AND GLADLY TEACH: The Marist Experience in Australia 1872-2000
By John Braniff, David Lovell Publishing, $24.95
Reviewed by Fr T.P. Boland
THIS is a valuable addition to the increasing historiography of Catholic education in Australia.
The Marist Brothers have been – and are – one of the most precious strands in the cable that binds the Church to Australian history.
They add a French touch to the generally more Irish tradition, though the Irish and Irish-Australian brothers have been dominant since early times.
Author John Braniff brings to this story unique qualifications.
He comes to the Marist experience from many years as a Marist and as a responsible administrator of major Marist schools and colleges.
He has written a number of theses on well known institutions. There is a touch of the thesis in his approach, but his direct style is readable and his analyses are animated by the daily work in the classroom and the regular reflection on religious life.
Archbishop Polding invited the Marists to Sydney. They came in 1872. Their first school was St Patrick’s, Church Hill.
Being foreign, the earliest brothers could not register with the education authority, so they had to ask a modest fee from parents who could afford it.
Irish parents were not sure they wanted French teachers for their sons. When they won the parents over, the local clergy were not pleased to see their parish schools lose numbers to the Marists.
The author examines the relationship of the Marists and Australians through various developments in Church and state.
First he looks at the charism of Marcellin Champagnat, the brothers’ founder.
He locates him in the blooming of education and religious life in the second half of the 19th century.
The founder looked to the Christian education of boys in rural towns, though accepting the middle class boarding schools that paid for the poor schools.
This dichotomy runs through the Marist story in Australia. The religious style of the first schools was like that of the minor seminaries of the continent till recent times. Champagnat’s schools were not sporting academies, and certainly not GPS.
Braniff traces the Marists’ adaptation to Australian conditions and Irish-Australian spirituality through the changing demands of educational policy and post-Vatican II.
He tells the story through the debates, policies and chapters of the times. They are made more comprehensible by being told through the work of specific brothers and specific schools.
It is told largely through the struggles and successes of NSW and Victoria, where conditions differed, but the Marist tradition provided a common development.
Readers will find most helpful Chapter 10, which looks closely at the spiritual and pastoral changes that followed Vatican II.
The author faces the complaints of parents that the new methods and theories seemed to be the cause of a decline in Catholicity in the pupils.
An unhappy period of adaptation in catechetics is treated factually and realistically.
He also considers the changed formation of the brothers as teachers and religious.
Arguing that Marist schools are no longer Marist Brothers’ schools, he asks the question: Is this still Marist education as seen by Champagnat?
If he does not state a definite conclusion, he does trace the lines along which an answer can come.
All this opens up the problems all religious teachers must face.
