IgnatianDECEMBER 2015 EDITION | VOL 24 In this edition The world is our home EDITORIAL STAFF The theme for this edition of the Ignatianis a characteristic perspective of Saint Ignatius of Loyola, ‘the world is our home’. Rather than Administration Brooke Hillsdon fostering their faith cloistered away, Jesuits embrace traveling widely and serving without prejudice, to share the mission and vision of the Design, layout & editing Equilibrium Design, Potts Point Christian tradition across cultures and continents. Alumni & Special Events Manager This spirit of ‘service out in the world’ is core to the ethos of Christine Zimbulis Riverview. This bumper edition of the Ignatian celebrates these ideals (02) 9882 8595 with stories of staff, students, Old Boys and parents engaging with the [email protected] community, both locally and globally. CONTRIBUTIONS There is an entirely new section dedicated to alumni continuing Please forward to the Ignatian tradition around the world—involving themselves in [email protected] communities very removed from the one they grew up in, and making Saint Ignatius’ College, Riverview a genuine difference for the better (‘Old Boys “in the world”’, p.35). But Tambourine Bay Road, service to others, both at home and abroad, starts much earlier. Before LANE COVE, NSW 2066 they walk out of the College gates, students will have experienced Immersions (p.28), raised money for the Jesuit Mission at the Indian ON THE COVER Bazaar (p.10), formed special bonds of friendship at the Ignatian Children’s Holiday Camps (p.31) or played sport alongside their Jesuit brothers on the other side of the globe (p.62). While it is one thing to travel beyond one’s comfort zone, it is another entirely to exhibit leadership and take risks to innovate and inspire in a changing world. Fr Ross Jones, SJ explores the concurrent theme of leadership at new frontiers (p.4) and this is further illustrated in many articles of this edition. Earlier in the year Dr Paul Hine lead the charge and launched Strategic Directions 2015–2020, which sets the vision for the College for the future—equipping students with the skills, attitudes, dispositions and capacities to become lifelong learners and Ignatius by Holly Schapker take their place in and contribute meaningfully to their local and Oil and maps on canvas. global communities. College Captain Xavier Eales embodied the spirit of bravery and leadership in his address to the assembly in July (p.48). In his autobiography, Ignatius styled himself (in the third person) ‘the Pilgrim’. Here the The strength of the connection to the Riverview community is seen in artist, Holly A. Schapker (a graduate of Xavier the attendance at various reunions and functions held throughout the University, Cincinnati) has taken up that image year (p.82). While our Old Boys, staff, ex-staff, parents and friends are by painting Ignatius garbed in road maps. The scattered far and wide, they still make the time to gather together and world is therefore Ignatius’ habit, as well as his home. The Pilgrim, ‘one foot in the air’. contribute to the rich tapestry of College life. We hope you enjoy this review of the year at the College and share in our stories of service within and beyond the College grounds, The text paper in this celebrating a community that lives ‘with one foot raised’. magazine is chlorine free. The paper manufacturer has been independently certified in accordance with the rules of the Forest Stewardship Council. Printed on FSC certified paper. Contents December 2015 11 4 16 22 28 35 FROM THE RECTOR 4 FROM THE ARCHIVES 18 PAST PARENTS’ Life with one foot in the air ASSOCIATION 70 REGIS NEWS 22 FROM THE PRINCIPAL 7 OLD IGNATIANS’ UNION 71 IGNATIAN CENTRE 28 The world is our home The world is our home OLDER IGNATIANS’ CLUB 74 FROM THE COUNCIL 9 IGNATIAN CHILDREN'S COMMUNITY NEWS 75 HOLIDAY CAMP 31 FROM THE PROVINCE ALUMNI IN FOCUS 81 MINISTRIES 10 RIVERVIEW BURSARY Denis Rowe (OR58) A perfect spring day brings out a PROGRAM 32 …a personal reflection huge crowd for the Indian Bazaar OLD BOYS 'IN THE WORLD' 35 AROUND THE COLLEGE STRATEGIC DIRECTIONS COMMUNITY 82 2015–2020 11 VALETE 2015 39 FAMILY CELEBRATIONS 88 PHILANTHROPY & COLLEGE NEWS 45 RIVERVIEW 15 GENERATIONS 90 PERFORMING ARTS 56 Families of Riverview: SCHOOL IN EAST TIMOR 16 The Loneragan Family Colegio Santo Inacio de Loiola, SPORT 62 Timor Leste REQUIESCANT IN PACE 91 PARENTS & FRIENDS ASSOCIATION 69 FOR THE DIARY 93 From the Rector Life with one foot in the air In the last school holidays, Riverview hosted a conference of some 250 prison chaplains of all denominations from around the globe. After they departed, I discovered a small sign or notice left