ARCHBISHOP COSTELLOE MAKES HISTORY AS FIRST WA PRESIDENT OF AUSTRALIAN BISHOPS CONFERENCE
Perth Archbishop Timothy Costelloe SDB has this week been elected President of the Australian Catholic Bishop’s Conference.
Archbishop Costelloe will replace Brisbane Archbishop Mark Coleridge, who served as president for four years and was ineligible to run for a third term because he will turn 75 in September 2023.
Sydney Archbishop Anthony Fisher OP was also re-elected VicePresident.
The Bishops agreed that the president
and vice-president’s two-year terms will commence on July 13, 2022, after the Second General Assembly of the Fifth Plenary Council of Australia.
Originally hailing from Melbourne, Archbishop Costelloe was appointed an Auxiliary Bishop of Melbourne in 2007 and Archbishop of Perth in 2012.
He is the first president of the Bishops Conference from Western Australia and, as a priest of the Salesians of Don Bosco, the first
member of a religious order to be elected president.
Archbishop Costelloe paid tribute to Archbishop Coleridge, saying he had guided the Bishops Conference through important and sometimes challenging times.
“It was Archbishop Coleridge who guided our response beyond the Royal Commission, represented the Church in Australia at the global summit on sexual abuse and steered the bishops through a pandemic and a host of other challenges,” he said.
“Archbishop Coleridge has been a calm and considered leader locally and in the global Church and will be a trusted adviser for me in this new role.”
Archbishop Costelloe said despite those difficulties, the Church’s ministries remain critical to Australian society.
“The Church in this country is an immense contributor to our society, through our parishes, our schools, our hospital and aged care, our social services and countless other ministries,” he said.
“As we continue to contemplate how we live out the Gospel in this age, including through the Plenary Council, I look forward to working with my brother bishops and the People of God to carry forward Christ’s mission.”
Archbishop Fisher, the Archbishop of Sydney, has served as vice-president of the Conference for the past four years.
“I look forward to continuing to serve the Conference in this way and working closely with Archbishop Costelloe on key issues for the Church’s mission in Australia,”
Archbishop Fisher said.
Originally hailing from Melbourne, Archbishop Costelloe was appointed an Auxiliary Bishop of Melbourne in 2007 and Archbishop of Perth in 2012. PHOTO: ACBC.
GOOD SHEPHERD SUNDAY: ‘THE ONLY DANGER IS THAT SOMETIMES WE STOP LISTENING,’ SAYS VOCATIONS DIRECTOR
By Fr Israel Quirit
A priest was going to celebrate Mass in Baguio City, a city in the Philippines that is situated 1,500 metres on top of a plateau, where temperatures rarely rise above 27° Celsius.
Afraid he might be running late, he decided to follow a car ahead of him since the road was foggy and dark. After some time, the car ahead suddenly stopped so the priest tooted his horn (this is totally normal in the Philippines).
He then yelled out to the driver ahead of him, “Keep moving on! Let’s go!” But the driver replied, “Move on? I’m already in my garage!”
In the Gospel of John 10:27-30, Jesus said to His disciples, “The sheep that belong to me listen to my voice”.
A young person once asked me,
“Fr Izzy, how should I listen to or discern God’s voice in my life in today’s loud and noisy world?” Indeed, how do we navigate today’s society without losing sight of God’s call in our lives?
This question reminds me of the GPS app in my car.
It can be time-consuming and confusing trying to locate a place we have never been before, or when we try to navigate the various unfamiliar one-way streets in large cities or familiarise ourselves with various route loops without a GPS device or a map.
A wrong turn could potentially lead to a long detour.
To help us understand how to discern God’s call in today’s busy world, we can draw some wisdom from the GPS examples I’ve mentioned. Those of us accustomed to using a digital GPS would know that such a navigation system is adaptable,
meaning it adapts to changing situations such as road works, traffic jams, detours, and road closures, prompting us to take alternative routes to our destination.
The guidance of Jesus as our Good Shepherd is just the same. There will be events, moments and situations in our lives that are totally out of our control, making our route difficult to navigate.
But our Good Shepherd helps us to adapt to our changing situations, guiding and making sure we get to the destinations God sets for our lives.
It does not matter how many times we have missed intersections or made some wrong turns, God adapts to our mistakes, changing our routes and encouraging us to “make a U-turn if necessary and when safe to do so” to get us back on track again.
1. Archbishop Timothy Costelloe ordains Fr Crispin Witika to the priesthood in 2014. PHOTO: ARCHDIOCESE OF PERTH.
2. A young couple on their wedding day. In celebration of Good Shepherd Sunday on 8 May, also known as Vocations Sunday, Archdiocesan Vocations Director, Fr Israel Quirit, says it doesn’t matter how many times we have missed intersections or made some wrong turns, God adapts to our mistakes. PHOTO: ARCHDIOCESE OF PERTH.
3. Ursuline Sister Lynn Chua with a fellow Sister. Vocations Director, Fr Israel Quirit, says the Good Shepherd provides us with other shepherds who may come into our lives to inspire and mentor us. PHOTO: JOSHUA LOW.
