The 11th international football event was organized from 21st- 25thSeptember, 2015 at the DCG. It hosted young athletes from Italy (Liceo Scientifico Arturo Tosi, Busto Arsizio, Varese), Germany (Gymnasium Johanneum, Ostbevern), the Netherlands (St. Gregorious College, Utrecht), the Check Republic (Biskupska Gymnazium B Balbina Hradec, Kralove) and Slovenia (Moste Gymnasium) for the third time. Six boys and six girls teams took part in three-sided football. The Italians and students from Moste Gymnasium proved to be real masters of the game. This was not only sports competition time, but also days of culture and fun. Students went to see the Alpine area of Slovenia, Upper Carniola, where they visited the biggest and most modern Nordic skiing complex Planica Nordic Centre and some natural sights.

Next year the tournament will be held in Busto Arsizio in Italy.

The Chamber of Architecture and Spatial Planning of Slovenia conferred on 9th October, 2015 professional awards for the most important achievements in architecture, landscape architecture and spatial planning. The Golden Pencil award for the outstanding realization in architecture and spatial planning was presented to Studio UR.A.D. for the project of The Alojzij Šuštar Primary School.

From the award justification:

This substantial annex accommodation appears to draw itself out from its historic institutional context as if to free from former constraints and regulations, creating new space, meaning, and occupation with distinct qualities of lightness and a sense of liberty.

The new development is unabashedly contemporary, set as it is against the backdrop of its predecessor in both form and scale. Yet it has been carefully conceived to sensitively align with the existing by following the grain of the former, maintaining a central spline through the site, and at its perimeter reading. This approach has interestingly allowed a somewhat previously out of place detached sports hall, to now be successfully integrated within the overall ensemble. In fact it is the clever structuring of external spaces set between these features, in conjunction with the introduction of two new positive entry facades and adjoining activity spaces, that stand out to demonstrate an accomplished degree of planning, whereby these built forms have been unified in a kind of natural progression.

Internally, new school accommodation spreads in wings from a central atrium cum assembly hal1/ auditorium featuring direct engagement with extei’iia1 landscape areas at ground level and light-filled classroom spaces on the first floor to provide positive, purposeful facilities. A substantial new multi-function gymnasium hall set partly into the ground, along with ancillary accommodation, is included, yet these elements have been structured so as to be subservient to the primary facilities.

A delightful and beautifully conceived additional feature comes in the form of a small chapel set floating within the main auditorium space. This discrete piece, with its oblique entry, modest adornment and well considered detail, is further example of a successful yet unpretentious overall design.

It will be interesting to see how external landscaping work develops in and around the new accommodation as these external rooms offer further opportunity to enhance the overall scheme.

This was the fourth exchange in a row, taking place in mid-September 2015 in Graz, Austria. The focus of the Graz exchange was traditionally on culture and language, as all 16 students from the DCG are learning German, and the visit to their Austrian peers offered plenty of opportunities to brush up their German.
Most of the exchange meant taking active part in school activities, getting to know Graz and its highlights and learning about the Austrian way of life, as all participants had the privilege of staying with host families. A special treat was a visit to the Dachstein glacier, which, with its 2,700 metres, offered stunning panoramic views over the peaks of Austria and the Czech Republic as well as Triglav, the highest mountain of Slovenia.
The exchange visit will take place in April 2016. Irena Bolta, teacher of German at the DCG, is in charge of the exchange.

If these become silent, the stones will cry out (Lk 19,40)

St. Stanislav’s Institution endured bright and dark moments in the history of the 20th century. Its creative life was first interrupted by WWI, when a large area of the building was turned into an army hospital. During WWII there was first a Nazi camp to assemble Slovenes who were to be expelled from the homeland, and immediately after the war the institution served as a concentration camp for the extermination of anticommunists. Most of the prisoners were taken to Kočevski Rog or other massacre sites in Slovenia. St. Stanislav’s Institution has thus become on several occasions a place of extreme human suffering. The memorial site Peace be with you honours all victims who suffered in this place. Visitors are invited to embrace silence, consider the respectful memory of the victims and refrain from any hatred and violence.

The memorial consists of seven stone blocks, which like the prisoners who occupied this space seventy years ago lie scattered over the entire area of St. Stanislav’s Institution. Five blocks can be found in the park and on green lawns, one is at the forum, and one is in the main building. The stone blocks are reminiscent of ruins, the ones in the park of nameless graves. Instead of names, the words Peace be with you (3 Jn 1,15), are engraved in the languages of those who suffered while here or after they were taken to execution. Are the seven stones actually seven graves? Are the engraved words possibly the voice of the dead, coming from the grave, or are these the words through which I would, if I could, talk to my dead brother? The memorial epitomizes Jesus’ answer to the question, how many times I shall forgive?: “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times.”

Peace be with you was designed by architect Robert Dolinar in 2015 to comemmorate the 100th anniversary of the beginning of WWI and 70th anniversary of the end of WWII. The commemorative year was observed in St. Stanislav’s Institution under the motto: “I am here to love, not hate.”

