 'faith that does justice', it becomes increasingly evident that to
compartmentalise our lives into separate categories such as sport or
politics is to distort them.
Looking towards the future, a most significant decision for Gonzaga
was announced by the Manager, Fr Paddy Crowe SJ, in an August letter
to staff and parents, saying that there would be a change of Headmaster
in summer 1990, and that the next Head would be a lay person, not a
Jesuit.
There are already many lay Heads in Jesuit schools around the world,
6
