About us - Br Philip Pinto

Address by Br Philip Pinto CFC, Congregational Leader of the Christian Brothers, delivered in New York, 2002.

Fidelity to our past always demands us constant vigilance to the founding vision. It is no accident that the school takes its name from Blessed Edmund Rice, founder of The Christian Brothers. All Christian Brother institutions take their cue from this remarkable man’s vision. To be true to our past and faithful to our heritage is to face the future honestly and courageously – no matter how painful it is. Today as Christian Brother all over the world evaluate their institutions and ministries, they realise that fidelity to Blessed Edmund’s memory calls for two things: a re-commitment to those on the margins of society and a renewed appreciation of humanity’s multi-cultural heritage.

I see no value in a centre of learning, which churns out numberless school leavers. Each year and is passively part of a society torn apart by divisions of race and partisan politics. Whenever our students learn to relate with one another, are able to work side by side and recognize their common humanity irrespective of cultural differences, then Rice High School is true to its founding vision. It is futile for earthbound humanity to still cling to the dark and poisoning superstition that its world is bounded by the nearest hill, its universe ended at the river shore, its common humanity enclosed in the tight circle of those who share its town and views and the colour of its skin. It is the task of our educators and of young people to strip the last remnants of that ancient, cruel belief from the civilisation of humankind.

Our school exist to challenge popular beliefs and dominant cultural values, to ask the difficult question, to look at life from the standpoint of the minority, the victim, the outcast, and the stranger. In doing so we will be giving hope to those who presently have little hope. And so we seek to present a new way of living: We show wisdom by trusting people; we handle leadership by serving, we tackle offenders by forgiving, we deal with money by sharing, we relate to strangers and enemies by loving, we handle violence by suffering, we live life by choosing. And we repent for any sins of the past not by feeling bad, but by thinking differently! This is the challenge we face as we celebrate and thank God for our past.


Finally, are we willing to the changes that this will entail? As the millennium draws near there are still a number of frightened disciples and teachers locked in many upper rooms, afraid to burst out, afraid to be disturbed by the new, afraid to disturb others. Wishful thinking alone cannot transform the frog into a prince, or the wicked step-mother into someone you can trust. Wishful thinking will not transform ourselves or our institutions. We have to stand up and be counted. It is a dangerous business: it is an unfashionable career. We will be accused of rocking the boat the subverting the system. We will be threatened with the cutting off of subsidies and scholarships. We will be accused of being crazy. But to people of vision it is life giving. I invite you today, in the midst of our thanking, to translate this into reality.

Philip Pinto
New York. 2002