From the principal

Times have changed, and I daily thank God that they have. I live a blessed life, with a beautiful family and even more amazing grandchildren, and when we gather together I am astonished at the things they know that it took me more than half a lifetime to learn. Things like where Uruguay is and what guacamole tastes like – and I’m not even going to mention the techno talents of a five year old.

As I ruminate and pamper my little darlings, I often ponder the collective conscious of our global community, and what Jesus would have made of the new level of sophistication that we now expect. I am reminded of the time a few years ago when my son asked his mother to include some meat on the shopping list. As she left for the supermarket, he cried out,

“Make it fillet!” He said this as if it was a normal expectation. When I told the story to my father, he burst into tears of laughter.

Good manners prevents me getting into detail, but my great-grandmother lived in our village in Sicily at a time where bartering goods took the place of monetary payment since cash was rare. Her particular services involved the provision of a wood-fired oven and the ability to turn a young rooster into a capon. The former should be an easy concept to understand; I will let the reader investigate the process for the latter. For the service of the oven, she would ask for one of the baked loaves, and for the service rendered on the former rooster, she would ask for the comb and the parts she had removed.

The reason for my father’s amusement, is that before he arrived in Australia in 1950, the only meat he ever tasted was in an omelette that contained those removed parts. Two generations later, fillet is apparently de rigueur for the Burgios.

I tell this story because I believe that Jesus would have considered our young people to be at a disadvantage in our increasingly civilised and affluent society. One of the hot topics that is often discussed in the media is that young people are being priced out of the housing market and that their standard of living will never equal that of their parents. There are many factors for this, but in my own experience, I see that some of my progeny want what their parents have, but are reluctant to do what we have had to do to achieve it.

At CBC we seek to provide our students with an appreciation of their privileged lives, and to foster a deeper understanding of the hard work, courage and sacrifice of those who have provided them with the generous opportunities they have. They are encouraged to have a look around them at those who are marginalised and living in conditions that are beyond their control, and to critically examine the politics and choices the world engages in to be able to make decisions that contribute to a better world for all.

A powerful method of doing this is through our association with Edmund Rice Education Beyond Borders (EREBB), which is an international network of Catholic schools educating young people from many different faiths and cultures. In more than 20 countries EREBB aims to promote global solidarity and offer a transformational education for justice and liberation.

At CBC Fremantle, our engagement with EREBB provides our students, staff and parents with an opportunity to experience life in the shoes of the ‘other’ and hopefully provide perspective to first-world problems they may experience. This will in turn nourish their empathy, service, compassion and selfless DNA and provide solidarity to our sisters and brothers throughout the world who do not enjoy the privileges we sometimes take for granted.

Our annual immersions to the Philippines, Kiwirrkurra and Peru are part of our commitment to promoting this understanding, and the College staff also contribute to the incredible endeavours of Lalitha, who has transformed the lives of many children in the red-light district of Delhi.

These are the first of many initiatives CBC Fremantle will undertake with EREBB over the coming years. In helping to form tomorrow’s gentlemen, we believe that our active participation promotes the attributes we so proudly champion as the aspiration for our graduates and that the entitlement so many young people are tempted to embrace can be tempered with a potentially life-changing experience provided by EREBB.

As Pope Francis states: “Never tire of working for a more just world marked by solidarity”.

I commend this edition of Touchstone to you and hope it provides a glimpse into a world beyond borders.

Mr Domenic Burgio

Principal