Circular No 643

Newsletter for alumni of The Abbey School, Mt. St. Benedict, Trinidad and Tobago, W.I.

Caracas, 1 of March 2014 No. 643

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Dear Friends,

This is the continuation of Circular No.641: Why did the Abbey School not survive?

These are all the emails received on the 9 of December on the subject.

Also, some parang from the Bandit:

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=722814587748743,

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On 2013-12-09, at 12:14 PM, Glen Mckoy wrote:

Dear Sirs,

Thank you for all the replies, and some really good ones too, we will have to access all this information and see how we will write that ending ha! ha!, However there is no one ending, it still remains an enigma to me.  I am only showing Attila name, but don't worry all are present, as he requested this quest to find out these answers.  Now is this the final conclusion ??? or just another mystery, tale, story, rumour or legend of our history.

I will pay attention and see what comes out, in the Circular, to the Blog, as time moves on.

Cheers, Mis Amigos - Gracias- Glen.

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From: Father Harold Imamshah (frharold12@gmail.com)

Sent: December-09-13 2:48:38 PM

My brothers,

In 1980, my Novice Master asked me to join the Staff of the Abbey School and both my Junior Brothers Dennis Hamid and Symeon Faria were also invited to join the Staff (both having left monastic life and are now happily married).  Bro Ronald Yee Mon, now Fr. Ronald Yee Mon (ordained in 1985 with the current Bishop Francis Alleyne, current Bishop of Georgetown, Guyana). This was a move by the Monastic Chapter of Professed Monks between 1979 and 1980 to add younger teaching monks so as to bring new life into the School and at the same time not to have to pay out more salaries, thereby saving more income. 

Bro. Ronald at the time stayed on the Teaching Staff until 1985 and I remained until 1984.  The others did not remain longer than a term.

 In a very heated Parents' meeting at Benet Hall one Sunday afternoon, with Abbot Hildebrand Greene presiding, some parents expressed to Fr. Vincent Merrique that he should resign if he didn't want to stay on as Principal.  I spoke on behalf of some disgruntled Teachers who did not want to lose their jobs.  As far as I remember, Abbot Hildebrand had agreed that Ms. Pamela Roopchand-Razack and one of the male Teachers and I could begin the Mission of searching for newer ways of continuing the school, which included searching for a Principal. 

Our search began with a really wonderful interview with Mr. Clive Pantin who had retired as Principal of Fatima College.  He helped us to see that a School the size of Abbey School on the East-West corridor and surrounded by such large schools like St. Augustine Senior Comprehensive School would not easily push the Ministry of Education to make us an assisted School.  Clive was not open to become the next Principal. 

When Pamela and the other teacher went in to see the Abbot with a written report of our findings with our 3 signatures, they (the 2 lay teachers) had come up with the suggestion that I should be appointed as the next Principal.  I begged them not to push that suggestion, since I was still working on my degree at the Seminary and UWI and also because of my respect for Fr. Cuthbert and Fr. Odo and their lifetime contribution to the School, I felt they deserved to be in the leadership of the School and its future.

I was present at the Monastic Chapter meeting of Professed Monks that listened to the Proposals of our Committee of 3 and from what I can remember Fr. Cuthbert was asked to be the new Administrator to make things work.  I left the meeting with the impression that the Benedictine Community, while there weren't that many able bodied Teachers, they did see a reason to keep the School as long as the finances allowed.  After I left in 1984 to pursue the Diocesan Priesthood, I had met Fr. Cuthbert who had finally become the Principal, but it seems with the very sad task of closing the school, since the numbers of students had diminished and it just wasn't economically viable anymore.

With regard to an earlier comment about money going to Rome, that would probably be untrue and I'm not sure of the basis of such an unfair comment.  As far as racial comments of running a "school for white boys", I assure you that there were enough of us in the Community who believed and expressed in Monastic Community Meetings that Education at both of our Schools ought to benefit those students who were in our care, whatever their colour or economic standing.  To this day I am still in contact with a few of the boys that I taught and they are really very happy to renew the old acquaintance we had and to share with me what they have been doing since Abbey School.  Some of these connections are via Facebook and others I've enjoyed meeting in person.

I do hope these few thoughts have been helpful.

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From: Anthony Cintra (celandaal@hotmail.com)

Sent: December-09-13 4:07:21 PM

Hola, Amigo,

If the school was only for white boys it seems as though the majority of students in my time were never there ha!ha!

Certainly not the Seminary ha!

