Alberto Hurtado Programme & Higher Line Bursary Launch

The launch of the Alberto Hurtado Programme (AHP) this year is a very significant moment in the history of Clongowes Wood College. Our school motto is aeterna non caduca, ‘the things that last forever, not the things that pass away’, this message provides the inspiration for the AHP, which we hope will become a lasting legacy for the college for many centuries more to come.

For several years now many members of our Clongowes community too numerous to mention here unfortunately have come together to ensure that the AHP becomes a reality. Each has played an important role in bringing us to this moment in time and I would like to thank them most sincerely for their dedication, support and guidance.

This is a critical time in Ireland’s history and a critical time for Catholic education in our country. Many of the boys in Clongowes today have never known anything but the era of the Celtic Tiger. It’s a wonderful time in many ways and it’s wonderful to witness the buoyancy and self-confidence it engenders in young people. But the danger is that it comes at a cost to the human spirit and that goes to the heart of the issue for us as Catholic educators.

The Alberto Hurtado Programme addresses the matter of justice, not mere benevolence or charity. ‘Individual charity‘ is a patch, an aspirin, whereas society requires an operation’. Those are the words of St Alberto Hurtado, the recently canonised Chilean Jesuit who has given his name to our new bursary programme, to enable some seven boys each year to come to Clongowes without paying fees, seven boys equipped to benefit from the school and for whom the school would be ideal. We want Clongowes itself to be a place that practises justice within its own walls. The mission is not only to continue to strive for excellence in education and personal development, which we are committed to pursuing, but to share it, to ensure that there are the fewest possible financial barriers to access and that Clongowes in the 21st century fairly reflects the growing multiculturalism and socio-economic diversity of our country.

We have many challenges to face in the pursuit of our mission to form young men who are authentically, ‘men for others’ in a global sense, using the benefits of an excellent education to meaningfully contribute to the world in which they live. I know these are ideals for our great school that you share and that you will support their realisation and the establishment of the AHP in all the ways that you can in the coming, very hopeful, very exciting years.

May God bless you all and thank you for your kindness.
                                                     
Fr Leonard Moloney SJ
Headmaster