4. Youth pose for a photo during a CYM Retreat in 2017. Vocations Director, Fr Israel Quirit, says the only way we can miss out on God’s call in our lives is when we stop listening, stop praying, stop seeking God’s will, or not pay any attention to where our Good Shepherd is leading us. PHOTO: ARCHDIOCESE OF PERTH.
CLERGY MULTI-SPORTS DAY A WINNER FOR ALL
By Jamie O'Brien
Clergy from across the Archdiocese of Perth have once again come together for the annual ClerecWest Multi-Sports Day.
The Multi-Sports Day, which has been held for some 25 years, was this year held on Monday 2 May, and enabled the participating clergy the opportunity to choose between participating in one or two recreational games, including tennis, soccer, golf, badminton or ten-pin bowling.
ClerecWest Committee Coordinator, Ellenbrook Priest Fr Bonaventure Echeta, said the day was a great moment of fraternal growth and development.
“It’s been an encouraging event for all those who attended to focus for a moment on their health and fitness,” Fr Bonaventure said.
“For many priests and clergy, health and fitness is already an increasing
part of their daily routine and so together we are happy to do what we can to support each other in this, for our own wellbeing.
“When we are healthy in mind and body it enables us to better serve our parishioners,” he said.
Fr Bonaventure also gave a vote of thanks to the ClerecWest Committee, including Fr Paul Raj, Simeon San, Jeronimo Castillo, Joseph Laundy and Thi Lam for their dedication and commitment in making the day happen.
Tennis was played by a group of 10, Golf by a group of eight, bowling a group of 11 and soccer a group of seven.
The winners of the sports matches included Frs Simeon San (Bateman) and Benedict Lee (Bassendean) for Golf, Fr Francis Tran (Whitford) for Tennis, with Fr Noe Navarrete-Apaez (Redemptoris Mater) awarded a special prize for his hidden talents; and in bowling, Frs John Jegorow, (Ballajura) Francis Tran (Whitford)
and Anthony Vu (Mirrabooka) took home the top prizes.
In soccer, the orange team consisting of Frs Phong Nguyen, Francis Huy Nguyen, Simeon San and Thi Lam won top spot.
More than 50 priests and supporters went on to attend the annual dinner at The Karalee on Preston in Como, sponsored by Archbishop Costelloe and the Archdiocese of Perth.
Awards on the night were presented by Archbishop Timothy Costelloe SDB.
Redemptoris Mater Seminary Spiritual Director Fr Noe Navarrete-Apaez, who participated in the tennis, said he was grateful for the opportunity.
“Having a healthy body is part of a healthy spiritual life and I really enjoy getting together with my fellow brother priests to share in some friendly competition and physical activity,” Fr Noe said.
“It’s a winning situation for all,” he said.
Frs Francis Huy Nguyen, Archbishop Timothy Costelloe SDB, Frs Phong Nguyen (Bateman), Thi Lam (Kwinana) and Simeon San (Bateman) with the winning team trophy (Soccer). PHOTO: JAMIE O'BRIEN.
EVERY CHILD COUNTS FOR CATHOLIC EDUCATION WESTERN AUSTRALIA
CEWA values the Government’s commitment to ensuring all students receive a high-quality education and we
government to make sure all schools, including our schools, can better support the State’s
In her foreword for Building a Brighter WA, Catholic Education Western Australia Ltd Executive Director Dr Debra Sayce speaks about the key priorities of CEWA ahead of the Federal election.
As Western Australia turns its attention to long term recovery efforts in the wake of the COVID19 pandemic, the combined contribution that Catholic schools make to the State’s economy and community has never been more significant.
Our State's education sector has responded with compassion to the changing needs of families and communities that have experienced the flow-through impacts from COVID-19.
But government support is still required for government and nongovernment schools alike, and the need for focused advocacy has
been more important than ever in the past 18 months.
Representing 158 Catholic schools in WA, Catholic Education Western Australia (CEWA) pursues focused advocacy objectives that seek fairer funding from both State and Federal governments on the premise that ‘Every Child Counts’.
We have identified national priorities relevant to our Western Australian schools that will help every child receive the best education possible:
• Support for Catholic schools to be an affordable choice for Western Australian families.
• Increased capital funding to address learning environments, accessibility, and wellbeing needs.
• Indexation of funding to reflect increasing educational costs.
• Extension of the NonGovernment Reform Support Fund
beyond 2022.
co-operatively engage
• Capital funding support for early childhood education in the two years prior to school.
• Access to Mental Health and Wellbeing programs to complement CEWA’s Wellbeing Framework.
• Access to Closing the Gap initiatives for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students in Catholic schools, particularly in remote Western Australia.
More parents than ever before are choosing to send their children to Catholic schools, with enrolments up by more than 10 per cent over the last ten years. This growth is a testament to the quality education, sense of community, noneducational student outcomes, and responsive learning environments that Catholic schools provide.
www.therecord.com.au
will continue to
with
growing student population. PHOTO: MATT BIOCHICH/CEWA.
JAMIE
BIBIANA