THE ARCHDIOCESE AND CORPUS CHRISTI COLLEGE
The Archdiocese of Suva is the controlling authority of the college. The Catholic Church prides itself with the ownership of this college. The Archdiocese used to be the major financial support for the college. There was no government financial assistance towards the building of the college between 1955 and 1958. Nor was there any help for the running of the college in the early years. These burdens were accepted by the Catholic people of Fiji under the leadership of the Archbishop of Suva. The full Catholic community continued to contribute through the Education Sunday collection, the annual contribution (soli) of Catholic Teachers ($15,000 to $20,000 annually until 2008) and through annual grant, the last known amount was $13,000 in 1989. The Catholic Education office used to grant $30,000 annually. The last known contribution was $16,000 in 2011. Several religious congregations used to contribute financially to the college (e.g. Columbans used to contribute regularly at one stage but have stopped.)
The Archdiocese made a substantial contribution of skilled teaching personnel by the various religious congregations in Fiji. These were well qualified and very dedicated individuals who worked at a reserved salary rate (barely $2,000 per person per annum). The salary of a current staff would be equivalent to employing 6 or 7 of those staff with reserved salary rates. Over the years different religious congregations have come to the assistance of the college in the provision of staff. These were from the diocesan clergy, Marist Fathers, Marist Brothers, Missionary Sisters of the Society of Mary, Marist Sisters, St Joseph of Cluny Sisters and the Columban Fathers.
The involvement of the Sisters of Our Lady of Nazareth is worthy of mention. Through the request of the Archbishop a number of sisters had been involved in the cooking as well as supervision of girls in the hostel right from the start.
CATHOLIC EDUCATION OFFICE AND CORPUS CHRISTI COLLEGE
Catholic Education Office under the leadership of Director of Catholic Education is responsible for dealing with all matters pertaining to Catholic Education. The Director deals more specifically with the welfare and staffing of Catholic schools as well as monitoring progress of education both circular and spiritual in Catholic schools and communities. He is also the Archdiocesan representative in the dialogue and negotiations with the Ministry of Education and government. There needs to be a closer link between Corpus Christi and Catholic Education Office particularly in the area of Religious Education. Before graduation each year the Catholic Education office checks out vacancies in Catholic schools and identifies possible placement of new graduates into those vacancies. Catholic Education Office and the College are responsible for carefully inducting future teachers on their different roles and responsibilities as well as getting to understand different roles and responsibilities of all stakeholders in a Catholic school. There is a need to have an updated list of where Corpus Christi graduates are whether in Catholic or other schools and be regularly visited to encourage them and get feedback information that will help the Archdiocese to gain knowledge of strengths and weaknesses necessary in assessing its stand that would lead to constant review of policies and programs related to Catholic Education.