President of the Republic of Slovenia Borut Pahor and the Minister of Education, Science and Sport dr. Maja Makovec Brenčič received on Saturday, 19th September, 2015 the cream of the crop of this year’s high-school Slovene graduates, who attained all possible points at Maturity examination. There are eighteen such graduates in Slovenia this year, among which also Ela Hudovernik, the DCG student, who not only gained all 34 points, but also obtained the best possible result in the country in mathematics. We congratulate Ela on her outstanding achievement and wish her all success in her future endeavours.

The PE teacher from St. Stanislav’s Institution, The Diocesan Classical Gymnasium Joži Čepon attended from 23rd July – 2nd August 2015 a course entitled In Search of the Azores. There were 8 participants altogether from Finland, the Netherlands, Spain, Greece, France and Slovenia. Each participant had to write a seminar paper on a topic that presents a part of the cultural heritage of his/her country. The organizers designed a booklet and all our contributions were published there. My paper had a title Triglav – Mountain of Slovene Mountains http://chain.eu/?m3=38746. In this way participants have learned something about the national heritage of all the above-mentioned countries.

The course concentrated on two themes. Firstly it focused on the concept of Europe. Europe is the Western part of the Eurasian continent, comparable to the Indochinese peninsula in the South-East. Taking thins into consideration, the Mid-Atlantic ridge can be seen as a geographical border of this (sub-) continent. The Azores and Iceland are surface manifestations of this ‘edge’ – Europe ends here. The second focus lied on the ‘urge to the west’ in Europe, which considers the Atlantic as a barrier and a challenge. In European history there is a trend of trying to reach the ‘evening land’. There may be an urge to ‘follow the sun’, to pass ‘the pillars’. Both aspects gave us a perspective to the Azores’ unique geographical and cultural heritage: landscape and volcanoes; discoveries, colonisation and migration; whale hunting and fishing; ecology and the oceans as part of the world. The course was a wonderful travel through four elements: fire creating the archipelago – volcanoes and earth; water being the birth of the archipelago and all life; air/wind – man sailing into the unknown land, discoveries and whale hunting.

I broadened my horizons and obtained lots of new knowledge about these wonderful islands, which are a perfect destination that I will recommend to my students for spending active holidays. During the course, we were very physically active in difficult moist conditions so I, as a sport teacher, took it as body training for the next school year. /Joži Čepon/

In the academic year 2014/15 already the 19th generation of DCG graduates has completed its education in St. Stanislav’s Institution. 2972 graduates have graduated since its reestablishment in 1993.
On the Maturity Exam results day, 13th July, 2015, graduates gathered to receive the Maturity Exam reports. This year 152 graduates appeared in the exam, the pass rate was 98,7%. The average point rate in 2015 at the DCG was 23,49 (last year 22,78), nationally 20,12. Out of total 34 points, 36 graduates gained 28 points, and 17 more than 30 points (nationally there are 320 of such graduates), which makes them Golden Graduates 2015. By far the most successful student this year is Ela Hudovernik, who has gained the maximum 34 points and scored the outstanding 100% at higher level mathematics examination, which is the best result in the country. The director of St. Stanislav’s Institution dr. Roman Globokar congratulated the graduates on their achievement and expressed enthusiasm for excellent exam results.

School is over and so are the maturity examinations, most of the planning for the following academic year as well as end-of-the-year trips for the employed in St. Stanislav’s Institution. We wish students, parents and teachers a joyous and relaxed time to rest their bodies, souls and mind. Let God guide your steps and see you at latest on September 1st.

Congratulations go to Nastja Maver, who is currently a student of special and rehabilitation education at the University of Ljubljana. The award has been granted by the Youth Council of Slovenia under the auspices of the president of the Republic of Slovenia Borut Pahor and on the recommendation of The Slovene Association of Catholic Teachers, where Nastja takes active part in the program Man for others. In the past academic year she has carried out more than 1000 hours of voluntary work in various kindergartens, school and other institutions.

Commemorative celebration in St. Stanislav’s Institution on the occasion of the centennial of the Isonzo Front and the 70th anniversary of the end of WWII and post-war massacres

The commemorative celebration was to honour the memory of past events and as a warning to future generations. The celebration took place on Thursday, 18th June, 2015, beginning with mass at 8.30 p.m. in St. Stanislav’s Chapel. The military chaplain Jože Plut celebrated the mass. At 9.30 p.m. during the commemoration the lights in the building of St. Stanislav’s Institution were going out. Every dead light memorises the pain and loss of man, who had a name, family name as well as fate and light within himself. In the park surrounding St. Stanislav’s Institution the remembrance candles were lit as a reminder of past atrocities.  All people throughout Slovenia were kindly invited to light the remembrance candles in their homes to commemorate the victims of WWI and WWII and post-war massacres.

Lily Schweiger Kotar