Posted on: Saturday, November 30, 2002
FAITH
Christian Brothers focus on education
By Zenaida Serrano Espanol
Advertiser Staff Writer
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| From left, Brothers Patrick McCormack, Louis Frick and Greg O'Donnell staff Damien Memorial High School.
Jeff Widener • The Honolulu Advertiser |
Background Significant years in the history of the Congregation of Christian Brothers of Ireland: • 1802 – The congregation is founded in Waterford, Ireland, by educator and businessman Edmund Rice to teach the less fortunate children of the day. |
When Edmund Rice founded the Congregation of Christian Brothers of Ireland 200 years ago in Ireland, he may not have realized that his devotion to Catholic education would evolve into the global mission that it is has become today.
While anniversary celebrations have been taking place worldwide since January, the local congregation, which is the Roman Catholic religious order that staffs Damien Memorial High School in Kalihi, will celebrate its founding next week. The Mass of thanksgiving will be 6 p.m. Thursday at the Co-Cathedral of St. Theresa.
"The celebration of this bicentennial is very significant to us because it is an important milestone in the continuing saga of Blessed Edmund Rice's dream," said Brother Louis Frick, the congregation's local community leader. "It is a reminder of God's blessing on our particular contribution to the Catholic Church's larger role of bringing gospel values to the world in which we live."
The order, known simply as the Christian Brothers, was founded in 1802 by Rice "to give Catholic education to the poor children of Ireland," said event coordinator Brother Patrick D. McCormack. "It's unique because he's one of the very few laymen who started a religious congregation."
Today, Rice's mission is carried out by more than 1,500 Christian Brothers in more than 30 countries. In Hawai'i, there are 10 Christian Brothers; most have retired from teaching, but three brothers still serve at Damien High.
The all-boys Roman Catholic high school, which celebrates its 40th anniversary this year, has grown from 180 students to about 400, with more than 90 percent of its graduates pursuing higher education at two- or four-year colleges.
Although the times have changed, McCormack said the school still has the same goal as when it was established and when Rice founded the congregation: "to serve the religious and educational needs of the students in the community, with a special emphasis on the needy."
On Thursday, Honolulu's Bishop Francis X. DiLorenzo will preside over the Mass with concelebrants the Rev. Joseph A. Ferrario, retired bishop of Honolulu, and the Rev. Joseph A. Grimaldi, vicar general of the Diocese of Honolulu, among others.
Past and present Damien High staff and students will also participate in the service, which will be followed by a catered reception in the Parish Hall of the Co-Cathedral of St. Theresa.
Among the highlights will be the music of the Mass, which was composed in 1996 by Father Liam Lawton of Knockbeg College in Ireland for a Dublin liturgy commemorating Edmund's beatification.
For information on the event, call 845-2330 or 841-0195.