Perhaps we were honorary "whites" similar to the Cricketers who went to South Africa prior Nelson Mandela :)

Kind regards

Anthony

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Date: Mon, 9 Dec 2013 18:37:17 -0500

Dear Fr. Harold,

Thank you for your insightful response to the question we're now considering.  We would never have known about this meeting at St. Benet's Hall without your input.  It is interesting to know that the Benedictine community was interested in allowing a layman - in this case, Clive Pantin - to act as Principal.  (He would have been a very good choice, by the way.) But it is now clear that:

1. Fr. Vincent Merrique OSB did not wish to be Principal any longer.  (How long was he at the helm, I wonder).

2. The parents of the day were annoyed at him and suggested he should quit.

3. From other sources, we know that he did quit, left the monastery, got married, had a family, and died c. 2006.  He was buried at MSB.

4. Fr. Cuthbert was chosen as the Principal, and he was at his post at the very end, in 1986.

5. There has never been any communication between any of the Principals of the Abbey School and the Old Boys / Alumni / Past Students / whatever, in terms of setting up a Support Committee / Alumni Association / Former Parents' Group, to act as advisors, fund-raisers, or such like, to maintain an on-going relationship with the School through an "Abbey School Magazine" or a newsletter published, say, every 6 months.  THIS HAS BEEN AN ABSOLUTELY CRITICAL FAILURE ON THE PART OF THE SCHOOL'S ADMINISTRATION, AND OTHER SCHOOLS / ORGANIZATIONS SHOULD TAKE NOTE OF THIS AS A CASE OF POOR PUBLIC RELATIONS MANAGEMENT.  It is really sad to see such a thing happen, but I would at least hope that others will learn from the mistake that has been made. 

6. Unfortunately, in spite of many, many attempts on the part of the MSB Old Boys, the current authorities at the Mount still have not learned their lesson.  Our delegates have tried, in a friendly manner, to meet with Abbot John Pereira on a number of occasions to discuss one thing or another, and we have shown due deference and respect for his position and authority.  Regretfully, for some reason I do not understand, our attempts have all come to naught, and we feel rejected as a group.  This feeling, I have read, is almost universal, and the Benedictines are losing / have lost , through pride or ignorance, what is arguably the most influential asset they should have been proud to call upon - the Old Boys of the Abbey School - many of whom today hold positions of influence and honour in our Trinbago society.  This is a crying shame.  We have in our ranks, bankers, lawyers, doctors, accountants, architects, skilled people in one area or other, who would surely answer a call for help from the Mount, if it ever came.  But it does not seem that such a call will ever be given, and we are looking at the imminent demise of an honourable institution.  What a shame!

7.And so, it would appear, that, in summary, unless additional information comes to light, the Abbey School came to an end as a result of a number of factors:

a. A changed economy in the 1986 period. I recall that the oilfield industry worldwide was reeling in 1986, particularly.  I was managing an operation in the North Sea at that time, out of Aberdeen, Scotland, and I was ordered to cut my staff by 50% during that year.  It is very possible that Trinidad's economy was also suffering, and the cost of educating a son at the school might have been quite extraordinary. 

b. A PR failure on the part of the School's Administration to recruit help from the Old Boys of the School, and from the "Past Parents".  Don Mitchell's comments in this regard are accurate: "The school authorities had no succession plan in place.  That is evident by their utter failure to organise the resources available to them.  British and European educational institutions depend mainly on continuing government funding or on well managed trust funds donated and established over a period of hundreds of years to keep them going.  US and Canadian institutions which are newer and not the beneficiaries of governmental funding organise annual and quarterly functions aimed at involving the alumni in their future prospects.  The alumni are regularly solicited to make annual donations or at the least to add a generous bequest in their last wills.  Instead, our Monks never targeted us.  They completely ignored all past students, and acted as if we never existed.  It was almost as if they had planned the obsolescence of the School." 

c. Society's rejection of our boarding school as a legitimate institution in the Trinidad of the 1980's.

d. The poor public image provided by the then Principal, Fr. Vincent Merrique, as to his sense of commitment to the school's mission and purpose.

e. "Technological intransigence?"  Was the school keeping up with the fantastic advances being made, in those days, as at present, in the blossoming field of computer technology?  An indication of positive support for the new emerging technologies would, I suggest, have driven hundreds of young men to clamour for entrance into the Abbey School.  Instead, we saw a dramatic decline in applicants to the Mount.

f. A definite decline in disciplinary standards.  I should explain.  Arthur Knaggs had been the President of the Alumni Association (I'm not sure if that was the correct name) back in the late 1970's and early 1980's.  I believe he was either about to immigrate to Canada or perhaps he was simply incapable of attending the Prize-Giving Day at the Mount - perhaps it was in 1982 or 1983.  However, he asked me at that time to accept the role of President, and to attend the function to present the President's Trophy to the boy who had been chosen as "The Best Student of the Year" or some such thing.  He gave me the trophy, nicely polished, to take to the Mount, and my pregnant wife accompanied me to the function, held at St. Benet's Hall.  

