Catholic life aug14

Catholic Life Publication of the Diocese of Sale

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ISSUE 183

August 2014

Leongatha’s Golden girl

GOLD medal winning high jumper Eleanor Patterson (centre) is welcomed back to school after her Commonwealth Games victory by director of Catholic education Maria Kirkwood and principal Michael Delaney.

L E O N G A T H A Eleanor by-passed this year’s jumped 1.86m and 1.89m but junior titles which under strong competition from schoolgirl Eleanor world were held the week before an English jumper, missed her Patterson is the toast the Commonwealth Games first attempt at 1.92m. of Gippsland after to concentrate on her medal However, she cleared it at second attempt and then winning gold in the chances at open competition.

She returned to school last soared over 1.94m, a height Commonwealth Games week and was feted by the the Englishwoman could not high jump event. school for her outstanding achieve.

The 18-year-old is in Year 12 personal achievement.

In a stadium packed with at Mary MacKillop Regional Described a quiet, unassuming 40,000 cheering fans was a solid College, Leongatha, and is athlete, her natural smile made core of hometown support. predicted to have a bright future her a crowd favorite after she Mum Helen, father Mark, in the sport. won her gold medal. sister Matilda, two aunts, Her Glasgow gold follows Photos of her draped in the her nanna and coach Dave COLLEGE captains Sarah Lindsay (middle) and Arabella on from a world junior title in Australian flag were beamed Green and his wife were Steenholdt (right) presenting Eleanor some flowers on behalf of Donetsk, Ukraine, last year and around the world and Australia loudly cheering the schoolgirl the college. then equalling the world junior rejoiced that it had found champion on. high jump record of 1.96m another track and field athlete Eleanor wasn’t sure she had class athletes are coached and Leongatha, wherever she and at the Australian All School who can perform on the world won until her coach confirmed train at national or state sports her coach can erect the jumps institutes, Eleanor’s training his and throw down a landing mat.

Championships in Brisbane last stage. it.

December.

At Glasgow, Eleanor easily While most other world been on various ovals around

Trinity FAMILIES

Keep your charity local.

We ask you donate generously to our diocesan charity Trinity Families so we can help the people in our region.

Phone: (03) 5622 6688 Visit us on Facebook and www.trinityfamilies.org.au

Page 2 - Catholic Life, August 2014

In this Issue Gryphon is ousted from diocese arms Page 4 Church calls for national victims scheme Page 5 St Patrick’s history book launched Page 6 Youth Games at Warragul a success Page 8 Applications for funding closing soon Page 9 Project Ochoba reaches goal Page 10

Still more thoughts on our transition JUDGING from some comments I have received there are many in the diocese who can resonate with the thought of transition.

That is to say many think we are in a larger transition than simply being between bishops. Even the struggle with secular challenges to faith, and the uncertainty over our own past failures, may be seen as part of a larger movement in which our church is engaged.

Another sign of such a transition is the leadership of Pope Francis. It is clear that many people are deeply moved by the words and gestures of the current Pope. He is striking a chord with many people.

I have had the experience of people who are not Catholic remarking to me about their own joy at the leadership he is giving. They are glad that, through Pope Francis, the Catholic Church is expressing compassion for people who are poor and suffering mistreatment.

However it is not only a focus on the poor that Pope Francis is giving to the church. There are indications that he is open to broader leadership within the church. One way we are seeing this is in his frequent reference to the role Bishops’ Conferences ought to be playing.

He has quoted from past statements of Bishops’ Conferences in his encyclical, The Joy of the Gospel. He has hinted that the question of clerical celibacy might be addressed locally as each Bishops’ Conference assesses the need of the local region and the readiness for any change.

We might also think about the upcoming Extraordinary Synod as another indicator that he wants the bishops to share more of the leadership and the teaching of the church. The Synod, later this year, is to look at the family in the light of evangelisation.

Many people have suggested that it is to look at the situation of Catholic people who have remarried after the breakdown of their first marriage, and at their reception of Holy Communion. You may have read that some bishops and even cardinals are calling for a different approach. Others are not.

We will have to wait for the Synod to run its course and for the Pope to respond before we learn if there is to be any new message about this issue and others that fall within the agenda of the Synod. However it does show a keenness on the part of Pope Francis to involve the bishops in the exploration of pastoral teaching.

It is too soon to say if Pope Francis is trying to move the way the church is governed and taught to a less centralised and more

PO Box 1410, Warragul Vic. 3820 Phone: (03) 5622 6688

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Fr Peter Slater Diocesan Administrator

Strong response to Caritas Australia during the year

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localised model but there are signs he may be keen to do so.

Other commentators suggest that the church is going through a significant, lengthy transition from a monarchical and hierarchical model of leadership to a more diffuse and communitarian style.

It is suggested that because we are in the midst of this transition process we can’t yet see it clearly. Further, because the movement is not a smooth one we might even seem to be rather more centralised or localised at different times.

If we are moving in the direction of greater local responsibility we clearly have a long way to go. Diocesan and parish pastoral councils would seem to indicate greater weight being given to the mind of church members at diocesan and parish level. However they don’t have great authority at this stage.

Priests know that sometimes parishioners try to hijack the direction of a pastoral council to fit their own particular vision rather than searching for the common vision. Sometimes that particular vision is contrary to the church’s vision.

Caution is needed. Sometimes too it is the priest who tries to control rather than guide the direction of the parish. The pitfalls are many.

We can take heart from the Pope himself who has said he prefers a church that sometimes makes mistakes because it is trying to carry out its mission to one that avoids mistakes and avoids the mission. It’s like the old saying of a ship being safe in the harbour – but ships are not built to stay in harbour.

If the church is in transition we do know that it is moving towards the greater role, and the greater exercise of the role, of all its members. Baptism and Confirmation are seen as the real moments of commission to mission and we all share that, not just the ordained and the religious.

Since Vatican II we can certainly say that but we are still a long way from really implementing that vision.

All of the above is triggered for me by reflecting on the present transition of our diocese. At a personal level I will be glad when we get a bishop and one transition is resolved. However I think that the larger transition, involving the whole church, will go on for much longer yet.

5622 6688

DONATIONS to Caritas Australia from Sale Diocese last year amounted to $374,829.

This money is the sum of donations from individuals, parishes and schools and includes special appeals such as the relief effort for Cyclone Haiyan.

This year’s Project Compassion appeal which ran during Lent raised $148,570 in Sale

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Diocese.

For the second year running all monies were in by the deadline.

This resulted in the total being $31,000 less than last year which was bolstered by late funds from 2012.

The overall national response to Project Compassion this year was $10.74 million

Editor: Colin Coomber Published 6 times a year Deadline for advertising copy and editorial contributions for next issue is Monday, October 6 Issues distributed free through parishes and schools from October 15.

Published by Catholic Media Gippsland, an agency of the Diocese of Sale.

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Catholic Life, August 2014 - Page 3

Yarram partnership with Traralgon

Two new Indian priests in diocese TWO new Indian priests have begun work in Sale Diocese over the past few weeks.

They are Fr James Fernandez CP and Fr Antony Rebelo IVD, both order priests who will be here for three years.

Fr Fernandez, 40, is a Passionist priest who previously spent five years in Endeavour Hills parish in Melbourne Archdiocese. It shares a border with our Narre Warren parish.

Originally from Kerala, he returned to India for 12 months before coming back to Australia where he was at the provincial house in Sydney for about a month.

Fr Fernandez is the youngest in a family of two boys and two

Fr James Fernandez girls, and although his father has now died, his mother is still

living in India.

He has been a priest for 13 years.

Fr Fernandez is spending the first few months as assistant priest at Warragul and Drouin parishes.

Fr Rebolo, 36, arrived three weeks ago in the middle of a cold snap and has been acclimating in Berwick.

He is a priest of the secular Institute Voluntas Dei which has as its mission to spread the Gospel.

He was ordained eight years ago in Kerala.

He shares a similar family history with Fr Ferndandez as he is also the youngest of a family of two boys and two

THE Parish of Yarram is now being administered from Traralgon.

Diocesan administrator Fr Peter Slater has appointed Traralgon parish priest Fr Bernard Buckley as administrator.

When Yarram lost its last resident priest it initially moved into partnership with Foster, but then came under Leongatha when Foster too ceased to have a resident priest.

Leongatha priests has been administering four parishes covering most of South Gippsland.

Yarram’s move to come under the umbrella of Traralgon, on the opposite side of the Strzelecki Ranges, was first discussed with parishioners by Bishop Christopher Prowse last year.

Fr Slater said Leongatha would continue in partnership with Korumburra and Foster.

He thanked Fr Buckley for taking on the extra responsibilities of Yarram, and Leongatha parish priest Fr Peter Kooloos for his work in preparing for the change.

Fr Antony Rebelo girls, his father has died, and his mother still lives in India.

Caring for our sick and retired fathers THE annual parishes collection for the Priests’ Welfare Foundation annual collection will take place in all parishes on or about the first weekend in September.

The collection normally takes place around Fathers Day and everyone is asked to support the other fathers – sick and retired priests of our diocese.

Donation envelopes will be available in all parishes and every gift of $2 or over may be claimed as a tax deduction if the donations are placed in these envelopes and people write their name on the back.

The Priests’ Welfare Foundation is a charity that exists to care for sick and retired priests

of the diocese. It also provides proper care in sickness to the numbers of overseas priests who continue to work in the diocese and have no local support structures.

The foundation makes sure that priests will have a reasonable standard of living in retirement. It helps with the daily accommodation and living costs, and when a priest is ill it helps with the practical and financial burdens that come with illness and frailty.

It employs the services of a professional nurse welfare coordinator to provide good care to priests who are sick and/ or aging, as well as providing

advice on healthy living to our younger clergy.

The foundation pays for all this from a financial base built up by its predecessors. You would appreciate that costs continue to increase annually, last year the health insurance premium costs alone were over $100,000.

For the foundation to continue to meet the care needs of its priests into the future, it must continue to be vigilant towards managing its costs. This appeal asks the good people of the parishes in diocese, to assist in caring for those men who have cared for us in the past and those who will continue to pas-

SFX principal to Sandhurst as director of Catholic Ed.

ST Francis Xavier College principal Paul Desmond has been appointed director of Catholic Education in Sandhurst Diocese from next year.

He has been principal of St Francis Xavier since 2005 and has seen the school expand into the largest Catholic secondary college in Victoria.

It has 2400 students and 300 staff spread across the three campus at Beaconsfield, Berwick South and Officer.

His new appointment was announced on Friday by Bishop

of Sandhurst, Les Tomlinson.

Mr Desmond, 56, lives in Melbourne, is married with four adult children, and is a practising Catholic, active in his parish.

Mr Desmond said he is delighted to accept this appointment in the Diocese of Sandhurst and would relocate to Bendigo. He saw this appointment as a significant one in his professional career in Catholic education.

He said the director should be a person of clear and strong leadership, presenting an

torally and spiritually care for us, in our sickness and in our health into the future.

This appeal is a major source of funding. Last year it raised around $29,000, but as previously mentioned our costs our increasing, so it is important that you support and recommend this appeal.

People can make a contribution to the foundation at any time of the year and they can also make a bequest to the foundation in their wills.

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He said the Catholic school must have Christ at its heart and centre.

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Page 4 - Catholic Life, August 2014

Overseas priests

THE latest crop of overseas priests to arrive in this diocese tip the scales in favor of the foreign-born priests over Australian-born.

Not including our retired priests, there are now 14 foreign-born priests working in our diocese, compared with 12 Australian-born ones.

India accounts for most with seven, followed by three Nigerians, two Dutch, one English and one Sri Lankan.

On top of that most of our seminarians are from overseas and three of our five permanent deacons are foreign-born - two English and one American.

Our diocese is not alone in Australia in having such a reliance on overseas priests and in Europe many dioceses are also importing priests from African countries.

Just part of the change in the global face of the Church which relied on Irish missionary priests for so many years.

Shared idea

WE previously mentioned the ancient history of the triquetra symbol used on the Trinity Families logo.

We have turned up various other organisations using the symbol and all are associated with the word Trinity.

Closest to home Trinity College in Albury-Wodonga used the triquetra with a small cross in the centre.

Lion roars back onto arms ousting a gryphon imposter In the United States there are at least two Trinity schools using the logo but with an intersecting circle, and there is also a dance studio in Tennessee and a support club for an Irish dancing group in Illinois which also use it.

Family Prayer

THERE has been an inquiry from a parish in the United States to purchase copies of the prayer card produced by Sale Diocese for the Year of Family Prayer.

The card features the icon of the Holy Family produced by the Studio of John the Baptist in Auckland, on one side and a prayer for families on the other.

