The Inauguration ofColégio de Santo Inácio de Loiola (CSIL) andInstituto São João de Brito (ISJB)
25th January, 2014
This could have been a serious conversation between a person whom I had invited for the“Inauguration ceremony of CSIL” and myself. For obvious reasons I give him the name Thomas.
I picked up Thomas early in the morning on 25th January, 2014, as I had wanted to reach the school
early, so as to have a feel of what was going on there. I had told Thomas a lot about the eagernessof our students to be in the school as early as possible. Thomas, as usual could never believe it.
On the way to the school Thomas said: “Well, Kasait is pretty far away from Dili. I am sure that it
was really tough for the team to convince parents to send their children to your new Jesuit school!
He would not believe me when I told him that parents were still coming after admissions wereclosed. When other schools in town close at 1.00 p.m. why will they come to your school whichcloses daily at 3.30 in the afternoon and that too every day?”Come and see was all that I could say to this doubting Thomas.
And then, when we came to this spot
I said to Thomas: “Well, there weare. That’s the wall of the school!”“Where is the school?” he asked.
“Wait a bit Thomas, we have to turnleft where you see that car ahead”.
“OK. Let’s wait and see!” he said quite sure that I had bluffed him all along. He could see notbuildings even when we passed this gate. His sarcastic smile was evident.
When we turned left he saw this sign far away but saw no buildings!. That smile on his face becamea bit more twisted now. But as soon as we passed under the sign and passed by the wall of theschool, he got the firstglimpse of Colégio de Santo
Inácio de Loiola.
He suddenly saw what you
could not see from the mainroad.
“Wow” he said aloud. “You do have somebuildings after all”. We then passed by theIHS symbol and I could hear another “Wow!”from him. He seemed surprised!!
We then entered through the second gate.
Through the trees that had been planted just ayear ago by the first batch of students. We could see the children busy giving last minute touches tothe area where the program was to take place. A slight drizzle in the night had left many of theplastic chairs a bit wet. The weather for the rest of the day, however, was just perfect.

Thomas had not believed me when I
had told him that the children of CSIL
loved to be in the school and did notlook forward to long holidays. Well,there they were; well before 7.00 in
the morning. I could sense him stillplaying with his doubts.
This panoramic view below shows you the 6 buildings that form part of the CSIL complex. It seemeda bit much for the doubting Thomas to swallow but he did say a loud “Wow” again. I had to tell himthat much more has been planned, as far as construction goes. In that big vacant space in the centre
the Chapel and the Open Hall are to be constructed.
Classes XII, XI, X + Laboratories

Space for Chapel +Hall

Classes IX, VIII and VII

Toilet blocks + Generator + PumpHouse

We then walked about a bit and kept seeing parents coming in to be present for the celebration
which was to begin at 08.30. We have some photographs below of some of those whose presence
was special to us. Besides confronting tired looking children, Thomas had imagined that only a few
parents would be present. He was in for a really big shock!

Not only did he see all the chairs occupied but also saw Scholastic Isaias and Ms. Cinta (both intraditional dress) out there as Masters of Ceremony.
Fr. Adolfo Nicolas, ourGeneral + Fr. Danny Huang
and the Bishop of Dili arebeing welcomed. Fr. Lucio
Norberto de Deus, theVicar General of theMaliana Dioceserepresented the Bishop of Maliana.
The Minister of Education and the Minister ofSolidarity are receiving a warm welcome. We
were especially privileged to have theProvincials of the Jesuit Conference of Asia
Pacific and Fr. Alberto Brito, Provincial ofPortugal, present for this celebration.

The program began with a welcome address by Fr. Mark Raper. Speaking in Portuguese, he said that
this Education Centre is meant to address the country’s needs and expectations, by giving thestudents the chance to excel. The Jesuits are committed to form citizens who are proud of theirTimorese culture and nation and of whom their nation is proud.
Fr. General stressed the fact that theJesuits were not putting up Institutes tolive up to their past reputation but tomeet the present and future needs of thecountry. It is not only the “brains” of thechildren but the whole person i.e. thebrains, heart, body and spirit.
The Minister of Education, Bendito Dos Santos Freitas praised the Jesuits for their contribution tothe country. Many of the present leaders of the country were edcated by the Jesuits. It is their
Ignatian Spirituality that has enabled them to find a deeper way of thinking and acting, which hasenabled them to become available to serve the country. Fr. Lucio Norberto de Deus, the Vicar
General of Maliana Diocese while expressing his happiness at being present at the inauguration ofthis important institution in the Maliana Diocese, has requested for a closer pastoral collaboration of
the Jesuits with the Diocese.

Schol. Rui was there leading the children in singing the National Anthem and the School Anthem.
The children of our parish school in Railaco were there to present us with a traditional dance, while
our own students also performed another traditional dance.
It was now time for Fr. General toput his signature on the plaquewhich had been prepared and thencut the ribbon to symbolise theinauguration of the school.
Then came the planting of trees by
all the special invitees. Not wanting
to be in any of the photographs were Neville Harpman and Peter Mayoh, who had come all the way
from Australia to be present for this occasion. They have been guiding the construction processfrom the beginning. They stayed on a few days to help us with further planning for the Instituto SãoJoão de Brito (for teacher training) and a dormitory of female students of that Institute. We are truly
grateful to Karen Goh and Tata Cadiz for being with us for this occasion.

After a row of trees had been planted by our special guests, Thomas sat and listened to Fr. Generalanswering a few questions that were raised. I realised that something was happening to his doubts.
Then, snacks and soft drinks were served to all present. Fr. General then went up to Montserrat fora short break before proceeding to the airport for his flight back.

After Fr. General and the other guests had gone, the children were busy cleaning up. I took Thomasto the parking lot to see the means of transport used daily by many of the students to come toschool. They have to get up very early to catch this truck and come to school.
Thomas had
experienced theenthusiasm of thestudents. He had felt
one with the joy on
the faces of all thestudents during thewhole inauguration
program. He now
saw the students
getting on to the trucks that would take them home. He could no longer doubt that there issomething special about Colégio de Santo Inácio de Loiola!
He has asked me to convey to Frs. Plinio, Quyen and Ura, Scholastics Isaias, Rui and Sidelizio, andCinta, Filomena, Verónica, Yustinus, Inácio, Gil, Paulo, João, Cipriano and Nicolau as also Srs. Selmaand Mary, his admiration for what he saw and experienced. He thanks them not only for what they
had done to make this inauguration ceremony something special, but for what they have done tothe children. They have sown the seeds of those who are going to make a great difference in thelives of all in their country of Timor-Leste.

In gratitude to all those who have been supporting this project over so many years.
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Noel Oliver, S.J.

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