两个传统的故事
60年代预示着在新加坡的教会学校进入了一 个崭新的发展阶段。圣若翰学院和华人传 教会之间对于旧传教处的划分于19世纪60年代中 期明确形成。当时喇沙修士会接管了传教会印度 教师的住所和传教会华人孤儿的一所学校。显然 的，华人(亚洲)传教会必须拥有自己的土地和大 厦，以便在市区里稳住更永久的基础。这促使圣 伯多禄圣保禄堂在1867－1870年间建立。
从那时开始，圣若瑟书院和教会学校与善牧 堂的英语团体挂钩，而华人和印度学校则在圣伯 多禄圣保禄堂神父的照顾下发展。因此，天主教 基督徒的教育演变成两种截然不同的方式，在新 加坡发展起来。英语教会学校由修会管理，而由 巴黎外方传教会神职人员监督的本地教会学校则 代表“教区”。有了这种明确的责任范围区别， 教会学校的发展又向前迈出一步。
到了19世纪70年代，除了与善牧堂（今善牧 主教座堂）有关的两所英语学校，巴黎外方传教 会在武吉知马和笨珍的传教站还有附属的当地学 校，以及有三所学校在圣伯多禄圣保禄堂。其本 堂司铎主任 Fr Pierre Paris 为传教会的男生开办 了一所华校和一所印度学校。1870年末，他为传 教会的华族女孩增添了一所学校。在实龙岗路， 虽然传教站自1854年就在那里设立，但直到1872 年才建立了一所正规的华校，由来自中国的一名 华籍教理员管理。
1883年，巴黎外方传教会的传教士从实龙岗 探入柔佛 (新山)，设立一个传教站，并为定居在 那里的实龙岗华人基督徒建立了一所学校。对于 这些大多数的本地学校，除了用潮州方言教导读 和写的受雇汉语教师外，每所学校都使用巴黎外 方传教会通过香港采购从中国获得的汉字书籍， 每所学校也都有一名教理员，负责指导孩子们的 信仰事项。
到了19世纪70年代，这些本地华校在教会内 的增长，清楚地反映了，比起19世纪30年代教会 初成立时，华人天主教团体由更多有子女的家庭 组成。显然，19世纪下半叶，一个日益稳定和本 土化的华人天主教团体已经发展起来，教会及其 机构一直是每个堂区或传教站的中心。
从19世纪60年代开始，英语教会学校的发展主要集中在市区，它们以语言而不是以族裔划分。虽然主要是欧洲和欧亚裔, 教会女校和喇沙修士会的学校在70年代开始多元种族化，特别是教会女校, 它不仅教育来自富裕家庭的欧洲和欧亚家庭的付费学生, 还为修道院的孤儿和避难所数百名亚洲女孩开设课程，主要用英语授课。在修士办的学校，虽然欧洲－欧亚裔男孩占学生总数的大多数，但在70年代，好几十名华族和印度男孩都被录取了。学校教学以英语为主，这肯定使部分教会亚洲团体受到英化。虽然19世纪学校里的华族男生人数不多，但这是首批接受英语教育的华族基督徒，在战后几年之前仍然是新加坡华人天主教团体中的少数。
虽然在一个教会内共存的两种教育传统有很大的不同，但也有一些相似之处，显明了它们的传教本质。首先，19世纪的所有基督徒学校，无论华、英传统，也充作孤儿院。其次，他们都归属堂区或附属于区域、种族或语言的团体, 尽管英校都由修会管理。每个基督徒团体都有自己在附属学校接受教育或居住在学校的边缘人和孤儿。第三，所有的教会学校都教授教理，有些还与附属堂区一起教授。事实上，这些特点也存在于圣安东尼女校和男校，它们是19世纪70年代建立的葡萄牙教会学校。
战前激增的堂区和学校
战前基督徒学校的发展总是与当时天主教团体的发展交织在一起。在移民社会中扎根教会的最大障碍之一，是这个团体的流动本质。对大多数人来说，他们的家园仍然是他们的家乡，有一天他们会回到家人身边，或成家。在这种情况下, 意味着本世纪初，教会的增长由本地不断增加的家庭组成一个更稳定的基督徒团体，堂区及其附属学校的激增反映了这个变化。
在实龙岗，潮州天主教团体从19世纪80年代开始迅速发展。到1903年，天主教团体从1883年的328名堂区教友发展到700名，这不包括柔佛新山传教站的350人，当时那里被认为是属于实龙岗堂区。到了1916年，堂区共有1200教友，有3所学校；2所男校和1所女校(圣婴学校)，有70名男生和40名女生。
实龙岗教会的增长，原因之一是它密切地紧跟着该区的经济发展。到了20世纪20年代，实龙岗路成立了一个潮州天主教团体，主教称之为“天主教绿洲”。1921年，为了显示这个堂区的重要性，当传教会希望有一个本地小修院作为培育年轻的司铎候选人，然后才把他们送到槟城大修院时，实龙岗教堂被选为暂时场地。1925年，在教堂旁建立了一个正式的修院，命名为圣方济沙威小修院。
在市区，随着圣伯多禄圣保禄堂的印度天主教徒脱离华人天主教教会的行政，于1883年在奥菲尔路建立了自己的学校和孤儿院，旁边就是他们后来所建的堂区露德圣母堂(1888)。这种“堂区－教会－学校”的发展模式持续到两次大战之间的岁月。同样，当华人基督徒在圣伯多禄圣保禄堂的增长，从1883年的795人增至1900年的2200人，将粤语－客家天主教徒与以潮州为主的教会分开，成为有必要。因此，1910年圣心堂建成之前，他们也建造了一所校舍，兼作为孤儿院。到了20世纪20年代中期，圣心堂这座粤语－客家教堂拥有 1300名信徒。
