Page 13 - Gonzaga at 60
P. 13
13
GONZAGA AT SIXTY: A WORK IN PROGRESS
Foreword
It gives me great pleasure to write these few lines about Gonzaga College as it celebrates its 60th
anniversary. The college occupies a special place in my afecions as it was in its halls that I took my
irst faltering steps as a novice teacher. I was sent there in February, 1981 to teach history, Lain and
Religious Educaion for a six-week period as part of the noviiate formaion programme. Some of
the readers may remember the mistakes I made. I remember the simulaion of contact with eager
young minds and the considerate kindness of the teaching staf that took me under their wing and
gave me encouragement aplenty. The pain of paring was biter when I had to return to the noviiate
on March 16th.
These subjecive recollecions have to be placed in the context of a bold experiment in
educaion pioneered by the Jesuits in the early 1950s. It set out to be a broad approach to learning,
not hemmed in or restricted by overmuch preoccupaion with examinaions and syllabi which were
too ightly deined. Changes in the Irish educaional landscape brought the experiment to a close
less than twenty years ater it was inaugurated. Thereater the college endeavoured to provide a
rounded educaion working within the conines of the examinaion system but trying not to be too
limited by it.
In my years in the Society, I have come to associate Gonzaga with ariculate debaing, creaive
drama, concern for academic excellence, well executed liturgical singing on college and someimes
Jesuit occasions, and feisty determinaion on the rugby ield. My brief ime teaching there coincided
with the Stardust Disaster, which shocked the naion with the loss of so many young lives. I recall
the enire college community gathering for Mass and the hushed silence among the students as
they walked From the classrooms to the chapel. The loss of so many young people, many of them
close to the boys in age, raised very profound quesions about life and what it meant and the awful
reality of death and how one could come to terms with it. Students and staf were conFronted with
quesions which could only be answered in the light of the Paschal Mystery of Jesus Christ. I also think
of students of the college who have worked with the Society of St Vincent de Paul and who have
paricipated in the Dublin Diocesan Pilgrimage to Lourdes. Such openness to faith and willingness to
serve others remains long ater high grades have been forgoten and the inal whistle in the game
has been blown.
It is my hope that the Gonzaga of the future will help its students to idenify their talents and
to use them well in the service of others, especially those most in need. Long ago St Irenaeus told us
that the glory of God is to be found in the human person fully alive. Gonzaga creates an environment
which facilitates that. He also told us that it was the life of the human person that is the vision of
God. He was saying that there is a hunger in the human heart which only God can saisfy. Nothing
else can. It can be hard to say this in our ime. May Gonzaga coninue to remind itself, its past and its
future of this great truth. I end by expressing my appreciaion of Michael Bevan who has edited this
volume and to all the contributors for reminding us of so many riches in the school’s history.
Tom Leyden S.J.
Provincial
GONZAGA AT SIXTY: A WORK IN PROGRESS
Foreword
It gives me great pleasure to write these few lines about Gonzaga College as it celebrates its 60th
anniversary. The college occupies a special place in my afecions as it was in its halls that I took my
irst faltering steps as a novice teacher. I was sent there in February, 1981 to teach history, Lain and
Religious Educaion for a six-week period as part of the noviiate formaion programme. Some of
the readers may remember the mistakes I made. I remember the simulaion of contact with eager
young minds and the considerate kindness of the teaching staf that took me under their wing and
gave me encouragement aplenty. The pain of paring was biter when I had to return to the noviiate
on March 16th.
These subjecive recollecions have to be placed in the context of a bold experiment in
educaion pioneered by the Jesuits in the early 1950s. It set out to be a broad approach to learning,
not hemmed in or restricted by overmuch preoccupaion with examinaions and syllabi which were
too ightly deined. Changes in the Irish educaional landscape brought the experiment to a close
less than twenty years ater it was inaugurated. Thereater the college endeavoured to provide a
rounded educaion working within the conines of the examinaion system but trying not to be too
limited by it.
In my years in the Society, I have come to associate Gonzaga with ariculate debaing, creaive
drama, concern for academic excellence, well executed liturgical singing on college and someimes
Jesuit occasions, and feisty determinaion on the rugby ield. My brief ime teaching there coincided
with the Stardust Disaster, which shocked the naion with the loss of so many young lives. I recall
the enire college community gathering for Mass and the hushed silence among the students as
they walked From the classrooms to the chapel. The loss of so many young people, many of them
close to the boys in age, raised very profound quesions about life and what it meant and the awful
reality of death and how one could come to terms with it. Students and staf were conFronted with
quesions which could only be answered in the light of the Paschal Mystery of Jesus Christ. I also think
of students of the college who have worked with the Society of St Vincent de Paul and who have
paricipated in the Dublin Diocesan Pilgrimage to Lourdes. Such openness to faith and willingness to
serve others remains long ater high grades have been forgoten and the inal whistle in the game
has been blown.
It is my hope that the Gonzaga of the future will help its students to idenify their talents and
to use them well in the service of others, especially those most in need. Long ago St Irenaeus told us
that the glory of God is to be found in the human person fully alive. Gonzaga creates an environment
which facilitates that. He also told us that it was the life of the human person that is the vision of
God. He was saying that there is a hunger in the human heart which only God can saisfy. Nothing
else can. It can be hard to say this in our ime. May Gonzaga coninue to remind itself, its past and its
future of this great truth. I end by expressing my appreciaion of Michael Bevan who has edited this
volume and to all the contributors for reminding us of so many riches in the school’s history.
Tom Leyden S.J.
Provincial
