MORE than 1200 students, 140 staff and old boys celebrated 130 years of education by St Joseph’s College, Gregory Terrace at a packed Mass in St Stephen’s Cathedral on July 15.
Also among the guests were St Francis Xavier province leader Br Luke Quinn, former principals Br Barry Buckley and Dr Brendan McManus, and Christian Brothers who had attended the college.
The Mass was led by Archbishop John Bathersby with 10 old boy priests by his side.
From humble beginnings in the shadows of St Stephen’s Cathedral in Brisbane, a network of Christian Brothers’ schools grew, with 10 in Queensland and a total of 38 throughout Australia.
Three Christian Brothers greeted 26 students in the Pugin (St Stephen’s) Chapel on the first day at St Joseph’s College on July 5, 1875.
In his homily Archbishop Bathersby asked the congregation to recognise the hope and wisdom of Bishop James Quinn, the founding Christian Brothers, the original students and their families possessed when they first gathered to begin that educational enterprise.
‘What those founding people possessed was a belief not in themselves alone, but in God, in whom they believed and trusted,’ he said.
‘A God who could help them to achieve the impossible. Not a God who was powerful as the world understands power, but a God who can inspire ordinary people to do extraordinary things.’
Archbishop Bathersby said the measure of the college’s greatness now and in the future lay in its willingness to remember where it came from, how it got there, and what faith and hope drove the men and women of the past to respond to God’s power and inspiration over 130 years of endeavour.