然而，仅仅将天主教团体内日益增长的生育率，视为新加坡天主教学校迅速发展的主要因素，可能无法提供全面的情况。必须认识到教会的增长规模，才能了解战前天主教学校的发展模式。1902年至1936年间，仅在圣伯多禄圣保禄堂，堂区每年平均有100至120个婴儿洗礼。从数字上看，这意味着在20年中，仅在圣伯多禄圣保禄堂就增加了 2 400 至 2 900名新的基督徒。由于战前堂区的增长遵循了种族－方言模式，而学校也效仿，1900年后天主教学校的发展也遵循了教会“从母堂展开”的发展模式。
1929年，当圣伯多禄圣保禄堂的福建基督徒在 Bukit Purmei 建立圣德肋撒堂时，市区圣婴女修会(CHIJ)的修女也在教堂的院落为淡米尔女孩开办课程。她们是丹戎巴葛港口工人的女儿。这就是圣德肋撒女校(St Teresa Convent)的开始。至于华人基督徒，Fr Francis Lee在1935年创建了圣德肋撒华－英学校，当时只有20名学生。
同样，当善牧堂对欧亚天主教徒来说显得过于拥挤时，他们也试图在其他地方建立一个“分支” 教堂。1880年代善牧堂晋升为主教座堂。到19世纪90年代中期，主教座堂有2000名教友，其中包括几百个欧亚家庭，有数百名儿童在市区学校就读。当时迫切需要缓解主教座堂日益严重的交通拥堵。
1902年左右完成的丹绒加东路，使得市区到东海岸区更为便利。此时，大量欧亚人迁移到这一地区，在那里他们创建了自己的城郊和欧亚聚集地。1923年巴黎外方传教会在加东为欧亚人建造了一座教堂，并被认为是善牧主教座堂的分支团体。除了在已建立的基督徒团体周围建设堂区，市区英语教会学校随后还建立了自己的加东分校。
1930年，圣婴女修会创建了加东女校（Katong Convent） 男修会则在1933年开办了圣帕特里克男校（St Patrick）。到1935年，这两所学校为 1500 人的加东会众提供服务，他们有600名求学的孩子。
除了人口结构，20世纪30年代更多的修会 (教学)抵达，成为新加坡天主教教育发展的新催化剂。善牧女修会和加卑额尔男修会在战争开始前到来。1939年 12月，当善牧女修会抵达时，他们于1940年在榜鹅的一座洋房为女孩开办了学校。不久后搬到麦波申路较大的场所。
在日本占领期间，这些修女被安排负责Poh Leung Kok Home (约克山) 一段时间，然后搬迁到马来西亚的巴豪（Bahau）。战争结束后，修女和女孩们回到甘榜爪哇一个租用的地方，在那里他们建立了善牧修道院，那里还有一所幼儿园和小学。直到1947年，善牧女修会才获赠在汤申路的18英亩土地，以建造他们的永久家园。1950年5月建成、开放并命名为玛莉蒙修道院（Marymount Convent）。
加卑额尔男修会则被授权为实龙岗堂区的其中一所天主教学校——Holy Innocents English School 英语学校的负责人。该校于1958-60年更名为蒙福学校。修士们还获得武吉知马堂区旁的一块土地，以建立圣若瑟贸易学校。该校在战后几年转变为男童城。
值得一提的是，善牧女校（Good Shepherd Convent ）、加卑额尔学院（Gabrielite Institutions）的建立，似乎预示着教会和学校的发展进入了一个新阶段。虽然修女们没有附属于任何堂区，也不靠近任何堂区团体，修士们只是接管了已建立的堂区学校(实龙岗)，或在已经有完善学校的堂区 (武吉之马) 的附属学院。它们代表了战前教会发展模式的转变，当时教会及堂区学校都由堂区和其团体建立与支持。……待续
文：刘伟强／译：海星报
4. Our Church, Community and Schools: Forgotten Connections（2）
Clement Liew Wei Chiang
All rights reserved: No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means Electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner．
A Tale of Two Traditions
The 1860s heralded a new phase of development for the island’s Mission schools. The clear division of the old Mission grounds between St John’s Institution and Chinese Mission was completed in the mid-1860s when the Christian Brothers took over the properties of the residence of Mission’s Indian schoolteacher and a school for the Mission’s Chinese orphans. It then became clear that it was imperative for the Chinese (Asiatic) Mission to have its own land and edifice in order that it might secure a more permanent footing in town.