NATHAN KEEN TO BE A TANGIBLE SOURCE OF JESUS
The Diocese of Bunbury will this week gain a member of clergy with the Ordination to the Diaconate of 29-year-old Nathan Barry. Nathan, who hails from Bunbury after moving to the regional town with his family aged three, studied at St Charles Seminary.
Nathan will be ordained by Bishop Gerard Holohan this Friday 7 October at 7pm at St Patrick’s Cathedral Bunbury.
After attending St Joseph’s Primary Bunbury and then Newton Moore College for his secondary education, Nathan recalled in a special interview with The Record Editor Jamie O’Brien that he first started thinking about a vocation to the priesthood in 2011. After completing his secondary education in 2009, Nathan went on to work in sales and business management.
But the prospect of the 2011 World Youth Day pilgrimage triggered
his heart and mind to realise that perhaps God was calling him in another direction.
“I remember sitting on the plane on the way to Spain talking to a fellow attendee and they asked me what was I looking for in attending World Youth Day,” Nathan explained.
“I responded by explaining that I wanted to see whether God was calling me to the priesthood, and that was the first time I began to appreciate and understand where my vocation was heading,” he said.
Nathan continued by explaining that during his Days in the Diocese experience, he stayed with a family in Spain that could not speak or understand English.
It was during Mass at the local parish that the grandmother said to Nathan in English, “God wants you,” he recalled.
“I needed a visible sign that this was serious and I needed to discern a
vocation to the priesthood. The grandmother’s words were just that,” Nathan highlighted.
During a period of discernment for five years, in which daily Mass became part of his life, Nathan continued to work in sales and business management, later applying to study Primary Teaching at the University of Notre Dame Australia.
Nathan says he recalls many a sleepness night, but through regular dialogue with close family and friends, he began to understand he really was being called to the priesthood.
It was in 2017 that he entered St Charles Seminary.
“It has been an incredible journey,” Nathan said.
“With Fr Jean Noel Marie as the first year formator, from the moment I arrived I felt an instant peace that this was where I needed to be.”
Nathan emphasised that it was at the end of his second year of seminary formation that he felt God confirmed his vocation.
“I now felt wholeheartedly convinced to this vocation and it was now about how God was shaping me [to be a priest],” Nathan said.
Looking ahead to his ministry as a transitional Deacon, Nathan explained that his calling was also to be a sign.
“My prayer is that I can, through administering the sacraments, through preaching the Gospel, I can be a sign to those who choose to listen,” Nathan said.
“I want to be a tangible source of Jesus to them, something real, something living,” he concluded.
Nathan Barrie, third from left, with fellow seminarians and Perth Archbishop Timothy Costelloe SDB, centre, St Charles Seminary Recotor Fr Phillip Fleay, fourth from right and Vocations Director Fr Israel Quirit, fourth from left. PHOTO: FACEBOOK.
CARE FOR OUR COMMON HOME TO UNITE ABRAHAMIC FAITHS
Abraham Day
Care for our Common Home: Stewardship, Responsibility and the Gift of Creation
The University of Notre Dame Australia is pleased to be hosting an interfaith event celebrating the three religious traditions of Christianity, Judaism and Islam that share a common origin in Abraham. The theme for this year’s event is: “Care for our Common Home: Stewardship, Responsibility and the Gift of Creation”.
Thursday 27 October 2022
Time: 2.30pm - 4.30pm Foley Hall, 19 Mouat Street Fremantle Please RSVP by Thursday 20 October.
The formal proceedings, commencing at 2.30pm, will include introductory remarks on the theme from leaders of each faith tradition:
A panel discussion and audience Q&A will follow and the session will conclude with a reading and prayer from each faith tradition. Afternoon tea will be served following the formal proceedings.
We hope you will be able to join us for this significant occasion celebrating the origins and commonalities of these three religious traditions. Please RSVP below by Thursday 20 October. For any enquiries please email faith@nd.edu.au.
All welcome
Abraham
The University of Notre Dame Australia will this month be host to an interfaith event celebrating the three religious traditions of Christianity, Judaism and Islam that share a common origin in Abraham. Perth Catholic Archbishop Timothy Costelloe SDB, Perth Hebrew Congregation Chief Rabbi Daniel Lieberman and Teacher and Leader of the Perth Islamic community, Sheikh Muhammad Agherdien, will each speak on the theme, “Care for our Common Home: Stewardship,
Responsibility and the Gift of Creation”.