The parish picked up what we had done by surfing the internet.

Fortunately we still have enough cards on hand to fill the order should the parish wish to go ahead.

The Year of Family Prayer was an initiative of Bishop Christopher Prowse which he announced just before he was appointed Archbishop of Canberra and Goulburn. It draws to a close at the start of Advent.

OUR story last issue about the modernised diocesan coat of arms has uncovered some interesting information which has resulted in the arms being tweaked again.

A gryphon, a mythological creature with an eagle’s head and lion’s body, has been found to be incorrect.

It has now been replaced with a lion.

Research by chancellor Fr Brian O’Connor into old paperwork passed onto the archives by Mgr John Allman revealed the mistake.

The gryphon appeared around the time of fifth Bishop of Sale Arthur Fox, perhaps when someone mistook a poorly reproduced copy of the diocese arms.

The original arms were produced by a Mercy Sister Sr Bernadine Carr, who was originally from Morwell and clearly state that the animal is a lion.

She was highly regarded as a producer of coats of arms and she based the diocese arms on those of the Kavanagh family and Governor George Gipps.

Fr John Kavanagh was the first priest to celebrate Mass in Gippsland and Governor Gipps was the New South Wales Governor when the Gippsland region was first explored and

Of all the decisions we make in our lifetime, making a valid will is among the most important.

This final testament speaks loudly of the values, causes and possessions we hold most dear. We bequest personal treasures and mementos to special friends and loved ones and ask them to care for them after our passing.

If you hold the Church dear, you may consider leaving a percentage of your estate or a specific amount to the Diocese of Sale.

The Diocese is grateful for the support of its benefactors, who have enabled the Church to grow in its service of its people, and invite you to share in this rich heritage.

of light or fire coming from the gryphon.

The mistake became entrenched in the 1980s book

by Michael McCarthy on various arms in use by bishops and dioceses in Australia when it was described as a gryphon.

The mistake was further entrenched when a redrawing of empaled arms used by Bishop Ryan also turned the animal into a gryphon-like creature.

The Ryan family arms actually shows three gryphon heads

THE final design of the Diocese of Sale arms with the lion passant back in its rightful place. so it was named after him by explorer Edmund Strzelecki.

The Kavanagh arms feature a Lion passant, standing on three legs with an outstretched right paw, and that is what she put on the diocese arms, changing the color of the lion from red to white and adding a pointed cross in the outstretched paw.

Old sketches show the lion in the time of third and fourth Bishops of Sale, Richard Ryan and Patrick Lyons but Sr Bernadine died just before Bishop Fox was installed as Bishop of Sale in 1967 and so whoever prepared the empaled arms for him obviously mistook the animal.

Empaled arms combine the features of a bishop’s personal arms with those of the diocese, usually with the diocese arms on the left and the bishop’s on the right.

However, the empaled arms are rarely used as most bishops use their personal arms on letterheads.

The empaled arms reveal that the lion’s front left foot had become a bird’s foot. From that mistake the animal slowly morphed into a gryphon, and what was originally flowing fur on the lion became beams

THE gryphon wrongly placed on the shield. which were reproduced on the right and so the artist may have thought the lion should also be a gryphon.

THE empaled arms used by Bishop Richard Ryan featured a lion in the top left of the shield but in this redrawing of them from the 1980s the animal is a gryphon.

Cardinal Clancy dies CARDINAL Edward Bede Clancy, the seventh Archbishop of Sydney, died at a nursing home on August 3.

Cardinal Clancy was aged 90 and for the past eight years has been cared for by the Little Sisters of the Poor at Randwick.

He was Archbishop of Sydney from 1983 to 2001.

He was born in Lithgow, NSW, and from a very early age said he wanted to be a priest beginning his studies at age 16.

He was ordained to the priesthood in 1949 and continued his studies both in Australia and Rome. In 1974 he was ordained Auxiliary Bishop of Sydney.

In November 1978 Pope John Paul II appointed Bishop Clancy to the Archdiocese of Canberra-Goulburn as Archbishop until his appointment to Sydney

Cardinal Clancy in 1983. He became a cardinal in 1988.

At his funeral last week, he was remembered as a rugby league fan, regular golfer and a humble man of refined humor and dry wit.

Catholic Life, August 2015 - Page 5

Church calls for national victims redress scheme A SUBMISSION from the Catholic Church’s Truth Justice and Healing Council to the child abuse Royal Commission has called for a mandatory national victims’ redress scheme operated by government but funded by the institutions responsible for the abuse.

CEO of the Truth Justice and Healing Council, Francis Sullivan said the scheme needed to be non-adversarial, low cost to claimants and provide just, compassionate and fair compensation for victims. “The days of the Catholic Church investigating itself are over,� Mr Sullivan said. “For the sake of the survivors of clerical sexual abuse within the Church and all other institutions the development of an independent national victims’ redress scheme is a giant step forward in delivering justice for people suffering the devastating impacts of child sexual abuse. “The scheme should be built with prime input from victims and open to anyone who has suffered child sexual abuse within any institution in Australia,� Mr Sullivan said.

In its submission the Catholic Church has proposed a scheme which would incorporate an established set of criteria using common law heads of damages to calculate financial redress up to an indexed cap determined in line with community standards.

The scheme should also employ a ‘balance of probabilities’ test for verifying a person’s claim of abuse.

The submission also calls for victims who have already received compensation to be able

School develops prayer cases NEWBOROUGH - As part of St Mary’s Primary School celebrations for Catholic Education Week it launched family prayer cases for each class.

Each case includes a cloth, a crucifix, a candle, some rosary beads, a Year of Family prayer card, some scripture cards, a music CD, a reflective journal and step by step instructions.

Prayer cases are given out on Fridays and due back to school on the following Wednesday.

It is hoped that the prayer cases will help families to take some quiet time to sit together, pray and acknowledge God’s presence in their lives.

The school has explained to families that this prayer opportunity will be more meaningful if all members of the family can participate and families are encouraged to fill out the reflective journal included in the case.

Parish priest Fr Harry Dyer OMI attended assembly and blessed the family prayer cases.

to access the scheme and have past settlements reviewed by the independent entity.

Under the scheme proposed by the Church: • There should be no time limit for bringing a claim • Financial redress should take into account the costs of past out-of-pocket medical expenses, past and future loss of earnings, non-economic loss (eg pain and suffering), cost of counselling services • Financial redress should be capped with the cap determined in line with community stand-

tions that no longer exist • Limited free legal advice should be available.

Alternatively, claimants should be able to retain lawyers, with costs calculated on a prescribed fee scale Mr Sullivan said that working in parallel with a national independent redress scheme the Catholic Church would continue to provide victims of child sexual abuse with pastoral and spiritual assistance. “The job of the Church in assisting victims isn’t finished when a payment is made,� Mr Sullivan said.

Royal Commission ards. The cap should be indexed • Any claimant, having rejected a redress offer made through the scheme, should have the option of instigating civil proceedings • The ongoing administration of the national scheme should be funded by the institutions against which claims are made • A levy on public liability insurance for institutions that have contact with children should be established to cover payments on behalf of institu-

“We have a lifelong responsibility and commitment to care for the people who have been abused in our institutions. “If this means providing, for example, ongoing counselling services, help finding work or accommodation or assistance with meeting day to day activities then that is what we will continue to offer,� Mr Sullivan said.

The Truth Justice and Healing Council is coordinating the Catholic Church’s engagement with the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

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Page 6 - Catholic Life, August 2014

St Patrick’s College history book is launched SALE - More than 150 past students and friends of St Patrick’s College, Sale attended a book launch held at the St Patrick’s campus of Catholic College Sale in June.

Another launch was held at the Australian Catholic University the following week with around 80 attendees.

The book, Strive After Better Things. St Patrick’s College, Sale: A history was written by local historian and St Pat’s ‘old boy’, Peter Synan with the assistance in the area of imagery and layout by his talented wife Ann. Mr Synan had been working on the project for more than two years, commissioned by the Past Students Association of Catholic College Sale and

supported by the college itself.

“It has been a great project’ said Mr Synan “it contains many individual stories and it is estimated more than 1000 images”.

The launch proceedings were overseen by master of ceremonies, Catholic College Sale deputy principal Peter Centra and former principal Br Paul Kane representing the Marist Brothers, who launched the book.

“This book is certainly no lightweight” noted Br Paul “weighing in at more than 1.6kg”. Indeed the book is a substantial tribute to the college, spanning the years 1922 to 1977 in depth and touching on significant events since.

Br Paul said that St Patrick’s College was always a highly regarded appointment among the Marist Brothers because it was a school where the brothers were close to the families and a good number of brothers came from the school.

He said that often histories of colleges were written by authors with an axe to grind or viewed the history through rose-colored glasses.

Peter Synan was neither of these types and had produced a well-researched, well-balanced and superb publication.

Br Paul said that on behalf of the Marist Brothers, he expressed a deep appreciation to Mr Synan for agreeing to take on the task.

“Your independence of mind and intellectual integrity are recognised and valued. This history of yours will have

prominence in our Australian Marist heritage.”

He also noted the outstanding contribution made by Br Majella Fitzpatrick, a former principal and now archivist at the college, and also the nurturing interest of Danny Drew for getting the ball rolling.

He also singled out Brian Cantwell as president of the past students’ association for harnessing various resources and for having drive and passion for the book project.

Br Paul said Mr Synan’s wife Ann also deserved mention for the hours she devoted to arranging the many photos and laying out the book.

Strive After Better Things was a beautiful book but those with the strength to lift the book would be impressed by its visual attractiveness, depth of research, historical accuracy,

creativity of layout and quality of photos.

He said Mr Synan had captured the spirit of the college by capturing the spirit of the boarders, day boys, dedicated staff and brothers. It was not just about dates and places but about the people who filled the spaces.

The book retails at $50 and is available from Collins Bookstore in Sale, The Hill of Content bookstore, Bourke St, Melbourne and directly from the college.

If you would like to order a copy, order forms are available on the College website www. ccsale.catholic.edu.au a $15 postage fee applies when placing a mail order or books can be purchased directly from CCS St Patrick’s Campus.

What about the older brother?

AUTHOR of the new book Peter Synan of Sale is a former St Patrick’s old boy.

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NOT all Jesus’ stories satisfy – they upset us, they make us a bit angry even.

The elder son in the parable of the Prodigal Son is one of the most challenging figures in Jesus’ stories. We all have a sneaking sympathy for him – he seems to be unfairly if not unjustly treated.

He had been out in the fields working hard for his father as usual, and as he was returning home he was surprised to hear all the commotion and rejoicing in the house.

When he asked a slave what was going on, he was told that his brother had suddenly turned up and his father had killed the fatted calf for them all to celebrate.

The brother’s anger appears to have boiled over.

After squandering his share of the family property in riotous living, now the spendthrift had come back penniless, and their father and the family were actually celebrating his return!

And who was going to pay for all this?

When the father then came out to plead with his elder son to come into the house and join in the welcoming of his brother, all this anger and resentment erupted! (15:28-29) Do you ever wonder about the younger son perhaps? Was it expediency that made him come back, was he really sorry, a reformed character? Was he more sorry for himself than for what he had done?

What about the parable of the vineyard workers? A very rich and generous landowner who goes out one morning and hires workers to work in his vineyard.

He hires some early in the morning, promises them a good wage. But he keeps hiring others as the day progresses, each new group having to work fewer hours than the group before them, and ends the day by hiring a group of workers just one hour before work is to end.

Then he tells his foreman to pay everyone a full day’s wage!

But this leaves the workers who toiled the whole day

Reflections

by Jim Quillinan somewhat bitter. “This isn’t fair!” they protest. “We worked the whole day and bore the heat of the sun and this last group worked just one hour. It’s unfair that we all receive the same wage!”

The generous landowner asks: “Friend, didn’t you agree to this wage? And isn’t it a good wage? Are you envious and angry because I’m generous?”

There have probably been literally millions of homilies preached on these Gospel stories, almost all focusing on the living generosity of God, a father who loves unconditionally.

But this internal conflict still nags at us.

We believe in a God of generous love and compassion so why do we feel that these people have been treated less than fairly?

It’s hard to get past the images of God we have lived with all these years. They are born of our experiences throughout life, the values we have acquired, the things about God we have been taught over the years, how we have interpreted the prayers we have been taught, how we have felt about events that have happened in our lives.

For some, strict and perhaps unforgiving parents influence their image of God. For others life has taught that justice means that everyone must be treated equally without fear or favour, despite any mitigating circumstances.

For others, people must too be punished in equal measure for wrongdoing because that is how it was in the world of our formative years.

