LOYSIA AThe Magazine of St Aloysius’ College • ‘Men for Others’ • Issue XLV • Autumn 2007D The Sydney Harbour Bridge - 75 Years The College by the Harbour - 128 Years from the rector s I pen these lines we are celebrating the seventy-fifth and De Groot claimed he had a right to bear it. The charge anniversary of the opening of the Harbour Bridge, was dropped. So he was then charged with offensive Ain the shadow of which our community dwells and behavior, a crime that only applied to public property. underneath which our boys recreate. So the prosecution argued it was public property. But De Groot successfully argued that if it was public property, it was the King’s Highway. Furthermore, under common law, his Majesty’s subjects were entitled to remove any obstacle which would bar free progress along the King’s Highway – even ribbons! In exasperation, the court at last fined him £5 for trespassing. Never one to give up, following the court case, he sued for wrongful arrest, since a police officer had no right to arrest an officer of the Hussars. Surely he must have won colours at Belvedere for debating! There was an undisclosed out-of-court settlement. De Groot later returned to Ireland and died in 1969. Whilst all this was happening, our Aloysian boys (who had been given a holiday on the eve of the opening) and their families were enjoying a garden party at the College from ten till noon, with some seven hundred present. The Rigger Trevor Monks (third from left), grandfather of Timothy (SAC 1999), Jeremy (SAC 2003) and Michael Curtin (Year 11) enjoying Junior School (then on the present main campus) was a “smokoe” during Bridge construction. beflagged and illuminated. It could very well have been that the Rector of the time, Fr Austin Kelly SJ, had known the As if it was not a momentous enough occasion, swashbuckling De Groot on the Bridge above as a fellow Captain Francis De Groot was caught on all the newsreels, student at Belvedere some thirty years earlier. swooping down from his horse to cut the ribbon “on behalf of decent and loyal citizens of New South Wales” (as he The Bridge opening had a huge impact on the College. said), declaring the bridge open before Premier Jack Lang Sadly, it resulted in the demolition of many hundreds of could do the honours. De Groot was a member of the houses in the area, the homes of working-class people New Guard, an ultra right-wing political group which soon – quite a number of whom had boys at the College. Yet, at passed from the scene. Another member of that group, the same time, it opened for us a link with another shore, there on the day and probably having a hand in De and access to families and many more potential students. A Groot’s derring-do, was the Mayor of North Sydney, Hubert greater sphere of influence. So the Harbour Bridge opening Primrose, on whose namesake patch of turf many had a sense of ambiguity – celebration and politicizing, an Aloysian has since played. cheers and scuffles, evictions and connectedness. It is simply the story of the human condition. Of interest is that Francis De Groot was Jesuit-educated at Belvedere One of the Pope’s titles is Pontifex Maximus (borrowed, College in Dublin (where last year’s in fact, from the high priest of ancient Rome). It means “Great College Captain, Andrew Haylen Bridgebuilder” – presumably between this world and the SAC 2006, is now a gap student). next. Every teacher could style him- or her-self a pontifex. The records suggest that De Groot’s When we teach, we build bridges. We build a bridge into time there was short-lived. But the world of the student. Or we take them across bridges to in that brief period he seems to new experiences and new cultures. Or we make bridges have at least appropriated that so that our school will be open to as many as possible characteristic of Jesuit formation: a – not raising a drawbridge, so to speak, to protect social certain level of rhetoric and and economic status. And as students grow and have to degree of disputation. face decision-making, we help them discern which bridge At his trial, De to cross and which to burn. Teaching is always a ministry Groot was charged of meaning where we forge connections, spanning ideas, with carrying an illegal making networks with knowledge. And central to that quest weapon, but as a for meaning is, of course, faith-formation or religion which former member of the literally means “a linking of things together”. Hussars who fought Sometimes though, our advance, our bridgehead is not on the Western welcomed. The young may defend their shore and want no Front in the First visitors. Or we make the links, but