College Headmaster’s Report The great civil rights activist, Baptist minister and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, Dr Martin Luther King Jnr, asserted: “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is: “What are you doing for others?” King, who was gunned down on April 4th, 1968, at the age of 39, preached an inspiring sermon two months before he died. In it he requested that at his funeral no mention be made of the awards and honours he had received. In fact, at his funeral, they played a tape of this sermon now titled “The Drum Major Initiative”. In it he said: “Jesus gave us a new norm of greatness. If you want to be important — wonderful. If you want to be recognized — wonderful. If you want to be great — wonderful. But recognize that he who is greatest among you shall be your servant. That’s a new definition of greatness... I want you to be able to say that day (his funeral day) that I did try to feed the hungry. And I want you to be able to say that day that I did try in my life to clothe those who were naked. I want you to say on that day that I did try in my life to visit those who were in prison. I want you to say that I tried to love and serve humanity…” A few years later in 1973, another inspiring leader, the world-wide leader of the Jesuits, Father Pedro
Arupe, in a speech which he called, “Men for Others”, said: “Today our prime educational objective must be to form men-and-women-for-others; men and women who will live not for themselves but for God and his Christ — for the God-man who lived and died for all the world; men and women who cannot even conceive of love of God which does not include love for the least of their neighbours; men and women completely convinced that love of God which does not issue in justice for others is a farce.... Jesus makes these despised and marginalized folk his brothers. He identifies himself with the poor and the powerless, with all who are hungry and miserable. Every person in this condition is Christ’s brother or sister; that is why what is done for them is done for Christ himself.” This is where Arupe’s language becomes the same that we use when we express the essential Christian message in terms of our Lasallian tradition: “Every person is our brother or sister before God.” The real question is what do we do about it here and now? How are we expressing our love of neighbour? What are we doing for others? In 2006, twelve De La Salle senior students, led by Brother Denis, volunteered to be “Coolies” rather than “Schoolies”: to raise the money to go to India for six weeks over Christmas and to work building houses for the poor people in the Theni district of Tamil Nadu, India. They were also warned that they would be expected to live in a village, eat the local food, and do without many luxuries we take as normal. They were to work with “Reaching The Unreached” a project established and run by Br James Kimpton, an 83 year-old English Brother. Not only did these students rise to the challenge magnificently, some have been back since. Some have told their stories to 2
the next class and eighteen volunteer students from Year 12, plus four staff, will be “Coolies” this year. Enhancing this powerful message is the very strong support of the boys’ parents, the College community and surrounding parishes. This is faith in action. This year also, fourteen Year 11 boys and four adults went to Papua New Guinea for three weeks in September to work, building and renovating, at a boarding school conducted by the Brothers at Bereina. I was deeply moved by the supportive generosity of a parent, with a son in another year level, who rang while the group was in PNG, to say he and his wife thought this was so important, they would send a hundred dollar donation for each of the fourteen boys to help with expenses. What a powerful statement of priorities. We are also developing a cooperative liaison with the aboriginal community at Balgo Hills, where the De La Salle Brothers work in a remote region of Western Australia. Year 12 student 2006, Ryan Scanlan, has worked very effectively as a volunteer at Balgo Hills all of this year. We plan to have staff and boys go to Balgo Hills in 2008, and some from there come here, to participate in mutually beneficial educational initiatives. De La Salle has specific Social Justice opportunities for each year level as well as the Mission Action Day, an annual whole-school event in Holy Week which, in 2007, raised more than $60,000. Such a sum results from very generous support by most parents and extended families as well as the extraordinary effort by the boys. The policy at De La Salle is not only to teach the Christian faith but to create opportunity to put faith into action. Our sacramental initiation programme is very supportive of Church priorities for participation in the fullness of the Christian life. Our retreat programme and school liturgies have provided valuable faith experiences for the boys, while extra time has
