A Centenary

+ Cardinal George Pell, Archbishop of Sydney
24 Aug 2008

Last Sunday I celebrated a Centenary Mass in St. Mary’s Cathedral for Loreto College, Kirribilli. There was nothing very unusual about this as we have 35 older schools in the Sydney Archdiocese.

But it was a very happy and prayerful occasion, the Cathedral was packed with people even in the choir loft, the senior girls served the Mass and the music was excellent.

Outsiders often regard the Catholic community as a large monotone group.  In fact the Catholic Church is made up of a bewildering variety of sub-groups.

Every school centenary reminds us of the good work done by our schools generally.  As a Catholic Archbishop I am glad to acknowledge the contribution of our Catholic schools to the peace, prosperity and decency of Australian society.  One in every five young Australians is prepared for adult life in Catholic schools and prepared well.

Mary Ward (1585-1645) who founded the Loreto sisters was born in Yorkshire, when the practice of the Catholic faith was severely restricted in England.  Originally a member of the Poor Clares in Europe, she wanted to found a new group for women, like the Jesuit priests, dedicated to education and under the Pope, not the local bishop.

These innovations were resisted by the Roman Cardinals, so her group was suppressed in 1631 and she was briefly imprisoned by the Church!  After release at the direction of Pope Urban VIII, the order was able to resume its work on a less formal basis.

For a couple of hundred years her role as founder was disputed and this continued even in Australia when an Irish sister Mother Gonzaga Barry set up the first Loreto school in Ballarat in 1875.

From the 1870s until 1964 all Church schools in Australia received no government funding, so Catholic schools had to struggle to survive.

They were only able to continue because nearly all the teaching was done by people who did not take a salary: nuns from different religious “orders” like the Loretos, such as Josephites or Mercy sisters, or religious brothers (unlike priests, brothers do not celebrate Mass and the other sacraments). Parents paid school fees and local families made gifts or bequests.  Such was the case at Kirribilli where the Heaton family provided an early loan to secure “Elamang” house.

Loreto schools have a long established reputation as centres of culture, music, art and beauty.  Originally, even at Kirribilli, the nuns did not emphasise the importance of external examinations or the sciences, but these days are now well gone and Kirribilli’s academic results are regularly among the best in the Catholic schools.

Times have changed.  Financial pressures have lessened, facilities and staff qualifications are better, but new challenges to faith and family life have emerged as career options expanded and the penalties for failure have become more drastic.

Every centenary is an opportunity to say "well done", "thank you" and to look to the future.