the audience is reluctant World War he had to explore them. Occasionally our enterprise may feel a been awarded a little shaky underfoot, not unlike those suspension bridges ceremonial sword our cadets are given to launching over gullies! The human St Aloysius’ College A Jesuit School for Boys _ Founded 1879 a l o y s i a d / p a g e 2 Jesuit formation in action. Appropriating Jesuit poet Gerard Manley Hopkins: “In his riding of the rolling level underneath him steady air, and striding high there... the achieve of, the mastery of the thing!” condition yet again. But those who choose to work with the Jack O'Donoghue (SAC 2006) with Father Rector and Father young are never limited by the human condition. Principal with the book of Illustrated Gospels presented to the College One of the many descriptors of Jesuit education is that it by the Class of 2006. is “world-affirming”. That is, it never resiles from engagement with the world. It is a bridge. It links faith and reason as well as grace and nature. There are no disconnected twin AMDG shores of the sacred and the secular. There is harmony and wholeness in God’s creation. Our spirituality is testament to this; it espouses “finding God in all things”. The Examen is a prayerful way of discovering how the tell-tale traces of a transcendent God can be revealed in the ordinariness of number of members of the Aloysian Family were the day. Our style of pastoral care is another bridgehead, A promoted in the Prime Minister’s Cabinet reshuffle in moving sensitively and respectfully into others’ lives, as late January. Ignatius says, “going in by their door and bringing them out Congratulations to: your own”. Our pedagogical style reveals yet another link. Ignatius quaintly called it “joining virtue with letters”. We The Hon Joe Hockey MP (SAC 1983), who was made might describe it today as connecting values with curriculum the new Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations and a member of the Expenditure Review wherever possible. Nothing is to be “value-free”. Like our Committee. neighbour-Bridge, an overarching of ideals that sustains the The Hon Andrew Robb MP (Past Parent) who way and direction of those who travel below. was promoted to the Outer Ministry as Minister of Tourism promotion or postcard pictures boasting the Vocational and Further Education. Bridge quite clearly proclaim “where we are”. If we are true The Hon Tony Abbott (SAC 1975) continues to serve to the Gospel we follow, our bridge-building will be largely as Minister for Health. liberating, always life-giving and loving, and drawing people The Hon Dr Brendan Nelson MP (Past Parent) will into relationship. It will then proclaim “who we are”. continue as Minister for Defence. Fr Ross Jones SJ Senator The Hon John Faulkner (Past Parent) continues Rector to serve as a Labor Senator for NSW. In the NSW State Election in March: THE ALOYSIAD The Hon Sandra Nori MP (Past Parent), the Labor Member for Port Jackson and Minister for Tourism, Executive Editor: Fr Ross Jones SJ Editor: Murray Happ (SAC 1985) Sport and Recreation and the Minister for Women Assistant Editor: Trish Flynn retired. Printing: The Precision Printers Pty Ltd Paul Crittenden MP (Past Parent) the Labor Member Circulation: 10,000 for Wyong retired. E-Mail: [email protected] Jonathan O’Dea (SAC 1983) was elected as the Liberal Member for Davidson. St Aloysius’ College Peter Shmigel (Current Parent) was the Liberal Senior: 47 Upper Pitt Street, Milsons Point NSW 2061 Candidate for Balmain. Telephone: 02 9922 1177, Fax: 02 9929 6414 The Hon Henry Tsang MLC (Past Parent) was re-elected Junior: 29 Burton Street, Milsons Point NSW 2061 Telephone: 02 9955 9200, Fax: 02 9955 0736 as a Labor Member of the Legislative Council. Website: www.staloysius.nsw.edu.au Hon Frank Sartor MP (Past Parent), was re-elected as the Labor Member for Rockdale. Cover pic: Mr Chris Saltos (SAC Staff) St Aloysius’ College A Jesuit School for Boys _ Founded 1879 a l o y s i a d / p a g e 3 from the principal The Academic Life and Mission of commitment to the formation of our students as young men of “competence, conscience and compassion”. the College Over the last few years emphasis has been placed he College is committed to the academic enterprise on developing in the College a stronger Middle School within an approach to schooling that is holistic curriculum, while not opting for a specific Middle School Tand formative in nature. We bring to this task structure in the classic sense. The bigger Departments have the Jesuit tradition in education reaching back some Assistant Heads with a focus on curriculum in Years 7-9.