[i] This ultimately led to the establishment of Sts Peter’s & Paul’s Church from 1867-70. From then, while St Joseph’s and the Convent were tied to the English congregation of the Good Shepherd, the Chinese and Indian schools could also progress under the care of clergy of Sts Peter & Paul. As such, two distinct threads of Catholic-Christian education evolved in Singapore. The English Mission schools were managed by Religious Orders while the vernacular Mission schools, supervised by the MEP clergy, represented the “diocese”. With this clear distinction of spheres of responsibility, the development of the Missions schools took another leap forward.
By the 1870s, besides the two English schools tied to the Church of Good Shepherd,[ii] the MEP had vernacular schools attached to its Mission stations at Bukit Timah and Pontien and it had three schools at Sts Peter and Paul Church. Its parish priest, Fr Pierre Paris, operated a Chinese and an Indian school for the Mission’s boys. In the late 1870s, he added a vernacular school for Chinese girls of the Mission. Over at Serangoon, although the Mission post had been established there since 1854, it was only in 1872 that a regular Chinese School was established there, and manned by a Chinese catechist from China. From Serangoon, the MEP missionary ventured into Johore (Bahru) in 1883 founded a mission outpost with a school for the Serangoon Chinese Christians who had settled there. For most of these Chinese vernacular schools, aside from the single Chinese teacher employed to teach reading and writing in the Teochew dialect, using books of Chinese characters which the MEP acquired from China through their Procure in Hong Kong, each school also had a catechists attached to instruct children on matters of the faith. In retrospect, the proliferation of these Chinese vernacular schools within the Church by the 1870s, clearly reflected a Chinese Catholic community that was now composed more of families with children than it had been when the Mission was established in the 1830s. It is apparent that an increasingly settled and localized Chinese Catholic community had evolved in the latter half of the nineteenth century, and Church and its institutions had been at the centre of each parish or outpost.
