Catholic Life February 2012

Catholic LifeCatholic LifeFreePublication of the Diocese of Sale ISSUE 158 February 2012

ProjectCompassionFeature - Page 10

Still inspiredafter 50years - Page 3

SandhurstBishopannounced- Page 12

Your gift will go on giving

When you donate to the Bishop’s Family Foundation you can be assured that the money will be assisting families in need for many years to come. Donated funds are held in a trust account to go on earning interest year after year. It is

the income from these investments which have led to more than $700,000 being given to organisations running programs to assist families.

Send tax deductible donations to Bishop’s Family Foundation,PO Box 508, Sale, 3853

Phone 5144 6132 for more information

Cathedral appealA SPECIAL collection will be taken up in all par-ishes across the Diocese of Sale on February 25-26 to support St Mary’s Cathe-dral Sale Fundraising Ap-peal.

The cathedral is in urgent need of renovation to main-tain its presence as the Mother Church of the diocese.

It was completed in 1887 and since then it has served as the church where Bishops of Sale have presided over the liturgy.

By symbolic extension, it is the place whereby our bishops have presided over the entire diocese as the visible princi-pal agent of unity in teaching, sanctifying and governing the diocese.

It is from the bishop’s chair in the Mother Church (cathedra) that the name cathedral derives.

The beauty of God is to be re-fl ected in the beauty of a church and so with this in mind, it is necessary to maintain and ap-preciate the beauty of St Mary’s Cathedral.

Bishop Prowse has appealed to people from across the dio-cese to be generous in their sup-port of the fundraising appeal.

In the foreword of Peter Synan’s book Three Spring-times - Chronicles of St Mary’s Cathedral Sale 2010 he wrote: “I appeal to the Catholic peo-ple of the diocese to generously support this important fundrais-ing appeal and special collec-tion for the much needed res-toration of our Mother Church which belongs to all of us as a sign of our unity together in Christ.”

Dean of St Mary’s Cathedral Fr Andrew Wise said that as a Catholic people we were aware of our calling to do what we can

to provide for the needs of our parishes including the upkeep of its church building.

This was a natural expression of belonging together in God’s family, the Church.

He said that at the same time we also belonged to the Church at another level. We were part of an Apostolic Church gath-ered in a unity of faith around our Bishop, who was a succes-sor of the Apostles.

“Moreover Bishop Prowse is in communion with Pope Ben-edict XVI the successor of Pe-ter ‘the Prince of the Apostles’,

and so all together we belong to the one universal Catholic Church.”

Fr Wise said that while we came from many and varied parishes, our Cathedral church was a powerful visible expres-sion and reminder of the com-mon Catholic identity and unity we shared in Christ.

Thus, while having a primary duty for the care of our own parishes, we were also called to have a sense of belonging and responsibility for the Cathedral.

“We naturally want to make our Mother Church as beauti-

ful and well maintained as pos-sible. In this way the Cathedral manifests a key aspect of our diocese at its best for the great-er glory of God.

“At the same time the Sale Parish clearly carries the heavi-est responsibility for fulfi lling this task. I can assure you that we are stretching our resources as far as prudently possible to do our part in completing this undertaking but we need your help as well.”

He said the fi rst stage of the restoration project was com-pleted and was being paid for.

He acknowledged the fi nan-cial support in bringing this fi rst stage to fruition so successfully but stage two was the next chal-lenge and primarily involves repairs to the rendering of the cathedral and a complete re-painting.

Fr Wise urged everyone to generously support the special collection which would be tak-en up in all parishes of the dio-cese on February 26 or therea-bouts.

• Update of the cathedralrenovations and donationsform, Page 16.

ST Mary’s Cathedral, Sale - Mother Church of the Diocese of Sale.

Page 2 - Catholic Life, February 2012

Dear friends in Christ,As we return from holidays

and resume our routines, we think of our priorities for 2012.

Pope Benedict XVI offers us a wonderful insight to help us in this task:

“There is no greater priority than this: to enable the people of our time once more to encoun-ter God, the God who speaks to us and shares his love so that we might have life in abundance.” (Verbum Domini, 2010, 2)

There is an important insight here.

We tend to think of encounter-ing God in a personal way. This is always true. But the Holy Fa-ther is stressing that we are called to assist others to encounter God as well. To be an instrument in helping others to encounter God “who speaks to us” and offers “life in abundance” represents our GREATEST priority.

When we live this priority out we truly become a Catholic mis-sionary or evangelist.

Where do we start this work of evangelisation? We start where Jesus has placed us.

Firstly, for most this might start IN THE FAMILY. The home is to mirror the home of the fi rst Chris-tian family – the Family of Naza-

reth: Jesus, Mary and Joseph. This is the fi rst place where

children hear and are nourished in a relationship with Jesus. It cannot be delegated to schools or parishes – although this is of-ten regrettably the situation these days.

One of my treasured moments as a bishop is to pray a bless-ing over families. The father and mother might respond to my invi-tation at the end of Mass for fam-ilies to come forward to receive my blessing.

The parents gather the children and we form a tight circle as I pray down the love of Jesus over them. It is a wonderful spiritual experience for all.

I hope the parents repeat this gesture at home in family prayer, especially before and after the meals. It is a work of evangelisa-tion at a deep level.

Secondly, there is the FAMILY. As we move towards our dioce-san pastoral plans for the next few

years, it will become clear that the parish must see itself more as a home of evangelisation.

If assisting others to encounter Christ is the most urgent prior-ity, then priests, and especially the laity, are to see themselves as Catholic evangelists. They are to go out into “the deep waters” and seek out those of little faith or no faith. They are to be called home to Christ, alive in his Church.

The October Synod in Rome this year will be based on what is called THE NEW EVANGELI-SATION. From this we will learn much in the years ahead about being evangelisers in the Catho-lic Church today.

We will need new methods and fervor in our faith to attract the confused gaze of humanity to-wards contemplating the face of Christ today.

Thirdly, there are our CATHO-LIC SCHOOLS. On any given school day there are about 16,000 students in our primary and sec-

ondary schools in the Diocese of Sale.

Given the fragile state of so many families today in transmit-ting the faith to their children, school teachers are being asked to take on a even greater role in assisting their students to open their lives to the AMAZING GRACE of Jesus.

The movement in May of the diocese’s administration to War-ragul (Sion House) hopefully will assist teachers in this changed faith context. For example, my offi ce will be placed in the mid-dle of the present Catholic Edu-cation Offi ce.

As chief Catholic educator in the diocese, I will be better able to assist our teachers to face the complex challenges in the years ahead, particularly in the reli-gious education of our children.

So, as we launch into 2012 with faith and joy, let us join the top priority given by the Successor of St Peter, Pope Benedict XVI, to assist others to encounter afresh Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Sav-iour.

May the Lord Jesus bless you all in 2012,

+ Bishop Christopher ProwseCatholic Bishop of Sale

To God’s Peoplein the Catholic

Diocese of Sale

Encountering God in 2012 - Our mission a priority

Catholic LifeDDIOCESE OF SALE

PO Box 183, Sale. Vic. 3853Phone: (03) 5144 6132

Fax: (03) 5144 [email protected]

www.sale.catholic.org.au

Editor: Colin Coomber

Published monthly except January.

Deadline for advertising copy and editorial contributions for next issue is

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Counselling crisisCENTACARE Gippsland is facing a major funding crisis and is being forced to wind-back counselling services across the diocese.

Director Jamie Edwards said many of the government-fund-ed counselling services were coming to an end and as such there was limited funding to maintain services.

Drought and bushfi re relief funding would both end in the next couple of months and after that counselling services would be restricted to half a week in Sale.

Post-separated parenting ser-vices would also continue fund-ed by the Attorney General’s Department.

He said that funding for coun-selling had been affected by the global downturn and tougher economic conditions here in Sale Diocese had meant that the amounts being donated to Cen-tacare Gippsland in its annual appeal had dwindled.

BISHOP Emeritus Jeremiah Coffey continues to makesteady progress in his recovery from a serious operation and stroke suffered late last year.

He has been transferred to Bairnsdale Hospital where he is making steady progress in the rehabilitation unit.

Doctors are pleased with the results of the eight hour opera-tion at Epworth Eastern, Box Hill to remove tumors in his liver and bowel.

A minor stroke and pneumo-nia caused some serious set-backs but he was well enoughto be moved to Bairnsdale in mid January.

Bishop Coffey on the mend

Catholic Life, February 2012 - Page 3

Telephone: (03)5144 4311Email: [email protected]

The Catholic Development Fund, Diocese of Sale is not subject to the provisions of the Corporation Act 2001 nor has it been examined or approved by the Australian Securities andInvestments Commission. Deposits with the Catholic Development Fund, Diocese of Sale are guaranteed by CDPF Limited, a company established by the Australian CatholicBishops Conference for this purpose. We welcome your investment with the Catholic Development Fund, Diocese of Sale rather than with a profit orientated commercial organi-sation as a conscious commitment by you to support the Charitable, Religious and Educational works of the Catholic Church. Neither the Catholic Development Fund, Diocese ofSale nor the Trustees of the Roman Catholic Trust Corporation for the Diocese of Sale are prudentially supervised by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority; contributionsto the Catholic Development Fund, Diocese of Sale do not obtain the benefit of the depositor protection provisions of the Banking Act 1959; the Catholic Development Fund, Dioceseof Sale is designed for investors who wish to promote the charitable purposes of the Catholic Diocese of Sale.

The Catholic Development FundServing the Diocese of Sale

From the Mountains to the SeaCDF is supporting our

Parishes, Schoolsand Catholic Communities

MOE – After 50 years as an Oblate priest Fr Bernie O’Brien is still inspired by words spo-ken at his ordination in South Africa.

The words “Know what you are doing, imitate the mystery you celebrate and model your life on the Lord’s Cross” are still a daily inspiration as he celebrates the Eucharist.

Fr O’Brien is currently cele-brating the golden jubilee of his ordination which culminated with Mass and high tea at Moe on Sunday. The event which was attended by many Oblates also recognised the golden jubi-lee of Fr Kevin Casey, OMI.

Fr O’Brien came to Moe sev-en years ago, as assistant priest to the late Fr John Dunlea OMI, and was appointed parish priest three years ago when Fr Dunlea retired.

Fr O’Brien was raised in the Brunswick area of Melbourne

and developed an affi nity with the Oblates of Mary Immacu-late whom he met during school holidays at Sorrento.

While at secondary school he decided to join the Oblates and went to the nearest English-speaking seminary which hap-pened to be in Durban, South Africa.

After seven years there he was ordained by the controver-sial Archbishop Denis Hurley OMI who campaigned against the South Africa’s apartheid policies, and often clashed with fellow bishops and Pope Paul VI’s on certain policies.

He returned to Australia and has spent most of his 50 years as a priest teaching in schools and doing parish work.

Fr O’Brien said the basis of his life as a priest was to have a friendship and an intimate rela-tionships with Jesus.

His ministry as a priest was to spread the word of God, cel-ebrate the Eucharist and sacra-ments and to be pastorally in-volved with the people.

He said he had been inspired by the motto of Oblate founder St Eugene de Mazenod who said “Leave nothing undared for the kingdom of God.”

St Eugene had a special devo-tion to the poor and abandoned wherever they were and over the past 50 years Fr O’Brien had tried to emulate this.

He thanked God for his priest-hood and for all the people to which he had the opportunity to proclaim Jesus Christ.

After 50 years words still inspire Oblate priest

FR Bernie O’Brien OMI celebrating 50 years of priesthood.THE newly ordained Fr Bernie O’Brien in 1962.

Fundraising cabaret adate to rememberMORWELL – People are urged to pencil in April 27 in their diaries to make sure they can attend the grand cabaret being organised as a major fundrais-er for the St Mary’s Cathedral Restoration Fund.

The all-inclusive cabaret will be at Kernot Hall, Morwell.