Our image of God is built up by life experience – parents, family life, school, our own personality even. Our idea of God is mediated to us - we do not come to know God directly.

We are constantly tempted to make God in our own image and likeness. We want God to perform as we expect, according to the image we have built up over the years.

Jesus preached and taught by word and action a very different image of God – he preached of the generosity of a loving God, a God who is generous to all, at the start of the day and in the evening! We might even call it ‘out of control love’.

But it is a struggle, often lifelong to rid ourselves of old images and embrace the new.

Jacob wrestled with a stranger all night (Genesis 35) and even at daybreak when God departed (because that was who the stranger was), Jacob was left with a limp.

That’s a good image of our struggle to come to accept Jesus’ God, because, despite all those homilies, we still feel that God may have been a bit too generous! The question is, is our wrestling so that we can hang on to old images or to try to embrace those that Jesus offered us? The truth is, we still limp!

But God is a beckoning word, calling us out of ourselves and beyond ourselves. The journey to God is a journey of discovery and it is full of surprises.

- The God of Surprises by Gerard Hughes.

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Catholic Life, August 2014 - Page 7

Women’s interfaith seeking new participants THE Young Catholic Women’s Interfaith Fellowship, an initiative of the Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference Office for the Participation for Women, is searching for

inspiring women to participate in its 2015-2016 leadership program.

The aim of the two-year fellowship is to cultivate women’s capacity for leadership

LIZ Roberts from Pakenham outside a Hindu temple in Sydney which participants visited as part of the fellowship.

within the Catholic Church and society.

Ideal candidates should demonstrate an openness to spiritual growth and respect for other faith traditions.

Women between 25-45 years, having obtained an undergraduate degree, are well suited to commence the fellowship.

These women will be the fifth group to commence the Fellowship since it began in 2006.

Academically, each participant completes a Graduate Certificate in Theology accredited by the Broken Bay Institute.

The academic program is combined with a residential component that combines time for prayer, meditation, reflection and personal growth at Mount St Benedict Centre, Pennant Hills, Sydney.

Highlights of the fellowship include residential sessions at the beginning of each semester combining personal, spiritual and leadership formation with opportunities for Interfaith engagement.

Financial and practical support is provided for each participant to ensure travel and accommodation costs are not prohibitive.

Previous graduates and current participants of the fellowship have described it as ‘a psychological and social preparation for life’.

Others felt the experience

helped them become grounded in their spiritual development.

Liz Roberts from Pakenham parish shared her thoughts with Catholic Life on participating in the fellowship over the last two years.

“I volunteer in my parish and found the connections, friendships and advice I’ve gained through the fellowship will benefit this work in the future.

“I felt I wasn’t alone through getting to know other Catholic women of my generation doing positive work both inside and outside the church.

“My life changed considerably with the recent birth of my daughter during the two year program. With support from family and friends this has not hampered me from getting the best out of the program and participating fully.”

I’d really encourage other ladies in the diocese to apply for the next intake”.

Further information and application forms are available at: http://www.opw.catholic. org.au Applications close on October 1.

Current fellowship participants completed their fourth residential weekend of prayer, talks and activities at Mount St Benedict Centre last month.

Please contact fellowship coordinator Andrea Dean if you would like to discuss the fellowship program 0487

388 873 or fellowship.opw@ catholic.org.au

Colloquium focus on migration THE Australian Catholic Migrant and Refugee Office, in association with the Australian Catholic University, will host the fourth annual Bishop Joseph Grech Memorial Colloquium on Ethics and Migration on Thursday August 18, 7.30pm-9pm.

The colloquium will be held in the Philippa Brazill Lecture Theatre, Daniel Mannix Building, 8-18 Brunswick St, Fitzroy.

The annual event represents a platform for the Catholic Church and Australian Government to dialogue on migration issues. This year the topic will be Migration and Asylum: Towards a Better World.

Bishop of Darwin Eugene Hurley, will represent the Catholic Church at the event.

Minister for Social Services Kevin Andrews will represent the Liberals and Shadow Minister for Immigration and Border Protection Richard Marles will speak for Labor.

Facilitator will be Sarah Abo, news presenter from SBS World News.

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Page 8 - Catholic Life, August 2014

Welcome to country ceremony Catholic program now on Life-FM

By Pauline Whelan

CRANBOURNE EAST - St Thomas the Apostle Catholic Primary School community recognised National Sorry Day and Reconciliation Week with a special whole school assembly.

Each of the learning communities from Prep to Year 6 had been learning about the history and traditions of our Australian indigenous people, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders.

The students were most interested to learn about the significance of these events in history and the annual recognition given to them.

Each student made a hand which they decorated and wrote a word such as respect, sorry or reconciliation which together formed a “Sea of Hands” which were displayed as part of the ceremony.

Aunty Pat Ockwell, who is an elder from the Wurundjeri people attended and officially welcomed the community of St Thomas the Apostle to the land where we have established our school.

She explained where the tribal area of the Wurundjeri people extended to and the other indigenous lands it bordered.

She shared with us some in-

STUDENTS display the “Sea of Hands” created during their Reconciliation Week ceremony. formation about the Stolen dians of our land.

Generation and the history of Each student placed their both the Aboriginal and the ‘hand” in the display area, lisTorres Strait Islander flags. tened to prayers and enthusiasThese flags together with the tically joined in the song From Australian flag had been pre- Little Things Big Things Grow. sented to the school the week Everyone present learnt prior by Anthony Byrne the something new about the first Federal Member for Holt.

Australians, the history of our During the ceremony students country, and the indigenous traand staff shared facts about na- ditions of the Cranbourne East tional reconciliation and paid land on which St Thomas the respect to all cultures in Aus- Apostle community has come tralia, including the indigenous together to build a new school. people who were the first custo-

GIPPSLAND Christian radio station Life-FM has begun broadcasting a specifically Catholic program called The Journey.

The program which is produced by the Diocese of Wollongong is being broadcast at 10am and again at 10pm on Sundays.

Life-FM which covers most of Gippsland from its powerful transmitter on Mount Tassie can be found at 103.9FM. The Journey has regular segments including contributions from religious and prominent lay people, many of whom have a national profile.

There is a brief reflection on the Sunday Gospel which is provided by Wollongong Diocese clergy. It is hoped to eventually have input from clergy in other dioceses who are receiving the syndicated broadcasts.

Benedictine nun Sr Hilda Scott who is well-known from the ABC-TV series The Abbey provides simple stories and reflections in a segment called

Wisdom from the Abbey.

Catholic evangelist Bruce Downes provides The Catholic Guy and Dr Byron Pirola and Francine Pirola offer weekly tips to help develop vibrant Christian marriages in the Smart Loving segment.

Peter Gilmour, a scripture teacher, youth minister, graphic designer and musician, challenges young people to embrace life with Jesus in Living the Gospel.

Australia’s newest religious congregation Missionaries of God’s Love provide short messages that focus on new evangelisation, drawing believers on the fringes of faith into a deeper walk with Jesus.

There are also various other short segments, interviews, contemporary Catholic and Christian music through the show.

Youth Games at Warragul are a huge success

By Cassie Gawley OVER the Queen’s Birthday long weekend in June, the Diocesan Youth Ministry Office took 55 young people from all over the diocese to the annual State Youth Games weekend.

The youth games is an ecumenical event that is held at Lardner Park in Warragul, and involves playing sports during the day and celebrating at dynamic youth rallies each evening.

The three-day event was a wonderful success, with our young people participating as the diocesan team Peter’s Crew in sports such as dodgeball, basketball, netball ultimate frisbee, soccer, tennis and much more!

On Saturday afternoon, Fr Joseph Abutu, diocesan youth chaplain and his visiting Bishop Michael Apochi from Nige-

ria, came and shared a special lunch with the young people, before we headed to St Joseph’s Parish in Warragul for a youth Mass followed by a barbecue on the Saturday evening.

The weekend would not have been such a success without the dedication of our wonderful team of volunteers, including Aimee Hanratty, Gerard Barnes and Ruth and Edward O’Brien from the Sale/Maffra parish, Deacon Mark Kelly, Jacinta Langelaan, Matthew Hearn and many others from Warragul and Drouin parishes, Gavin Besterwitch from St Agatha’s Parish Cranbourne, and our incredible parent volunteers Sarah and Peter Cudmore, and Michelle and Richard Gawley, who all gave up their long weekend to assist us by driving, umpiring, coaching, cheering, cooking and time keeping.

MOLLY Hickmott (left) and Sian James-Bazeley at the games.

PETER’S Crew ready for action at the State Youth Games in their bright blue hoodies.

We would like to thank these to ensure that we stayed warm all of Peter’s Crew.

Overall, the weekend was fantastic volunteers for every- over the weekend.

The Diocesan Youth Minis- a terrific success and we look thing they did over the course try Office would like to thank forward to doing it all again in of the weekend.

We are also very grateful for Graeme Perkins and Colin 2015! the Warragul Lions Club, who Dyason for this donation, as it generously donated firewood was very much appreciated by

SOME of the Cranbourne members of Peter’s Crew with Fr Denis O’Bryan (third from left) and Fr Joseph Obuto (right).

Catholic Life, August 2014 - Page 9

Applications for funding close soon CHARITIES running programs in the Greater Gippsland area have until the end of this month to apply for funding from Trinity Families.

The Catholic charity has more than $130,000 available to support other charities in their work.

Applicants must have deductible gift recipient status and seek the funds to run programs which benefit families in the area covered by the municipalities of East Gippsland, Wellington, Latrobe, Baw Baw, South Gippsland, Bass Coast, Casey and Cardinia.

Trinity Families executive officer Colin Coomber said today there were more than 300 charities registered in Gippsland and many more which worked in the region but were registered elsewhere.

He said Trinity Families had been established to assist the needs of families and many people were surprised to learn that it gave away money each year to other charities.

“There are so many worthwhile causes and sometimes the local charities are swamped by the appeals conducted by the large national institutions which draw millions of dollars out of the region but provide little in the way of regional assistance.

“Trinity Families exists to ensure that our families are supported. Instead of creating new programs or duplicating existing services we prefer to assist those charities who are already doing the work at

ground level.”

Mr Coomber said Trinity Families, originally known as Bishop’s Family Foundation, had distributed more than $1 million over the past decade, thanks to the generosity of donors who supported its appeals.

“It is a good way of keeping your charitable donations local.”

He said the recent deregistration of a national charity which had collected in Gippsland in the past should serve as a warning for people to carefully consider before handing money over to collectors who spin a good yarn about work supposedly being done by them.

In reality many of the collectors were paid to collect and little idea where funds actually went, and in the case of the deregistered charity, more than half the funds collected were spent with companies run by the son of the directors who was unable to explain if any funds actually reached those who were supposed to be helped.

Mr Coomber said charities interested in applying for funds under the latest disbursement could obtain details from the website www.trinityfamilies. org.au and also apply on line.

Donations to assist the work of Trinities Families can also be made through the site which has a secure link to the National Australia Bank facilities.

More information on Trinity Families can be obtained from Mr Coomber on 5622 6688.

Parish ‘selfie’ wins

OUR FAMILIES NEED YOUR HELP

Times are tough for many families in our region with many suffering uncertain employment prospects. Government assistance only goes part-way to easing their burden.

What happens when a family member has special needs, requires drug, alcohol, family or relationship counselling, needs bereavement support, suicide prevention, emergency accommodation, or assistance with an at-risk adolescent?

Trinity Families has invested more than $1 million in funding other charities who run FAMILIES such projects and we could have given three times that amount if we had access to the funds.

We are appealing to all families and businesses in the Greater Gippsland area to donate generously to boost our trust fund so that we can assist more families.

Trinity

You can make a donation by visiting www.trinityfamilies.org.au or fill in the form below and post it off to: Trinity Families, PO Box 1410, Warragul 3820

✄ MOE - At the initiative of St Kieran’s Parish Pastoral Council, chairwoman Monica Huffer, the council decided to enter the ‘Parish Selfie’ competition organised by CathNews.

Monica gave the following description to accompany the entry: “Our Parish is located in Moe, Victoria and our parish priest is Fr Harry Dyer OMI. “In February this year we became ‘Parishes in Partnership’ with St Mary’s, Newborough.

At St Kieran’s we are very fortunate to have an active Parish Council that meets monthly.

“Here we are pictured in the St Kieran’s Presbytery with Fr Harry having one of our excit-

ing meetings!! Sometimes it can get a little boring and Fr Harry has to try and keep us awake!

“As you can see we all like to have a bit of fun! Most of the time we stay awake for the whole meeting!”

The parish was thrilled when the email came through from CathNews that its entry had won the competition.

