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Catholic Life Catholic Life Free Publication of the Diocese of Sale ISSUE 162 June 2012 Good crowd at Marian conference - Page 9 Sowing seeds on fertile ground - Page 2 Columba students in fast lane - Page 16 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 Warragul move imminent By Colin Coomber THE diocesan headquar- ters will officially relocate to Sion House, Warragul, on July 9. The offices in Sale and New- borough will close at the end of the previous week so every- thing can be transferred into the new offices over the weekend. Phone and computer sys- tems will be transferred and it is hoped that it will be business as usual on the Monday morn- ing, without too many technical glitches. From July 9 the one tele- phone number for all diocesan agencies will be the same 5622 6600. Extensions and renovations to the former Our Lady of Sion Convent have taken place over the past 12 months with Catho- lic Education Office staff fre- quently having to juggle offices as work has taken place around them. The ground floor of the Con- nor St. building will house a reception area, chapel, Catholic Development Fund, archives, and the business, media, youth, and pastoral offices, as well as some CEO staff. Upstairs will be the bishop’s office and more CEO staff. The carefully orchestrated move will bring to an end 125 years of the diocesan headquar- ters being located in Sale. Bishop Christopher Prowse is in the process of relocating his home to Warragul but will return to St Mary’s Cathedral in Sale for the main liturgical cel- ebrations on the calendar. The postal address for dioce- san correspondence after July 9 will be PO Box 1410, Warragul 3820. Mail sent to diocesan mail- boxes in Sale, both Box 183 and Box 508, will be redirected to Warragul. Sale parish, which shares PO Box 183, will continue to re- ceive its mail at that address. Celebration time following Sale confirmations IT has been extremely busy time for Bishop Prowse in recent weeks. After being away for al- most a month attending the Bishops’ Conference in Sydney, leading a retreat for the Sale Diocese Cath- olic Education Office in Rome and visiting France. the bishop hit the ground running on his return to the diocese. The first weekend back he had the launch of his new pastoral letter and the Year of Grace. Then the following week- end he managed confirma- tions at Pakenham, Leonga- tha, Korumburra, Morwell and two at Sale. On top of that he has been packing up his office and home in readiness for the move to Warragul. PICTURED LEFT; Bishop Christopher Prowse helps young Sale parishioners cut the celebratory cake follow- ing their confirmation at St Mary’s Cathedral on June 3. - Lisa Baker Photography

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Page 1: Catholic Life June 2012

Catholic LifeCatholic LifeFreePublication of the Diocese of Sale ISSUE 162 June 2012

Good crowdat Marianconference

- Page 9

Sowing seedson fertileground

- Page 2

Columbastudents infast lane

- Page 16

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

Warragul move imminentBy Colin Coomber

THE diocesan headquar-ters will offi cially relocate to Sion House, Warragul, on July 9.

The offi ces in Sale and New-borough will close at the end of the previous week so every-thing can be transferred into the new offi ces over the weekend.

Phone and computer sys-tems will be transferred and it is hoped that it will be business as usual on the Monday morn-ing, without too many technical glitches.

From July 9 the one tele-phone number for all diocesan agencies will be the same 5622 6600.

Extensions and renovations to the former Our Lady of Sion

Convent have taken place over the past 12 months with Catho-lic Education Offi ce staff fre-quently having to juggle offi ces as work has taken place around them.

The ground fl oor of the Con-nor St. building will house a reception area, chapel, Catholic Development Fund, archives, and the business, media, youth, and pastoral offi ces, as well as

some CEO staff.Upstairs will be the bishop’s

offi ce and more CEO staff.The carefully orchestrated

move will bring to an end 125 years of the diocesan headquar-ters being located in Sale.

Bishop Christopher Prowse is in the process of relocating his home to Warragul but will return to St Mary’s Cathedral in Sale for the main liturgical cel-

ebrations on the calendar.The postal address for dioce-

san correspondence after July 9will be PO Box 1410, Warragul3820.

Mail sent to diocesan mail-boxes in Sale, both Box 183 and Box 508, will be redirected to Warragul.

Sale parish, which shares PO Box 183, will continue to re-ceive its mail at that address.