It will feature a 16-piece big band and details of a keynote performer will be released soon.

The ball will be on a scale not

seen in Gippsland for several decades and during the evening there will be various raffl es and an auction of items.

All inclusive tickets are $125 and there are also corporate sponsorship packages being sold.

For more information contact the ball organising committee members Kay Radford 0407 460 188 or Carmen Cook on 0409 001 740.

Dean appointed administratorDEAN of St Mary’s Cathedral, Fr Andrew Wise has been ap-pointed administrator of Maffra and Heyfi eld parishes.

This puts all three parishes of the Heart region under his ad-ministration.

Bishop Christopher Prowse announced the appointment prior to Christmas after accept-ing the retirement of Fr Frank Young for health reasons.

Fr Young was originally Maf-fra parish priest but took on the extra responsibility of parish

priest of neighboring Heyfi eld, following the retirement of Fr Tim McInnes.

Bishop Prowse has asked oth-er diocesan priests interested in discussing the future of Maffra and Heyfi eld parishes to contact him.

A farewell Mass, followed by barbecue lunch will be held for Fr Young at St Mary’s Maffra, at 11am on February 19.

Meat will be provided but lo-cals are asked to take a small salad or dessert to share.

SEMINARIAN Tao Pham has suffered some setbacks in his long road to recovery and has been transferred back to St Vin-cent’s Hospital.

Tao has been in hospital since May 2011 when he collapsed from the effects of septicaemia

which led to him spending more than a month on life support.

Many of his vital organs ap-pear to have been affected and he is slowly being nursed back to health in the hope that he can be released from hospital.

Seminarian suffers setback


We need communities of hope

Reflectionsby Jim Quillinan

TurnbullsGIPPSLAND

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School shockWE liked the report of the little girl who was reporting to her grandfather how her fi rst day in preps went.

“Are you looking forward to going back tomorrow?” asked grandfather.

“I don’t have to go,” answers the youngsters.

Grandfather explains that he thinks she will have to go back, so she yells out “Mum, do I have to go to school tomor-row?”

Receiving an affi rmative re-ply she then announces to her grandfather that it looked like she would have to go for one more day but that would be it.

We would love to fi nd out her reaction when it was fi nally explained that she was in for 13 years of schooling and then more if she decided to go to university.

Quick counterANOTHER youngster was sent to the corner for some time out and was told not to reappear until he had counted to 100.

Quick as a fl ash he was back in the room so his mother asked “What about counting to 100 like I asked?”

Youngster shrugged and said “We do it in 10s now, not like when you were at school.”

Diary woesLATROBE Valley business-man got himself a new diary for this year.

He prefers the old book style rather than any computerised

gadget but he was annoyed to fi nd that he could not place a meeting scheduled for March 29.

The diary had missed out on the leap years throwing out subsequent days and dates.

He got another diary and started transferring his confer-ence and meeting dates. Then he twigged that a conference in June was on the same days as in the faulty diary, meaning the faulty one had made up for the mistake somewhere.

Sure enough, the printers had manufactured June 31.

He’s thinking seriously about the electronic option for next year.

We are told that another dia-ry on sale at some cheap shops has all the European public holidays listed but nothing for Australia.

Help us outSEEN something worth men-tioning here?

We like to hear about quirky things that catch your fancy. There’s a fair chance that if they amuse you, others will be amused too.

Phone 5144 6132 or email [email protected]

A NEW year begins, full of hope and promise. Any new year brings with it new dreams, plans and resolutions.

In a large part, this year will become what we choose to make it.

Yes, there will be unexpected challenges and surprises, but our own choices, the decisions we make will be the greatest infl uenc-es on what this year will become.

There are times, however, when deciding what is the right course of action, making the right decisions can be diffi cult.

We need the support and encour-agement of others – that’s why the Catechism reminds us that faith is not an isolated act. No one can be-lieve alone, just as no one can live alone (#166).

Faith is more a verb than a noun – we live our faith. It is something we do. And we ‘do’ it together. Just like trying to live alone, without the support and encouragement of others, without others to challenge us and even inspire us, makes life, and living our faith very diffi cult. We need to be surrounded by com-munities of hope.

Why hope? Perhaps the greatest theologian of the modern era, Karl Rahner wrote that Christian hope is not just an interior attitude or an idea or theory about the future, but it is very much embodied in the present, and it affects the present through interaction with our fel-low human beings and the world around us.

It is not just some vague desire for things to be better – hope is very practical and very much in the here and now. Pope Benedict’s en-cyclical Spe Salvi, urges us to nur-ture a Christian imagination which means fi nding God in everyday life and experiences, taking our or-dinary human hopes seriously and fi nding God in their depths.

There is no human hope that does not have God within it, the Pope writes. Christian hope over-comes the breach between divine and human, the body and spirit, it brings together the past, present

and future. Hope possesses a hunger and a

passion for the vision and ways of God. It knows that this world can be different. It does not have to be this way. So hope is about now, not just about the future Hope is trans-formative.

Hope can read ‘the signs of the times”, that is where in our world we fi nd the activity and the pur-pose of God.

Communities of hope, whether they be our family or our compan-ions in the faith, our parish com-munity or other faith communities to which we may belong, are cru-cial infl uences.

In so many ways, they can in-fl uence the way we see the world, they can infl uence our ‘Christian imagination’ and the way we live out our faith.

Communities of hope, be they families or parish communities of-fer a place where we can gather, knowing we are loved for who we are. It is a place where people are seen as God sees them and loved as God loves them, thus it is char-acterised by empathy and compas-sion.

They offer a positive vision, they are communities that have set their hope on the living God (1 Tim 4:10). They have a healthy belief in the love and goodness of God – the belief that God wants what is best for us.

They are not exclusive but rather they reach out to others. They are not judgemental of others, not do they carp or criticise those who may not view the world as they see it. They do not sit in judgement or try to destroy.

Rather such communities ask where do we build connections, how do we continue to tell our

story, how do we connect the GoodNews with the stories and experi-ences of people today, how do we engage with their questions, their spiritual moments?

At the beginning of this New Year, as we take another step intothe deep, take some time to focuson hope.

Take some time to look at therole of hope in our lives. What willwe hope for this year? What expe-riences have given us hope in the past, what are we afraid to hope for or have given up hoping for? What images of hope lead us on?

It is good to ask ourselves as individuals, as family, as local church or faith community, how dowe reach out to people? Do those around us see us as hope-fi lled, as people who live the words of StPaul: “We know that in everythingGod works for good” (Rom 8:28).

Or are we people who fi nd it easyto grumble or complain when life deals us a tough hand – do we only rejoice or are we only happy in thegood times, when everything goesin our favor? St Paul says, “Rejoice in your hope, be patient in tribula-tion, be constant in prayer” (Rom 12:12).

St Paul is a hard-nosed real-ist — and he’s telling us, to stop our grumbling and start rejoic-ing! Rather hope leads us to be courageous, to take the initiative, to dream dreams, to fi nd ways ofanswering Jesus’ challenge to love more. St Paul urges us that “since we have such a hope, we are very bold” (2 Cor 3:12).

So with St Paul, let us pray thisyear: “May the God of hope fi ll you with all joy and peace in be-lieving, so that by the power ofthe Holy Spirit you may abound in hope” (Rom 15:13).

New priest arrives from IndiaTHE latest Indian priest to ar-rive in Sale Diocese is still ac-climatising prior to receiving his fi rst placement from Bishop Prowse.

Fr Sabu Adimakiyil, VC, has spent several weeks at Narre Warren and is now in Sale awaiting his fi rst placement.

He is a priest of the Vincen-tian Congregation, which had its origins in Kerala, and is named after St Vincent de Paul as their heavenly patron.

The congregation has about 450 priests mainly in Kerala but in recent years has set up con-gregations in Germany, USA, Italy, Africa and Australia.

Fr Sabu has been a priest for 13 years, following almost 12 years in minor and major semi-naries.

He spent three years working in a retreat centre in Mumbai and then the past nine years in a retreat centre in Delhi.

He is looking forward to working in Sale Diocese and has enjoyed meeting people during his short time here.

He has a nephew who lives

at Cranbourne North, a distant relative who is a priest in Mel-bourne Archdiocese, and many

Indian friends who have movedto Australia.

Fr Sabu Adimakiyil, VC


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2 Sale priests petition Pope to end communion in handSALE - Two Sale priests have started an online petition call-ing for Pope Benedict to change current communion practices to eliminate receiving the Eucha-rist in the hand.

The petition is the initiative of Dean of the Cathedral Fr An-drew Wise and assistant priest Fr John Speekman.

They have also set up a Blog site so people can comment on the controversial proposal.

News of the petition which was published by CathNews on January 25 has polarized Cath-olics with many being openly hostile to the suggestion.

Comments on the Blog seem to have attracted more support-ers with Fr Speekman announc-ing that more than 1000 people worldwide had signed the peti-tion.

In the introduction to the Blog they comment: “During the course of our parish min-istry we have become increas-ingly uneasy with the practice of Communion on the hand. We have come to the conclu-sion that what started out as a seemingly good idea has actu-ally been found to encourage a certain carelessness, and not only among the laity.

“It has also been our experi-ence that because of the inher-ently ‘routine’ action of placing something in someone’s hand this carelessness is, in fact, very ‘catechesis resistant’.

“It is our hope that this Blog will stimulate discussion and awareness of what many in the Church see as a problem need-ing urgent reform.

“We hope also that, as the blog grows through your con-tributions and comments, a clearer picture will emerge of this urgency.”.

In the fi rst post on their Blog the two priests said they were convinced of the “great spiritual harm” infl icted on the Catholic faithful by the practice of Com-munion received on the hand.

“We are asking the Holy Fa-ther to personally intervene to restore once again the nor-mative practice of reception of Holy Communion on the tongue alone.

“We beseech the Holy Father in our petition to decisively

act in this way to ‘confi rm the brethren’ in the authentic Cath-olic Faith and practice of the ages..”

They said receiving Holy Communion on the tongue em-phasised humble dependence and vulnerability before God who gave himself to us in the person of his Son as spiritual food in the sacred Host. We could think perhaps of the de-

pendence of the very elderly or small infants being fed directly into their mouths.

They said Holy Communion received in the hand could un-intentionally communicate in people a sense that what was put in their hands could be seen as their possession because it was in their control like a piece of candy, a coin or token of some kind.

THE Diocesan Pastoral Council has held its fi rst meeting for the year at Traralgon last Saturday.Other meeting dates are sched-uled for April 24, August 18 and November 20.

The next meeting will also be at St Michael’s, Traralgon, but after that they will be held at Sion House, Warragul, the new diocesan headquarters.

Diocesan PastoralCouncil datesfor 2012


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Of all the decisions we make in ourOf all the decisions we make in ourlifetime, making a valid will is amonglifetime, making a valid will is among

the most important.the most important.

This fi nal testament speaks loud-ly of the values, causes and pos-sessions 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 percent-age of your estate or a specifi c

amount to theDiocese of Sale.

The Diocese is grateful for the support of its benefactors, who

have enabled the Churchto grow in its service of

its people, and invite youto share in thisrich heritage.

TEN special collections will be held in parishes across the Sale Diocese this year.

The fi rst will be for the St Mary’s Cathedral restoration on the weekend of February 25-26.

The annual Project Compas-sion Appeal for Caritas will be held throughout Lent as usual.

The annual collection for Holy Places will take place on Good Friday and this will be followed by a collection for the Education of Seminarians Bur-sary Fund on Good Shepherd Sunday, April 29.

Envelopes for the annual Bishop’s Family Foundation appeal will be available in par-ishes throughout May.

Other collections will be St Vincent de Paul Mass for the Poor Appeal, June 16-17; Pe-ter’s Pence, July; Social Wel-

fare Centacare, August; Priests’ Welfare Foundation Father’s Day appeal, September; and Mission Sunday, October.

