Over the fifteen years since the Christian Brothers left St. Anselm’s, the College, in partnership with the Edmund Rice Network, has developed guiding principles known as the Eight Essentials of Edmund Rice. These principles are now embedded across College life to maintain and strengthen the charism inspired by Blessed Edmund Rice.

While consistent with the broader principles of Catholic Social Teaching, attempting to highlight both frameworks equally within the College’s liturgical life can often lead to some confusion. To ensure clarity of Mission, the College has mapped the Eight Essentials against the themes Catholic Social Teaching, so that the Essentials function as a distinctive charism lens through which the wider tradition is expressed within the community.