Circular No 1049

 

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

Caracas, 15 of March 2022. No. 1049

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Dear Friends,

Joseph Berment wrote a couple of issues ago that I should invite his friends to write a short essay.

I suspect that Pud Laquis, Gabriel Faria, Rory Davies and Dennis Gurley may have much to contribute if they are interested and invited.

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Tim Mew MHC / APS <tim-mew@bigpond.com>

Sun, 30 Jan, 19:34

Don,

It would be best if these MSB archives were actually kept in Trinidad, but you will need some more help here.

It’s sad the Abbot and monastery does not seem to care about the Abbey School and its role in evolving with the Benedictine monks in Trinidad.

I guess in the end it will all brash down especially when guys like Ladislao, you Nigel etc. have to give it away.

As the infamous or famous Aussie Ned Kelly said at his hanging when asked for any last words, responded simply “Such is Life”

Tim.

(Or the actual boarders of the Monastery, care much about history, EDITOR)

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On 31 Jan 2022

<idmitch@anguillanet.com> wrote:

Gentlemen,

I have not had an acknowledgment of receipt of the email below.

I think we can determine that the Trinidad National Archives are a no-show.

Not that I blame Mrs Wong Sang.

The record I sent her of the documents in my possession is so pathetically bare that, probably, no professional archivist would consider them even the start of a High School’s archives. 

It is likely she was expecting the documents between the 1940s and the 1980s. 

Of course, all these archival documents are in the hands of the Monks, who may or may not have dumped them already. 

So, we must revert to the original idea of finding a young Old Boy who will agree to hold the documents we have in trust for us. 

Any volunteers or suggestions welcomed. 

I would like to FedEx the bundle this week.

Keep well.

Don

[Note from Don:  This letter above was written in error.  I subsequently apologised to Mrs Wong Sang and asked everyone to ignore this letter.  I misfiled her response, and it slipped from my rapidly degenerating mind.  All the Mount archival documents in my possession are now safely transferred to the Trinidad and Tobago Archives.]

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From: idmitch@anguillanet.com

Sent: Friday, 21 January 2022

Dear Mrs Wong Sang,

This is for Monday, please.

Mrs Bissessar has contacted you about our wish to have a safe repository for our collection of student documents and photographs relating to our time as students at the above School. 

Thank you for agreeing to have the National Archives consider being a repository of our documents.

Briefly, for about thirty years after the School closed in the mid-1980s, neither the Abbey authorities nor alumni made any effort to contact each other in any organised way. 

About four decades ago, one of the Old Boys began to circulate by mail a typed Newsletter to a few of his School friends and contemporaries. 

This was a very private initiative and did not involve the Abbey or any other generations of alumni. 

Very few of the Newsletters appear to have survived. 

Then, in the first decade of the twenty first century an alumni association was formed.

We held one or two reunion dinners and social gatherings, but nothing of a permanent or regular nature developed. 

There were additionally small undocumented reunions of small groups of Trinidadian or Venezuelans that were privately organised from time to time.

About twenty years ago, another alumnus began circulating by email collections of emails he had been receiving and replying to in what we refer to as Ladislao Kertesz’s Circulars. 

I began to publish them in annual Blogs in order to preserve them. 

The first one can be seen at

http://abbeyschool2001circulars.blogspot.com/

In the right hand column there are links to the subsequent years’ Circulars.

These continue to this day to be published. 

There is nothing on paper, save what Ladislao may have in his filing cabinet in Venezuela.

As a result of Ladislao’s Circulars, some of us began to correspond with each other, mainly by email. 

Ladislao asked us to send him photographs and other documents to illustrate his Circulars. 

Gradually, some of these documents became transferred to me as the alumnus willing to catalogue them and hold them. 

A significant portion of our archives exist only digitally.

There was for a short time an Alumni Association registered in Trinidad as a company limited by guarantee. 

That formal Association has now been abandoned, struck off the Register and dissolved. 