10 special collections

Nagle Collegelaunch forProjectCompassionBAIRNSDALE - The annual Lenten appeal Project Compas-sion will be launched at Bairns-dale on Shrove Tuesday, Febru-ary 21.

The launch will take place at Nagle College at 11am.

Project Compassion runs throughout Lent and is the an-nual appeal to raise funds for the work of Caritas Australia.

For whom the church bell tollsWARRAGUL - Bells have a special place in the life of God’s people.

The peal of bells marks the hours for prayer and calls us to the celebration of the litur-gy; bells alert us to important events, both happy and sad, in the life of the church and the community.

On December 4, Fr Herman Hengel blessed and re-commis-sioned the old bell at St Joseph’s Catholic Church, Warragul.

This bell has a national herit-age overlay and is now atop a tower in front of the church.

The bell was commissioned by Bishop Corbett, the fi rst Bishop of Sale (1887-1912), in 1906.

M. O’Bryne’s Fountain Head Foundry in James St., Dublin cast the bell.

The opening of Fr Roche’s new church in 1907 saw this bell installed in a belfry situ-ated in the presbytery grounds, adjacent to the church.

The old church is now the central part of the present build-ing. A new sanctuary, foyer and sacristy were constructed in the 1970s.

The recommissioned bell drew some headlines across the diocese just before Christmas when the cable to make the bell ring was stolen.

Fr Hengel was even inter-viewed on WIN-TV discussing the missing cable.

THE recommissioned bell sits atop the new tower in front of StJoseph’s Church.

WARRAGUL parish priest Fr Herman Hengel points out some fea-tures of the bell during the recommissioning ceremony.

THE only Australian ever to be world leader of the Marist Brothers has died in Sydney, aged 87.

Br Charles Howard, who was Superior General from 1985 to 1993, died at Campbelltown on January 14.

He was born in Melbourne but moved to Sydney with his family as a teenager, studying at the Marist school at Randwick.

He received his religious hab-it at 18 and spent years in stud-ies and formation, including a year in France.

On his return to Australia in 1962 he was appointed head-master of St Joseph’s College, Hunter’s Hill, which had more than 1000 boarding students.

In 1968 he studied catechet-ics at Louvain, Belgium, then

studied psychology in Dublin, Ireland.

He was appointed Provincialin 1972 and during the General Chapter in 1976 was elected a General Councillor, and sobegan nine years touring theMarist world, before his elec-tion as Superior General in 1985.

Major undertaking for Br Charles during his mandate in-cluded the creation of the Inter-national Finance Commission, a new Marist presence in East-ern Europe and the establishing of international scholasticates for Africa and Asia.

After his period as Superior General he spent years working with novitiates in Africa and thePacifi c, before failing memoryforced his return to Australia.

Former Marist leader dies


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LOCH - When Bishop Michael Ekwoyi Apochi asked Fr Jo-seph Abutu to “Go West Young Man” he did not realize just how far that would be

It turned out to be 15,000km east from his village of Otuk-po, Benue State in Nigeria to the presbytery in Leongatha as assistant priest to Fr Peter Kooloos and helping to service six churches throughout the parish.

Arriving in Australia in No-vember 2011, Fr Abutu left behind the two most infl uential people in his life: his bishop and his grandmother, as well as two sisters and three brothers.

Consequently when St Vin-cent’s Catholic Church in Loch arranged a celebratory cuppa after Mass on December 11, Fr Abutu produced his camera, passed it to one of the parish-ioners and said, “Take lots of pictures to send to my Bishop and Grandma”.

Thirty Parishioners not only welcomed Fr Abutu into Loch and the parish but celebrated his birthday with that of the church’s organist Ann Larkins.

In response Fr Abutu was quite surprised, overwhelmed and humbled as throughout his short years in the priesthood, nobody had ever had such a cel-ebration for him.

In explaining why he was known as Sunday in his village, Fr Abutu told the parishioners, “My family members and peo-ple around my village call me Sunday because I was born on Sunday, but I would prefer to be called Joseph or Joe because that is the name most people know.

“It is very common among my people to name a child after some specifi c days of the week such as Sunday, Monday and Friday.

“Apart from helping them to remember the person’s birth-

day, I cannot explain why they do that. But there are many peo-ple with such names”.

Fr Abutu went on to re-mark that he felt honored to be received so kindly and was pleased to be given the opportu-nity to personally meet so many people.

He looks forward to becom-ing involved in the parish re-sponsibilities.

Sunday too far away but still in contact with his homeland

CUTTING the birthday cake after Mass at Loch.

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BRUTHEN –The disused and run-down St Anne’s Church, Bruthen, was offi cially closed by Bishop Christopher Prowse in late November.

The building is now for sale.The decision to close the

church was made after parish priest Fr Peter Bickley, Bairns-dale, saw its state of disrepair and had discussions with pa-rishioners and the bishop.

Fr Bickley said it was de-cided to give the church a dig-nifi ed closure with a prayer of

thanksgiving for all that had been in the life of St Anne’s Bruthen - with special gratitude in our hearts for this church and centre that stood tall in mis-sionary outreach over all these years of dedicated mission and outreach since its beginning in 1892 when Bishop Corbett, the fi rst Bishop of Sale, opened the church.

The Bruthen Catholic com-munity has the remarkable dis-tinction of having been part of three separate parishes, and of once having been the centre of a parish itself.

In August 1982, Bishop Cor-bett travelled from Sale to bless and open the new church at Bruthen, dedicated to St Anne. This church was originally lo-cated on the fl at opposite the old “Star Hotel”, and because of constant fl ooding it was tak-en by bullock team to the pre-sent site overlooking the town.

Bruthen quickly became an important centre, on the road between Gippsland and the goldfi elds in the mountains, and also on the road and rail-way to the far east of the state. By 1899, the Advocate records Confi rmation being celebrated at Bruthen for 23 children, an indication of the growing local Catholic population.

A new parish had already been established in the moun-tains to the north in 1982, cen-tred in Omeo, and it was not long before Bruthen itself be-came the base for a new parish.

In 1915, the Bruthen Parish was separated from Bairnsdale. It covered a huge and sparsely settled area, with vast areas of forest. The churches of the new

parish, as recorded by the Aus-tralasian Catholic Directory were St Anne’s Bruthen, whereFr Gavin lived, St Colman’s Orbost, and St Ita’s at Bendoc.Mass was celebrated at Bruthenand Orbost on alternate Sun-days.

A few years later, in 1927,with Orbost developing as themajor centre in the far east of Gippsland, and with the Sis-ters of St Joseph already livingthere, the logical move was for Orbost to become the centre of the parish. And so the priest moved, no longer living in Bru-then, but in Orbost. Bruthen re-mained part of the Orbost par-ish, although the Sisters of St Joseph visited regularly fromBairnsdale, where they were now also located, to providecatechesis for the children.

With the establishment ofthe Lakes Entrance parish in 1953, and the opening of new churches in the Orbost Parish inthe 1950’s at Nowa Nowa andCann River, Bruthen was now much closer to the priests who lived in Lakes Entrance, and soSt Anne’s became part of thenew parish centred there.

Before many years again, and with Lakes Entrance now hav-ing only one priest, the Bruthen community had another change, this time returning to be part of the Bairnsdale Parish.

The old St Anne’s Church with all its history was de-stroyed by fi re, and the re-placement church built by Mgr Stan Crowe, then parish priest of Bairnsdale, was opened inNovember 1971.

In recent years, Bruthen has changed a lot as a community, and indeed many of the Catho-lic community have died or moved away.

Sunday Masses have not beencelebrated in St Anne’s for 15to 20 years and the building has fallen into disrepair.

During this time, occasional Catholic Mass on the fi rst Sun-day of each month at 5pm has been celebrated at St Matthew’s Anglican Church.

The closure ceremony at St Anne’s was held on the 40th anniversary of the building’sopening.

Bruthen church to be sold

CWL fl oral tribute to hard-working memberIONA – The Catholic Women’s League of Iona Maryknoll hon-ored long-serving member Val Feltham at its January meeting.

She was presented with fl ow-ers and a thank you card in ac-knowledgement of her work for the CWL at both branch and di-ocesan levels.

She was secretary of the branch for 22 years and is still an active member.

Mrs Feltham runs raffl es after Mass on Sundays, organises the annual high tea and catering for funerals and other events.

All the proceeds of her efforts go towards helping for repairs to St Joseph’s Church and hall.

The CWL has recently in-stalled a new kitchen in the hall and new carpet in the supper room.

Mrs Feltham also served on the CWL diocesan committee

for eight years, three years as treasurer and is currently the representative for the World Union of Catholic Women’s Organisations and the govern-ing body.

Many people may not be aware that the CWL headquar-ters, Mary Glowery House in Nicholson St., Fitzroy, provides short term low cost accommo-dation for people from rural and regional areas undergoing medical treatment or visiting relatives in city hospitals.

Cost for members is $30 per night and for non members $45.

The CWL is currently look-ing for new members but if you cannot attend meetings on a regular basis you may wish to become an associate member. Membership costs $20 a year. VAL Felthamn with the stunning fl oral arrangement presented to her by Iona Maryknoll CWL.


FFaith ... Learning ... Growth

Australian Gross National Product and the GospelTalking

CatholicEducation

withPeterRyan

BACK in 1968, Robert Kenne-dy, in his address to the Univer-sity of Kansas, made a startling speech.

It is, to my mind, so powerful that I want to use a long quote. While Kennedy was speaking in an American context, it is not hard to replace his Ameri-canisms with Australianisms.

He said:“Too much and too long,

we seem to have surrendered community excellence and community values to the mere accumulation of material things. Our Gross National Product ... if we should judge America by that ... counts air pollution and cigarette ad-vertising, and ambulances to clear our highways of car-nage.

“It counts special locks for our doors and jails for those who break them. It counts for destruction of our redwoods and the loss of our natural wonders in chaotic sprawl.

“It counts napalm and the cost of nuclear warhead, and armoured cars for police who fi ght riots in our streets.

“It counts Whitman’s rifl e and Speck’s knife, and televi-sion programs which glorify violence in order to sell toys to our children.

“Yet the Gross National Product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education, or the joy of their play.

“It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the

strength of our marriages; the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public offi cials.

“It measures neither our wit nor our courage; neither our wisdom nor our learn-ing; neither our compassion nor our devotion to our coun-try; it measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile.”It is a sobering thought. I be-

lieve it is a challenge that should be in the mind of every parent, every teacher, every day.

What sort of world are we educating our young people to build? More of the same? Have we not learnt anything since 1968?

Is our world to be one where the only things we value are the things we can count?

Is our world to be one in which bosses in the fi nancial in-dustry take home obscene sala-ries, while those who care for our environment, our children, our health often earn so little?

On a smaller lever, but one of great importance, we can ask, “Is the success or failure of our schools to be measured merely by a simplistic set of test scores?”

The recent “Occupy” move-ments in so many cities ask these same questions. While we might not necessarily agree with the “Occupy” methods, their message was certainly one that needs to be heard.

In Catholic schools we are both privileged and challenged

to present an alternative view. We have the benefi t, which so many other schools do not, of having a shared value system, a system based on the person and teachings of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. And it is a system of beliefs and values to which we all claim to be committed.

Very few other schools or systems enjoy that privilege.

But, I wonder if we take proper advantage of our shared com-mitment.

We are privileged and chal-lenged to present that life view, a view that values and honors the human person, made in the image and likeness of God, not the economic product.

We teach and we honor com-passion, generosity, love and

justice. And we present that view because we believe that our God is love, that we fi nd God through the expression of these wonderful qualities and that they bring our world closer to the world of God’s creation.

As schools, as families, in-deed as all of society, we need constantly to reiterate that the values expressed in our Gross National Product are not al-ways the values of God, and nor should they be our values.

