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Australian Jesuit sets record
as world’s oldest schoolteacher
Fr Geoffrey Schneider, SJ
has been declared the world’s
oldest teacher by Guinness World
Records, just weeks short of his
100th birthday. As the world’s oldest
full-time teacher, Fr Schneider from
Sydney, Australia, knows a thing or
two about how to bring the best out
of students.
The secret, according to the
99-year-old, is “a mountain of
patience”. “If things are going wrong,
don’t start shouting. Just proceed
quietly and things will settle down
eventually,” said Fr Schneider, who
turns 100 in December. “Their books
will eventually open.”
The Jesuit priest has taught
at schools in Sydney, Melbourne
and Perth, shaping the intellects
and values of leading figures of
Australian government, business,
academia and sport, including Tony
Abbott.
But as most workers switch
between jobs or eagerly plan their
retirement, Fr Schneider signalled
no intention of ending his 47-year
tenure at Sydney’s St Aloysius’
College, where he is touted as the
world’s oldest full-time teacher.
Nobody has so far come forward to
challenge that title.
“Retirement?,” he says. “So I
can read the paper every morning
and then forget what’s in it? That’s
what a retired friend told me happens
to him,” he said, recounting a recent
visit to a home for retired priests. “At
3pm there’s afternoon tea and if you
don’t turn up in the first minute they
come knock on your door and say,
‘It’s tea time now’. Really, I shouldn’t
be frightened of it, but it just doesn’t
appeal to me. I just feel I can be
more useful here.”
Fr Schneider’s thousands
of former pupils include Liberal
frontbencher Joe Hockey, ABC
political correspondent Mark Simkin
and Wallabies star Pat McCabe.
Asked whether Mr Abbott was
an unruly youngster, Fr Schneider
chuckled he could never “invent
anything better than has been in
“The secret of bringing the
best out of students? It is
a mountain of patience. If
things are going wrong, don’t
start shouting. Just proceed
quietly and things will settle
down eventually. Their books
will eventually open.”
the news of late”. He politely added
neither Mr Abbott nor Mr Hockey
were particularly “troublesome
children”.
Fr Schneider’s ripe age has
some particular advantages, such as
his lived experience of 20th century
history and a handy grasp of Latin,
preferred by some older Catholics.
He enjoys a fierce popularity
at St Aloysius.
In the early 1990s, Year 3
students were asked to name a new
building after their favourite Jesuit
saint. Innocently, they chose “Saint”
Schneider.
“I didn’t worry about it at the
time, really, but after that we received
a direction that the Jesuits were not
to have any buildings named after
them while they are alive,” he said.
“I don’t believe it wasn’t a direct
consequence of what happened, but
they managed to name the building
before that order came down.”
Fr Schneider is also the
namesake of the annual Schneider
Cup, which recognises excellence in
soccer and rugby.
- http://www.ucanews.com
Fr General’s letter on Year of Faith
As the Year of Faith was officially opened on
11 Oct, to mark the occasion, Fr General wrote a
letter to the Major Superiors of the Society in which
he said: “..We welcome this call to focus more
explicitly on the gift of faith, and the witness and
service we give to it. We are aware that, in today’s
world, ‘a profound crisis of faith . . . has affected
many people.’ (Porta Fidei, 2). As the reports of
many Procurators indicated and as I pointed out in
my recent de Statu Societatis, we ourselves have
not been unaffected by this crisis...With this letter
then, I wish to invite the whole Society to take to
heart the call of the Holy Father and to seek ways of
participating meaningfully and with greater personal
and communal engagement in this special year for
the Church. It is my hope that every Jesuit spends
some time - perhaps even his annual Retreat - in
prayer and reflection on the meaning, implications
and calls of this year.” He has also requested all
Major Superiors to invite communities “to dedicate
a good number of their regular meetings to prayer
and reflection together”, and he has provided some
points for this reflection. He ends the letter, saying:
“this year we make our own in a special way the
prayer in Mark 9, 24: ‘I do believe, but help the little
faith I have.’ Let us pray that the Lord may make the
Year of Faith a time of abundant grace and new life
for the whole Church and for our least Society.”
- SJ Web
Fr General to visit
Perù and Bolivia
Fr General will participate in the 25th
Assembly of the Conference of Latin American
Provincials (CPAL) in Lima, Peru from 30 Oct to
3 Nov. The main topics to be discussed at the
Assembly will be: the renovation of provincial
structures at the service of the mission; the
participation of the Society in Latin America in the
network which promotes the right of everybody
to a quality education; the evaluation of the
Interprovincial Centres for Formation (CIF), and
the process for establishing new CIFs. As usual,
before and during the Assembly, Fr Nicolás will
receive the accounts of conscience from the
Provincials. During and after the assembly, he
will deepen his knowledge of the Province of Peru
with a busy schedule of meetings and talks with
different apostolic sectors, groups of Jesuits, and
lay people. On 5 Nov Fr General will leave for
Bolivia. There he is expected to participate in
the Congress of the International Federation of
Fe y Alegría, whose theme this year will be: “The
challenge of inclusive education: disability, youth at
risk and multiculturalism.” He will fly back to Rome
on 8 Nov.
- SJ Web
JIVAN: News and Views of Jesuits in India NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2012 26