Celebration time following Sale confi rmationsIT has been extremely busy time for Bishop Prowse in recent weeks.

After being away for al-most a month attending the Bishops’ Conference in Sydney, leading a retreat for the Sale Diocese Cath-olic Education Offi ce in Rome and visiting France. the bishop hit the ground running on his return to the diocese.

The fi rst weekend back he had the launch of his new pastoral letter and the Year of Grace.

Then the following week-end he managed confi rma-tions at Pakenham, Leonga-tha, Korumburra, Morwell and two at Sale.

On top of that he has been packing up his offi ce and home in readiness for the move to Warragul.

PICTURED LEFT; Bishop Christopher Prowse helps young Sale parishioners cut the celebratory cake follow-ing their confi rmation at St Mary’s Cathedral on June 3.

- Lisa Baker Photography

Page 2: Catholic Life June 2012

Page 2 - Catholic Life, June 2012

My dear People of God in the Catholic Diocese of Sale,

Since we began our YEAR OF GRACE (May 27) we seem to be celebrating so many liturgical so-lemnities.

There are the solemnities of Pentecost, The Most Holy Trin-ity, the Body and Blood of Christ, the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the Birthday of John the Baptist and Saints Peter and Paul.

It seems to me that every one of these great solemnities of our beloved Church are moments of unimagined GRACE of God to-wards each one of us.

Regardless of our sinful and fractured response to God, the Almighty continues to shower upon us GRACE upon GRACE.

Perhaps it is the solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, for me personally, that best expresses the unconditional GRACE-love of God upon us.

In recent times I have been a pilgrim with many of our school principals in Rome. As we visit-ed the catacombs, I was reminded afresh from the historic remind-ers the fi rst Christians left behind of the importance of the Trinity

to these early martyrs and saints. They experienced in the death and resurrection of Jesus the life of Trinity made present.

It was not until the 4th Century that a formal summary of belief in the Trinity was made in the Nicene Creed. We recite this at Sunday Mass. Here the mystery of the one God as Trinity consist-ing of Father, Son and Holy Spirit was expressed. But the catacombs offer on their ancient walls and tombs many symbols of this un-formulated belief right from the initial years after Pentecost.

It is an ancient Christian under-standing that God is one. At the same time we believe that God is a communion of three divine per-sons. They are equally divine but distinct from each other.

The Trinity is a mystery of our faith which means that mere hu-man words and understandings will never fully explain God. Yet

we know that the Trinity makes the GRACE and love of God pre-sent to us today.

By GRACE alone we are invit-ed into the communion of the Fa-ther, Son and Holy Spirit. We are to become, as Mary the Mother of God shows us, dwelling places of the Trinity in the world today.

Although such teaching seems rather academic, it expresses the encounter of GRACE we receive at Baptism. We are baptised into the communion of the Trinity. Every time we bless ourselves we make an affi rmation of being baptised in the name of the Fa-ther, Son and Holy Spirit.

Every time as Christians we reach out to others, especially the poor and oppressed, we become missionaries of the Trinity. We invite people into “communio” with the Trinity. The Trinity is not a peripheral belief of the Church: it is a central to the very

understanding of evangelisation and community.

When we discuss how our par-ishes/communities are to become more welcoming and hospita-ble, we cannot talk about this as Christians without reference to our belief in the Trinity. Oth-erwise, what are we welcoming people into? We are not simply a group of nice people who have a vague sense of the religious. This is sheer humanism.

Let us be what we are!We are people GRACED with

an encounter of the love embrace of the Trinity. We welcome peo-ple to become dwellings places of the Trinity. This is our mission. This is what it means to evange-lise. It is something the Trinity does in us. It is all GRACE. Let us live in the GRACE that the Trinity has given us.

“GRACE and peace be yours in abundance” (1Peter 1:2).

God bless you all, especially your families and sick ones.

+ Bishop Christopher ProwseCatholic Bishop of Sale

To God’s Peoplein the Catholic

Diocese of Sale

Year of Grace Refl ection: Most Holy Trinity

Catholic LifeDDIOCESE OF SALE

PO Box 183, Sale. Vic. 3853Phone: (03) 5144 4311

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

Monday, July 9Issues distributed free through

parishes and schools fromJuly 18.