Catholic Education provides a unique and powerful oppor-tunity to make that point in the minds and hearts of tomorrow’s adult citizens.

Let us hope and pray that the worth of our nation in another 44 years is not measured simply by the Gross National Product.Year of Grace begins

with this PentecostBy Ann Taylor

THE Year of Grace begins this year.

It is never too early to plan, to get organised and to think ahead.

That’s my motto for this year as I recall how Christmas 2011 seemed to arrive so quickly and I was still rushing around getting things done at the last minute, along with many oth-ers, I might add!

This motto can also be ap-plied to a Year of Grace which begins on Pentecost Sunday, May 27.

We still have a few months to prepare ourselves, to really contemplate the face of Christ and to recognise God’s bless-ings to us. If we are to show Christ to others, then we need to contemplate who he is for us.

How do we do this? Some ways include reading the Gos-pels, praying and attending Sunday Eucharist which is the source and summit of Christian life.

Just remember...it’s never too early to plan, to get organised and to think ahead!

May you, and those you love, have a grace fi lled 2012.

BERWICK – St Michael’s Par-ish will celebrate a Parish Life Weekend March 3-4.

It will be held in the new sta-dium, entry from Bain St.

During the weekend there will be an opportunity to see an exhibition of brilliant photo-graphic artwork titled “Eucha-rist” as well as an opportu-nity to view artwork from the schools and parish.

It is also an opportunity for parishioners to become ac-quainted and perhaps volunteer to join the various groups that are active and the role they play in parish life, as each group has been invited to set up a small display.

Parish display


Project Compassion - A Beacon of Hope

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Teach a woman to make tofu - feed a communityTHE saying goes: “Give a man a fi sh and he eats for a day. Teach a man to fi sh and you feed him for life.”

This well-known proverb is certain-ly true for Flabiana. Only Flabiana is a woman and her fi shing line is a tofu making machine.

Basic human needs like fi nancial se-curity, nutrition, safe shelter and money for school fees seemed almost unattain-able for Flabiana and her family not so long ago.

However, a $500 grant from Caritas Australia changed her family’s life. This grant enabled Flabiana to purchase a soy bean processor and make tofu and tem-peh, both food staples in the region.

“The most important thing I’ve learnt is to make tofu and tempeh” says Fla-biana, now a widowed mother of four who comes from the isolated Timor Leste province of Oe-Cusse. “Besides eating the tofu, I sell it to make money for household needs, schooling and tra-ditional ceremonies,” said Flabiana,

Life for Flabiana in 2012 is a peaceful one, but memories of 1999 when Timor Leste declared independence are still strong. In the violence that followed, Flabiana and her family fl ed into the country’s rugged mountains. When it

was safe to return to their village, they found their home destroyed and prop-erty stolen.

The following years were very tough.

Over time they managed to recoup a small number of goats and pigs, which they sold to rebuild their house and es-tablish a small kiosk. But this did not provide the income and food security they desperately needed.

Around that time, Flabiana’s husband suffered respiratory problems and be-came extremely ill. This made life very precarious for Flabiana and her children.

Fortunately for Flabiana, in 2007 she was able to take part in Caritas Austral-ia’s Integrated Rural Community De-velopment Program. Flabiana and other community members learnt new tech-niques for managing fast growing crops, processing food, producing traditional medicines and breeding animals.

“After joining Caritas we’ve found many changes. Now we have food for

the whole year because we grow vegeta-bles and earn money from food process-ing. Our health has also improved,” shesaid.

With all four children now going toschool and Flabiana training other wom-en to use the soy bean processor, shefeels hopeful about the future – for herfamily and her whole community.

“Living in peace, we can send our children to school; we can do our work well. I thank Australians and ask that they continue to support us,” said Fla-biana.

To donate, support or fundraise forProject Compassion 2012 please visit the website at www.caritas.org.au/pro-jectcompassion or Ph: 1800 024 423

BELIEVE it or not, Project Compassion has now been running for 47 years. It has become an extraordinary, ongoing demonstration of the faith, love and gen-erosity of the Catholic congregation in Australia, all in the name of justice and peace.

Now one of Australia’s largest human-itarian fundraisers, it brings thousands of Australians in solidarity with the world’s poor. And, in 2012 its message of hope remains as powerful as ever.

As in previous years, Caritas Australia will again, this Lenten season engage with the Catholic community, as Pro-ject Compassion 2012 celebrates our achievements with a series of authentic stories from ‘in country’.

It is staggering, that even in times of personal hardship, Australians have al-ways been prepared ‘to do something’ to help those who are worse off than them-selves.

Last year’s Project Compassion was a poignant and resonant example of your selfl essness. 2011 was a year marred by terrible natural disasters. Not just over-seas but in our own backyards.

So what did this mean for our capac-ity to give? In 2011, Australians donated $9.7 million to Project Compassion – never before has our Lenten campaign been supported more wholeheartedly.

It’s hard to give a precise answer as to why these disasters at home made us even more willing to give support to our international brothers and sisters.

Sometimes injustice is quiet and insid-ious in nature. Like economic inequality or governmental control of speech and information. In other situations injustice

is as overt as it is macabre. Like self-appointed militant groups that kill entire communities.

Living, as we do in a global environ-ment where information is everywhere.We don’t need to look very hard to seeinjustice. It saddens, repulses and riles us.

And, given the injustice that we see allaround us, the call to arms that is Project Compassion, still rings as powerful and as vital as ever before.

Project Compassion is the lifeblood of Caritas Australia. Quite simply, withoutit, we could not do the work that we do.Operating in an ever-growing number of developing countries, where hundreds ofmillions of people face extreme hardship daily, our work is the ultimate expressionof your love.

The worldwide Caritas network is a proven, organised, never-tiring and un-deniable facilitator of worldwide justiceand peace.

It is your love, God’s love, in action.Your support of Project Compas-

sion and Caritas Australia is your love embedded on every continent on Earth working with men, women and chil-dren to achieve self-suffi ciency and to promote human dignity. This is about changing lives for the long-term. It is asmuch about us leaving as it is about us arriving.

Caritas Australia sends funds and good people to the most dangerous places on this planet. With your blessing our part-ners on the ground put out their hands and humbly ask if there is anything we can all do. Sometimes the answer is no. Sometimes it is yes.

FLABIANA and Marta cut the tofu they made yesterday for sale to a local res-taurant this morning, who will cook with it for lunch. They make and sell 4kg six days a week to this restaurant for $8 (ie $2/kg). The motorbike costs $1 return to deliver it.

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SENSEwith David Wells

IT’S a new year again. At my age it doesn’t seem so long ago since the last one.

I wish all my readers a happy year, a more prosperous one and one of good health.

One thing about a new year is that people ask what is going to happen in the next 12 months far more at this time than at any other through the year.

It’s the time I’m asked for predictions, for possibilities and also reminded of the pre-dictions I made last year (un-fortunately). Last year was not the best year I’ve had in terms of the outcomes that I was look-ing for.

Forecasting is fraught with dangers, and in many cases readers should take them as an idea only. After all, the adage that if you ask two economists a question, you get fi ve opin-ions may be based on accurate perceptions.

Still, your editor asked me to make some calls on the coming year, so here goes.

This year will start off the same as last year. In terms of the Australian economy we’ll still have a two speed one, with the resource states (WA and Queensland particularly) experiencing skills and capi-tal shortages due to the huge amount of projects underway. Their economies will continue to grow at above average rates.

In the east coast industrial states things will be slower and growth will be driven by popu-lation which puts Victoria in the best position when compared with SA, NSW and Tasmania. Even Victoria has started to slow.

Our offi cial interest rates should fall another half to three quarters of a percent. (This is being written before the Febru-ary RBA meeting)

Uncertainty in Europe will dampen the expectations of many and until the “Euro Cri-sis” starts to resolve itself we will be driven by uncertainty.

The USA economy is show-ing defi nite signs of improve-ment and even their housing sector is nearly off life support.

Whether Europe leads to an-other recession is the question most investment people are asking. There is no way of be-ing sure, but being an optimist I think any disaster (Greece will default) will have minimal ef-fect as most will be prepared. China isn’t slowing to any great extent.

Confi dence among businesses and consumers is low at the mo-ment and many of Australia’s largest businesses are not em-ploying apart from necessity.

Consumers are now saving more than at any time in the last 50 years. This retraction in ac-tivity is not helping the banks and as most of you would be aware it’s certainly not helping those in the retail sector.

Property is still at near record highs in terms of affordability. At present Melbourne is more expensive than New York and London for residential property.

While country Victoria is cheaper, rural incomes are on average lower too. I don’t think

2012 will be the year to be buying investment properties. There aren’t going to be many quick positive outcomes here.

The share market will be volatile. Uncertainty will reign, especially in the fi rst half of the year but there will be many rea-sons to invest here rather than anywhere else.

Dividends are good and shares are at historically low levels on a relative basis. Even last year people were able to grow their superannuation funds by up to 7 percent. It’s a matter choosing the best individual investments, not the market in general.

In the second half of the year I think things will be starting to improve. USA will be defi nite-ly on the up. Europe will have made some sort of progress and in Australia will still be grow-ing at one of the highest rates in the developed world.

Much hinges on business and consumer confi dence. Without a lift in this we won’t see any lift in spending and so we won’t get a huge lift in the economy.

The share market should be

closing the year on it or near its high point.

What I will say is that for peo-ple who are prepared to look at reality, without fear, there are excellent individual opportuni-ties.

Some property will do well, and there are many shares thatwill pay, and continue to paygreat dividends and some busi-ness will grow suffi ciently to force their share prices higher.It’s what you do that matters.

• This report is intended to provide generaladvice. In preparing this advice, David Wells and RBS Morgans did not take into account the investment objective, the fi nancial situation and particular needs of any particular person.Before making an investment decision on thebasis of this advice, you need to consider, withor without the assistance of an adviser, whether the advice is appropriate in light of your particu-lar investment needs, objectives and fi nancial circumstances.

The crystal ball on investingCatholic Collegemusicians excel

SALE - Six Catholic College students undertook Australian Music Examination Board Mu-sic exams late last year with ex-cellent results.

A+ went to Taylah Browne for Grade Two Clarinet and Victor Forcadela for Grade Four Saxophone; A went to Taylah Browne for Grade Two Saxophone; B+ went to Ashbey Neill for Grade Three Clarinet

and Lilly Werner for Grade Four Singing for Leisure; B went to Ruby Lappin-Lee for Grade Two Violin and Emma Jondahl for Grade Five Flute.

These excellent results are a refl ection not only of the dedi-cation and hard work of these students, all of whom were in Years 7 – 10, but of the high standard of instrumental teach-ing at the College.

Donate a prayer bookCATHOLICS throughout Australia are being given the chance to do something practi-cal to assist Catholic members of the Australian Defence Force serving in Australia and over-seas by sponsoring specially designed, waterproof Military Prayer Books which will be made available at no cost to all Catholic serving members.

The Knights of the Southern Cross are raising funds to print 10,000 Military Prayer Books containing the revised transla-tion of the Mass and prayers specifi c to military personnel, which are a source of support in their faith journey and in times of need.

Five years ago, the KSC pro-vided 10,000 prayer books and these were so popular with ser-vice personnel that there are only around six left. Families of

personnel have asked for copies but they will only be released to serving members.

Everyone can assist by spon-soring one or more prayer books at a cost of $4 each and donations are tax deductible.

More information on the pro-ject is available at the KSC na-tional website www.ksca.org.au under “What’s New”. A brochure is available online to be downloaded and the spon-sorship section can then be sent with a donation.

For those without internet ac-cess, you can donate by send-ing a cheque made payable to Armed Services Catholic Di-ocesan Revenue Fund to the KSC National Offi ce, PO Box 216, Campbell ACT 2612 with your name, address and phone number. A tax receipt will be provided.

I do not feartomorrow for

I have seen today.


