By Chris Eckl

Father Vincent P. Brennan, S.M., has a 26-year tie with his beloved Marist school, the Marist community in Atlanta and many friends at the end of the month.

He knew he would have to leave Atlanta six years ago when he was elected superior of the Marist community, but he was too busy to think about it.

Now he has been replaced as superior by Father Lawrence Schmuhl, S.M., (he could not succeed himself) and will soon begin his duties as an English teacher at Immaculate Seminary in Lafayette, La.

In an interview at Our Lady’s Church in Carrolton where he is serving while the pastor is on vacation, the well-known Marist priest discussed Catholic education and changes in the Church.

Asked how he felt about his coming departure, he quoted from his breviary the words of Nunc Dimmitus Servum -- “Now you do dismiss your servant O Lord, according to your word, in peace.”

“As the day approached for leaving, I wondered how it would feel to drive down the driveway for the last time. But when the day came I was in such a hurry to get to Carrollton before the maid left with the key, I was on the expressway at Moore’s Mill Road before it dawned on me that I had left,” he said.

He talked of the past, the building of the new Marist School which opened in 1962 and the future of Catholic education.

Father Brennan said he felt Marist School has been unique in the city. “For a long period of its existence, the student body was one-third Catholic and two-thirds non-Catholic so we have had an ecumenical spirit for many years.”

“The proportion is now reversed - two-thirds Catholics and one-third non-Catholics - but we have had many graduates of other faiths and they supported the school.” “Another thing is that I am a great believer in lay advisory boards. I hope our board will in time become the actual operating agency along the line of the lay board of trustees at Notre Dame.”

“We established our lay board long before Vatican II and it has a voice in school policies. Without a lay board we wouldn’t have had the present facilities.”

What about the future of a school like Marist? Father Brennan replied, “All independent schools are concerned about money. We now spend about as much in three weeks as we did for an entire year in the 1930s. Our tuition has not increased in that proportion and we have financial worries.”

Father Brennan said objections to schools like Marist have been made, “People talk about the ministry to the poor and ask what are we doing running a ‘fancy pants’ school.”

“My answer is that if we are going to help the poor and improve their status, the impetus will have to come from those more economically well off and whose education level is higher. Where is the formation of moral obligations going to come from?” The veteran educator then discussed his speech at the Archdiocesan Synod about the future of Catholic education.

“Our Catholic community has to decide what it wants. If it wants accredited elementary schools then it will have to choose between doubling facilities, staffs and expenses or decide that a number of children presently enrolled cannot attend the school. It’s a question of simple mathematics.”

“The future of Catholic education has to be in the high school unless there is a change on church-state attitudes about parochial schools.”

Why high schools? Father Brennan said, “There is a lot of talk these days about an identity crisis, about persons who want to know who they are and where they are going. The beginning of this awareness comes in high school or college and the priest-teacher can help his students. We don’t see the fruit of our work during these high school years because in the majority of cases it comes after college. However, the priest-teacher on the secondary school level realized the students are his people and he works with them in their working hours and in their social and recreational hours.”

He then turned to the changes in the post-conciliar Church.

“From a historical point of view, there has never been a council that did not leave unrest for 50 to 100 years. Councils by their nature should stir up the Church and make it look at itself.”

“But we must learn the distinction between discussions and final decisions. Discussions are not final conclusions, and the setting up of so many popes with a ‘small p’ concerns me.”

Though he has been away from teaching because of his duties as principal and superior, Father Brennan has kept up with modern fiction and the bestsellers.

“Some of the books are good, but I can’t stand the contrived sexuality of some of them. I also reread Dickens because I enjoy his exaggeration of character. I enjoy Evelyn Waugh, and some of Grantham Greene’s earlier works.”

In his career as an educator, Father Brennan has worked with many organizations to improve education, both public and private. “It annoyed me in my early educational career, to hear complaints about injustices from people who wouldn’t take part in these organizations. I felt it was good for me to be a member and I got a few things done.”