Published byCatholic Media Gippsland,

an agency of the Diocese of Sale.

Printed by Express Print, Morwell.

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BERWICK - It was wonderful to see so many St Michael’s Primary School, Berwick fami-lies participating in the 2012 Walk Safely to School Day.

This was a great opportunity for parents and carers to walk to school with the children and reinforce safe pedestrian be-haviour.

For many St Michael’s fami-lies this was a continuation of normal practices. For others it was a chance to have a change

in their routine as well as learn-ing the benefi ts of exercise and road safety skills

They were fortunate to have “Lottie” the Walk to School Safely Day mascot, visit on the day and many of the children were able to meet Lottie as they walked safely back home.

RIGHT: Lottie with some of the young St Michael’s stu-dents learning to walk safely to school.

Walk safely visitTo advertise

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Page 3: Catholic Life June 2012

Catholic Life, June 2012 - Page 3

Family Foundation to givecharities up to $100,000

It’snot all about

themoney!

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 and Investments Commission. Deposits with the Catholic Development Fund, Diocese of Sale are guaranteed by CDPF Limited, a company established by the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference for this purpose. We welcome your in-vestment with the Catholic Development Fund, Diocese of Sale rather than with a profi t orientated commercial organisation as a conscious commitment by you to support the Charitable, Religious and Educational works of the Catholic Church. Neither the Catholic Development Fund, Diocese of Sale nor the Trustees of the Roman Catholic Trust Corporation for the Diocese of Sale are prudentially supervised by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority; contributions to the Catholic Development Fund, Diocese of Sale do not obtain the benefi t of the depositor protection provisions of the Banking Act 1959; the Catholic Development Fund, Diocese of Sale is designed for investors who wish to promote the charitable purposes of the Catholic Diocese of Sale.

Can you help us fulfi l the mission the Church in this way?Have you got money invested elsewhere that you could

consider investing with the CDF?If you are able to help why not give the CDF

a call or email and see how easy it is. You will be rewarded with:

• A competitive rate of return on your investment;• The security of investing with the Catholic Church; and,• Most importantly you are making a contribution tofurthering the Catholic faith and education in our diocese.

So you see it’s notjust about the money

Phone 5144 4311 [email protected]

THE Bishop’s Family Founda-tion is again calling for appli-cations from charities seeking funds for projects in the area covered by the Diocese of Sale.

The foundation has around $100,000 to distribute to chari-ties which provide services to families.

Applications for funding of projects are now being taken until the end of August.

To be eligible to receive funds, the applicant must be an organisation with registered charitable tax deductibility sta-tus. No money can be paid to individuals.

Since its inception 12 years ago the foundation has distrib-uted almost $780,000 to pro-jects aiding families in Gipps-land and the outer eastern suburbs of Melbourne.

The funds available this year come from the foundation’s trust fund which is adminis-tered by independent trustees.

Like most philanthropic trusts, only proceeds of its in-vestments are available for dis-

tribution each year and so the amount can vary from year to year.

All money from the founda-tion’s annual appeal and any other donations made during the year, go directly into the trust fund as a hedge against in-fl ation which would otherwise erode the true value of its as-sets.

Applications for funding should be accompanied by the relevant form which is available on the diocese website www.sale.catholic.org.au. Follow the

links through Agencies, then select Bishop’s Family Founda-tion from the drop down menu.

The page which opens also has a PDF document explaining the funding policy in detail.

Successful applicants will be advised towards the end of the year.

For organisations without In-ternet access, copies of the ap-plication document can be ob-tained phoning Cathy Douganon 5144 6132 until July 5 or 5622 6600 after July 9.

AN 1880’s double sided desk will be among surplus items being sold by the Diocese of Sale once it closes its Sale of-fi ces next month.

This partners’ desk has been used by all Bishops of Sale.

After about 125 years of use the desk is in need of some res-toration but is still a fi ne piece of offi ce furniture.

Also for sale is an antique captain’s chair used by the bishops, and the huge lami-nate conference table which was once owned by Melbourne Archdiocese.