Talking aboutBooks

BUILD YOUR OWN NO-AH’S ARK, published by Lion Hudson, distributed by Rainbow Books, heavy card-board pages, 14 pages rrp $16.99.

THIS book turns back the pages almost 50 years to the type of novelty books which were available in the 1950s and 1960s.

It is a solid book telling the story of Noah and the Ark but there is the added bonus of young readers being able to build their own cardboard mod-el of the ark.

The pieces required can be pressed out and then slot to-gether; no glue or scissors re-quired.

It is as simple as slotting part A to part B and then adding part C.

The result is a bright red ark about 24cm long and 15cm high. Of course the construction would not be complete without some free standing animals and Noah and his family.

This virtually indestructible book would make a great gift, is reasonably priced and we think the ark could be disassembled and used over and over again.

A YEAR WITH MARK ,

Reading the Sunday Gospel, Year B, published and dis-tributed by St Paul’s, paper-back, 110 pages, rrp $14.95.

FOR those who like to follow the daily scriptures, this Aus-tralian produced book is a wor-thy purchase.

Fr Francis Moloney SDB who writes the introduction and commentary throughout is a distinguished Australian bibli-cal scholar.

He explains how Mark is the earliest of the four Gospels in the Bible and how it was writ-ten at a time of great persecu-tion for Christians, about 70 AD.

The Gospel carried nothing about the birth of Jesus and begins with his baptism in the River Jordan before beginning his public ministry.

Mathew and Luke’s Gospels deliver a slightly different mes-sage but are in part based on

Mark.The full Gospel of Mark is

included in the book with the parts used in the daily readings highlighted in bold texts that readers can see how they fi t into the overall context of the Gos-pel.

As the Gospel is the short-est it does not quite fi ll out the liturgical year and so there are also entries for the part of John and Luke used to complete the year.

ST PAUL SUNDAY MISSAL 2012, published and distrib-uted by St Pauls, paperback 412 pages, rrp $14.95.

THE new Mass translations introduced last year have ren-dered thousands of missals as obsolete.

While there are some com-plete three year cycle missals coming out, this 2012 missal will be keenly sought by many.

It gives a Sunday by Sunday breakdown of the readings and responses, each with its date, which means you do not have to fi gure out if it is the 18th or 19th Sunday in ordinary time or some other special feast.

The introductory rites, pref-aces and Eucharistic prayers are at the front of the book on pages marked with a red stripe down the side so they can be easily found.

A companion booklet is St Paul Liturgical Calendar 2012 which lists the daily readings, psalter, saint solemnities and feasts, and even the color of vestments to be worn each day. At 3.95 it is good value.

Build your own Noah’s Ark

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322 Lonsdale St., Melbourne(Next door to St Francis Church)

Visit our Website at www.catholicbookshop.com.au

Browse through our range of books and sacra-mental and religious gifts, or search for specifi c

items by author, title or keyword.Open seven days

Phone and mail orders welcome. Credit cards accepted.

Phone (03) 9639 [email protected]

An ideal gift and a keepsake

Three Springtimes: A stunning pictorial record of St Mary’s Cathedral Sale, the Mother Church of our Diocese, by Sale historian Peter Synan.

Proceeds from your purchase will aid the cathedral restoration fund.

Hardback with dust cover available from the Cath-olic Development Fund, Sale, Catholic Bishop’s Of-fi ce, St Mary’s Cathedral parish offi ce and selected bookshops for $40. (Mail orders incur an additional $15 post and handling charge)

Les Tomlinson newSandhurst BishopMELBOURNE Auxiliary Bishop Les Tomlinson has been named as the next Bishop of Sandhurst, fi lling the vacancy left by the death of Bishop Joe Grech about a year ago.

Bishop Tomlinson will be installed as the seventh Bishop of Sandhurst at Sacred Heart Cathedral, Bendigo, at noon on March 1.

His appointment was an-nounced the Pope Benedict XVI last Friday.

Bishop Tomlinson was born in Mildura and worked in vari-ous positions in the north-west of the state before entering St Paul’s Seminary, Sydney, as a late vocations student.

He was ordained a priest for Melbourne Archdiocese at Red Cliffs in 1972 and has served in various Melbourne parishes, apart from a three year stint when he was on loan to Hobart Archdiocese.

In 2003 he was Dean of St Patrick’s Cathedral, Melbourne,for four months before being appointed Vicar General andModerator of the Curia. He wasalso made a Prelate of Honor byPope John Paul II in 2003.

He was ordained an auxiliarybishop in 2009.

Italian federation turns 45

Bishop Tomlinson

MORWELL – The Italian Cath-olic Federation of Morwell cel-ebrated its 45th anniversary late last year.

Since 1966 the federation has been involved in organising re-ligious and social activities for

the Italian community of the parish.

Each year in October the group celebrates the Feast of St Francis of Assisi preceded by an Italian Mission at Sacred Heart Church.

Last year members had thepleasure of Bishop ChristopherProwse concelebrating Masswith Scalabrinian priest Fr VitoPegolo, prior to the processionand afternoon tea.

ITALIAN Catholic Federation of Morwell president Isabella Monacella with committee members andthe 45th anniversary cake.

PROCEEDS from a special Newborough screening of a movie about Sudan’s boy sol-diers will go towards Bor Or-phanage and Community Edu-cation Project, in South Sedan.

War Child is the life story of internationally renowned peace activisit, hip hop artist, refugee and child soldier Emmaul Jal.

Amazingly, the fi lm fea-tures actual footage of Jal and the group of child soldiers he fought with.

It will be screened at Low-anna College, 72 Newark Av., Newborough on March 15 at 6.30pm.

Those attending can sam-ple authentic Africa foods and there will be a question and an-swer time afterwards with the Rev Abraham Maluk and Abra-

ham Malual who are former “lost boys” of Sudan with lives paralleling Jal.

Tickets are $20 from SelectMusic Systems, 73 Franklin St., Traralgon 5174 2849.

Bor Orphanage and Commu-nity Education Project was es-tablished to develop an orphan-age/school for the homeless and parentless children of Bor,South Sudan, who are returning to their homes, following the recently granted Independence for South Sudan.

More can be found about the project at www.bororphanage.com

Jal’s most famous song, ‘WeWant Peace’ features AlishaKeys, Peter Gabriel, GeorgeClooney and Nelson Mandelacan be found on You Tube.

Film aids orphanage


BISHOP Christopher Prowse outside St Mary’s Cathedral, Sale, with seminarians (from left) Siju Xavier, Avinash George, Vin Mannes and Hiep Nguyen.

FOUR of Sale Diocese’s fi ve seminarians visited Bishop Christopher Prowse last week prior to beginning their studies at Corpus Christi College next week.

Only one missing was Tao Pham who is still undergoing medical care in Melbourne.

Present were Indian-born Siju Xavier who is entering his sixth year at the seminary, Vin Mannes, Morwell, who will be in the second year and Viet-namese born Hiep Nguyen and Indian-born Avinash George who will both be in fi rst year.

Hiep was to have started last year but withdrew and spent time back in Vietnam while visa problems were sorted out.

Bishop Prowse said he was proud to have a growing batch of seminarians because when he became bishop Tao was the only seminarian for Sale Dio-cese.

Tao was to have been or-dained a deacon last year but this was deferred a week before when his medical problems sur-faced.

He said that Siju would be or-dained a deacon in the later part of this year.

The four seminarians have all travelled different paths to study for the priesthood.

Siju said he decided he want-ed to be a priest when he was an altar boy back in India and had started seminary studies there.

Vin said he had felt God’s call later in life and was pleased that he was being given the opportu-nity to become a priest.

Hiep said his decision was a long time coming, starting with his fi rst visit to Sale Diocese in 2008 and getting stronger year by year.

Avinash said that was not really any particular moment when he decided the priesthood was for him because he had al-ways experienced a strong in-ner call to serve God.

The diversity of experiences of these four men shows that God calls people in different ways.

Any men, including those in the fi nal years of secondary school, who felt called by God were encouraged to discuss the possibility of religious voca-tions with diocesan vocations director Fr Darek Jablonski on 5996 1985 or [email protected]

Seminarians visit their bishop

NARRE WARREN - The Ca-sey group of the Catenian Asso-ciation, which was inaugurated in March 2011 has decided to change its meeting night to the third Monday of each month in order to attract more members especially from local parishes.

The time and venue, 7pm at the Fountain Gate Hotel, off Overland Drive, Narre Warren remains unaltered.

The Casey group currently consists of enrolled members from Narre Warren, Narre War-ren South, Endeavour Hills, Lyndhurst, Lynbrook and Cran-bourne as well as members from Waverley and Beaumaris and parishioners from our Lady Help of Christians who are learning about the Catenian As-sociation before deciding to be-come committed members.

It is hoped that within the cur-rent year, the number enrolled in the Casey group will increase

to 25 or so, at which time it will be large enough to seek recog-nition as a full Catenian Circle.

The Catenian Association is an international brotherhood of Catholic men who meet social-ly and fi nd true friendship with their Catholic Faith providing the strong common bond.

They try to have a full social program designed to appeal to all tastes and involve wives and families.

The association has more than 10,000 members in over 300 Circles in Australia, Southern Africa, England, Ireland, Mal-ta, Hong Kong and India.

Details of the international involvement and growth of the Catenian Association can be found on www.thecatenians.com and information about the local Casey group can be ob-tained from the chairman Con Lilley on 8794 9513 or by e-mail on [email protected].

Casey Cateniansplan to expand

A golden jubilee blessing

A LARGE crowd attended the golden jubilee celebrations of Sr Elizabeth Roberts MFIC, chaplain to Italian immigrants for Sale Diocese.

Bishop Christopher Prowse concelebrated Mass and pre-sented her with a Papal Bless-ing at the conclusion.

The bishop addressed the congregation in Italian at the beginning of his homily, creat-ing much joy among the many Italians present.

He said we thanked God for giving Sr Liz to the Church as a religious sister of the Mission-ary Franciscans of the Immacu-late Conception.

She had given distinguished Gospel service in the diocese particularly with the Italian community for almost 17 years.

“We gather together to thank God for His many blessings amongst us through Sr Liz and to pray God’s blessings upon her on this the Golden Jubilee of Religious Profession.”

In the fi rst reading we heard the beginnings of the vocational call of all of us to the Lord. In Jeremiah we heard God say to us “before I formed you in the womb I knew you”.

He said all of us were called to the vocation of being one with God in Jesus. This was by means of His grace amongst us.

Sr Liz had responded to this grace of God like Mary, the Mother of God, by saying “yes” to the love of God being poured out into her heart. She has then given her life over to be the Love of God in the heart of the Church.

Bishop Prowse said it might be appropriate to refl ect about religious life particularly as ex-pressed in Australia today.

We often heard about the shortage in numbers of priests and seminarians.

This was true, but there was an even greater feature happen-ing in the Catholic Church over the years which was the incred-

ible drop-off of religious, maleand female, that offered pasto-ral care to the Church in Aus-tralia.

He said his eyes were drawn to one of the prayers that will be coming up in the Prayer of the Faithful which was for an increase of vocations.

Bishop Prowse said manymight be surprised to know thatthere are about 30 religious, male and female, that offeredwonderful service to the Churchon a daily basis in the diocese.

“We will particularly pray forthem and that their numbers in-crease in the times ahead.”

“But most particularly today we pray for Sr Liz. We thankthe Missionary Franciscans of the Immaculate Conception for sending her to us.

“We thank the Lord for SrLiz’s apostolate amongst us, es-pecially in the Italian commu-nity, and we ask that her minis-try and her health fl ourish anewin the years ahead.”

BISHOP Christopher Prowse presents Sr Elizabeth Roberts MFIC with a Papal Blessing at the endof her golden jubilee Mass at Sacred Heart Church, Morwell.

Sale Serra golf daySALE - The annual Serra Golf Day and dinner will be held at Sale Golf Club, Longford, on April 2.