On arrival at the school's basketball court, on the level ground beneath St. Benet's Hall, I was told by one of the boys who was directing the traffic, that I should park my car there and walk up the hill.  I explained that I was the president of the Alumni Association, and that, not only should my position be respected, but also, my wife would, only with great difficulty, be able to climb the hill to the Hall.  After some strong words, I was finally allowed to drive up the hill and to park at that upper level, among the cars of a few other dignitaries.  I carried the trophy into the Hall, which as yet, was in a state of disarray, apparently unswept and disorganized, and sat, with my wife, facing an empty stage in front of which hung a long whitish curtain stained as if someone had thrown a bucket of coffee onto it and had neglected to wash it.  

That was disheartening enough.  But what took the cake was when the boys filed into the Hall for the ceremony.  No one, as I had expected, was wearing the school's crimson blazer with the school crest on the pocket.  No one was wearing the school's tie.  No one was even wearing the white trousers which I always had known to be a part of the formal uniform.  What they were wearing, however, was a motley collection of studded jeans, tee shirts, hair styles in the latest afro-types, stylish boots and fancy belts, and as they came to the stage, they would heckle one another, call out jokingly and show little respect for the adults who had come to witness this important occasion.  I was thoroughly disgusted and left as soon as I had performed my duty of presenting the trophy.  As far as I was concerned, the Abbey School had already died.  

BTW, whatever happened to the President’s Trophy?  I wonder who was the last boy to receive it, and where it could be today. 

Nigel 

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On Mon, Dec 9, 2013 at

11:47 AM, Joe <bermentmcdowald@yahoo.com>

Dear All,

From direct personal experience, I can attest that it is difficult to both live the monastic life, run a boarding school and make time to serve both.  We have to be careful not to vilify the monks for not doing a better job, at assuring that the school continued.  If there were more monks possibly ............?

Sincerely,

Joe 

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Sent: Dec 9, 2013 12:39 PM

Thanks, Don, 

While I met the monks in their mid-life (the Dutch and Guyanese and Trinidadians), I agree with you that no plan of continuation seemed to be in place.  Those of us from Fatima College who visited and eventually joined the Community had done so when our College Vocation Club was invited by one of the Holy Ghost Fathers to visit the Monastery during Holy Week.  I am so sorry that the Monastic Staff did not make greater use of the Alumni especially since I am very active with my Fatima College class of 75 in fundraising as are many other year groups.  I can see now that Abbey School might well have enjoyed financial support as well as the promise of their sons as students had Alumni been included in the life of the School.

Humbly, Fr.Harold

Servant of Mary for Jesus

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On Mon, Dec 9, 2013 at 11:52 AM,

Don Mitchell <idmitch@anguillanet.com>

Hello, Fr Harold,  

Your account is very interesting and convincing and I accept it entirely. Some time ago, I had another more systemic theory not related to actual developments.  I am not sure how relevant my more general thoughts are, when the empirical evidence is there in front of us.  For what it is worth, I copy below my recent narrative.  

Keep well.  

Don   

I have always assumed that the fate of the School was tied up in the fate of the Abbey.

Our teachers were mainly derived from the Abbey.  During our period, the Monks were mainly Dutch male survivors of the Second World War.  Something one of them told me in the early 1960s has never left me. 

He gave me the impression that many of the Dutch Monks had entered the priesthood driven by guilt at having survived the German Labour Camps and the factories of the Ruhr Valley to which he and some of them had been relocated for the duration of the War.

When he got back home, he discovered that all his close family had been killed or died during the War.

He became a priest and a Monk, moved in part at his guilt at having been one of the few survivors among his family.  Such persons were a finite supply to the school.

(Interesting your use of the word “Guilt”, what about “despondency” or “hopelessness”, editor)

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Ladislao Kertesz at kertesz11@yahoo.com,

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Photos:

MSBAP33MI6512, Mount Inside

59UN0001FOOTBALL, Missing names, must have lost the photo.

07RE0002GRP, Reunion 2007 all looking younger

07LK3740GRP, Dinner in Caracas