We continue to be a very loose association of Old Boys chatting to each other sometimes by WhatsApp and sometimes by Email. 

No organisation of any kind, other than this very informal one, exists to hold the alumni together.

I am now not able to guarantee that I can continue for much longer to be depended on to hold them safely. 

I am concerned that when I pass on to the great law library in the sky (I am a retired judge of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court) my heirs and successors will (as is normal) throw out all the old rubbish they find in my filing cabinets. 

I want to find a safe repository before this should happen.

I hold these documents in trust for the owners. 

They do not belong to me. 

Most of the persons who sent me their documents are listed in the copy line above.

There are others I can no longer recall. 

None of them really want to be saddled with the responsibility of holding on to these documents. 

The school has been closed now for some forty years. 

It is highly unlikely that any of the alumni will ever come together again to form any sort of organisation that can guarantee holding these documents responsibly. 

I would expect that in a few more years we will all have passed on. 

Those of the alumni who have expressed an opinion agree that we should ask the National Archives to take responsibility for holding our student archives. 

In the highly unlikely event that the owner of any of these documents should request that his document be returned to him, I would hope that the National Archives would have no objection to doing so. 

I have prepared a catalogue which lists each document in my possession and from whom I have received it, so that identifying the owner should pose no difficulty.

The remaining Monks at the Abbey may hold a massive collection of archival documents relating to the school. 

We would hope that they have not thrown them out as being no longer relevant to their activities or of any use to them. 

All or most of our past teachers (save for Fr Harold Imamshah) are now of an advanced age and may not be available to assist. 

But there must be some person at the Abbey who has access to their archives.

Hopefully, the School archives are retained as a part of the Abbey Archives. 

It is my sincere hope that the surviving Monks in the Abbey would be happy, if asked nicely, to hand over to the National Archives such documents relating to the School which they may have retained. 

Fr Imamshah, who was a past teacher and who is a relatively young man, may be able to assist. 

I have added him to the copy line above.

If your Archives would agree to hold and store our documents, I believe that we can promise to make a concerted effort to locate and send to you every surviving document that we can collect from the surviving alumni.

Please do not hesitate to let me know if you should have any question on any of this.

Best wishes,

Don Mitchell

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Tim & Gail Mew <timgailmew@gmail.com>

Thu, 6 Jan

Thanks,

If you could send our sympathy messages to his wife & family for us, it will be deeply appreciated.

Isaias also had a younger brother Elias so if you have contact please do so as well for us.

Do you recall what year David in Wonthaggi spent at MSB?

This town is closer than Sale to Melbourne and I will try to contact him.

The number of old MSB boys gets smaller every year!

Felix Navidad, Tim & family.

PS - I made it to 80 last December 2 and have a photo of Gail, our five daughters and myself, so if you wish I could send it to you.

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From: Tim Mew MHC / APS <tim-mew@bigpond.com>
Date: Wed, 5 Jan 2022 at 23:21

Hola Laszlo,

We heard the very sad news of losing a dear MSB school friend in Isaias Farcheg, how was this possible? As a doctor surely Isaias would have been thoroughly vaccinated. 

[Ed. I was also surprised and I did call him, but he was not well to talk, so I talked with his wife. In a months’ time he was in a clinic three times.]

How can I send our sympathy message to his wife and family?

Through you?

[Ed. I can pass your message to his wife.]

We know the economic and social situation in Venezuela is not good so we are very sorry, but in my opinion the US has a lot to answer for and also with Cuba.

Surely this heavy handed action must stop .

Is there also an older MSB boy living in Sale Victoria who is an artist?

[Ed. I only know of one guy, David Boehmler living in wonthaggi vic-   03 5672 4485.]

Sale is about 3 - 4 hours drive from Melbourne but we go there occasionally, so if I knew who when and where I would like to contact him - I don’t even know his name or wife!

All the best for 2022 sincerely meant.

Tim.