The panel discussion style event will take place on Thursday 27 October from 2.30pm – 4.30pm at Foley Hall and will include an audience Question and Answer session, followed by a reading and prayer from each faith tradition. Speaking at the occasion in 2017 Archbishop Costelloe highlighted that people of faith should challenge themselves to welcome others in a genuine and caring fashion.
“A real welcome, a sincere welcome, comes from the heart, we might say it is all about one heart meeting another,” Archbishop Costelloe said.
“It is about a real human connection being established between two or more people, and it becomes the basis for a real, respectful, life-giving encounter which leaves all those involved acknowledged, affirmed, and uplifted.
“We might reflect this afternoon on whether or not our hearts are really in this project of welcoming, if they are those compassionate hearts that our three religions, which all look to Abraham as our common father and ancestor in our faith, seek to form within us.”
Archbishop Costelloe explained that people should call on the traits of courage, compassion and conviction to stand up for others, following the guidance of Abraham and the Good Samaritan.
“This Samaritan answers our question for us: who is the ‘other’? The ‘other’ is anyone who is in need of help, anyone who is downtrodden, anyone who is rejected or ill-used, and I want to suggest this afternoon that our three religious traditions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, have a vital role to play, and precious resources to bring to bear, in helping our society to become worthy of the gift of human life we have received from our creator, the one all-merciful God from whom we all come and to whom we will all return,” Archbishop Costelloe said.
For more information and to RSVP by Thursday 20 October, go to https:// events.nd.edu.au/abrahamday or contact faith@nd.edu.au.
The Most Reverend Timothy Costelloe SDB, Archbishop of the Catholic Archdiocese of Perth
Rabbi Daniel Lieberman, Chief Rabbi of the Perth Hebrew Congregation
Sheikh Muhammad Agherdien, Teacher and Leader in the Islamic community of Perth.
Former Perth Hebrew Congregation Chief Rabbi Dovid Freilich OAM, Perth Catholic Archbishop Timothy Costelloe SDB and Perth Islamic community, Sheikh Muhammad Agherdien plant an olive tree during the 2016 Abraham Day at the University of Notre Dame. PHOTO: THE RECORD.
THE PELL DIARIES: VOLUME II – HOPE RESOLVED
By Michael Britton
Volume II of Cardinal Pell’s prison diaries, in which he continues to recount his prison experience on a daily basis from Melbourne’s notorious Barwon Prison for a crime he did not commit, is arguably the harder to read of the three journals that His Eminence has penned. It is not a turgid read by any standards, but it is embarrassing to read and recount the conspiracy of events falling upon Cardinal Pell without truly appreciating his lived experience.
It is here, between two trials, that the reader is injected into a mundane, grey prison life (in a typical Melbournian winter) that consists of routine, more routine with the occasional splash of interrupted and impersonable routine.
There are the usual problems with cold meals, delayed visits of friends and advisors by various ‘regulatory functionaries.’
One truly begins to wonder whether such peculiarities of prison life are by function, design or accident. Given His Eminence’s juridical experience in Victoria, one may wonder whether such features are a special gift bestowed upon Cardinal Pell due to his stature and beliefs. However, one of the most difficult features of Volume Two is that readers know the end before the
start has begun – notwithstanding that we are reading the journal of one who did not know the final outcome at the time.
Many who have read the High Court of Australia’s verdict on His Eminence will recount and even personally relive this most difficult time for him.
Volume Two of Cardinal Pell’s prison diaries finds us between two trials. Namely, the second trial that condemned him to prison at Barwon (following the hung jury at the first trial that wasn’t reported until the High Court finally acquitted him) and prior to his hearing at the Appellate Court of Victoria. Before arriving at Page 96 of Cardinal Pell’s journal, there is still a sense of anticipation and hope for the reader. “Is there still a chance for the Cardinal to be freed” is one question that I found myself asking as Cardinal Pell’s appeal edged closer. However, to no avail. The crushing blow of Justices Maxwell and Ferguson are like a hammer that crushes any hope as the drabness and grey curtain of prison close in upon the reader once more. Without dwelling on the writings of others who have written on His Eminence’s guilt from an emotive and politically partisan perspective, it is important to note that this is but the view of one reader. Yet His Eminence continues to solider on, stoically as ever.
So while it is true that in Volume Two of his prison diaries, Cardinal Pell finds himself between two fires, it is more pertinent that his joy is not quenched and nor is his hope of justice extinguished.