The entry not only won the judges vote but also received the most ‘like’ responses from the users of Facebook. The winning prize was an iPad which the council decided to use as part of a fundraiser at Christmas.

Donation form: Trinity Families I/We enclose $............ towards the work of Trinity Families Please find enclosed a cheque/money order payable to the Trinity Families or debit my Visa or Mastercard.

❑❑❑❑ ❑❑❑❑ ❑❑❑❑ ❑❑❑❑ /

Expiry ............ ...............

/

/

Signature ................................................................................. Date ......... ......... .........

Name ....................................................................................................

Address ................................................................................................................................... ....................................................................................

Postcode............................

Please provide address so receipts can be issued Roman Catholic Diocese of Sale Charitable Fund ABN 51 486 581 500

Page 10 - Catholic Life, August 2014

Project Ochobo team reaches its target LOCH - “Thousands of people cannot stop smiling”. This was the picture painted by Bishop Michael Ekwoyi Apochi from the Diocese of Otukpo, which includes the village of Ochobo, Nigeria.

Bishop Apochi was speaking to the congregation at St Vincent’s Catholic Church in Loch following a Mass to celebrate the success of Project Ochobo, a project initiated by a small team of parishioners two years ago.

He described how villagers in Ochobo had met their daily water needs by walking to a stream some kilometres from their homes.

They carried water containers on their heads or in wheelbarrows, often with babies strapped to their backs.

In the wet season they not only coped with muddy, slippery tracks but also with the problem of polluted water from upstream causing diseases.

Villagers unable to make the long walk up hill would dig shallow wells, wait some hours for them to fill and then collect the polluted water in their containers.

The aim of the Project Ochobo team was to raise sufficient money to transport and connect clean water to the village of Ochobo, Nigeria.

From the outset it was agreed that every dollar raised would go to the water project. No overheads were taken out.

Therefore just over $18,000 has been remitted through St Joseph’s Parish account directly to Bishop Apochi’s account in Otukpo and he has personally overseen the construction of a water tower and the delivery of clean water to Ochobo.

Bishop Apochi was recently in Gippsland to mentor priests from his Nigerian diocese who are serving in Sale Diocese.

Whilst here he visited the parish of Korumburra and Loch, and was the principal celebrant at a

St Vincent’s Mass.

Parish priest Fr Peter Kooloos concelebrated with Nigerian priests, Frs Joseph Abutu, Francis Otobo and Stephen Onuoha. Enhancing celebrations was an African marching song for the entrance hymn.

All 14 members of the Project Ochobo team formed a procession to make a final monetary offering to Bishop Apochi.

Afterwards, a shared meal at the Loch Masonic Hall included a PowerPoint presentation of the two year journey of the project. This was followed by a heartfelt testimonial from Bishop Apochi supported by photos of villagers collecting water.

He said that just recently the inhabitants of Ochobo have had the privilege of seeing fresh, clean water flow from a set of taps situated in the centre of the village.

This situation is still far from equaling the comforts that we in Gippsland have experienced all our lives – even though having tank water can be difficult sometimes.

The 2500 population of Ochobo is divided into quarters and take it in turn to trek to the taps and wait to collect their daily supply of water in a variety of containers. It is at this stage that Bishop has witnessed many smiling faces.

He assured the Project Ochobo team that the elderly and the young will live longer and all will experience better health, spending less time in hospital due to common water borne diseases of dysentery, cholera, typhoid fever and hepatitis.

In replying to questions, Bishop Apochi said that many people from outlying villages are now walking some distance to Ochobo to collect clean water.

Further discussion has

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THE woman with the wheelbarrow will fill her three 20 litre containers and carry them back to her community - about three kilometers away. It will become an unnecessary journey if water pipes can be extended to her community.

THE Project Ochobo team (back, from left) Julie Osboldstone, Barney O’Meara, Steve Oldboldstone, Ray Ludenia, Fr Joseph Abutu, Vic Ferrore; (middle) Terry Ferrore, Hazel Rossi, Fr Stephen Onuoha, Maree Ludenia, Fr Francis Otobo, Bishop Michael Apochi, Fr Peter Kooloos, Ken Loughnan, Shirley Knight, Jan Loughnan. (front) Di Stewart, Joy O’Meara. Absent, Gerry Marvin Each of the members resulted in the Project Ochobo hours instead of the usual eight, team agreeing to raise $2500 with four hourly rest periods to of Project Ochobo have so that Bishop Apochi can cool the motor. A new pump experienced immense pleasure purchase a second pump and will allow Bishop Apochi to knowing that many thousands extend water pipes to outlying of Nigerian people have their generator.

The current pump is working villages, supplying water to a lives and health enriched with overtime, pumping water for 16 further 3000 people. access to unpolluted water.

Refugee conference in October THE fourth national conference on the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Refugees will take place at the Australian Catholic University, North Sydney from October 1-3.

The conference theme Towards a Better World was chosen from the papal message celebrating the 100th Aniversary of Migrant and Refugee Week.

Organised by the Australian Catholic Bishops' Conference through the Australian Catholic Migrant and Refugee Office,

the conference is supported by the Australian Catholic University, CatholicCare Canberra and Goulburn and Catholic Mission.

The conference is designed to explore a range of issues affecting refugees and asylum seekers including education, development and regional protection.

Keynote speakers include Australian Human Rights Commission president Prof Gillian Triggs, Together for Humanity Foundation national direc-

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tor Rabbi Zalman Kastel and Professor of International Relations ANU College of Asia and the Pacific Prof Lorraine Elliott, .

Day one provides a religious perspective around Catholic teaching on migration, pastoral care of migrants and refugees and religious diversity.

Day two and three will focus on multiculturalism, global and local migration trends, human trafficking, climate-induced displacement, children in detention, Australia’s refugee and asylum policies in particular Manus Island and Nauru.

Australian Catholic Bishops Conference Delegate for Migrants and Refugees, Bishop Gerard Hanna said the conference is timely considering the recent developments in refugee and asylum seeker policy in Australia.

Early bird registration closes on September 5: http://bit. ly/1oaqabD. Registration forms can also be obtained from ACMRO: (02) 6201 9848.

Catholic Life, August 2014 - Page 11

School celebrates its feast day Bishop Collins dies, 83

By Bernadette Hance

Bishop Collins stance�... so I decided to do it, I launched out into the deep.�

While working in the Northern Territory on Indigenous Catholic Missions he encouraged the use of Aboriginality in faith, allowing didgeridoos and clap-sticks to be played during masses.

Bishop Ted was also an outspoken opponent of the NT’s voluntary euthanasia laws, which he believed could be perilous for disadvantaged people.

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NAR NAR GOON - St James Primary school celebrated its feast day on July 25.

The day started with a liturgy in the church with Deacon Tony Aspinall embracing the story about St James the apostle beginning what we know as the anointing of the sick, after the death and resurrection of Jesus.

The students sang the school song at the end of the liturgy with much gusto and a presentation of school photos were shown to the congregation.

After the liturgy, the whole school, including parents and staff, gathered for a shared morning tea. All families generously baked, or sent something delicious to share as a community.

After recess, the school was involved in creating a whole DISPLAYING their pieces of bunting are (from left) Chelsea, Georschool bunting in the school gia, Cooper, Shakira and Scarlett. colours of red and green.

There was a beautifully 18 strings attached to it. He The students were asked to dressed Indian dancer who could bend the sound of the design something to represent showed her talents in a display note using his fingers. the school and cut it out to paste He also played the drums of skill and artistry. She could onto their individual piece of stamp her feet to the beat of the called tablas. These were two material.

This bunting will be dis- drum with over 600 taps per drums that he played using fingers, palms of his hand and played in the school in the li- minute.

The students were taught how tapping in different parts of the brary or Junior Learning Hub as a reminder of St James Feast to use their hands and feet to drum for a different sound. It move in a particular direction was fabulous music and dancDay 2014.

For lunch, the children were to tell stories while dancing. A ing and the students really partreated to a hot dog as a spe- favorite dance was to the music ticipated well.

The Bollywood dancers were cial gift from the parents’ and of Jai Ho. The man accompanying the an excellent finish to what was friends’ committee. dancer was able to play a numa fantastic feast day at St James In the afternoon, Bollywood ber of Indian instruments.

He Nar Nar Goon. dancers came to give the stucould skilfully play the sitar dents a little taste of India. which is like a big guitar with

FORMER Bishop of Darwin, Edmund “Ted� Collins MSC, died earlier this month, aged 83.

A Missionaries of the Sacred Heart priest, he was the Bishop of Darwin for 21 years until his retirement in 2007.

Bishop Ted, as he was known, died on August 8 at the St Joseph’s Aged Care Home in Kensington, in Sydney.

His successor Bishop Eugene Hurley described Bishop Collins as a man of “great kindness and pastoral gifts, much loved not only by members of his own faith, but by all who came in contact with him.�

Bishop Ted was in the police force until he was 24 before deciding to join the priesthood.

He told the ABC in 2007 “I had this sort of longing to follow the Lord a bit closer and I said “but I have to go back to school to learn Latin for in-

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Page 12 - Catholic Life, August 2014

New classroom structures introduced at Orbost

By Julie Kennedy ORBOST - This year St Joseph’s Primary School have introduced new classroom structures and routines.

The school has embarked on the contemporary teaching instruction model of the Daily 5 and CAFÉ created by the two sisters, Gail Boushey and Joan Moser.

The journey with this concept began after a visit to St Brigid’s, Officer. The early childhood team at St Brigid’s were extremely helpful and set St Joseph’s on the right track.

The Daily 5 is the structure used to created independent readers, the CAFÉ is a wealth of strategies used to build students comprehension, accuracy, fluency and expanding vocabulary.

The school is working on this project as a whole school approach. The Daily 5 structure is flexible enough to allow each teacher to tailor it to suit their own class. It works on building independent readers that are able to sustain reading (stamina) and use the CAFÉ strategies to grow and become better readers.

In each of the classrooms they have begun working on the

Quick calendar

What’s on & when AUGUST 20 – Catholic Life published 21 – Valley Region meeting, noon, Lumen Christi Hall, Churchill 24 - Caritas Australia 50th anniversary Mass and morning tea, St Patrick's Church, Pakenham, 10.30am 27-28 – Catholic Women’s League state conference, Warragul Arts Centre 28 - St Augustine of Hippo 31 - Closing date for funding applications to Trinity Families

SEPTEMBER

A ST Joseph's student reads to one of her peers as part of the Read to Self, Read to Someone initiative. concepts Read to Self and Read to Someone. The students have adjusted to the routine and look forward to the activities.

Improved results in reading assessments have been noticed Your key to 45,000 and the students regularly use potential customers. the language of the Daily Five.

Staff set a termly focus and with Ph 5622 6688 the help of the diocesan literacy officer the school works toward achieving its goals.

Catholic Life

First saint born in New World SAINT OF THE MONTH St Rose of Lima 1586-1617.

Feast Day: August 23 ST Rose of Lima was born Isabel Flores y de Oliva in the city of Lima, Peru, in 1586. She was one of the many children of Gaspar Flores and his wife, María de Oliva.

Her later nickname “Rose” comes from an incident in her babyhood: a servant claimed to have seen her face transform into a rose.

In 1597 she was confirmed by the Archbishop of Lima, Turibius de Mongrovejo, who was also to be declared a saint. She formally took the name of Rose at that time.

As a young girl - in emulation of the noted Dominican tertiary, St Catherine of Siena - she began to fast three times a week and performed severe penances in secret.

When she was admired for her beauty, Rose cut off her hair and smeared pepper on her face, upset that suitors were beginning to take notice of her.

She rejected all suitors against the objections of her friends and her family. Despite the censure of her parents, she spent many hours contemplating the Blessed Sacrament, which she received daily, an extremely rare practice in that period.

After daily fasting, she took to permanently abstain from eating meat. She helped the sick and hungry around her community, bringing them to her room and taking care of them.

Rose sold her fine needlework, and took flowers that she grew to market, to help her family. She made and sold lace and embroidery to care for the poor, and she prayed and did penance in a little grotto which she had built. Otherwise, she became a recluse, leaving her room only for her visits to church.

She attracted the attention of the Dominican friars, but her father forbade her from becoming a nun, so she entered the Third Order of St Dominic while living in her parents’ home.

In her 20th year she donned the habit of a tertiary and took a vow of perpetual virginity.

She donned a heavy crown made of silver, with small spikes on the inside, in emulation of the

STAINED glass window of St Rose of Lima by Plamen Petrov.

Crown of Thorns worn by Christ.

For 11 years she lived this way, with intervals of ecstasy, and died on August 24, 1617, at the age of 31. It is said that she prophesied the date of her death.

