Crisis at St. Benedict’s College and the inevitable solution

What has taken place under recent administrators of St. Benedict’s borders on the criminal

By Neil DeVotta

St. Benedict’s College, the oldest Catholic school in Colombo, has experienced administrative decay on and off during the past half century, but it now faces a dire crisis. The Catholic hierarchy in Sri Lanka, which is fully aware of the school’s rot, must step in and revive the College, or let this venerable institution be destroyed.

The appellation St. Benedict’s stems from the Sylvestro-Benedictine monks, who in 1865 named the school after their patron. But the origins of St. Benedict’s extend to 1839when the Roman Catholic Seminary was set up at Wolfendhal Street. 

This genesis makes the school the second oldest in Sri Lanka (and only four years behind Royal College, which in turn began as the Hill Street Academy and was not christened with its present name until 1881— 16 years after St. Benedict’s began to be so called). Thus St. Benedict’s celebrated its official sesquicentennial in 2015, when it was actually 176 years old! 

The Lasallian Brothers took over the College in 1868 and this year marks the sesquicentennial of their administration. While scores of foreign and local Brothers have performed yeoman and heroic service on behalf of the school during the past 150 years, it is in the interest of St. Benedict’s and the Catholic Church that their superintendence extends no further. This is partly because there is no one within the dwindling Lasallian order with the credentials to run a Grade 1 school, and mainly because leading Brothers have discredited themselves by undermining the school with their shenanigans and blatant disregard for what is in their students’ best interest.

A personal note is in order here, lest readers think this is an unwarranted attack on the Brothers. My family (granduncles, father, uncles, cousins, and nephews) and I are not just products of St. Benedict’s; we have also unfailingly supported the Lasallian Brothers. Indeed, when, in 2005, I edited ‘Benedictine Memoirs,’ a volume that documents the College and life experience of 140 Old Bens, I dedicated it to the Lasallian Brothers. But by the time I wrote an essay about the future of St. Benedict’s for the school’s Sesquicentennial Souvenir, I had reached the conclusion that my College was in dire need of a different set of administrators and suggested discreetly that the Catholic priests were the most viable and best alternative. 

It was not easy for me to say that in the essay, but the truth needs to be told and the truth is that the Brothers’ continued administration of the College will only exacerbate the decay facing St. Benedict’s. Indeed, many Old Bens believe the College is now run less in the interest of its students and mainly to enable those controlling its affairs (and their families) to live in clover. This is why nearly every lay member of the St. Benedict’s College Old Boys’ Union Council of Management, the apex body of the College, requested that the school be turned over to the Catholic Fathers. And it is why some 80% of alumni who attended the first ever Special General Meeting of the Old Boys’ Union membership in August voted to do so as well.

What has taken place under recent administrators of St. Benedict’s borders on the criminal: educational standards have been weakened so that the College now has the least impressive GCE (O/L),GCE (A/L) and Grade 5 scholarship results among leading Catholic schools; sports programs (especially athletics) that were among the best in the island have been deliberately crippled; a boarding that used to host close to 150 students has been gutted, so that it now houses just five students; a Management Advisory Board instituted by concerned old boys to implement reforms has gone nowhere, thanks to its Chairman, the Provincial Visitor of the Lasallian Brothers, being unresponsive; and over 30 classrooms that Old Bens spent millions building during the past decade have been left disused. These are classrooms that could be educating 1,000 students, almost equivalent to an entire school; instead they lie dilapidated thanks to a dim-witted, indifferent, and apathetic administration.

Just as bad is the Brothers’ mute and craven response to the Welfare Society, whose leaders control over Rs. 200 million and operate devoid of transparency, accountability, and in thuggish and boorish fashion. Old Bens believe that those who control the Welfare Society’s affairs in cahoots with the present director are in it for the money; and if reports concerning the misuse of money are true, future audits are bound to lead to criminal charges. 

Loyal Old Bens who have tried to deal with the Welfare Society’s intimidation, threats, and crass behaviour—recently displayed to the hilt before a committee put together by the Archbishop of Colombo to look into the maladministration at St. Benedict’s—have hitherto reacted with commendable restraint; but their patience is running thin. This is all the more reason for the Catholic hierarchy to deal with the crisis at St. Benedict’s expeditiously and radically.

These same Brothers who have more or less run the school to the ground now beg to be given two years to set things right. This is like applying sticking plaster to cover a gaping and bleeding wound; because fixing the decay at St. Benedict’s will take more than two years and demands capabilities the current crop of Brothers lack. If my academic background has taught me anything, it is that institutions take a long time to be built up but are easily wrecked. And St. Benedict’s under the current leadership especially is on the verge of being totally wrecked. Consequently, what it needs is radical surgery in the form of a permanent solution. And that solution is turning over the school to the Catholic Fathers.

Numerous are the Old Bens who have served non-Lasallian schools as principals. These include Very Rev. Fr. Peter Pillai, the first Rector of St. Joseph’s College and Founder Rector of Aquinas University; Very Rev. Fr. D.J. Nicholas Perera, first Rector of St. Peter’s College; Very Rev. Fr. Mervyn Weerakkody, Rector at both St. Peter’s and St. Joseph’s; Rev. Fr. Felician Perera and Rev. Fr .Trevor Martin, Rectors at St. Peter’s; Rev Bro Paul Nizier, the great Marist Principal and Provincial; Rev. Fr. Paul Caspersz SJ, Rector at St. Aloysius College, Galle; and Rev. J. A. Selvaratnam, Warden of S. Thomas’ College, Mount Lavinia. And in that tradition, many are the Old Ben priests with excellent credentials in today’s Church who are well suited to lead St. Benedict’s.

Additionally, numerous Old Bens are benefactors of the Catholic Church in Sri Lanka, and the school also has about a dozen alumni associations abroad that have consistently contributed funds towards developing the College. These individuals and entities are eager to work towards reviving St. Benedict’s but will only do so if they have confidence in administrators. Based on the letters they submitted for the Special Annual General Meeting noted above, it is patently obvious that they lack confidence in the Lasallian Brothers continuing to run the school. Thus, the Brothers’ continued superintendence of St. Benedict’s is untenable, and it is in everyone’s interest for them to depart the scene nobly and amicably.

There is much that needs to be done to revive St. Benedict’s College, and this includes getting rid of the miscreants in support bodies who are undermining the school, rewriting the constitutions of these support bodies so that grasping individuals with ulterior motives would never again control the affairs of the College, and transforming the current apathetic College culture to a dynamic and thriving culture befitting its history and legacy. We Benedictines can only achieve all this if we persuade the Catholic hierarchy to take over the school. Otherwise, Colombo’s oldest Catholic educational institution will wallow in mediocrity and, ultimately, be destroyed.

(The writer, an alumnus of St. Benedict’s College, is Professor of Politics and International Affairs at Wake Forest University, USA.)