Term Three At Saint Dominic’s College

Badger, Rat, Mole and Toad

Toad tells the Judge, the Policeman and the Usher, they are all ‘Fat Faces!’   However, the excitement and work of performing was not left to the junior girls alone.Forms One to Seven were all involved recently in the annual inter-house music competition.As always, the competition between the three houses, Prouille, Calaroga and Bologna, was stiff; each house was required to perform a compulsory singing set-piece, and team-members could gain additional points by entering individuals or groups in singing or musical performances.While there was only one winning house in the end, the afternoon was certainly enjoyed by all, and it was very pleasing to be able to witness the wonderful musical talents that many of the girls possess.At the end of the competition, there was one final round of excitement: a pair of our more musical Sisters, who felt that the girls had not done sufficient justice to the set-piece (“Here’s a howdy-do” from the comic opera The Mikado), ventured to take the stage and give the audience a proper, lively rendition of the song. Sister Mary Madeleine’s long-awaited sports equipment grant finally came through and was put to good use providing the school with equipment for track, badminton, table-tennis, volleyball, and basketball, among other things. The last two games have proved especially popular with the students, both during and after school hours. Among the girls who enjoyed trying out the new equipment was a guest from New Caledonia, Marie-Elisabeth, who stayed with a family in the parish and attended our school for two weeks. Her sister Genevieve had also come for a visit a few weeks previously. In fact, we have been more than usually blessed with visitors during this year. Besides the two from New Caledonia, we also received two Americans, Miss Moats and Miss Dolphin, who offered their most enthusiastic help with school, parish and convent activities. Besides working with individual students, they have generously taken over all kinds of jobs—from baking and ironing to folding mail, supervising classes, marking, and various other duties which make up a busy day. At the end of October, New Zealand prepared a rousing welcome for another visitor, Bishop Tissier de Mallerais, with sizeable earthquakes on two consecutive nights of his visit! Although he had administered Confirmation in Auckland on Saturday morning and was to do so here in Wanganui in the evening, he kindly agreed to give a conference to the Sisters on the afternoon of his arrival, and spoke to us about Archbishop Lefebvre and the founding of the SSPX. Among other interesting insights, he traced the foundation of the Society—a Missionary society, after all—to the generosity of Swiss Catholic families to the Missions. The Swiss Bishop who first approved the foundation of the Fribourg house would not have known anything about Archbishop Lefebvre had not his people donated so generously to the missions that he was invited to Africa to consecrate a church which had been built with their help!

His Lordship, the 1st Communicants, and Rev. Fr. Cranshaw (Prior) While deploying all the power of spiritual means to extend Christ’s kingdom, we have not been oblivious to material means. Students, staff and religious of the parish worked hard to make this year’s Bike-a-Thon fundraiser a success, and were able to raise NZ$61,610 dollars for the school.