Catholic clergy and members of Sale Serra Club will hotly contest the Fr Frank Carroll Shield.

Among the dozens of other prizes are the Neville McLeod Plaque for best overall score of the day, the Jeremiah Coffey Perpetual Trophy which is con-tested between Catholics and Non-Catholics.

There are also individual events for Serrans, Friends of Serra, Ladies, Catholic religious and non-Catholic religious.

A light lunch will be served at 11.30am, followed by a shotgun

start at 12.15pm.The annual dinner will be

held at the golf club that even-ing at 6.30pm.

As usual the day is presented without cost for all religious whether they are golfers or not. Many non-golfi ng priests and religious just attend the dinner.

To assist with catering those wishing to attend should con-tact Reg Carmody 5144 3349 or Allan Wyatt 5143 0454 by March 23.

Costs for non-clergy wish-ing to participate is $5 for Sale members $10 for visitors and the two course dinner is $30.

The Serra Club is an interna-tional organisation which pro-motes religious vocations.


Some newly recognised poems by Alan McLean

with Patrick Morgan

GippslandHistory

WILLIAM Tennant Dawson was an important fi gure in early Gippsland history as its fi rst chief surveyor.

A descendant, Andrew Daw-son, in researching his an-cestor’s life, came across an obituary poem on the chief sur-veyor published in the Gipps-land Times by an anonymous poet “Bozzle”.

“Bozzle” is the name of a character in a Thackeray novel.

It so happens that in a volume called Rural Poems published by Allan McLean in Sale in 1880, the same poem on the death of William Tennant Daw-son is included.

This enables us to now iden-tify the half a dozen poems published by “Bozzle” in the Gippsland Times in the 1870s as written by Allan McLean.

This is signifi cant as Allan McLean was the most important political fi gure in Gippsland history. He became Premier of

Victoria from December 1899 to November 1900, and Deputy Prime Minister in 1904-05 in the Reid-McLean Federal Gov-ernment.

The McLean family - Charles, his wife, Charles’ brother An-gus, and the young Allan - came to Gippsland in 1842 as part of the fi rst wave of Scottish settlers in the province.

What made them unusual among the Gippsland Highland Scots was their Catholic reli-gion.

Some parts of the highlands and islands of Scotland re-mained Catholic during the Reformation.

With another Scotsman, Si-mon Gillies, they set up their squatting run of Glenaladale.

In adulthood Allan McLean founded a stock-and-station agency based at Maffra, be-came President of Maffra Shire Council, Member for Gipps-land North in the Victorian Parliament, and a government minister.

Two of the “Bozzle” poems now known to have been com-posed by Allan McLean are printed on this page.

In the Gippsland Times of March 1, 1878, he published a poem on the inauguration of the railway line from Melbourne to Sale.

In the Gippsland Times of 21 November, 1874, McLean published a “Bozzle” poem on a recent celebration where Gippsland’s Scots gathered at Sale for a sports day including athletic events and Highland Games, followed by a ball in the evening.

The poem is written in Lal-lans, the dialect of the Low-lands Scots, used by poets like Robbie Burns.

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OPENING OF THEGIPPSLAND

RAILWAYBY “BOZZLE”

Hark to the heavy tramp, the joyous humOf blended voices from the gathering throng;From east and west from north and south they come,With band and bagpipes, in procession long,To see the railway train approach the station,And bid a long farewell to isolation.

A glorious era o’er this Province fairThis day shall dawn, and shall dispel the nightOf long protracted wrongs, as melt in airThe mists of morning in the solar light.The wheels of progress by inaction rusted,Now not in motion, shall no more be crusted.

Soon shall the smoke from many a homestead fi reCurl o’er our verdant vales and fair domains,Broad fi elds of waving corn shall hope inspire,Yield to our yeomen race substantial gains!And trade and commerce, wealth and population, Sweep forward with the tide of innovation.

Soon noble industry, directed well,Shall riches gather from the virgin soil;Each lofty mountain tract and lonely dellShall yield their treasures for the miner’s toil. Our plains and forests, lakes and mountain ranges, With every year shall see progressive changes.

Proud ships shall cleave their paths through sunny lakes, Whose tranquil waters rarely knew unrest, Save when the wild bird left the wooded brakesTo lave its plumage on their limpid breast,Bright lamps shall glimmer o’er those islets lonelyThat erst were lighted by the moonbeam only.

With banners waving in the balmy air,Higher o’er the columned lines, that thicken still,The gathered thousands form procession fair,March slowly forward with united will, To greet the iron horse with acclamation Which brings our fair New Province annexation.

THE LATE CALEDONIAN GATHERING.

BY “BOZZLE”

Guid people, wad ye juist come ben,An’ ope yer lugs for minutes ten?I’ll rant a stave that ye may kenWhat a’ folk say -Last Thursday was, wi’ Scottish men,An unco day.

At mornin’tide the sun sent doonBraid gowden lars asklent the toon,Whaur shimnmer’d silks an’ glitter’d shoonIn blythe array;A’ for the trystin’ place we’re boun’Tae tak’ the way.

Auld Scotia’s sons ye micht hae tell’d,When high the umuckle drones were held;An’ “ Campbells are a comin’” swelledIn thrillin’ strains ;For swift the quicken’d currents well’dThrough a’ their veins.

Some thocht upo’ the bygane day,When, summon’d by the pibroch’s bray,Their faithers join’d the deadly frayTheir native heathTae guard frae base usurpers’ sway,Or welcome death.

O laurels by those faithers wornUpo’ that fell an’ bluidy morn -When haughty England’s fl ag was torn,Whilst high in turnThe lion o’ the north was borneOwer Bannockburn.

Then fl itted swiftly through their mindMair peacefu’ scenes an’ feelins kind:How round the rose the thistle twin’dIn fond communion;An’ Erin’s shamrock had combin’dTae swell the union.

Tae some the merry martial layReca’d their hames far, far away,Whaur ‘midst the rushin’ torrent’s sprayTheir native hillsStood oot in a’ their grim arrayWi’ coontless rills:

The hame where childhood’s lot was cast,‘Midst frownin’ mountains bleak an’ vast,Swept by the Northern Ocean’s blast;An’ shrouded o’erWi’ legends o’ the buried pastAn’ hidden lore.

Some thocht how aft wi’ gladsome zealThey’d hasten’d at the pipes’ appeal,Tae mingle in the Hielan reelAn’ blythe strathspey,Wi’ those wha’ ne’er frae foeman’s steelWad turn away.

A bonnie sicht it was, I ween,Tae see the lasses on the green,Wi’ fl owin’ locks an’ lovely een,As deadly brichtAs stars that through their clouded screenSend gleams o’ licht.

Tae see, ye wad be muckle fain,Some strappin’ callants strive amainTae toss the bar, an’ put the stane,Tae loop an’ rin;They show’d a walth o’ thew an’ baneIn ilka spin.

An’ last, not least, the kilted ranksWi’ sturdy limbs show’d mony pranks;Some trippit brawly on the planksTwa oors or mair,Wi’ de’il a screed upo’ their shanksSave dust an’ hair.


Quick calendarWhat’s on & whenFebruary9 - Opening Mass for school

year at Catholic College Sale11 – Our Lady of Lourdes14 – Central region meeting,

St John’s, Trafalgar, 7.30pm15 - Leadership Mass, Nagle

College16 – Clergy input to pasto-

ral plan, St Michael’s School Hall, Traralgon, 11am19 – Parish farewell for

Fr Frank Young, St Mary’s Church Maffra, Mass 11am followed by barbecue lunch21 – Shrove Tuesday21 - Project Compassion

launch, Nagle College, Bairnsdale22 – Ash Wednesday, begin-

ning of Lent23 – Valley region meeting,

noon25-26 – St Mary’s Cathedral

Appeal collection (all parish-es)26 - Rite of election for RCIA

candidate sand catechumens, St Mary’s Cathedral, Sale27 – Deadline for March

Catholic Life

March2 – Schools Clean-Up Day3-4 – Living Parish weekend,

Berwick4 – Clean Up Australia Day6 - CWL regional meeting,

Narre Warren6 - Heart region meeting7 – Catholic Life published7 – South region meeting,

Leongatha, 11.15am8 – St John of God Memorial9 - Mass for religious work-

ing in Sale Diocese , St Mary’s Cathedral, 11am12 – Labor Day public holi-

day14 – West region meeting, St

Patrick’s, Pakenham 10.30am17 – St Patrick’s Day19 – Solemnity of St Joseph21 – World Forestry Day22 – World Water Day24-25 – 80th celebrations at

St Joseph’s School, Trafalgar26 – Annunciation of the

Lord28 – Ride to School Day29 - CWL east region confer-

ence, Lakes Entrance30 – First term holidays begin

April1 – Passion Sunday6 – Good Friday6 – Holy Places Collection at

Good Friday services7 – Holy Saturday, Easter

Vigil8 – Easter Sunday9 – Easter Monday public

holiday10 – Deadline for April Cath-

olic Life12 – Valley region meeting,

noon15 – Divine Mercy Sunday16-20 – Sale Diocese clergy

retreat16 – Second term begins

18 – Catholic Life published18 – World Heritage Day24 – Central region meeting,

St Joseph’s, Warragul, 7.30pm24 – Diocesan Pastoral Coun-

cil meeting, St Michael’s, Traralgon, 10am25 – Anzac Day27 – Grand cabaret for Ca-

thedral Appeal, Kernot Hall, Morwell29- Collection for Education

of Seminarians Bursary Fund29 – Good Shepherd Sunday30 – Australian Catholic Me-

dia Congress, Sydney

MayBishop’s Family Foundation

Appeal month1-2 - Australian Catholic Me-

dia Congress, Sydney 3-10 – Australian Catholic

Bishops’ Conference plenary session, Sydney7 – Deadline for May Catho-

lic Life8 – East region meeting,

Lakes Entrance, 10.30pm11-18 – Bishop Prowse lead-

ing Catholic Education Offi ce retreat to Rome13 – Mother’s Day14-20 – National Volunteer

Week15 – Heart region meeting,

Sale Chapter House, 4pm (tbc)16 – Catholic Life published19-27 – Bishop Prowse at

charismatic conference, South Korea20 – Ascension of the Lord24 – Solemnity of Our Lady

Help of Christians26 – National Sorry Day27 – Pentecost Sunday28-31 – Bishop Prowse at

Federation of Catholic Bish-ops’ Conferences of Oceania meeting, New Caledonia31- Feast of the Visitation of

BVM

June3 – Trinity Sunday4 – Deadline for June Catho-

lic Life5 – World Environment Day10 – Solemnity of Corpus

Christi11 – Queen’s Birthday public

holiday13 – Catholic Life published15 – Solemnity of Sacred

Heart of Jesus16-17 – St Vincent de Paul

Appeal for the Poor16 - Memorial of Immaculate

Heart of Mary24 – Solemnity of Nativity of

John the Baptist26 – Central region meeting,

St Ita’s, Drouin, 7.30pm29 – Second term holidays

begin

JulyPeter’s Pence Collection

month1-6 – Bishop Prowse’s per-

sonal retreat

Bishop’s DiaryFebruary 9 - School year

opening Mass, Catholic College Sale, 10.45am.

February 10-12 - Parish visitation, St Michael’s, Traralgon.

February 14 - 11am meeting and 11.45am Mass with diocesan cat-echists, Marian Room, Warragul.

February 14 - Video pres-entation to primary school teachers of Catholic social doctrine, Warragul 2pm.

February 15 - Leadership Mass at Nagle College, Bairnsdale, 9am.

February 15 - Council of Priests meeting, followed my meeting of College of Consultors, Sale.

February 16 - Clergy gathering at St Michael’s School hall, Traralgon, to discuss pastoral letter and plan, 11am.

February 17-19 - Parish visitation, St Michael’s, Berwick.