Rose was beatified by Pope Clement IX in 1667, and canonised in 1671, by Pope Clement X, the first Catholic in the Americas to be declared a saint.

The Church received reports of many miracles followed her death, including stories that she had cured a leper.

Her liturgical feast was inserted into the General Roman Calendar in 1729 for celebration initially on August 30, because August 24, the date of her death, is the feast of Saint Bartholomew the Apostle and August 30 was the closest date not already allocated to a well-known saint.

Pope Paul VI’s 1969 revision of the calendar made August 23 available, the day on which her feast day is now celebrated throughout the world, including Spain, but excluding Peru and some other Latin American countries, where August 30 is a public holiday in her honor.

In Sale Diocese, the Catholic Church at Rosedale is named in her honor.

7 – Priests’ Welfare Foundation annual Father’s Day collection 7 – Father’s Day 13 – St John Chrysostom 14 – Exaltation of the Holy Cross 14 - The 2ofUS CatholicCare pre-marriage education program, Warragul 19 – 3rd Term holidays begin 21 – St Matthew 27 – St Vincent de Paul 27 – AFL Grand Final 28 - Social Justice Sunday statement launch, St Michael's Church, Berwick, 10.30am

OCTOBER 1 – St Therese of Lisieux 4 – St Francis of Assisi 5 - Catholic Mission World Mission MOnth launch, St Jospeh's Church, Wonthaggi, 10.30am 5 – Daylight saving begins (turn clocks back 1 hour) 5-19 – Extraordinary Vatican synod on the family.

6 – 4th term begins 6 – Deadline for October Catholic Life 15 – Catholic Life published 15 – St Theresa of Avila 18 – St Luke 19 – Difference to Eternity

marriage enrichment program, Warragul 19 – Mission Sunday Appeal 19 – Centenary of St Joseph’s Church, Swan Reach, Mass 10.30am followed by lunch at hotel 22 – South Region meeting, 11.15am, Leongatha 26 – Valley Region meeting, Noon, St Mary’s Church meeting room, Newborough 28 – Sts Simon and Jude

NOVEMBER 1 – All Saints 2 – All Souls 4 – Melbourne Cup public holiday 9 – Dedication of the Lateran Basilica 9 - The 2ofUS CatholicCare pre-marriage education program, Warragul 11 – Remembrance Day 11 - Diocesan Pastoral Council meeting, 9.30am, Room 58, Sion House, Warragul 18 – Central Region meeting, 7.30pm, Trafalgar 18 – East Region meeting, 10.30am, Orbost 23 – Feast of Christ the King 30 – Advent begins 30 – St Andrew

DECEMBER 3 – St Francis Xavier 4 – Valley Region Christmas lunch, Morwell Club, Helen St 6 – St Nicholas 8 – Immaculate conception 14 – St John of the Cross 18 – Christmas holidays begin 25 – Christmas Day 26 – Boxing Day 26 – St Stephen 27 – St John 29 – Holy Family Feast Day 31 – New Year’s Eve

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Catholic Life, August 2014 - Page 13

Caritas Australia celebrating 50 years of service CARITAS Australia, the international aid and development agency of the Catholic Church in Australia, is celebrating 50 years of standing in solidarity with the world’s most vulnerable communities.

Caritas Australia started in the early 1960s among lay Catholics who wanted to make a difference on issues of social justice. To tackle the issues of hunger and poverty, they created the Catholic Overseas Relief Committee in 1964.

The same year parishes collected money to assist a Diocesan Priest working in Peru, Latin America and the Newman Institute conducted a parish-based Lenten appeal across Adelaide, raising nearly 1000 pounds for a deep-sea fishing boat for First Australian communities off Bathurst Island.

Today Caritas Australia is part of one of the largest humanitarian networks in the world Caritas Internationalis, a confederation of 165 national Caritas organisations, with over one million staff and volunteers.

Caritas Australia’s humanitarian assistance and long-term development programs have supported communities in nearly 120 countries across Africa, Asia, the Pacific and Latin America, as well as First Australian communities.

Over the decades, Caritas Australia has also worked to achieve God’s vision of a just and compassionate world by deepening public understanding of poverty, aid and development in Australia. This work has enabled supporters to care, love and partner with the world’s most marginalised in the name of Jesus.

Caritas Australia chief executive officer Paul O’Callaghan, said that Australian Catholic schools and parishes have been instrumental in achieving significant change with partner organisations in First Australian communities and overseas.

“For 50 years, our volunteers, supporters, partners and staff have worked alongside some of the world’s poorest communities. All human beings are part of God’s family and each of them is worthy of respect and dignity. We work with them on that basis,” he said.

“When the community is at the centre of decision-making, positive change becomes possible. Caritas Australia fosters partnerships with communities that are most vulnerable to extreme poverty and injustice and supports them to be the architects of their own sustainable development. We have also sought to educate and inspire fellow Australians to act for justice in this regard,” Mr

2015 youth festival to be in Adelaide THE second Australian Catholic Youth Festival will be held in Adelaide from December 3-5, 2015, the Office for Youth announced last week.

Hosted by the Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference to engage and empower young people in the life of the Catholic Church, the festival is expected to draw more than 4000 participants.

Bishop Anthony Fisher OP, the Bishops’ Delegate for Youth said Australian bishops were committed to the festival.

“After the success of the inaugural event in Melbourne and its impact across the country, the Australian bishops have committed to repeating the festival every three years.

“It is fantastic that we are able to hold the next festival in Adelaide in 2015, and I invite all young people and their teachers and youth ministers from around Australia to make the pilgrimage to Adelaide,” he said.

The theme of the Festival is ‘Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God’ (Mt 5:8).

This is also the theme chosen for 2015 diocesan celebrations in advance of World Youth Day 2016.

Adelaide Archbishop Philip Wilson said “I am proud that we are able to host the festival in Adelaide, and I look forward to welcoming thousands of young people from around the country to our wonderful city to

O’Callaghan said.

The story of this support can be found in a new film on the agency’s website, along with other films that focus on work in specific regions. And in this 50th Jubilee year, the story will also be celebrated in a special Celebration Mass with Australia’s Catholic Bishops at Mary Mackillop Chapel in North

Sydney on November 26.

“It is the shared faith, compassion and commitment to act for justice in solidarity with the poor that marks out Caritas Australia’s role in transforming lives within our First Australian communities and in more than 30 countries,” he said.

For more information visit www.caritas.org.au/50years

to explore Caritas Australia’s interactive timeline, maps and videos, and discover the many faces of Caritas Australia.

The diocesan celebration of the Caritas golden jubilee will take the form of a Mass and morning tea at St Patrick’s Parish, Pakenham, at 10.30am on Sunday, August 24.

Fishitas funds aid Caritas

SALE Diocese representative of students.

TRARALGON - The St Gabriel’s School Community put a call to care for others into action when they supported the Caritas Project Compassion program this semester.

Caritas is the largest Catholic Aid organisation in Australia who support social justice around the globe. Through ‘Project Compassion’, they help communities and countries where there is a need, to support themselves through improved education, facilities and training.

Caritas Australia Susan Grout accepts a cheque from St Gabriel’s This year the school turned their thoughts to fishing communities in South Sudan where $30 from Caritas would help a family to purchase nets and equipment to help them to provide for themselves.

The school program was called “Fishitas” and grades worked to raise money to ‘buy’ fish at $15 each.

These were added to a board which showed the grade and school progress on their way to their overall goal of $2000.

The total raised was $2179.25

which will now be sent to Caritas to support the programs they identify throughout the world.

Children in classes not only brought in pocket money from home, but ran classroom initiatives such as raffles, auctions, sales of handmade items and competitions. Susan Grout, the local representative of Caritas, visited the school recently to accept a cheque and congratulate the students for their concern and endeavour.

Former Sale mayoress dies THE Mary of the Cross MacKillop statue outside Adelaide’s St Francis Xavier Cathedral. share in the Good News.

“I am particularly excited about the theme for the festival as it allows us to experience the journey of St Mary MacKillop here in Adelaide. Mary was a woman who in the face of many challenges, kept her heart pure and focused on Christ.”.

The ACBC Office for Youth will coordinate the festival, in partnership with the Archdiocese of Adelaide and Catholic Education South Australia.

Over the coming months, a steering committee will be established along with campaigns for an official festival song, workshop presenters and youth involvement.

An overview of the successful 2013 festival is available at www.youthfestival.catholic.org. au.

A FORMER mayoress of Sale, Nancy Clancy, died on May 30, aged 91.

Mrs Clancy came to Sale with her husband Pat and six children in 1960. Both Pat and Nancy quickly became involved in community, church and school activities. Pat pre-deceased her in 1996. They had been married for 51 years.

Pat became mayor of Sale twice in the late 60s and Mrs Clancy quickly gained popularity as mayoress and as a member of various organisations including Lions as a Lions Lady, and with her work with Kyndalyn (the predecessor to the George Gray Centre), Catholic Women’s League, Legion of Mary and the Ashleigh House Committee.

In fact she spent her last six years at Ashleigh House and was well respected by staff and other residents, especially her cooking lessons.

She was involved in many activities, including swimming and bingo.

Nancy Clancy At the time of her death she was actually leading the house footy tipping!

She was born in Brunswick, the daughter of Nellie and Tommy Donovan, an SP – or illegal - bookie in the 20s, 30s and 40s of inner Melbourne.

A couple of years after her marriage to Pat Clancy they moved to Maryknoll to raise their family in a strong Catholic environment before moving on to Sale.

Nancy became renowned,

through tuckshops and fetes, as a first class cook. Her sponges were so famous that they rarely got on to the stall tables before being snapped up by those in the know from the boot of her car before she could get them to the cake stall!

According to her family, Nancy’s major legacy is her family itself.

She has six children (Bernard (Ocean Grove), Anne and John (Sale), Margaret Bailey (Lennox Head), Adrian (Melbourne) and Mary Storie (Tanjil South) as well as 15 grand children and six great grand children.

Nancy had a great sense of humor and always said there was no such thing as bad luck, believing people made their own. She lived a selfless life, always placing others first, especially her family.

Her Requiem Mass was celebrated at St Mary’s Cathedral

by Fr Andrew Wise and Fr Peter Bickley, a long-standing family friend.

Page 14 - Catholic Life, August 2014

Budgeting is important, no matter what your income HOW often do you say to your self “there’s too much month left at the end of the money!”?

Like space in a house, many of us find that the need for cash always expands to equal what’s available plus 20 percent. It matters not what your income is, we could always use some more.

Many people, especially the younger tech savvy generation M are finding that credit is not the same as cash and many are incurring huge debts and especially phone debts. The level of bankruptcy in the under 30’s is at a record high level.

Whatever your situation, budgeting your expenses to fit with your income is a good thing.

It’s really just another form of planning and everything we do we’ll do better if we’re following a plan, or road map, or instruction manual.

Taking things step by step and doing things in the right order makes good sense, and apart from other things also instil a sense of discipline, which is necessary if we are to achieve our short and long term goals.

Many of us readers will already follow a budget of greater or lesser complexity.

Some of us don’t and some of us don’t know what we do.

Developing a budget is quite a simple process. It is simply a process of determining our income and establishing our estimated expenditure against that income, so we know what we will be able to spend or not, as the case may be.

Whether you’re an age pensioner, a big business owner or a wage and salary earner, the process is the same.

Mostly we can determine our income fairly readily. As wage and salary earners or pensioners we can easily estimate what we’ll get over the next week, month and year.

In business or as an investor we can also make reasonable estimates. That’s the first step, the easy one.

The hardest thing to do is to determine where your money

DOLLAR$ & SENSE with David Wells

will go.

To do this you will need to assess where all your money is disappearing to – rent, contracts, phones, rates mortgages etc and all the money you spend on a weekly and monthly basis will need to be accounted for.

A good idea is to take a note book and write down everything you spend for a month, in detail, down to the last cent. Even the casual chocolate bar needs to be counted.

This may seem extreme, but you’ll be surprised at how much can be trimmed from the “nonessentials”.

Then categorise all your expenses and list each category by priority.

When all the expenses are totalled you’ll soon see whether you have a capacity to save or whether you need to revisit your expenses.

If your expenses are less than your income then things aren’t too bad. But many of us find that we aren’t earning enough to cover our real expenses after all. Hence the credit cards aren’t paid off each month and we pay huge interest bills, or we never seem to get any closer to our dreams.

If you take you details and count them across a full year you’ll get a good picture of your annual cash flow. From this you can really take some constructive steps to address any problems.

Ask yourself, “Is this expense really necessary?”

“Can I enhance my income without sacrificing too much?”

The answers will help you take control of your money.

