St Mungo's Academy Mass of Celebration for 150 years.

St Mary of the Assumption,Calton 15th Jan 2009.

Principal Celebrant, The Right Reverend Bishop Philip Tartaglia,Bishop of Paisley and former Pupil from 1963/64. With PP of St Mary's Mgr Peter Smith, school Chaplain Fr Nicholas Monaghan and Clergy.

S1 to S6 Pupil Choir sing the entrance hymn.City of God.

The Entrance Procession,with Mr Speaker Michael Martin,Michael Mc Grath and former Head Teachers in the front row.

Homily by Bishop Philip Tartaglia.

Concluding Mass for the Year of Thanksgiving
marking the 150th Anniversary of St. Mungo’s Academy, Glasgow


St. Mungo’s Academy is 150 years old and over this past year we have been celebrating with thanksgiving, pride and hope this huge milestone in the school’s history. It is fitting that we should celebrate this Mass to close this jubilee year in proximity to the calendar feast of St. Mungo here at St.Mary’s in the east end of Glasgow, in a church close to the present location of St. Mungo’s Academy and in a parish associated with the Marist Bothers.

I too am a former pupil of the Academy but I have to confess that my place in the 150 year history of the school is very modest. I was a pupil St. Mungo’s only for 18 months in 1963 and 1964. I attended the Kennedy St and Duke St (St. Kent’s) annexes of the Academy. In the autumn of 1964 I went off to seminary. So I never made it to the main school in Parson St and was never taught by the legends who stalked Parson St in those days like Mr Barrie and Mr “Farmer” Kelly, Brother Clare, Brother Kenneth and others. However, I was taught by some fine teachers in the annexes like Mr. Urquhart, Mr Pat Kelly, Mr. McDermott, Mr. Bert McConville and by Brother Mungo who, when he was not teaching French, tried his best to get me to play rugby, but my devotion to the round ball was too great! It gives me pleasure to mention two men in this context to whom I always looked up in my life, Mr Johnny Romano and Mr. Bert Pacitti, both of whom taught at Parson St. They and all deceased members of staff and former pupils have a special place in our thoughts and prayers at this Mass.

Even though I was a pupil of the Academy for a relatively short time, and I realise that I hardly merit a place among the FP’s, the fact that I was a pupil of St. Mungo’s has always meant a lot to me. It was very important for a boy from the east end of Glasgow to be able to go to school at St. Mungo’s. I remember wearing the uniform with pride. We might say nowadays that the badge and scarf were so cool. The cap, I must admit, did not last long!. With just as much pride, I wore the St. Mungo’s football strip as regular starter in the Under-13B football team, occasionally meriting a run out with the A team, which was an immense privilege because it seemed to me that everyone in that team was as talented as Paddy Crerand.

I mention Paddy Crerand because at that time he played right half for Celtic FC and he was the only really class player on Celtic’s books at the time. One morning when I was going to school on the bus along Alexandra Parade, I got a glimpse of a man’s newspaper, and to my horror, the headline was: Crerand goes to Man U. For a young boy, it was a hard introduction to the football facts of life. That was 1963. Still, better days were not far away in the east end of Glasgow! But that’s another story.

So even though I do not recall much of day to day life at the school, I remember my short time at St. Mungo’s Academy with fondness. That time was certainly part of God’s providence for me and part of the story of God’s call to me to follow Jesus Christ and to serve him in the priesthood. If we are all part of the 150 year story of St. Mungo’s Academy, then St. Mungo’s is also part of the story of God’s providence for us and of our vocation to be a disciple of Jesus Christ and a witness to his message of God’s abundant and amazing love for every human being. We can and should give thanks and praise to God for that.

Perhaps the abiding and most lasting impression I have from the celebrations marking the 150 year history of St. Mungo’s Academy is the debt of gratitude we owe to the Marist Brothers who founded the Academy and led it for so long and whose great figures and educational ideals remain the Academy’s inspiration, as well as to the other religious orders who built up Catholic education in Glasgow and in the west of Scotland, the Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate Conception, the Society of Jesus, the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, and the Sisters of Mercy. The words of the prophet seem most appropriate: How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of one who brings good news. Their arrival in Glasgow at the start of the industrial revolution was indeed good news for Catholic children and young people who needed the dignity and opportunities that only education could give. It became clear to me as never before that the fine schools that these religious congregations set up were the foundation of Catholic education in Glasgow, and that we owe them a great debt of gratitude and it is essential that we should continue to build on their work. So this evening, once again, it seems right that we should give thanks to God again for the Marist Brothers and for the religious congregations who have shaped Catholic education in Glasgow and beyond in the last 150 years.

And it is pleasing that St. Mungo’s Academy, originally founded to bring education to the boys of Glasgow’s east end, is now, in another era and in another educational dispensation and in other social circumstances, once again serving primarily the young people, boys and girls, of the east end of Glasgow, and helping them through an education explicitly inspired and guided by Catholic Christianity to develop their God-given gifts and talents, to grow in wisdom and knowledge, and to achieve their hopes and aspirations so that they can contribute to the Church and to society as God’s children, full of faith and knowledge and a spirit of service. An essential part of this Mass and of this event is surely to pray for the present and future of St. Mungo’s Academy and to invoke God’s blessing and favour on the HT , the staff and on all the young people who are pupils of the Academy.


As we heard in this evening’s Gospel, Jesus invited Peter and the Apostles to put out into the deep. That’s what the Marist Brothers and others did in Catholic education with nothing but faith and hope: they put out into the deep, into the unknown. And just like the Apostles they were amazed at the catch, amazed at the results. Catholic education in Scotland today is, thank God, successful and settled and appreciated. But it is still a call to put out into the deep. I say that not just because Catholic schools are still to some extent a focus for hostility and for political opportunism, but because Catholic education is above all a grand project of faith and of hope. It is a grand project for the Church, for Catholic families and communities, for Catholic teachers and for the young people themselves. It is a grand project because we are convinced that Catholic education makes a distinctive and important contribution not just to the good of the Church or to those who are its direct beneficiaries, but because it makes an essential contribution to Scottish society. An explicitly faith-based education with the tradition and quality of Catholic education in Scotland as part of the public provision of education is undoubtedly a major wellspring of the deepening of spiritual and social values in Scottish society. It is surely a source good and a reson for hope for the future. This is the grand project of Catholic education represented by St. Mungo’s Academy, and we ask God’s blessing on St. Mungo’s Academy and on Catholic education in Scotland.

+Bishop Philip Tartaglia

St. Mary’s, Calton, Glasgow 15th January 2009.

The VIP's and Invited Guests listen to the Homily.

Prayers of the Faithful.

The Liturgy of the Eucharist.

Bishop Tartaglia and Mr Speaker enjoy a chat at the end of the Celebration Mass.

The School Choir perform at the reception in the School after the Mass.

All Photographs by and Copyright of Paul Mc Sherry

Photographs available for purchase from paul.mcsherry@ntlworld.com

07770 393960.