Archbishop Anthony Fisher OP officially opens Australia’s first Liberal Arts school for boys
Sydney archbishop Anthony Fisher OP officially opened and blessed Daceyville’s Hartford College last week, encouraging it to become a place which will produce “the saints Sydney needs in this 21st century”.
In declaring Australia’s first Liberal Arts school for boys open, he said he looked to the College to work with its students and families to make heroes who serve and make a difference.
Joined by Damien Tudehope MLC, NSW Minister for Finance, and Minister for Employee Relations and Matt Thistlethwaite MP, Federal Assistant Minister for Defence, Veterans’ Affairs and the Republic, the Archbishop spoke to parents, staff, students and visitors and unveiled a school plaque.
He described the school’s motto, ‘Dare to Think, Dare to Know’, as fitting in well with the idea of pursuing truth with courage, passion, and a sense of adventure.
“In addition to being pioneers in this institution, you are part of a long line of truth-seekers, of virtue-cultivators and faithful-disciples,” he said.
“With the guidance of your dedicated teachers, mentors, and parents, you will share in the fruits of a liberal arts education, one informed by faith and reason and the best of our civilisation, and so be given the greatest chance to flourish as a human person.
“Some people think schooling is just about attending, passing exams, being university and job-ready at the end, and hopefully making a matzah afterwards.
“And, sure, jobs and incomes matter … but alone they don’t make you happy.
“To flourish as human beings, we need sound purpose and good will, a grasp of reality and its opportunities, a subtle heart and critical intellect with which to assess all we perceive or are told, a broad and eternal perspective.
“We need to acquire facts and skills, but we also need a deeper wisdom to make sense of and apply those facts and skills.
“I look to the College to work with its students and families to make you heroes who serve and make a difference; who love and articulate the truth; who live by your principles, shunning evil and pursuing good; who protect the vulnerable and serve the common good; and who enjoy “the good life” in the classical and Christian conceptions.
“In other words, I look to Hartford College to produce the saints Sydney needs in this 21st century!”
Hartford College, which opened this year, is Sydney’s newest independent Catholic school for boys which aims to raise men of character who have the faith, virtue, and technical proficiency to make a difference in the world by “not only pursuing truth but also embodying it”.
Its three-fold approach encompassing the intellectual, spiritual and human, includes an innovative liberal arts and an individual mentoring program run in collaboration with each child’s parents.
The college features small class numbers and individual mentoring of students in partnership with parents, along with a focus on fostering academic excellence with the development of the student’s character and faith.
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