February 21 - Project Compassion launch, Nagle College, Bairnsdale, 11am

February 22 - Ash Wednesday Mass, St Mary’s Cathedral.

February 22 - Diocesan Finance Council meeting,

Sale, 5.30pmFebruary 24 - Offi cial

opening of new build-ings at St Peter’s College, Cranbourne East campus.

February 26 - Rite of Election for RCIA can-didates and catechumens from across diocese, St Mary’s Cathedral, 2pm

February 29 - Meeting of Bishops’ Commission for Ecumenism and Inter-re-ligious Relations, Sydney.

March 2 - Guests speak-er at Catholic Women’s League function for World Day of Prayer, St Mary’s Cathedral, 7pm.

March 6 - CWL regional meeting and Mass, Our Lady Help of Christians, Narre Warren, 10am.

March 6 - Teleconfer-ence of Bishops’ Com-mission for Relations with Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders, 3pm.

March 7 - Meeting of Victorian bishops, Mel-bourne, 3pm.

March 8 - Meetings of Catholic Theological Col-lege and Corpus Christi College seminary, Mel-bourne.

March 9 - Mass and lunch for religious of dio-

cese, St Mary’s Cathedral, 11am.

March 14 - Reconcilia-tion with CSYMA mem-bers at Forest Edge Camp, Neerim South.

March 16-18 - Parish visitation, Lumen Christ, Churchill.

March 23 - Primary reli-gious education coordina-tors conference, Rawson,

March 23-25 - Parish visitation, St John’s, Tra-falgar.

March 25 - Mass to cel-ebrate 80th anniversary of St Joseph’s School, Trafal-gar, 10.30am.

March 27 - Year 12 lead-ership group meeting, Warragul, 10am

March 29 - CWL east region conference open-ing Mass, Lakes Entrance, 9.30am.

St Agatha’s, Cranbourne - 150 spirit-fi lled yearsBy Regina T. Abraham

CRANBOURNE - St Aga-tha’s Parish is celebrating the 150th anniversary of the estab-lishment of the fi rst Catholic Church in Cranbourne.

The previous Bishop of Sale, the Bishop Jeremiah Coffey wrote on the occasion of the silver jubilee of St Agatha’s, “May the writing of history engender a new spring in the life of the Parish”. Researching our Church history and looking back I see his prayerful wishes as a reality in the life of the par-ish.

In the last few decades St Ag-atha’s has grown both in num-ber and in spirituality.

One can see the hand of God leading this community right from the very start with the early Catholics, their hard work, their love of God and his people, the various prayer and Bible study groups over the years, the pres-ence of wonderful priests and religious throughout the history of the parish and more recently with the opening of the Eucha-ristic Adoration Chapel.

The community of St Aga-tha’s has also greatly benefi t-ted from the meeting of Fr An-drew Wise and Sr Anna Abba at Creighton University in Ne-

braska while they were both there for their Masters program.

Sr Anna then came to St Aga-tha’s for her Sabbatical in 2006 and by December 2007 we had the three lovely Sisters of the Nativity working in the parish.

The leadership of the priests especially after we became a parish in our own right, inde-pendent of Berwick in 1973 has been outstanding. I give below a list of our parish priests at St Agatha’s since then.

Fr Joseph O’Hagen 1973 - 1974

Fr O’ Hagen was the fi rst par-ish priest of St Agatha’s when we became an independent par-ish, separated from Berwick parish. He returned to Ireland in 1974 and died shortly after wards.

Fr George Todd 1974 - 1979 Fr Todd initiated the plans for

the current St Agatha’s Church. He developed the spiritual life in the parish and invited the Sisters of Mercy to work in the parish and established the Par-ish Pastoral Council. Fr Todd died on December 30, 1979 while he was parish priest at St Agatha’s.

Fr James McGuigan 1980 - 1991

Fr McGuigan spent 11 years of dedicated work building up

the church, school and com-munity of St Agatha’s. He was much loved by all and was called the priest in a white hat. Fr McGuigan died on May 19, 1991, while he was parish priest at St Agatha’s.

Fr Herman Hengel 1991 - 2001

Fr Hengel spent ten challeng-ing years at St Agatha’s dealing with Cranbourne becoming an outer Melbourne suburb, de-veloping the schools, buildings and new parishioners who were trying to establish themselves.

Fr Andrew Wise 2001 - 2011.

Fr Wise took initiative in bringing a new springtime into the life of the parish with the opening of the Eucharistic ado-ration chapel and bringing the Sisters of the Nativity to work in the parish. Fr Wise also put together the project plans for a new parish and college during his time.

Fr Denis O’Bryan Jan 2011 – to date.

Fr O’Bryan had the signifi -cant milestone of the opening of the St Peter’s campus in Cran-bourne East in his fi rst year at St Agatha’s and is further de-veloping the plans for the new school and parish of St Thomas the Apostle in Cranbourne East.


ST MARY’S CATHEDRAL, SALEis in urgent need of restorationto return it to its former glory as

the Mother Church of Sale Diocese.An appeal is currently under way to raise funds for these important

restoration works and to make some improvements. The fi rst stage has been completed but much work still needs to be done.

Please donate generously to the Cathedral Appeal either at the special collection being taken up in parishes later this month or by fi lling in the form below

St Mary’s Cathedral Sale AppealPost to: Reply Paid 508, Sale 3853 (No stamp required)

Please accept my gift of $ towards the Cathedral Appeal

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

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

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

Method of Payment (Please place X in relevant box)

Cheque Money Order

Mastercard Visa Amex

Card number _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Expiry date _ _ / _ _

Signature ..........................................................................................

Cathedral works under way

BISHOP Christopher Prowse (left) and Dean of the Cathedral Fr Andrew Wise inspect repairs to the cathedral roof courtesy of a new access ladder built in stage one.

RIGHT: Badly peeling paint-work on the ceiling of the gathering area of the cathe-dral will be repaired in the second stage.

WATER stained paintwork on the Foster St. side of the cathedral

NEW solid wooden doors with brass inlays in the form of a cross at the main entrance replace sliding glass doors which were continually malfunctioning.A NEW modern kitchenette in the cathedral.

CCI donates books

CATHOLIC Church Insurances has donated two double volume boxed books to the Diocese of Sale. The books were produced to mark the insurance company’s 100th anniversary last year. One set was given to the bishop and the other to the archives. Looking through one of the books at the presentation last week are CCI rep-resentative Peter Crosbie (left) and Bishop Christopher Prowse.

To advertise inCatholic Life

5144 6132

Catholic Life, February 2012- Page 17

For the Young and Young at Heart

AN accountant dies and goes to heaven. He reach-es the pearly gates and is amazed to see a happy crowd all waving banners and chanting his name.

After a few minutes St Peter comes running across and says, “I’m sorry I wasn’t here to greet you personally. God is looking forward to meeting such a remarkable man as yourself.”

The accountant is per-plexed. “I’ve tried to lead a good life, but I am over-whelmed by your welcome,” he tells St Peter. “It’s the least we can do for

someone as special as you are. Imagine, living to the age of 160 and still looking so young,” says St Peter.

The man looks even more dumbfounded and replies,

“160? I don’t know what you mean. I’m only 40.”

St Peter replies, “But that can’t be right - we’ve seen your time sheets!”

A WOMAN always want-ed to learn to play the piano and so when she retired her husband bought one for her.

A few weeks later, a friend asked the husband how the piano playing was going.“Oh, we returned the pi-

ano,” said the husband, “I persuaded her to switch to a clarinet instead.”“How come?” “Because,” he answered,

“with a clarinet, she can’t sing.”

AN old farmer had owned a large farm for many years. He had a large dam down the back of the property with some nice shady trees and some picnic tables so his family could enjoy a pic-nic and swim on hot days.

One evening the old farm-

er decided to go down to the dam, as and as he neared it, he heard voices shouting and laughing with glee.

As he came closer he saw it was a bunch of young women who had sneaked onto his property to go skin-ny-dipping in his dam.

He called out to them and they all made their way to the deep end.

One of the women shouted to him, “We’re not coming out until you leave!”

The old man replied, “I didn’t come down here to watch you ladies swim or make you get out of the pond, I only came to feed my crocodiles.”

“MISTER, why doesn’t this cow have any horns?” asked the young lady from a nearby city.

The farmer cocked his head for a moment, then be-gan in a patient tone, “Well, ma’am, cattle can do a pow-erful lot of damage with horns. Sometimes we keep ’em trimmed down with a hacksaw. Other times we can fi x up the young ‘uns by puttin’ a couple drops of acid where their horns would grow in, and that stops ‘em cold. Still, there are some breeds of cattle that never grow horns. But the reason this cow don’t have no horns, ma’am, is

‘cause it’s a horse.”

THE teacher complained to a student that he never seemed to get anything right.“What sort of job do you

think you will be able to get after you leave school?”

Youngster thought for a while and said he’d prob-ably have to settle for being a weather forecaster.

Time for a Laugh

ColouringcontestwinnerWOW, what a fantastic num-ber of huge class entries for our Christmas colouring contest featuring Mary and the baby Jesus with a man-ger.

Most children chose to de-pict Mary in blue which is the traditional depiction of her but some chose a rainbow of colours for her clothing.

Unfortunately there can only be one winner.

We have chosen the entry from Caitlyn George, 10, from St Patrick’s Strat-ford, as our winner and will deliver her prize soon.

Back to school wordsearch

SEE if you can fi nd all the words listed below in this wordsearch.

BACKPACKPENCILSHAIRCUT

PENSOPEN HOUSESCHOOL BUS

MIDDLE SCHOOL

TEXTBOOKNOTEBOOKS

FRIENDSCLASSES

SCHEDULESELEMENTARY

SUMMER

PAPERNEW SHOESORIENTATION

REGISTRATIONHIGH SCHOOLFIRST WEEK

Send us your workWE have decided to rest

the concept of a colouring contest for a while to give some of our talented young readers the opportunity to showcase their drawing skills.

Many of our primary and secondary students do re-markable work which is rarely showcased outside of the school environment.

We would like to bring some of that work to our readers.

Hopefully we will be able to show a few works each month

It will be diffi cult to repro-

duce large, detailed works but smaller drawings and paintings will be suitable.

Secondary students who are compiling portfolios ob-viously cannot send origi-nals but clear photographs or scanned copies will be suit-able.

Send works to Catholic Life Art, PO Box 183, Sale, 3850 or email a high reso-lution JPG to [email protected]. Ideally works should be scanned or photographed at 300dpi and all JPG email attachments should be send original size, not small, medium or large.

KEVIN Thomas from St Catherine’s, Berwick, displays the books he won in our November contest.

AN airline captain was help-ing in a new blonde steward-ess. The route they were fl y-ing had a layover in another city. Upon their arrival, the captain showed the steward-ess the best place for airline personnel to eat, shop and stay overnight.

The next morning, as the pilot was preparing the crew

for the day’s route, he no-ticed the new stewardess was missing.

He knew which room she was in at the hotel and called her up wondering what hap-pened.

She answered the phone, crying, and said she couldn’t get out of her room. “You can’t get out of your room?”

the captain asked, “Why not?”

The stewardess replied: “There are only three doorsin here,” she sobbed, “oneis the bathroom, one is thewardrobe, and one has a sign on it that says ‘Do Not Dis-turb’!”

And one for all the blondes . . .


world news ... world news ...

Mary, Joseph and baby get aidETHIOPIA - The famine af-fl icting millions in the Horn of Africa appears so vast you could wonder what your dona-tions could possibly do to alle-viate this terrible situation. The truth is, in this very minute, you are saving lives.

The emergency feeding pro-gram that has been operating at the Dadim Primary Health Care Clinic in the famine-de-clared area of Ethiopia since September is funded through the donations Catholic Mission supporters sent in response to Franciscan Sister Maureen El-liott’s appeal for help.

