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Journey to ordination DARRELL CROKER A successful law career in Sydney was never enough for Newcastle-born Graham Fullick. The 56-year-old became the sixth priest to be ordained in the Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle in the past 10 years when he was consecrated on the Feast of the Chair of St Peter, Apostle, at Sacred Heart Cathedral, Hamilton, on 22 February.
“I could see the good work, but that was still not enough,” he said. “I wanted to go to the Sacred Heart of the good work: Jesus Christ. Immersed in regular Mass, Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and Confession, I finally gave into God and entered Sydney’s the Good Shepherd Seminary.”
Despite 15 years in private legal practice culminating as a shareholder and partner in the well-established and regarded firm Madison Marcus, Fr Fullick came to realise people needed not so much a lawyer as a change of heart. And his heart burnt beyond the law. During his legal career in Sydney he was heavily involved in parish activities.
Back in Newcastle visiting his parents in 2014, life changed forever at Midnight Mass at the Sacred Heart Cathedral. MaitlandNewcastle’s Bishop Bill had formerly been Fr William Wright, parish priest at Liverpool where Fr Fullick had been a seminarian in a mission team. Bishop Bill “collared” him at that Midnight Mass and said he’d happily ordain him on the spot.
Fifty years before, in November 1964, Graham Charles Fullick was born with his identical twin brother Craig Gregory at Royal Newcastle Hospital. A young curate from St Mary’s at The Hill, Fr Lex Levey, baptised the twins. “We grew up in Cessnock and were educated at St Patrick’s Primary School, where Sr M. Genevieve Henderson RSJ was principal, and I was school captain,” he said. “We continued our education at Marist Brothers’ in Maitland and completed Arts degrees at the University of Newcastle before moving to Sydney in 1986 where I began a Law degree.”
After being collared at that Midnight Mass in 2014 and then a long pastoral placement at Nelson Bay, Fr Fullick was sent to the mature-age seminary Pontifical Beda College (St Bede’s) in Rome, following in the able footsteps of Fr John Lovell. Fifty-five years after Fr Fullick's baptism, Fr Levey presented him to Bishop Bill for Ordination while Sr Genevieve, his old principal, looked on and Fr John Lovell concelebrated. Graham Fullick’s Ordination Mass was on the same day as his mother’s birthday, 22 February. His first posting as an ordained priest will be to Raymond Terrace.
Listen to the Spirit FR ANDREW DOOHAN Reading through the responses from the opening session of our Diocesan Synod, I was not surprised to find certain themes among them. Truth be told, I would have been shocked had they not been present. I experienced the same thing when the responses to the Plenary Council process first came to light: some of the themes there were entirely expected. I was pleasantly surprised, however, and challenged by some interesting themes that I did not expect, and they stood out because they seemed to come from somewhere unexpected — at least to me. Whether any of the themes emerging
from the first session are “of the Spirit” or more an expression of human desire is something that will require careful discernment as we continue the journey of both Synod and Council. How that journey of discernment unfolds will be critical to the perceived “success” of the Diocesan Synod and Plenary Council, and the ability for the outcomes to be received and implemented. My hope for both processes, realistically or otherwise, is that the Church — that is, us — remembers that the task of both Synod and Plenary is about seeking the will of God, the presence of the Holy Spirit. Then the Church can truly be Church. The
task of discernment is listening to the Spirit present in the Church assembled. Walking the journey of discernment together, listening to each other and to the Spirit as it emerges from expected or unexpected places, is the sine qua non without which our Synod and the national Plenary cannot succeed. My other great hope for both Synod and Plenary is that the Church seeks to engage more broadly with its members. The attendance at the first session of our Diocesan Synod process was impressive, yet there are still more than 160,000 Catholics who were not there. There were also some very clear demographic
groups absent, which should concern us if we are truly seeking to be synodal and walk together. How we reach out to those not present and seek their engagement is something to which we must also be attentive. How we move forward while listening to each other and reaching out to all our brothers and sisters is vitally important to our ability, at the end of the Synod and Plenary processes, to truly say “it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us” (Acts 15:28).