Of particular enjoyment is his mathematical reasoning on the timing and chance of guilt – an argument worthy of itself but one that would not be required in front of a bench of seven eminently qualified High Court Justices with over 160 years combined legal experience.
During his second prison journal, and despite such an inglorious outcome at Appeal, Cardinal Pell spends more time musing on his theological, political, football and personal convictions.
It is during this period that viewers will encounter a person who is not the personification of Lucifer as portrayed by certain sections of the media.
For use of a better term, he comes across as an “ordinary man”. He has a family that cares deeply for him, and he for them.
He has friends and acquaintances (both religious, lay and irreligious) from a broad range of backgrounds and experiences. He uses a breathing machine to sleep, he takes tablets for his heart.
One of the most comforting insights one will find across all of his prison journals, but particularly in his second journal, is Cardinal Pell’s deep friendships with so many Roman Catholics.
It does not take long to realise that, if the world is structured into the so-called “six degrees of separation,” then the Roman Catholic Church only has two or three degrees of separation, or less!
Most can’t imagine being in gaol, particularly in solitary confinement for most days, but despite His Eminence’s robust intellectual fortitude and standing, he finds joy in the simple aspects of life; that the basketball court is open, solo table tennis is available and that a kind word from a correspondent can transform the dreary context of prison life.
Australian Cardinal George Pell gestures as he speaks during an interview with Reuters in Rome, in 2020. PHOTOS: CNS/GUGLIELMO MANGIAPANE, REUTERS.
SPECTACULAR VIEWS AND OUTDOOR MASS BRINGS YOUTH TOGETHER
It’s a beautiful September morning in Armadale.
Thirty young adults from across Perth are standing in a carpark near ‘Ye Olde Narrogin Inne’.
The attendees are dressed in a range of colourful clothes, stretching, talking, and laughing.
They’ve come together on a bright Saturday morning, 17 September, to scale up the 500-metre height of ‘Mt Cooke’ with Perth’s Catholic Youth Ministry team.
CYM Chaplain Father Joseph Laundy led the expedition, complete with walky-talkies.
Sister Luka from the Schoenstatt Shrine also attended (tackling the hike impressively in a habit!).
After some last-minute checks, the hikers began their journey up the trail. Their first stop was at the base of the mountain, to sign the trail’s guestbook - and take many selfies - then it was onto higher ground.
Things got tougher as the trail began to rise upward. Jackets and umbrella were packed away, but the propeller hat stayed on.
Soon the group reached the midway point of the trail.
The view is spectacular from halfway up the mountain. Dark hills slope off on the horizon, each folding into a different shade of green.
Plants and trees surround the narrow trail, blooming with colourful wildflowers. The group scaled over moss covered boulders, then over a small wooden bridge with water rushing below.
With the midday sun overhead, the group crest onto ‘Mass Rock’.
Sitting just under the mountain’s summit, the flat stone plateau is a wide space that is perfect for a group celebration of the Mass.
Fr Joe took out a white alb packed exclusively for the occasion and set up an altar on a small boulder nearby.
After enjoying the view from 500 metres up, the hikers came together to celebrate Mass on the mountain.
The ceremony was reverent and joyful, filled with praise and awe of God in His creation.
After the final blessing of the Mass, it was time for lunch.
The hikers settled cheerfully onto rocks dotted around the plateau, talking, eating and sharing snacks brought from home.
The last hour was spent exploring the top of the mountain. Hikers scattered across the rocks laughing and climbing over boulders. A few last-minute photos and a final gaze over the valleys, then it was back down the trail.
Getting down is easier than coming up, and soon enough the hikers were back at the bottom of the mountain. It was a good day with friends old and new. Parting is bittersweet, but luckily Grace baked a cake! Everyone shared a piece and toasts to the day spent in God’s creation.
CHITTERING VALLEY CAMINO // REVISITED SAT 29 OCT // 07:00 AM - 02:00 PM // BULLSBROOK – CHITTERING Come and join the CYM team for another epic journey – 15km walk from the Shrine of the Virgin of the Revelation to the Church of the Divine Mercy. We’ll be walking through the Chittering valley experiencing the beauty of nature and the vibrancy of faith. See www.cym.com.au for details.
Thirty young adults from across Perth came together on Saturday 17 September to scale the 500-metre height of ‘Mt Cooke’ with Perth’s Catholic Youth Ministry team. PHOTO: SUPPLIED/.