The development of the English Mission schools from the 1860s was centred mainly within the Town area, and they followed language lines rather than ethnicity. Though predominantly European and Eurasian, the Convent and the Brother’s schools were becoming increasing multi-ethnic towards the 1870s. The Convent in particular, not only educated paying students from well-to-do European and Eurasian families, it also had classes for the hundreds of Asiatic girls from its own orphanage and refuge. They were taught mainly in English. At the Brother’s school, though European-Eurasian boys made up the majority of the student body, several dozen Chinese and Indian boys were enrolled in the 1870s. The main mode of instruction at the Brother’s school was in English, and this certainly had the effect of anglicising a portion of the Mission’s Asiatic community. Though the number of Chinese boys in the school was small in the nineteenth century, it was the genesis of a new class of English-educated Chinese Christians who would remain a minority in the Singapore Chinese Catholic community till the post-war years.Although the two educational traditions which co-existed within one Church were very different, there were pertinent similarities which demonstrated their Mission character. Firstly, all Christian schools in the nineteenth century also functioned as orphanages, be it of the Chinese or English tradition. This was so because they all had a second similarity. They were all attached to parishes or had affiliated territorial-ethnic-lingua communities, even though the English schools were managed by Religious Orders. Each of these Christian communities had their own share of marginalized persons and orphans who were schooled at or residing within the attached schools. Thirdly, all schools of the Mission taught catechism and in some cases, in conjunction with their attached parishes. In fact, these characteristics were also present in St Anthony’s girls’ and boys’ schools, the Portuguese Mission schools founded in the 1870s.
The Pre-war Proliferation of Parishes and Schools
The growth of the Christian schools in the pre-war years was invariably intertwined with the progress of the Catholic Community in those days. One of the greatest obstacles in rooting a Church in an immigrant society was the very transient nature of this community. For most, their homeland was still their home, where they would return one day to their families or to start one. In this context, the evolution of a more settled community of Christians increasingly composed of families, meant that a momentum of natural Church growth had started by the turn of the century. The proliferation of parishes and their affiliated schools reflected this changing reality. At Serangoon, the Teochew Catholic community enjoyed rapid growth from the 1880s. From just 328 parishioners in 1883, this isolated Catholic community had grown to 700 by 1903, and this excluded the 350 at the Johore Bahru mission station that was considered as being a part of the Serangoon parish then. By 1916, the parish numbered 1,200 and had three schools, two boys’ and one girls’ (the Holy Innocent’s schools), with 70 boys and 40 girls. One reason for the Serangoon church’s impressive growth was that its progress followed closely the economic progress of the district. By the 1920s, a visible Teochew Catholic enclave had emerged at the end of the Serangoon Road, and such was the success of this enclave that the Bishop called it a “Catholic oasis”. In 1921, as an indication of the importance of this parish, when the Mission wanted a local minor seminary to prepare young candidates for priesthood before sending them off to the major seminary at Penang, the Serangoon church’s presbytery was chosen as a temporary site. A proper seminary was finally erected next to the church in 1925, christened St Francis Xavier Minor Seminary.In Town, following the administrative separation of the Indian Catholics from the Chinese Catholic Mission at Sts Peter & Paul, the Indian Catholic community established their own school and orphanage in 1883 at Ophir Road next to their future Church of Our Lady of Lourdes (1888). This “Parish-Church-School” pattern of development was to continue through the inter-war years. Likewise, when the Chinese Christians became too numerous at Sts Peter’s & Paul’s, up from 795 in 1883 to 2200 in 1900, it became necessary to separate the Cantonese-Hakka Catholics from the church which was predominantly Teochew. And once again, they too built a schoolhouse cum orphanage before the erection of their Church of Sacred Heart in 1910. By the mid-1920s, the Cantonese-Hakka church had 1,300 