SILVER JUBILEE OF COMBONI SECONDARY SCHOOL

Best wishes and joyful Silver Jubilee to all the staff and students of Comboni Secondary School! The celebration of a Jubilee is always a happy time. This is the time for us to recall the beginning of Comboni Secondary School in Hawassa with all the educational activities that have been accomplished in the course of twenty five long years. First we want to praise God for the blessings he showered on our school and for the favourable care He provided for its growth. Likewise, we wish to really thank the Comboni Sisters and staff that with dedication and loyalty have been faithfully at work teaching, guiding imparting capacity and talent to thousands of boys and girls, young men and women. To all students and alumni as well goes our tribute of gratefulness, as they attended the school, studying and learning with keen interest and much profit. Each one in his/her own can go proud of the good name of Comboni Secondary School! It all had a start a long time ago. The Comboni Sisters, an Institute of the Catholic Church, came to Hawassa in 1958E.C. They soon realized that one of the first needs of the families and their children was to have a school. Therefore, they opened an elementary school of four classes with very few children: it was one of the first elementary schools in the small town of Hawassa, at the time only a countryside village. At that time the capital city of the region was Yirgalem. Gradually, year after year, the school grew, expanded and, through the effort, dedication and love of the Sisters and the staff, developed also in the secondary school, which became what we can see and appreciate now. The Catholic Church wherever is present and operates, together with the spreading of the message of the Gospel, believes to be her duty also to contribute to offer education to the young people. Both teachings promote the human dignity of people. It is a mission of working for the integral good of people, young and adult, in view of becoming persons of value and moral standing, and good and honest citizens. My congratulations and best wishes go out to all of you who work tirelessly in the task of education at the service of the youth and their parents. To this I add my fatherly council that you may keep in mind that the youth are expecially sensitive and they are shaped more by the concrete experiences in their lives by the lived examples of their teachers rather than by the best of pedagogical methods. Any form of education will ultimately fail when the student is confronted with the word being spoken but not being lived.

With God's blessings and my fatherly best wishes,

Mons Lorenzo Ceresoli Former Bishop of Hawassa