The Ignatian - December 2016 Vol 26 July Edition Vol 27 | Page 5

Above clockwise Fr General Peter Hans Kolvenbach SJ during a visit to Riverview; Fr Pedro Arrupe SJ; Assistance
Competition winning photo showing a commitment to worldwide Jesuit education, taken by Will Hancock, Year 12.
formation to ecologically sustainable design and planning of
facilities. The commitment to indigenous peoples is reflected in
the thirty-six First Nations young men currently in the boarding
community and the acknowledgement of aboriginal culture in
our curriculum, in liturgies, Assemblies – in short, whenever
we gather. Commitment to an equal standard of education is
reflected in the growing means-tested Bursary Programme which
ensures a Riverview formation is possible for many families who
would never have dreamt it at all possible. The College’s recent
public stand on the matter of just allocation of government
funding to schools is another case in point. Our commitment to
the equal treatment for both sexes takes as one starting point the
reality that fifty per cent of our teaching staff are women. When Fr
General addressed us, it was less than thirty per cent. And moving
beyond the context of Fr General’s time, we hope to cultivate in
the young men a deeper understanding of, and respect for, those
of a broader range of orientations. The remaining commitments
we approach in both deeds and words – in what and how we teach,
in the guests we invite to Assemblies and Hot Potato Shops, in the
advocacy in the A T Thomas Group, in the lived experiences of
service programmes and immersions.
Of course, commitment never suggests completion or conclusion.
It is being there for the long haul. It is often, “Yes, but not quite.”
We keep at it. Even when it comes with a cost. A school in the
Ignatian tradition will be marked out by commitment to values
which sometimes the world may not find popular, and when to do
so is to swim against the tide or be out of step with the sway of
public opinion.
Interviewed on another occasion, Fr Kolvenbach observed, “I
am convinced that in 400 years of history our educational
institutions have had as their sole end the commitment to make
the human city a more just one for the Lord’s sake.” It is often said
that Riverview is like a little city. So let us commit to making it
more humane and more just – for the Lord’s sake.
FR ROSS JONES, SJ
R EC T O R
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