You’ll see whether you are overspending, but most importantly you’ll also see where.

If you know what the

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problem is you have taken the first and biggest step in fixing it.

Maintaining the numbers on a regular basis will also help to keep you disciplined, and allow you to identify things early and take remedial steps or plan for future expenses in time.

Developing a budget is

pointless if you don’t keep it upto-date, so take a few minutes every week and write things down and check your progress.

In time, if you keep to it, your monetary discipline will become a habit and you’ll find things are easier, or if not easier at least you’ll know why.

Fortunately, most banks now offer an ‘app” that will help you track your spending. It links with your bank account and will help analyse your expenses. Of course, these things work only if you use them.

Restricting your spending to fit with your budget isn’t

always an attractive task, but it is definitely necessary if you are to make any progress financially.

• This report is intended to provide general advice. In preparing this advice, David Wells and Baillieu Holst Ltd did not take into account the investment objective, the financial situation and particular needs of any particular person.

Before making an investment decision on the basis of this advice, you need to consider, with or without the assistance of an adviser, whether the advice is appropriate in light of your particular investment needs, objectives and financial circumstances.

Ordinariate parish's procession

HEYFIELD - The Ordinariate Parish of the Most Holy Family at the Heyfield Church has held its first Corpus Christi procession.

The monstrance was carried

by Fr Ken Clark and members of the congregation processed around the Church in silence.

Four stops were made where there were Gospel readings,

prayer, and Benediction.

The procession culminated in Exposition, and Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament.

It was a great first procession, and the Ordinariate has started to plan next year’s procession.

It is hoping that many more people will join in next year.

The Ordinariate in Gippsland is based in Maffra where

Fr Clark, an ordained Catholic priest, ministers to the former Anglicans who have come over to the Catholic Church via the Ordinariate which is in full communion with Rome.

Masses are held each Sunday in Heyfield and fulfill the Sunday Mass attendance requirements of all Catholics.

CWL Leongatha conference THE Catholic Women’s League held its annual Sale Diocese conference on June 3 at Korumburra.

The conference opened with Mass at St Joseph’s Church followed by registration and morning tea. Korumburra president Anne Fowles welcomed all and shire president Cr Jim Fawcett opened the conference.

Reports were given followed by guest speakers from Marist Sion College, Warragul.

Chaplain Deacon Mark Kelly spoke of the justice work the school is involved in.

The students assist with the soup vans in Warragul and Melbourne distributing food to those in need.

They also assist at the Warragul Special School in many different ways, reading swimming and helping with maintenance work.

Senior student Nick spoke of his experience in Melbourne with Deacon Kelly, an office member and two other boys packaging soup, sandwiches, cordial and fruit and distributing them to regulars.

The soup vans serve 300 people a night and over 10,000

meals a year. Senior student Todd spoke of going to Dareton out of Mildura where they helped the Sisters of Charity in the primary school with teaching, football and other activities. These children are predominately aboriginal.

Ad an alternative to schoolies week some students went to East Timor. St Francis Xavier College, Beaconsfield, students helped out at the Dominican Orphanage in Deli.

The Angelus was recited at midday and Fr Peter Koolos thanked all members for their great subscription to the Sale Diocese. President Pat lead us in a very spirited reflection with St Mary of the Cross MacKillop as our model.

Next speaker Jim Qullinan spoke of the many uplifting experiences he has had in his life with messages such as: We are living in exciting times. Jesus is always there helping us. He has not abandoned us. There are many signs of his help in our lives every day. Be thankful for all the good things that have happened this week. Be always positive and look for good things to celebrate.

General president Jewel congratulated all branches on their achievements during the year and reminded of the general conference at the Warragul Arts Centre on August 27-28. She has completed her three years as general president and we thank her for her leadership over that time.

Sale President Pat announced the new committee for the next year. Raffle was drawn with the winner being Noreen Norton from Leongatha.

Pat thanked all who helped make the conference a success especially Korumburra branch.

The day finished with closing prayers and afternoon tea.

The annual general conference is in the Fountain Room at Warragul Arts Centre and each day commences with Mass at St Joseph’s Church Warragul at 9-30am.

The conference closes at 1pm on the Thursday with raffle and lunch.

Catholic Life, August 2014 - Page 15

Marian Conference talk on Mary, Mother of Priests

By Fr Benedict M. La Volpe

words: Behold your Mother!

Though Mary is our mother in the order of grace from the moment of the Annunciation we should see these final words of Jesus as a final testimony in giving His Mother to us all as His disciples.

The priest who is conformed to the Priesthood of Jesus Christ should therefore take the Blessed Mother into his home and make Her his mother too.

This article is the first part of the talk given to this year’s Marian Conference at Traralgon by Fr La Volpe, who is a priest of the Order of Friars Minor Conventual.

I

n 1952, a quaint vademecum for priests was published in France written by Fr Emile Neubert SM, entitled Mary and the Priestly Ministry This book, translated into English by Thomas Stanley SM is a good guide to the role of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the life of the Priest.

I have used this book as a guide, rather I have used some of the subtitles in the book to help form the structure of this talk and to fill in some areas that I believe are still as necessary today as they were in 1952!

Pope Francis reminds us that: “Mary is mother, and a mother concerns herself above all with the health of her children, she knows how to care for it with great and tender love. … A mother helps her children to grow and wants them to grow well; for this she educates them not to fall into laziness – which derives from a certain well-being – not to settle into a comfortable life that contents itself only with having things.

The mother cares for the children so that they grow more, they grow strong, able to take responsibility, to commit themselves in life, to pursue grand ideals. In the Gospel St. Luke tells us that, in the family of Nazareth, Jesus “grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favor of God

Living close to Mary Fr La Volpe was upon him” (Luke 2:40).

Our Lady does the same thing in us, she helps us to grow as human beings and in the faith, to be strong and not to give in to the temptation to be human and Christian in a superficial way, but to live with responsibility, to aim ever higher.”

The Holy Father rightly places the Blessed Virgin Mary as the exemplar of motherhood for all Christianity and therefore for the priest as well.

I was blessed to have travelled as a pilgrim to the Holy Land for the first time this January and since my return I am often asked what my favorite place was.

Being a Franciscan, most people would assume Bethlehem for the love that St Francis had for the Incarnation.

I often shock people by my answer.

My favorite place was upstairs in the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre at the place of the Lord’s Crucifixion and death and the chapel nearby as it was here that Our Lord spoke those

Discerning the will of God Of course the first stage in the life of a priest is in his discernment to that vocation given to him by God. The Catechism of the Catholic Church reminds us of Our Lady’s role in keeping with the divine plan: “…Thus the Blessed Virgin advanced in her pilgrimage of faith, and faithfully persevered in her union with her Son unto the cross. There she stood, in keeping with the divine plan, enduring with her only begotten Son the intensity of his suffering, joining herself with his sacrifice in her mother’s

heart, and lovingly consenting to the immolation of this victim, born of her: to be given, by the same Christ Jesus dying on the cross, as a mother to his disciple, with these words: ‘Woman, behold your son.’”

(CCC 964).

If a young man is able to allow the Blessed Mother to enter his heart, and is then able to follow her lead, i.e. true acceptance of God’s will, he would be more willing to accept the call coming from God. The so-called vocation crisis is more a crisis of listening to the divine plan. We could not possibly believe that God has stopped calling young men to the priesthood!

Allowing ourselves to surrender ourselves to the divine plan brings us to the realisation that it is God’s call that we should follow not our own. The Catechism continues: “By her complete adherence to the Father’s will, to his Son’s redemptive work, and to every prompting of the Holy Spirit, the Virgin Mary is the Church’s model of faith and charity.

Thus she is a “preeminent and

. . . wholly unique member of the Church”; indeed, she is the “exemplary realisation” (typus) 510 of the Church.” (CCC 967).

Pope Saint John Paul II summarised this well when during his General Audience gave the following teaching: “What should we ask of Mary as Mother of Priests?” asks Pope John Paul II. “For them we ...must ask Mary especially for the grace of knowing how to accept God’s gift with grateful love, fully appreciating it as she did in the Magnificat—the grace of generosity in self-giving, in order to imitate her example as a “generous Mother”; the grace of purity and fidelity in the obligation of celibacy, following her example as the “faithful Virgin”; the grace of burning, merciful love, in the light of her witness as the “Mother of mercy”. With her example and intercession the Blessed Virgin keeps vigilant watch over the growth of vocations and priestly life in the Church” (JPII, Pastores dabo vobis, 82).

Literacy by the months of year

School celebrates grandparents ST Michael’s students Cohen, Josh, Mia, Aluel and Tess at their January learning booth.

BRODYN Blandford (centre) pictured with Nanny Jenny Whitbourne and great grandparents Mary and Maurice Riley NEWBOROUGH St Mary’s Catholic Primary School recently celebrated Grandparents Day. The children invited their Grandparents to the schoo and the celebrations started with a liturgy in the church acknowledging the important role of grandparents in families.

The children prepared a special song honoring grandparents, then the families were invited to the classrooms to look at their grandchild’s work. Morning tea was shared by all.

The children and grandparents enjoyed a particularly nice morning together.

TRARALGON - The Grade 3/4 students of Traralgon’s St Michael’s Primary School held a literacy-based Learning Assembly where they were given the opportunity to showcase some of the work they had been doing in class on their book study task.

The inquiry topic for last term was ‘Ready, Set, Grow’ and as part of the topic the children not only did their book study but they also learnt about the life cycle of a plant.

The children worked in collaborative teams to research either a season or a month. As part of the learning assembly the children were encouraged on the day to dress up in clothes that were appropriate to the season or month that they had been researching.

Family and friends were invited to come in during the afternoon and to walk around the school hall and the Grade 3/4 learning area and look at the displays the children had put together.

Students constructed dioramas, created PowerPoints, de-

signed menus in the form of brochures, designed posters and made paper characters. They also wrote persuasive texts, narratives, alliterations, recounts, rich sentences using similes, Cinquain poems and limericks.

Another task that the children were involved in was to take home a garden buddy.

Grade 3/4 teacher, Sarah Morrow said, “The garden buddy encouraged the grade 3/4s to experience their own garden at home and for some to create their very own garden.” They then shared their experiences with the rest of their class us-

ing photos, drawings, text, twitter and by bringing in what they had grown later on.

When asked about the book study task grade 3 student, Anna-Rose replied,” I got to learn more about autumn and I learnt that all leaves are different from the same tree. Grade 4 student, Madi said’” It was great that we got to create our own ideas and brainstorm together in our team.”

As a reflection of the book study task, in their teams, the children completed stars and wishes charts as well as PPG charts.

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Page 16 - Catholic Life, August 2014

Sale priest's story a Rainbow over Narre Warren RAINBOW OVER NARRE WARREN by Elsie Johnstone, published by G & E Johnstone Pty Ltd, distributed by Our Lady Help of Christians Parish, paperback, 230 pages.

THIS book is a wonderful tribute to priest of our diocese Fr John Allen who died in July last year from pancreatic cancer.

being advised he had incurable cancer.

Fr John started a journal but made only two entries which are reproduced in the book and then there is his final message of hope and thanks which he wrote after entering hospital for the last time.

There are various photographs of the priest and his wider family but perhaps the greatest part of this look is the publications of the outpouring of love directed to him in cards and phone messages from friends, and parishioners.

They give a fantastic insight into the high regard that people had for this priest, who departed life too young.

PRAYING WITH CHRISTIAN MYSTICS

by Annetta Maguire, published by Columba Press, distributed

by Rainbow Books, paperback, 95 pages, $16.95.

The author is his sister who is directing proceeds of the book towards a parish centre to be built in his memory.

The first part of the book includes a chapter written by Fr Allen on his path to the priesthood, his early life at Lake Entrance as part of the Allen family, his schooling with the Marist Brothers in Sale and his first job at St Vincent's Hospital.

After deciding to apply for the seminary, he needed a reference from his parish priest but the sometimes cantankerous Fr Rowe who was feuding with just about everyone in the parish at the time refused because he was an Allen.

Conveying the bad news to Fr Gerard Coffey, who was the bishop's secretary, the conversation was head by Bishop Arthur Fox, who popped his head around the corner and said "If Fr Rowe won't give you a reference John Allen, that's good enough reference for me."

The rest of the book includes various anecdotes, some of his sermons, articles written about him, his farewell at Narre Warren when he transferred to Iona, and then the sad news of

THE mystics are often regarded as strange people who live on the fringe of the Church, seeing life and faith from a different angel.

To often their wisdom is overlooked by those seeking to understand more, who instead turn to the writing and teachings of the sages and wise men of other religions.

The author too followed this path until she decided to look deeper into her own faith.

