Naming of the Archbishop Daniel Mannix Wing at Burke Hall, Xavier Preparatory School

Address Given by Archbishop Denis Hart
at Burke Hall, Xavier Preparatory School,
on Thursday, 18th November, 2004.

...

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

I am delighted to visit Burke Hall and to pay tribute to the firm foundation of a Xavier education laid so well here. I am grateful to Mr. Chris McCabe, the Principal, and to Mr. Paul Henderson, the Headmaster of Burke Hall, for the invitation presented on behalf of you all.

Since 1921 when Mr. Tom Burke offered the whole of Burke Hall as a gift to the Archbishop, who subsequently gave it to the Rector of Xavier, Father Jeremiah Sullivan, for use as a Preparatory School of Xavier, Burke Hall has been a place very dear to Archbishop Daniel Mannix.

Archbishop Mannix, as you know, was Archbishop from 1917 until 1963, when he died at the age of 99 years. For many years Archbishop Mannix was a regular visitor to Burke Hall and officiated at the Prize Giving.

There are lovely photos of the Archbishop with your predecessors, which show that because he lived close by on the other side of Studley Park Road, he had a friendly relationship with the Masters and students at Burke Hall. Indeed, during his 46 years as Archbishop, he established 108 parishes, more than 150 primary schools, 17 secondary schools and 14 schools for special training, as well as building Newman College and St Mary’s Hall for Catholic University students.

Archbishop Mannix was a person of broad vision. As your teachers try to do, Archbishop Mannix always had a great belief in the possibilities of young people to discover and use their skills for the good of all. Indeed, the Xavier motto, “Sursum Corda,” means that we are to lift our hearts up to the Lord and to the possibilities, which he sees for us.

I did not have the opportunity of going to Burke Hall, as I only went to Xavier in Year 8. I think I am the poorer for it. But I do remember the motto that we used put on every page of our work – A.M.D.G. – Ad Majorum Dei Gloriam – For the Greater Glory of God.

This shows the importance of teachers showing us to think outside the square, to see what we can do and to be enthusiastic about it, to admire those of our colleagues who are gifted in one way or another and to discover each of us what is our particular gift. It would be a very dull world if we were all the same and yet the gifts that young people discover at Burke Hall and in science, the learning of the world about us, was something which was very much part of Archbishop Mannix’s vision.

Dr. Mannix had grown up in Ireland, had taught in a Seminary and he came to leave his own home and his country because he loved God and loved people and came to make Melbourne one of the great Dioceses in the Church. There are one million and twenty-nine thousand Catholics in Melbourne and it is the biggest Diocese in the whole of Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and the Pacific Ocean. His big vision, enthusiasm and encouragement of people are what Burke Hall is all about.

It is with great joy then, humbly as his successor, that I name this science building as the Archbishop Daniel Mannix Wing.

+ Denis J. Hart,
Archbishop of Melbourne.