The diocese is planning a clearing sale of surplus offi ce equipment on Friday, July 27

between 2pm and 4pm and on Saturday July 28, from 9am to 11am.

The equipment includes desks, chairs, tables and fi ling cabinets which are surplus to requirements at the new Sion House headquarters in War-ragul.

The clearing sale will not be an auction but goods will either have marked prices or be avail-able for best offer.

Goods not sold will be do-nated to charity.

A full list of items for sale will be available after July 9 by contacting Sion House on 5622 6600 or emailing [email protected].

Bishop’s antique offi ce desk for sale

BISHOP Christopher Prowse has been appointed chairman of the Australian Catholic Bish-ops’ Conference Commission for Ecumenism and Inter-reli-gious Relations.

He was previously a member of the commission and replaces Bishop Michael Putney, Bishop of Townsville, as chairman.

Bishop Prowse continues

as a member of the Bishop’sCommission for Relations with Aborigines and Torres Strait Is-landers.

He is also co-chair of the committee for Anglican-Ro-man Catholic Dialogue.

Appointments were made at the plenary meeting of the Bishops’ Conference in Sydneylast month.

Bishop Prowse heads ACBC ecumenism commission

Emmaus SpiritualMinistry launchedAN outreach program of the Jesuits has begun operating in the Diocese of Sale.

The Emmaus Spiritual-ity Ministry was offi cially launched at St Joseph’s Church Marian Centre in Warragul last Friday night.

In launching the ministry Bishop Christopher Prowse said it was hoped that the initia-tive would produce a new gen-eration of spiritual directors in the diocese.

He endorsed the initiative and had monitored its steady progress since fi rst being sug-gested.

New spiritual directors would raise the importance of this Catholic spiritual tradition.

Bishop Prowse said this would be carried out under the inspiration of Ignatian Catholic spirituality which dated back to Jesuit founder Ignatius of Loy-ola (1491-1556).

This method had been an important river of spiritual dis-cernment and he was delighted that the initiative in Sale Dio-cese was closely linked to the Campion Retreat Centre in Kew.

The trained spiritual directors there, under the leadership of the Jesuit Fathers, were offering this region, the special gifts of properly qualifi ed, authorised

and accredited spiritual direc-tors.

Bishop Prowse said he was delighted that the name Em-maus had been given to the ministry as it was in the Em-maus scene in Luke’s Gospel where the risen Jesus gave the fi rst spiritual direction as he ex-plained to the two disillusioned men what had happened.

He explained the scriptures to them and in letting them refl ect on it in the present situation, He transformed them.

Bishop Prowse said he had found that the scriptures had helped him and many personal friends come closer to the un-derstanding of what the Lord’s will was for us in our lives.

The Emmaus ministry will also offer retreat days and spir-itual exercises to assist people to have a retreat in daily life.

The team has already held several retreats and formation programs, and members are available to travel all over the diocese to hold retreats for par-ishes or groups.

Spiritual direction is being of-fered at this stage in Bairnsdale, Pakenham, Leongatha, Sale and Newborough.

For more information con-tact Ruth Spierings on 9854 8110 or 5998 2664, or email [email protected]

Page 4: Catholic Life June 2012

Page 4 - Catholic Life, June 2012

A keen eyeKEEN eye of only one reader spotted an error we made in a quote from Pope Benedict in last issue.

We wrote “It is...” whereas the quote should have began “Is it ...” and ended in a ques-tion mark.

It gave a whole different meaning to the quote on re-fl ecting on the light of Christ in every historical period.

Interestingly, we lifted the incorrect quote from an offi cial publication.

So back to Novo Millennio Inuente (n. 16) for the correct quote.

“And is it not the Church’s task to refl ect the light of Christ in every historical peri-od, to make his face shine also before the generations of the new millennium? Our witness however, would be hopelessly inadequate if we ourselves had not fi rst contemplated His face.”

Facing the fl oodGIPPSLAND has been hit hard again by fl oods this year.

Torrential rain caused major problems in our metropoli-tan fringe earlier in the year and now in recent times up to 200mm of rain (8 inches in the old terms) have bucketed on parts on the diocese.