adherents.However, simply attributing increasing births within the Catholic community as the main factor for the rapid development of the Catholic schools on the island may not provide the full picture. What is pertinent in making this point is that the scale of church growth must be appreciated in order to understand the pattern of development of the Catholic Schools in the pre-war years. At Sts Peter’s & Paul’s alone, from 1902 to 1936, there was an annual average of 100 to 120 infant baptisms in the parish. In numerical terms, it meant that in two decades, simply by way of natural increase, 2,400 to 2,900 new Christians were added to Sts Peter & Paul alone. And since the proliferation of parishes in the pre-war years followed ethnic-dialectal patterns, and that schools followed parishes, the development of Catholic schools after 1900 also followed the “off-springing from mother-church” pattern of the Church development then. When St Teresa’s was established by the Hokkien Christians of Sts Peter’s and Paul’s at Bukit Purmei in 1929, the Town Sisters (CHIJ) also started a class within the church’s compound for the Tamil girls who were daughters of the port workers of Tanjong Pagar. This was the humble beginning of what was to become the present day St Teresa’s Convent. As for the Chinese Christians, Fr Francis Lee founded the St Teresa Sino-English School in 1935 with just twenty students.Similarly, when the Cathedral of the Good Shepherd became too crowded for the Eurasian Catholics at the turn of the century, they too sought to establish a “branch” church elsewhere. The Church of the Good Shepherd was raised to a Cathedral in 1880s. By the mid-1890s, the new Cathedral had 2,000 parishioners, including several hundred Eurasian families with hundreds of children enrolled in the Town schools. There was a great need to relieve the growing congestion at the Cathedral, and this was added by the completion of Tanjong Katong Road around 1902, which made access from Town to the East Coast district easier. At this time, a large number of the Town’s Eurasians migrated to this area where they created their own suburb and an Eurasian enclave. In 1923, the MEP erected a chapel for the Eurasians at Katong. It was then considered a branch of the community at the Cathedral of Good Shepherd. In line with the planting of parishes around established Christian communities, the Town’s English Mission schools also followed by creating branch schools of their own Katong. In 1930, the IJ Sisters founded Katong Convent, and the Brother’s opened St Patrick’s in 1933. By 1935, both schools served a Katong congregation of 1,500 who had 600 school going children.Aside from demographics, the arrival of more Religious (teaching) Orders in the 1930s had been a new catalyst for the development of Catholic Education in Singapore. The Good Shepherd Sisters and the Gabrielites had entered the scene before the onset of war. When the Good Shepherd Sisters arrived in December 1939, they started a convent for girls (in a bungalow) in Punggol in 1940, before moving to larger premises at McPherson Road shortly.[iii] During the Japanese Occupation, the Sisters were placed in-charge of the Poh Leung Kok Home (York Hill) for some time before being moved to Bahau, Malaysia. When the war ended, the nuns and the girls returned to a rented place at Kampong Java where they established their Good Shepherd Convent which also housed a kindergarten and primary school.[iv] It was only in 1947 that the Good Shepherd Sisters were given 18 acres of land on Thomson Road to build their permanent home. It was completed, opened and christened “Marymount Convent” in May 1950.[v] The Gabrielites in particular, had some success before Nippon Times started. They were given charge of one of Serangoon parish’s Catholic schools, the Holy Innocents English School, which was renamed Monfort School in 1958-60.[vi] The Brothers were also granted a piece of land next to the Bukit Timah parish to establish the St Joseph’s Trade School which eventually evolved into Boy’s Town in the post-war years.
Interestingly, the establishment of the Good Shepherd convent schools and the Gabrielite institutions seemed to have heralded a new phase in church and school development. While the Sisters were not attached to or situated in proximity of any parish community, the Brothers simply took over established parish schools (Serangoon) or had new institutions attached to parishes which already had well-established schools (Bukit Timah). They represented a shift in the pattern of Mission development of the pre-war years when mission and parish schools were planted and supported by the parish and its community.