What she found was great wisdom in the writings of four mystics, who perhaps in a different era might have been regarded as prophets.

This book is an introduction to the great mystics Julian of Norwich, St Theresa of Avila, St John of the Cross and Meister Eckhart.

Each comes from a different era but each gives a guide to inspire people to a closer relationship with God. It is a small book which is easy to read and, in doing so, the reader will be drawn to a better understanding of what makes a mystic and the path they offer.

Inspiration for the book came from the theologian Karl Rahner who wrote "The Christian of the future will be a mystic or he or she will not exist at all."

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Browse through our range of books and sacramental and religious gifts, or search for specific items by author, title or keyword.

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The book is set out with various passages for reflection and footnotes direct to further reading.

BITE SIZE VATICAN II by Anthony Gooley, published and distributed by St Pauls Publications, paperback, 205 pages, rrp $24.95.

VATICAN II was a momentous time in the history of the Catholic Church and now 50 years or so later the repercussions of the changes brought about are still having an affect on us all.

The documents produced

by Vatican II have long been available to study but the official tone and the scholarly language used can lead the average person to get bogged down in lengthy sentences.

Most give up without having even begun to understand the thrust of the four constitutional documents Lumen Gentium, Sacrosanctum Concilium, Dei Verbum and Gaudium et Spes.

Using simple and direct language the author introduces the reader to the documents and

Talking about Books helps to convey the significant meaning of them.

He handles the deep theological issues without bamboozling or muddying already murky waters.

It makes the topic of Vatican II and interesting one for the laity instead of consigning to the bookshelf, rarely to be visited.

Gooley is a permanent deacon in Brisbane, husband and father of two.

Interestingly, it carries no imprimatur yet on the back cover receives high praise from Archbishop of Brisbane Mark Coleridge and Bishop of Ballarat Paul Bird CSsR. SISTERHOOD OF SAINTS

by Melanie Rigny, published by Franciscan Media, distributed by Rainbow Books, hardback 360 pages, rrp $24.95.

THERE are literally hundreds and hundreds of saints, some well known and others obscured by the passage of time and legend.

There are many books published about the saints but this is the first we have seen which bands together and 365

day litany of female saints.

Among this group are of course the Virgin Mary, and all the better known saints but there are many more we know little about.

Some have been saints for only a few years.

Each day's entry features a short reflection of the life of the saint with some brief biological information and her relevance to today.

In most cases there is an inspirational comment attributed to the saint, or if there is no such quote, then there is a fitting scripture quote, or something from the canonisation proceedings.

Finally there is a daily challenge to contemplate based on the charism of the particular saint.

The books lacks pictures or icons featuring these saintly women but the reason for this is that many of these saints and martyrs are unlikely to be have been depicted in art.

Women like St Anne Line who was martyred for harboring a Catholic priest in England in 1601 ask us to consider what the world would be like where we could be arrested and martyred for hiding a priest.

Andrew Chinn inspirational

ANDREW Chinn has the young Traralgon students up and singing as he entertains them.

TRARALGON - Singer Com- Australia, New Zealand and Prize’.” poser Andrew Chinn recently North America, visiting schools Andrew’s concerts and workheld workshops at St Michael’s and parishes, sharing his faith shops are celebrations of faith Primary School. through music. and fun through singing, acAndrew has an extensive Workshops were held for jun- tions and a bit of comedy as background in Catholic educa- ior, middle and senior school well. The students were very tion having taught in Catholic and at the end of the day a con- much encouraged to be active primary schools in Sydney for cert was held and parents were participants, rather than specta20 years. invited along to enjoy the per- tors.

His mission is to provide formance.

School principal Cathy quality resources to enhance When asked about the con- Blackford said, “The students the teaching of Religious Edu- cert, grade 4 student, Ella said,” and staff and parents from St. cation with a particular empha- The Rainbow Song was my fa- Michael’s thoroughly enjoyed sis on the Catholic faith, and vourite and the judging of the the day and would like to thank to create and perform music to folding of the material.” Lily Andrew for sharing his talent enhance the celebration of litur- from grade 1 said, “Doing the and gifts with them and for the gies in school and parish set- dancing at the back.” Grade 3 inspirational enthusiasm he distings. student, Eliza said, “I enjoyed played.”

He tours extensively around the Biblical Quiz with the ‘Nice

Catholic Life, August 2014 - Page 17

world news ...

world news ...

Put Christ first Pope says at Seoul beatifications SEOUL (Zenit) -As Pope Francis beatified 124 martyrs on August 16, he exhorted Koreans to follow the martyrs’ example and resist the urge to “water down the radical demnds of the Gospel and to conform to the spirit of this age.”

The Pope celebrated the Mass of beatification before a crowd of 800,000 at a square in downtown Seoul.

In his homily, which he gave in Italian, with pauses for translation to Korean, he reflected on the history of Catholicism in Korea. Today the country is about 10% Catholic.

“In God’s mysterious providence,” he said, “the Christian faith was not brought to the shores of Korea through missionaries; rather, it entered through the hearts and minds of the Korean people themselves.

It was prompted by intellectual curiosity, the search for religious truth. Through an initial encounter with the Gospel, the first Korean Christians opened their minds to Jesus. They wanted to know more about this Christ who suffered, died, and rose from the dead.

“Learning about Jesus soon

led to an encounter with the Lord, the first baptisms, the yearning for a full sacramental and ecclesial life, and the beginnings of missionary outreach. It also bore fruit in communities inspired by the early Church, in which the believers were truly one in mind and heart, regardless of traditional social differences, and held all things in common.”

It was this fervor that led to the 18th and 19th century martyrdoms that Francis recognised.

He observed how the unique history of the Korean people’s faith shows the importance of the laity. And he drew a message from the Gospel “important … for all of us”: “Jesus asks the Father to consecrate us in truth, and to protect us from the world.

“First of all, it is significant that, while Jesus asks the Father to consecrate and protect us, he does not ask him to take us out of the world. We know that he sends his disciples forth to be a leaven of holiness and truth in the world: the salt of the earth, the light of the world. In this, the martyrs show us the way.”

POPE Francis is greeting by thousands of adoring people in Seoul on his visit to Korea.

The Holy Father noted how “this meant persecution, and faith challenged by the world, very early in their history, the later flight to the mountains, and in countless ways we are first Korean Christians “had to where they formed Catholic asked to compromise our faith, choose between following Je- villages. They were willing to water down the radical desus or the world.” to make great sacrifices and mands of the Gospel and to They “knew the cost of disci- let themselves be stripped of conform to the spirit of this age. pleship,” he said, and for many, whatever kept them from Christ “Yet the martyrs call out to – possessions and land, pres- us to put Christ first and to see tige and honor – for they knew all else in this world in relation that Christ alone was their true to him and his eternal Kingtreasure.” dom. They challenge us to which comes with the support The Pontiff remarked that to- think about what, if anything, of bishops from Mosul – was day, too, we face a temptation we ourselves would be willing sent to Aid to the Church in similar to that resisted by the to die for.”

Need, the Catholic charity for martyrs: “We today can find our persecuted and other suffering Christians.

The charity’s International Executive President, Baron Johannes Heereman, arrived in Erbil this morning accompanied by ACN’s Director of Proto the church at the moment. On jects, Regina Lynch, and Dep- By Oliver Maksan Sundays there are never more uty Communications Director, “AS a priest I ask you above all than five people. Only the very Maria Lozano.

Since the crisis broke on 10th to pray for peace in the Holy courageous ones come. It’s June when the jihadists seized Land. I work where the Prince simply too dangerous.

“Because of the bombings Mosul, Aid to the Church in of Peace Jesus Christ was born.

Need has provided $287,000 But we have no peace here.” people don’t dare go out onto With these words Fr Mario da the streets and they prefer to (EUR €200,000) in emergency Silva recently approached the stay in their houses. We’ve aid to northern Iraq, of which half was announced earlier this benefactors of the internation- therefore started a telephone al Catholic charity Aid to the pastoral service. Every day the week.

In his message, Patriarch Church in Need in Gaza.

Pastor and I call the faithful.

The Brazilian cleric works in Sako highlighted the scale of “We ask about the families, the crisis facing more than the Holy Family Catholic par- how they are, what they need, 100,000 people who fled 13 vil- ish in Gaza City. He belongs to and we also attempt to give lages in Nineveh for towns and the order ‘Institute of the Word them spiritual courage.” In view Incarnate IVE’, which originat- of the continuing attacks the villages further north.

He said vast numbers of dis- ed in Argentina. people are desperate, Fr Mario “We also need your material placed people “have been trying said. to survive in parks and public assistance to meet the most ba“The children in particular places for the past seven days”. sic needs of the refugees, such are very afraid of the bombs.”

The Patriarch added: “From as water, food and clothing.

Alongside the two priests a spiritual and humanitarian May God bless your generosthere are also six nuns living in point of view, the present cir- ity,” da Silva continued. About the parish from the community cumstances for these exiled 900 refugees have found refuge people are not acceptable while in a Catholic school and are re- founded by Blessed Mother Teresa. They look after mentally the suffering increases and the ceiving support there. international efforts to alleviate At present about 170 Catho- and physically disabled chiltheir pain are insufficient.” lics live in the Gaza Strip with dren.

Aid to the Church in Need Patriarch Sako reiterated its population of 1.8 million. concerns about migration of Because of the war, pastoral supports the Catholic Church Christians, amid warnings from care is difficult, according to Fr in Gaza in its work. At the request of the Latin Patriarchate a number of bishops from the Mario. region that the survival of one “In spite of the situation we of Jerusalem emergency aid has of the world’s oldest Church celebrate Holy Mass every day now been approved to the tune communities could be close to and perform Eucharistic adora- of $70,000. extinction. tion. But hardly anyone comes

Call to flush out jihadist forces

By John Pontifex IRAQ’S most senior Christian leader has declared that the US and the EU have a moral obligation to flush out jihadist forces from the Nineveh plains and enable communities to return to their ancestral homes.

In a statement released on August 13, Chaldean Catholic Patriarch Louis Raphael I Sako of Baghdad called on the US, European countries and Arab nations to join forces and reclaim ancient communities in Nineveh from Islamist fighters.

He said outside intervention was necessary because the Iraq government in Baghdad and the Kurdistan Regional Government lacked the resources to defeat the Islamic State, formerly ISIS, who last week seized towns and villages in Nineveh.

In his statement, Patriarch Sako said: “…the United States of America, due to their prior involvement in Iraq, the Euro-

pean Union and the league of Arab countries have the responsibility to act quickly for a solution.

“They must clear the Nineveh plain from all the elements of jihadist warriors and help these displaced families return to their ancestral villages… through an active and effective international campaign until the central Government and the Regional Government of Kurdistan become effective.”

He said that unless the international community stepped up action, it would bear responsibility if – as widely feared – the Islamic State exterminates Christians and other religious minorities.

He said: “If the situation does not change, the whole world should take responsibility [for] a slow genocide of an entire component of Iraqi society and its age-old culture. ISIS tries to erase all traces.”

The Patriarch’s statement –

Francis to visit Sri Lanka POPE Francis will travel to Sri Lanka and the Philippines in January for his second trip to a continent where evangelisation is a big priority for the Catholic Church.

Pope Francis, 77, will visit Sri Lanka from January 12-15, before heading to the Philippines - Asia’s largest Catholic country - until January 19. The trip will come just five months after his visit to South Korea which concluded this week.

Asia had repeatedly been tipped as a destination for pos-

sible papal trips as Benedict XVI did not travel there during his eight-year pontificate.

Catholics make up just 3.2 percent of the population in Asia, but the number of believers is growing steadily.

Some seven percent of the Sri Lankan population is Catholic and he is expected to use his visit to encourage the Church to push for reconciliation between Sinhalese and Tamils, five years after the end of the island’s civil war.

Only the courageous ones come to Mass

Page 18 - Catholic Life, August 2014

For the Young and Young at Heart Help Noah finish the ark

Time for a Laugh

A POLICEMAN pulled over the old lady after she had driven down a one way street.

“Don’t you know where you are going?” he asked.

“No. But wherever it is, it can’t be a popular place because everyone is coming back from there!”

NOAH and his sons are finishing the ark before the rain starts to fall. Colour in this picture and send it in to us for a chance to win a prize.

Name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Age . . . . .

Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

School . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Send entries to Catholic Life Colouring Contest. c/- PO Box 1410, Warragul 3820.

This month’s prize winner OUR winner for the June colouring contest featuring a gnomes picnic was Kristle Blundell, 10, who attends St Brigid’s Primary School, Officer.

We will be down at the school in the next week or so to present her prize.

Entries were down a bit this month.