Located in a place named Ya-bello in the region of Woredo, 250km south of Awassa, the Dadim clinic is an outreach of the Church’s presence which has been here since 1974.

The parish priest is a Spiritan priest, Fr Boniface, who is as-sisted by Sisters of Charity who run the local school. In the pre-sent famine the clinic is liter-ally a life buoy. Its feeding pro-grams target babies and infants, nursing mothers, the elderly and widows.

The assistance provided to one small family speaks for many. Among the nomad-ic Guji herdsmen who have trekked to the clinic is a woman named Mariam (Mary) and her husband Yosef (Joseph) and their baby Nugese, whose name translates as “My King”.

Like rural people the world over, Yosef is entirely depend-ent on his crops, pastures and animals. When the expected rains of May and later Octo-ber failed, Yosef had no choice but to take his family droving, pushing his tired cattle across a fl at and dusty red landscape

where the only feed on offer were thorn bushes and briars.

From Moyale, on the border with Kenya, the family trekked 240km to reach the Dadim Clinic. Mariam and Yosef know they are welcome here. They will be cared for. The baby Nugese will recover and grow.

THE Guji Mother Mariam and her baby Nugese pictured at the Dadim Clinic Photo : Bruce Dynan/Catholic Mission

British Catholicsto carry a cardBRITAIN – Catholics across the United Kingdom are being invited to carry a card showing that they are Catholic, with one million cards to be made avail-able to 24 Catholic dioceses in this new initiative, said a report on the Independent Catholic News.

The credit-card-size resource features on one side, a space for the owner to sign, a statement that the carrier is a Catholic and a list of six things that Catholics are called to do.

There is also a sentence that reads: “In the event of an emer-gency, please call a Catholic priest.” The other side of the card has a quote from Blessed John Henry Newman, focusing on the call to serve and affi rm-

ing that everyone has a mission.Bishop Kieran Conry (Arun-

del and Brighton), Chair of the Bishops’ Department for Evan-gelisation and Catechesis, said: “We all carry a variety of cardsin our purses and wallets whichrefl ect something of our iden-tity and the things that are im-portant to us.

“The faith card for Catholics aims to offer a daily reminder ofwhat it means to be a followerof Jesus Christ. We can’t sum-marise the whole of our faith in bullet points, but we hope thatthe card simply inspires people to do, read and learn more.”

The resource is free and will be distributed to diocesan offi c-es during February and March 2012 for local circulation.

Bosnian nuns faceverbal abuseBy Eva-Maria Kolmann

BOSNIA - Nuns wearing hab-its are being subjected to verbal abuse in public more and more frequently in Bosnia-Herzego-vina, Ivanka Mihaljevic, Bos-nian Provincial Superior of the Franciscan Sisters of Christ the King, reported during a visit to the international headquarters of the Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need in Germa-ny.

The nuns now only leave the convent in pairs if at all possi-ble, out of fear of abuse.

Everyday life is becoming in-creasingly diffi cult in general. For example, more and more Muslim extremists are immi-grating from Saudi Arabia and opening businesses.

The nuns often have no other choice but to buy from them, but in doing so are also sub-jected to discrimination and humiliations. For example, one of them recently wanted to buy bread.

“Although the loaves were in plain sight, the proprietor claimed he was out of bread,” Sister Ivanka said. “But he sim-ply did not want to sell it to a Catholic nun. Again and again, we are made to feel unwelcome, even though this is our home.”

By contrast, Sister Ivanka emphasised, native Bosnian Muslims are “peaceable”, and are often ashamed of the be-haviour of their extremist co-religionists who are migrating to the country.

The Franciscan Sisters of Christ the King in Sarajevo are particularly committed to pro-moting the peaceful coexist-

ence of all religions. They have launched a three-

year program entitled, “I extendto you my hand for peaceful coexistence”. In this initiative, Catholics, Muslims and Serbian Orthodox Christians are jointly working to promote tolerance,non-violence and mutual re-spect.

This year, the Province Supe-rior explained, the joint effortagainst verbal abuse tops theagenda. “These are small steps of peace and goodwill, but wewant to imbue the people withcourage.”

The Bosnian Province of the Franciscan Sisters of Christ the King comprises 260 nuns, of whom 15 live in Sarajevo.

SR Ivanka Mihaljevic, Bos-nian Provincial Superior of the Franciscan Sisters of Christ the King.

Nigerian exodus beginningBy John Newton

NIGERIA - UP to 35,000 peo-ple have fl ed from the north of Nigeria following ongoing at-tacks by Boko Haram.

In late January, the extremist Islamist group carried out at-tacks in Kano city, Borno State killing at least 160 people.

According to reports received by Aid to the Church in Need on January 24 from Church sources in the country up to 35,000 people left their homes following the violence.

ACN was told: “People just run away to where they think

they’ll be safe, especially to Jos and further south.”

One source added: “There is panic. Many just leave every-thing behind, and run for safety, because they do not know when violence might fl are up again.

There was a large number of Catholics among those fl ee-ing, who reported that churches were destroyed in Maidiguri, Borno State and Bauchi, Bauchi State.

ACN was told: “It is the stat-ed goal of Boko Haram to make the whole of the north free of Christians.”

At the beginning of January,

group spokesman, Abul Qaqa, gave Christians living in the north with a three-day ultima-tum to leave.

Boko Haram, which means “western education is sinful” in Nigeria’s Hausa language, has killed at least 935 people since it launched an uprising in 2009, according to Human Rights Watch.

This includes more than 250 at the beginning of 2012.

According to the report 550 people were killed in 115 sepa-rate attacks by Boko Haram last year, mostly in Borno State.

MacKillop statue for Vatican?ADELAIDE’S Archbishop Philip Wilson is planning to have a statue of St Mary MacK-illop installed in the Vatican - and has already identifi ed the perfect spot outside St Peter’s Basilica, said a report by The Advertiser on AdelaideNow.

The challenge is now to ensure the spot doesn’t get snapped up by someone else. “The one I want is only a small niche,” Archbishop Wilson said.

“But I picked the position because if you are walking up towards the Basilica, you can actually see it through the gate. It is like real estate - it is all lo-

cation, location, location. When they built St Peter’s Basilica 400 years ago, on the outside of the building they put all these niches for statues.

“It is only in the last 20 years they have (started) placing stat-ues there. So these statues are now appearing everywhere. I want to get one of her in there before we miss out.”

Archbishop Wilson has con-sulted the Postulator for St Mary MacKillop, Sr Maria Ca-sey, and has had preliminary discussions about the process and requirements.

He will make further inquir-ies when he returns to Rome

this week. This includes what material can be used, whether there is freedom to choose the artist and style, as well as the costs involved.


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updating your will, youmay consider leaving a

bequest to the Bishop’s Family

Foundation.

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some easy-to-read bookletsexplaining bequests whichmay be an advantage toread before seeing your

solicitor to prepare orupdate your will.

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on 5144 4991

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HOLY SPIRIT You who makes me see everything and shows me the way to reach my ideals, you who gives me a di-vine gift to forgive and forget the wrong that is done to me; in this short dialogue I want to thank you for everything and affi rm once more that I never want to be separated from you, no matter how great the mate-rial 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. AmenThis prayer should be said for 3 consecutive days. After the 3rd day the request will be granted, no matter how diffi cult it may be. While making the request one must either promise to pub-lish 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.

War ChildThe fi lm of the life story of peace activist, hip hop artist, refugee and child soldier Emmanuel Jal.

Lowanna College72-96 Newark Av.,

NewboroughThursday, March 15

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Tickets $20 from Select Music Systems, 73 Franklin St., Traralgon

5174 2849.Proceeds aid Bor Orpanage and Community Education Project,

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fi lm

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

To you I have recourse from thedepth of my heart and humbly beg you to whom God has given suchgreat power to come to my assis-tance. Help me in my present and urgent petition. In return I prom-ise to make your name known andcause you to be invoked.

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

prayer

Aust. Bishops expresssolidaritywith CopticsTHE Australian Catholic Bish-ops’ Conference has expressedsolidarity with the Coptic Christian community in Egypt.

In recent months, sectarian violence has plagued Egypt.

Coptic Christians have been killed in clashes between the military and protesters.

Of Egypt’s 80 million people, around 10 per cent are Chris-tian, and extremist minority groups hostile to the Christians are gaining infl uence in the country.

The Egyptian people are moving towards a crucial elec-tion after the downfall of the Mubarak government last year.

However, Coptic Christianshave been largely left out of thepolitical process and are wary of how they might be treated under a new government.

Extreme violence and perse-cution have been a daily reality for the Christian minority in Egypt for decades and this has escalated over the past year.

The Bishops of Australia stand in solidarity with all peo-ple of good will in Egypt.

They particularly remember those who continue to suffer violence and discrimination, and those who have lost familymembers.

The Bishops assure the Egyp-tian people of their continu-ing prayers as the election ap-proaches.

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Worldwide, the Church is under attack from atheistic regimes, militant Islam, sects and basic ignorance of the Faith.

The international Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) is able to counter these attacks by supplying Child’s Bibles to children and families

countries where the Church is poor or persecuted.

and distributed 48 million copies of God Speaks to His Children in 167 languages. It is the Catholic Church’s most successful Child’s bible ever! This inspiring book can also teach the

The Child’s Bible is a perfect gift for

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WARRAGUL - Students from Columba Catholic Primary School in Bunyip delighted their audience with a top-class Cabaret in the Marist-Sion Hall, Warragul, late last year.

The cabaret highlighted

the many activities in which students have been involved throughout the year in per-forming arts. A feature of the night was a dance presentation by profes-sional dancers Shannen Clark

and Andrew Nolo. There were performances by each class and a family dance competition which the parents had been practicing for weeks.

The night was full of enter-

tainment with a range of music and dancing and a great night was had by all.

Principal Jan Gubbins said “One of my strongest memo-ries of the cabaret has to be the

big smiles on the faces of the students as they presented their items and their obvious enjoy-ment and pride in each perfor-mance!” said

MARC Miller and his daughter Sophie show of their high fl ying dance routine at the cabaret.

GRADE Five students from Columba Catholic Primary School demonstrate their dancing skills.

A call to attend theDublin CongressBy Mgr Brian Walsh

I RECENTLY returned from Ireland where the Church is preparing for the 50th Interna-tional Eucharistic Congress in Dublin in June.

International Eucharistic Congresses are held every four years around the world with the Pope choosing the host city.

People travel from near and far for these events to deepen their faith and in particular their devotion to the Mass and the Eucharist.

The congresses have a great effect on the spiritual lives of people in the host country, many of whom spend at least a year preparing spiritually for the congress week.

Especially in English-speak-ing lands, still talk about a won-derful congress held in Ireland in 1932.

Australia has had the honor of having two memorable con-gresses – one in Sydney in 1928 and the second in Melbourne in 1973.

I was given the privilege of being appointed by the late Car-dinal Knox as the organiser of this 40th International Eucha-ristic Congress in Melbourne.

Although over 38 years have passed since then, many still recall the extraordinary event, to which people came from all over the world to pray, to refl ect to learn and to take part in a comprehensive program of cer-emonies, conference, displays

and gatherings.Occurring just over seven

years after the close of the Second Vatican Council, the Melbourne congress refl ected all that the Council stood for. The themes emphasised char-ity, social justice, welfare and ecumenism.

It set new standards for these great events.

It has been my privilege to continue acting since 1973 as an advisor to the organisers of subsequent International Eu-charistic Congresses.

Australia has been given the honor of having St Mary of the Cross MacKillop, our fi rst can-onised saint, named as one of the patrons of the Dublin con-gress.

In 1973, a chartered plane carried pilgrims from Ireland to Melbourne. Hopefully, given that the Church in Australia owes the Irish, many plane-loads of pilgrims will head for Ireland in June 2012 for the Dublin congress.

Documents

Catholic Life February 2012