God bless this new year

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60TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE MSB SEMINARY

GEORGE MICKIEWICZ <amickiew@att.net>

Wed, Aug 11

Remember that it was built during my time at our school (1956-1962) and the festivities surrounding its opening.  Also vaguely recall a weekend retreat there for those of us preparing for the Sacrament of Confirmation.

A seminarian, whose name I cannot remember, was in our class that graduated in 1962.  Recall his excitement in moving from the old facilities at the Abbey to the brand new seminary building “down-the-hill”. 

Father Ildefons was the rector and also our scoutmaster at that time.

Did not realize that the seminary was closed from 2009 to 2016.

Seminary is the heart of the Archdiocese - CatholicTT

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By Archbishop Charles Jason Gordon

Sixty years ago, the Seminary moved from the monastery to its present building when Archbishop Count Finbar Ryan OP answered: “It can be done”.

He mobilised the monks to construct the building that the Seminary now occupies, and the Archdiocese remains forever in their debt for that sacrifice.

“The Seminary is the heart of the Archdiocese,” was a saying of Archbishop Anthony Pantin CSSp.

He was absolutely right.

As the Seminary goes, so the Archdiocese goes.

When the Seminary closed in 2009, the Archdiocese was having a heart attack.

When Archbishop Joseph Harris CSSp reopened the seminary in 2016, it was a great sign of hope and recovery.

A mature Church produces vocations in a multiplicity of forms—married couples, religious, priests, lay consecrated to name a few.

It also produces teachers, doctors, lawyers, politicians, electricians, plumbers and business persons who are both conscious of their Catholic identity and live their vocation.

Beyond being conscious, they are also willing to pay the price of discipleship in little and big things.

As a locally bred Catholic, formed for priesthood at the Seminary, and as Archbishop, I long for a Church where the whole people of God take co-responsibility for the mission entrusted to us by Christ.

I long for a Church where we each live out our various vocations fully and consciously, where each Catholic uses their gifts and talents for the building up of the Body of Christ.

I see a Church that is faithful to the magisterium and yet incarnated in our Caribbean culture, thus both faithful and pastoral.

I envision a Church that is a friend and defender of the poor, a Church that constantly finds new ways to initiate all its people into the mystery that is Christ.

I long for a Church of missionary disciples proclaiming the joy of the Gospel.

There is no doubt that the Church of the 21st century requires priests who can call forth a plurality of vocations from the people.

The Church in Trinidad and Tobago needs priests who can work in collaboration with each other, being vulnerable and humble, conscientiously living their vocation.

The local faithful needs a band of brothers who will generously sacrifice to bring into being this vision of Church, a cadre of men willing to plumb the depths of their relationship with God, reaching out with love to all.

As the Seminary goes, so the Archdiocese goes.

This vision of Church is not just a dream. Over the last three years, the formation team has been working to make this dream into a reality.

Formation in the Catholic world has four pillars—Human, Spiritual, Intellectual, and Pastoral.

The formation team has developed a detailed programme for each pillar designed to achieve the vision of Church articulated here.

Over the last 60 years, the Seminary has formed countless priests, religious and lay persons for ministry in the Caribbean Church. Indeed, eight of the current Bishops of the Antilles were formed for priesthood at the Seminary of St John Vianney and the Uganda Martyrs.

Today, God is looking for more men with courage to accompany the Church to this vision. Pray with me, that we find the right men to answer this call.

Today…they continue to look for new candidates…..

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EDITED by Ladislao Kertesz,  kertesz11@yahoo.com,  if you would like to subscribe for a whole year and be in the circular’s mailing list or if you would like to mention any old boy that you would like to include, write to me.

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Photo:

65JK0003SCOUTBADGE, Scout badge

10GM0005GMAWFE, Glen Makoy and wife pam

17LK1184FBFABGRP, Fr. Abbot Pereira dnd group

21LK0621FBFAU, Fr. Augustine

06UN0122GRP, with corrections as to the names,