With eight major rivers fl ooding into the Gippsland Lakes, it is hard to believe we had 10 years of drought before conditions returned to normal 18 months ago.

Newcomers to Gippsland have diffi culty understanding we are a high rainfall area, prone to regular fl ooding and that’s why locals don’t get overly-excited by another fl ood event.

However, every major fl ood causes millions of dollars of damage as houses and facto-ries in low-lying areas are in-undated, farm fences and live-stock destroyed and roads and bridges being badly damaged.

Spare a thought for those af-fected and help out where you can.

Mistaken identityAN elderly woman boarded a tram in Melbourne and was surprised to see a man jump quickly to his feet and offer her his seat.

She thanked him and accept-ed the seat.

After some other passengers got off the tram at the next stop, he took a now vacant seat beside the lady.

She commented on his quick response to offer her the seat and he replied “Don’t read too much into it. For a fl eeting mo-ment you reminded me of a nun who used to teach me and I didn’t want to cross her again!”

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.

Passionist Family Groupscelebrate Traralgon 25 years

TRARALGON – Passionist Family Groups have celebrated 25 years in Traralgon.

The movement began in the early 1970s in Sydney, not long

after Fr Peter McGrath CP was appointed to the tiny parish of St Anthony in the Fields, in the outer suburb of Terrey Hills.

When he arrived in 1972 only about 30 people attended Sun-day Eucharist but the congrega-tion grew rapidly and by 1973 more than 1000 were attending.

Faced with this expansion, he formed Family Groups to pre-serve the original community spirit where people knew each other by name and shared each others joys and sorrows.

The Passionist Family Groups Movement is now ecumenical and worldwide.

In all countries it is seen to be a relevant way for lay people to work with other religious to build Christian community and prepare for the future.

Members aim to get to know other members of the parish and support each other.

The Passionist Fathers were invited by Fr David Cagney to conduct a mission in Traralgon in 1987 and as a result Family Groups began.

In 1988 two new groups

formed and another six were added in 1998.

There are now 10 groups who hold monthly functions and very strong bonds have been formed.

Through the years the Traral-gon priests have been support-ive of the movement and have enjoyed many social functions with the groups, fi nding them a wonderful way to be in touch and to come closer to their con-gregation.

The 25th anniversary celebra-tions began with a Mass, priorto which a Powerpoint presen-tation was shown of many of the outings and celebrations.

After the Mass they gatheredin St Mary of the Cross MacK-illop Hall for a morning tea pro-vided by members.

The state team was represent-ed by Judy and Rob Lewis from Ferntree Gully and several pastparishioners returned to Traral-gon for the day.

The anniversary cake was cutby one of the senior members Maureen Rutter.

ST Michael’s Traralgon Family Group coordinators and leaders (rear, from left) Peter Rickwood, Neil Limbom, John Zalesiak, Peter Del Pra, Gary Couling, Noel Courtney, Tom Tognella (seated) TriciaCouling, Jenny Del Pra, Marie Limbom, Carmel Collis, Carol Tognella, (kneeling) Mary Gidens, LynZalesiak and Sue Rickwood.

Page 5: Catholic Life June 2012

Catholic Life, June 2012 - Page 5

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By Christa Dwyer

“And some fell upon good ground; and brought forth fruit that grew up, and increased and yielded, one thirty, another sixty, and another a hundred.” Mark 4: 3-9

I LOVE the smells and colors of autumn and after the busy-ness of another day I love to watch the sky at dusk.

Everything is winding up for the day. My pet ducks in their yard are quacking for their tea and busy birds prattle in a cool, dimming sky. Dewfall begins to settle on the paddocks.

There’s so much I’d like to put down on this paper. So many joys and sorrows, strug-gles and triumphs. God’s ever

present gifts are everywhere … there’s so much to tell.

It’s been 10 years since we started our youth work in the Heart region.

Recently we ran our ninth St Ita’s Camp where primary children camp in groups led by teenage and young adult lead-ers.

They do jobs at the church, social justice activities, fun ac-tivities and most importantly learn about their faith and spend time getting to know Jesus.