behind by the National Muslim Prison Board of South Africa, some of whose members attended the gathering. It read, ‘The World is a Prison for a Believer and Paradise for a non-Believer’. Of course, while respecting differing faith distinctive religious garb, and they would traditions, this spirituality immediately set no limits on the place or circumstances struck me as being the very antithesis of their ministries, so long as these were of the Ignatius’ world-view. Ignatian ordered to ‘the greater glory of God’. In spirituality is incarnational, it is world- the Society’s Constitutions, penned by affirming. The world is God’s gift and is Ignatius, he proclaimed the scope of his ‘user-friendly’. The Kingdom of God begins bold vision: ‘It is according to our vocation in the here and now, and we are here to to travel to any part of the world where help build it. there is hope of God‘s greater service and the help of souls.’ When I began my Jesuit life as a novice, we were told to bring with us a copy of So what did those early Jesuits do? In Rome a medieval spiritual classic by Thomas à they taught catechism, worked among the Kempis, The Imitation of Christ. Ignatius poor, dialogued with Jews and Muslims, was very fond of it. It is the only book and established the House of St Martha besides the Gospel that he specifically for prostitutes. Other Jesuits were students recommended for persons making the at Paris, Louvain, Coimbra and in Spain. Spiritual Exercises. However, it always They were on the road defending the faith struck me as being a rather privatised and in Germany, preaching in various parts monastic spirituality. À Kempis extolled of Italy, reforming convents, bringing the life within the monastic cell. The outside Christian faith to India, Xavier to the Far world was a trap for the unwary. ‘As often East, others to North Africa, accompanying as I have been among men,’ he writes, ‘I Bishops on diplomatic work, and serving in have returned less a man.’ Elsewhere he various missions given to them by the Pope. remarks, ‘Those who travel much, seldom They also directed people in the Spiritual achieve holiness.’ Again, this struck me as Exercises. None of them were pastors being very un-Ignatian. (parish priests) and only a very few were occupied with schools. Their houses were Ignatius inaugurated a new era in the simply bases of operations, places Jesuits history of religious orders in the Church worked out of for a limited period of time. when he founded the Society of Jesus. In such circumstances it would have been The Jesuits would be less monastic and impossible to ask a Jesuit, ‘Where are you more active than the existing orders. They stationed?’ Theirs was a faith lived out of would not be bound by retreating to recite doors. There were many advantages to this common prayers together in choir, or by a way of life. It was the ideal of the founding 4 | IGNATIAN | DECEMBER 2015 Leaders make best.’ It was Nadal who painted the life of This year we are celebrating the Jesuits this way: sesquicentenary of the first Irish Jesuits themselves and others arriving in Australia. The last of those They consider that they are in their Hibernian missioners to come here over comfortable in a most peaceful and pleasant house when the years died only a few decades ago. I they are constantly on the move, when changing world. They remember one of them telling me that they travel throughout the earth, when there was no consultation or forewarning eagerly explore new they have no place to call their own. of their appointments. Newly ordained ideas, approaches, On another occasion, Nadal described this Jesuits went to the community notice and cultures universal flexibility Ignatius had in mind. board on Christmas Eve to see where they would be posted in the New Year. For rather than shrink In the Society there are different types him, it was halfway around the world to defensively from of houses: the house of formation [for an Australian college, where he went and training Jesuits], the Colleges, the houses worked influentially and fruitfully for a half what lurks around of the professed [for those in vows] and century. The world was his home. the journey. life’s next corner. More recently, in his influential book What a metaphor—‘the journey is our CHRIS LOWNEY Heroic Leadership, former Jesuit, house’! He was making it clear that Jesuits Chris Lowney, takes this freedom, were not tied to monasteries or even bound this universality, as one of his four Fathers: a small group of reformed priests by dioceses or nations. ‘The world is our key principles. He calls it ‘Ingenuity: ready to go anywhere in the world on orders home,’ he would say.