The visit of Buddhist monks to Corpus Christi College in Bateman on August 9 has received mixed responses from parents.
Several parents told The Record they took their students out of school for the day, saying they were “devastated” at the inter-faith event.
The Gyuto Monks of Tibet spent the day conducting workshops with students of all year groups except Year 11.
The school has titled the event on its website as “Monks Bless Corpus”.
Acting principal Mark Antulov told The Record the visit was to help celebrate International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples.
“To mark the occasion students from Clontarf College and the visiting Gyuto Monks were invited to share in the day that celebrates cultural diversity,” he said.
“Young people are encouraged to dialogue with people of different faiths and backgrounds. In no way did it undermine the Catholicity of the school.”
Mr Antulov said the response to the monks’ visit was “overwhelmingly positive”.
In a video posted on the school’s Facebook page, the monks can be seen chanting in front of a room full of students, with a small Buddhist shrine set up in one side of the room.
A representative of the Gyuto Monks told The Record such demonstrations of their chanting technique was more than just a performance.
“With the Gyuto Monks, their chanting is a secret process whereby you don’t actually understand what they’re saying,” she said.
“It is prayer for them, the prayers are for the well-being of all sentient beings.”
During their visit to WA, the Buddhist monks also visited Christchurch Grammar and Redcliffe Primary School.
Mr Antulov said Corpus Christi welcomes “a range of opportunities and experiences for our students that foster joy in learning”.
“One of our values challenges us to create and maintain a caring and inclusive College community,” he said. “We believe that celebrating diversity in all its forms honours that value.”
The Tibetan visitors also held a concert at the school’s auditorium, with all proceeds going to the monks.
The monks’ representative said the group has worked in many different kinds of schools.
“In fact, the Catholic education board in different states have actually employed us to offer these programs in schools in the past,” she said.
“Most of the schools we go to, particularly the Catholic schools… they seem to want to inculcate into their students a sense of the differences among people, different views, different belief systems, comparative world religions as well.
“Often, when we go into a Catholic school, we find that there have been different people there the week before. There might have been Muslims, there might have been other Christians, there might have been all sorts of people.”