GONZAGA COLLEGE SJ ARCHIVE
Headmaster’s Message
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Letter to parents 24 February 2021
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Welcome to the website of Gonzaga College SJ. I hope that it gives you a flavour of the college and the education we offer. Gonzaga was founded in 1950 as a day school for boys under the direction of the Society of Jesus. At present there are nearly five hundred and sixty students on the College rolls continuing in the same tradition that its founders envisaged.
Fr Veale SJ posed a number of questions about the College in 1957; questions still as relevant to us as educators today more than half a century later:
What kind of boy would I wish to form by the time he is eighteen?
How shall we educate a boy so that he may be able to continue to educate himself?
How should he be prepared and equipped to take his place in modern Ireland, to be a responsible citizen, to earn his living, and to use his life for personal fulfilment and for the benefit of others.
And most importantly: How shall we enable them, in an affluent society, to live effectively by a teaching which says: Blessed are the poor. Blessed are they that mourn. Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after justice?
These are questions which we reflect on constantly and, we hope, are answered by the formation of the young men who leave Gonzaga College SJ contributing to their communities; who will have ideals of excellence (magis) in all aspects of their lives - spiritual, moral, intellectual; who will be inspired by faith and imbued with the determination to build an ever more just society.
Our college community - a dedicated teaching staff, committed parents and past-pupils alike mean that education at Gonzaga will continue to go from strength to strength – and develop, to paraphrase Fr Pedro Arrupe SJ, reading the signs of the times, relishing the things that are Gods, and communicating them to others with the clarity of understanding given to St. Ignatius. This is our prayer. As a College community we will continue to strive to form young men ad maiorem dei gloriam.
If you have any further questions about the college, please feel free to contact us directly.