Hopefully there will be a better response this the new ANOTHER happy prize winner William Orton from St contest. We love getting all Kieran’s Primary School, Moe, displays the prize he won last your entries. issue.

As he hands over the milkshake he says “You know we don’t get many gorillas in here!”

“No wonder,” says the gorilla “you charge too much for milkshakes.”

A LITTLE boy came home crying after his first day at A DRUNK gets on a bus, school. staggers down the aisle and “Mummy, they called me a three-headed monster!” sits next to an elderly lady.

She looks the man up and “There, there, there,” redown and announces loudly plied mum.

“I’ve got news for you. You are going straight to hell.”

A MAN asked his parSuddenly the drunk gets ish priest if he could offer up and lurches forward a funeral Mass for his dog shouting “Stop. I’m on the which died yesterday. wrong bus.”

The priest was outraged.

“We don’t offer funeral LITTLE Johnny was practising the violin in the living Masses for animals here. room while his father was You might try that new religion down the road.” trying to read the paper.

The man thought for a When the screeching while and said “how much sound of the beginner’s efdo you think I should give forts reached the ears of the family dog it started to howl. them for giving my dog a deThe father listened to the cent send-off. Do you think dog and violin as long as he $1000 would be enough?” could, but eventually could “Now wait a minute,” said take no more. “For pity’s the priest, “you didn’t say sake, can’t you play some- the poor dog was a Catholic.” thing the dog doesn’t know!”

A TOURIST was travelAN elderly couple were ling the back roads of Tasgoing on a holiday of a lifetime and were in a queue to mania when he came across board the boat when the old a drover herding a huge lady announced “I wish we flock of sheep. had brought the kitchen ta- He stopped to ask the drover how far he had drivble.”

Her husband replied en the sheep.

“You’ve already packed too “All the way from Queensmuch.” land,” replied the driver.

“I know,” said the wife “but “Fair go. How did you get the tickets are on the kitchen across Bass Strait?” table.”

“Oh, I didn’t come that way.”

WHAT do you have if you’ve got a dyslexic agnos- LITTLE Billy’s parents tic insomniac? had a visit from the priest Someone who sits up all night wondering if there is a and they asked Billy to make the cups of tea. dog! (Think about it) When he carried the cups THE motorcycle police- in on a tray, his mother man draws up beside a car asked if he had strained the being driven by an elderly tea. lady who is steering her car “Yes, but I couldn’t find with her elbows so that her the strainer, so I used the fly hands were free to do some swat!” knitting.

“What?” exclaimed mother.

“Pull over,” shouts the po- “Don’t worry, I didn’t want liceman. to damage your new one, so “No,” replies the lady. “It’s I got the old swat.” a scarf.”

THE policeman was interviewing the pretty young A GORILLA walks into driver about an accident she a milk bar and orders a bahad in her car. nana milkshake.

The shop owner thinks “What gear were you in?”

“What can a gorilla know asked the policeman. about money?” so he hands “I had a black mini skirt, back a single dollar in white blouse and black shoes,” came the reply. change to the beast.

Catholic Life, August 2014 - Page 19

Classifieds prayer

prayer

HOLY SPIRIT You who makes me see everything and shows me the way to reach my ideals, you who gives me a divine gift to forgive and forget the wrong that is done to me; in this short dialogue I want to thank you for everything and affirm once more that I never want to be separated from you, no matter how great the material desire may be. I want to be with you and my loved ones in Your perpetual Glory. (Mention your request). Thank you Holy Spirit for your love towards me and my loved one. Amen This prayer should be said for 3 consecutive days. After the 3rd day the request will be granted, no matter how difficult it may be. While making the request one must either promise to publish on granting the favour or promise to circulate copies of it to as many people as possible. This is to spread the wonder of the Holy Spirit.

THANK YOU St Jude. Apostle and Martyr, great in virtue and rich in miracles, near kinsman of Jesus Christ, faithful intercessor of all who invoke your special patronage in time of need.

Help me in my present and urgent petition. In return I promise to make your name known and cause you to be invoked.

St Jude pray for us and all who invoke your aid. Amen.

READERS please note that published prayers reflect the beliefs of those who place the advertisements. Catholic Life makes no judgement on whether these beliefs are in accord with the established theological and canonical accords and we ask readers to judge for themselves, especially in regards to suggested fulfilment of requests made in these prayers.

public notices

VOCATIONS Priests & Deacons Are you considering a vocation as a priest or deacon for the Diocese of Sale?

If so please contact

Fr Peter Bickley 5152 3106 vocations@sale.catholic.org.au

for sale

RETRO and Restored Furniture at Triple R Emporium, 50 Della Torre Road, Moe, 9-3 Tues and Wed. 0409 175 574.

Everyone’s role to protect children THE theme of Child Protection Sunday this year is Protecting Children is Everybody’s Business - Play your Part.

Child Protection Sunday coincides with the Feast of the Triumph of the Cross on September 14.

Each person in every Catholic Church community is asked to play their part in making our church a safe community for all by working to prevent abuse.

The aim is to ensure that all communities and organisations within the church are safe and enriching environments for people of all ages, with special concern for children, young people and vulnerable adults.

What can each of us do?

• Be aware of and abide by parish and diocesan policies and procedures that aim to make our church a safe place for all • Respect the dignity of each child, young person and adult

wanted known

Your will be done

Trinity Families asks you to consider assisting our work in funding charitable projects across the diocese.

Remembering Trinity Families in your will by making a bequest is an effective way of ensuring that you do something to help those struggling families in our midst.

If you need more information on bequests contact: PO Box 1410, Warragul 3820 Ph: 56 22 6688 ABN 51 486 581 500

in the community • Be aware of the possibilities of abuse, not overly suspicious • Trust our instincts, avoid gossip and consult with appropriate persons if you have any concerns about the safety, welfare and wellbeing of a child, young person or vulnerable adult in our community • Be open to acquiring a deeper understanding of the harm caused by abuse • Undertake willingly the checks required by State and Church agencies • Abide by codes of conduct and follow conscientiously risk assessment procedures • Give of our time and offer to help • Don’t leave everything to the parish priest • Make a personal commitment to ensuring that our church is a safe community for all In Sale Diocese all staff are required to have a Working With Children Check whether they work with children or not, and this policy has been in place for many years.

We are the only newspaper other than metropolitan dailies to deliver from the outer eastern suburbs, through Gippsland to the border.

Phone

5622 6688

Vatican seeks Muslim support THE Vatican has urged Muslim leaders to condemn the ‘barbarity’ and ‘unspeakable criminal acts’ of Islamic State militants in Iraq, saying a failure to do so would jeopardise the future of inter-religious dialogue, reports CNS. “The plight of Christians, Yezidis and other religious and ethnic communities that are numeric minorities in Iraq demands a clear and courageous stance on the part of religious leaders, especially Muslims, those engaged in interfaith dialogue and everyone of goodwill,” said a statement from the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue released by the Vatican on August 12.

“All must be unanimous in condemning unequivocally these crimes and must denounce the invocation of religion to justify them.”

“Otherwise, what credibility will religions, their followers and their leaders have? What credibility would remain to the interreligious dialogue patiently pursued in recent years?’

The document noted that the majority of Muslim religious and political institutions had opposed the Islamic State’s avowed mission of restoring a caliphate, a sovereign Muslim state under Islamic law, to succeed the Ottoman Caliphate which was abolished in 1923.

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Page 20 - Catholic Life, August 2014

St Agatha’s Aerobics compete on national stage

By Rose Butera CRANBOURNE - In only our third year here at St Agatha’s Primary School, the St Agatha’s Aerobics club has grown, now with five teams and two soloists competing in the School Aerobics Competition, which is a national competition.

This year all teams were entered across three different sections.

The month of May saw the commencement of the School Aerobics season with the Victorian Preliminary Finals that were held in Geelong.

All teams performed well and waited anxiously for the results. The results came in and all our teams had made it through to the Victorian State Championships in June.

After receiving such wonderful results, we came back to school and began working towards achieving another great score in the state

finals.

In June, we travelled back to Geelong to compete in the state championships. It was a great day and all teams performed and executed their routines very well.

The results would be revealed later that night and while the wait was long it was definitely worth it.

Our two senior teams placed second and third gaining an invitation to compete at the National Championships in Queensland.

We were so excited to receive this place among the best aerobics teams in Australia.

Lots of training has gone into preparing for this competition.

On August 9 two teams competed in the National Championship competition held at the Gold Coast Convention Centre and performed really well to finish sixth and ninth respectively.

COACH Rose Butera with the St Agatha’s Aerobics girls.

Columban calendars

Moe debaters come out on top

THE St Columban Mission Society has released its 2015 art calendar.

These well-produced calendars are prized for the high quality religious art and next year’s offering is no exception.

The calendars should shortly be available through parish piety stalls at a recommended retail price of $9.

Main feast days and solemnities are included as well as details of the particular Sundays of the year and Church seasons.

Copies can also be ordered from Columban Mission Centre, Niddrie on 9375 9475.

By James Hassett MOE - Debating is making a resurgence in our schools. And it’s back with a vengeance.

A growing number of schools have public speaking as a priority.

Help Religious Sisters - the unsung heroines in the Church! hey smile, they heal, they teach, they comfort. Around the globe Catholic religious sisters quietly perform their dedicated and heroic service without remuneration and barely even noticed by the wider world. But in order to help others, they themselves also need to be helped, for although they are ministering angels to so many, they themselves still need their daily bread and a roof over their heads.

T

What better way to start than having a ‘fun argument’ with other children.

The topic was ‘Social Media is Harmful’ with St Kieran’s arguing the affirmative. This revival has been going strong for almost 10 years.

Catholic schools in the Latrobe Valley have established

an annual interschool debating challenge which was instigated

by Andrea Morgan, a volunteer who promoted oral language in several local schools.

This year’s event was once again hotly contested, with the St Kieran’s team of Brandon, Ruot and Paddy being champions.

Sr Lucia a religious sister from Italy rendering assistance to the poor in Ethiopia

Each year the Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) supports over 9,000 religious sisters in every corner of the globe.

Many religious congregations turn to the charity for help, not least for the formation of their precious new vocations. While many congregations in the Western world have few or no new vocations and even seem to be dying out, in other parts of the ^VYSK [OL YLSPNPV\Z JVTT\UP[PLZ HYL ÄSSLK ^P[O `V\UN HUK ZTPSPUN faces.

ACN also helps those sisters active in the charitable apostolate, relieving them of the daily burden of supporting themselves while they also care for the poorest of the poor, whether in the slum quarters of the great cities, in the vast expanses of the Amazon rainforest, or in the remotest regions of the African Savannah.

It is vital that the indispensable work of religious sisters in Christ’s Holy Catholic Church and throughout the missions worldwide continues. Religious sisters are the unsung heroines in the Church. ACN is therefore proud to help them in their efforts to make the world a better place, even just a little.

The average grant ACN gives to support a religious sister or novice is $300 – but whatever you can afford will be enormously appreciated. ACN forwards the donations directly to the religious superiors in charge of the religious communities and congregations.

THE debating team Brandon, Paddy and Ruot with the perpetual shield.

Canberra conference

0 >L LUJSVZL [V Z\WWVY[ [OL ^VYR VM 9LSPNPV\Z :PZ[LYZ MVY [OL WVVY HUK WLYZLJ\[LK *O\YJO I enclose a cheque/money order payable to Aid to the Church in Need or please debit my Visa or Mastercard

Catholic Life Sale

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Some of the young and vibrant Dominican Sisters from Ho Chi Minh City that ACN supports The Papal rosary designed by the Vatican rosary makers will be sent out to all those who assist this cause and tick this box.

AID TO THE CHURCH IN NEED...a Catholic charity dependent on the Holy See, providing pastoral relief to needy and oppressed Churches

THE annual Australasian Catholic Press Association conference will be held in Canberra at the start of next month.

Publishers of Catholic, newspapers, magazines and electronic media from across Australia and New Zealand will gather for the three day conference which has as its theme this year, A Connecting Church.

Sessions will include talks

by St Vincent de Paul Society chief executive officer John Falzon, CathNews and Jesuit Communications founder Fr Michael Kelly SJ, a refugee from the Congo, former Sydney

Morning Herald religious affairs editor Chris McGillion and a panel session.

Excursions will include a visit to Old Parliament House and the National Film and Sound Archive.

The conference Mass at St Christopher’s Cathedral will be celebrated by Apostolic Nuncio, Archbishop Paul Gallagher, prior to the annual awards dinner at the National Press Club.

An ecumenical lunch will be held on the final day with members of the Australasian Religious Press Association who will hold their conference over the following two days.