On refl ection I realise a high-light has been watching the young primary school kids growing up through the activi-ties, becoming junior leaders, leaders and then running the youth events for the up and coming young ones, taking

God and their faith with them on their own life journey.

As I look back on a decade of youth work photos, I realise that seeds have been sown and grown.

Some seem to have fallen by the wayside or onto thorny ground … but if we all keep preparing the soil, the wind may blow them there in its time.

So often I plant seeds in my garden and after several weeks I impatiently dig them up to have a peek!

Invariably, some have swol-len, ready to burst while others have sprouted, soon to break through the ground and grow in their own time. All are dis-turbed when my impatience takes charge!

Grace too must have its time.So, plans continue for a snow

retreat in July, winter night prayers in August and a beach retreat in November … a time for planting, a season for grow-ing. All are welcome, we want to meet you and to join you on the road.

The sun now radiates its warmth across the deep blue sky of a new autumn day. The ducks welcome the morning with noisy splashing in their

pond. Yes, it’s a new day. Praise God!

If you would like to know more about youth activities in the Sale Diocese regions you can contact, youth ministry co-ordinator Jess Denehy jessd@

sale.catholic.org.au or on 5126 1063 (5622 6600 after July 9)

For the Heart region contactChrista Dwyer [email protected] or 5145 1415 or Jennifer Fitzgerald 51431931

Sowing seeds in fertile ground

ENJOYING the water fi ghts at a camp at St Ita’s in 2008 are Bren-ton de Moel and Celina Gray who have both gone on to be sub-leaders.

CHRISTA and Don Dwyer with Lauren Gray, Newry, (centre) whostarted as a junior leader with the youth group and has now gone on to complete a year as a leader with the National Evangelisation Team.

STEPHANIE Hookey uses a high-pressure water hose to prepare an old outbuilding at the church in Cowwarr for painting.

FEDERAL Member for Gipps-land, Darren Chester vis-ited Traralgon’s St Michael’s School.

He spoke to Grades 3-6 on a range of topics, including his own role, travel, parliament, electorates and voting.

When asked what they en-joyed about Mr Chester’s visit Grade 5 student, Jye said, “I ad-mire Mr Chester for continually trying to improve the country area’s infrastructure i.e. roads, hospitals, schools.”

Grade 6 student Nic said, I was interested to learn about how the voting in parliament works with the two sides and the Speaker.”

The children were very inter-ested and posed many questions to the Federal Member.

Federal Membervisits schoolat Traralgon

Page 6: Catholic Life June 2012

Page 6 - Catholic Life, June 2012

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Reflectionsby Jim Quillinan

THE celebration of the Year of Faith and the Australian Church’s Year of Grace is a call to undertake a spiritual jour-ney, a time for prayer and, like the disciples at the fi rst Pente-cost, we are asked to commit ourselves to start afresh from Christ.

This year marks the 50th an-niversary of the beginning of the Second Vatican Council with its call to be a Church in and for the Modern World.

The ‘modern world’ offers a rather challenging and turbulent time for people of faith, people who belong to a religious tradition.

Faith and religious belief are certainly hot topics for discussion, even ridicule. Richard Dawkins as-serts that religion is the great ex-cuse for people to evade the need to think and that God is nothing more than an imaginary friend.

Christopher Hitchens, in his book God is not Great writes that: ‘Organised religion is violent, irra-tional, intolerant, allied to racism, tribalism and bigotry, invested in ignorance and hostile to free en-quiry, contemptuous of women and coersive towards children’.

Is that the image we have offered over the centuries? Is that the im-age we offer today?

Geoffrey Blainey’s Book A Short History of Christianity, is a very good read. Sadly though, it high-lights times when we would have been better off listening to each other, seeking out what we have in common and working together from some shared understanding.

That simple act could, and prob-ably would have changed the course of history.

Throughout 2012 and beyond, it is highly likely that a variety of people and many different groups will continue to talk a good deal about religion but will we be lis-tening to one another?

When we are offered a year of Starting Afresh with Christ, that would be a good place to start.

In the words of Pope Paul VI: ‘In her task of promoting unity and love among people, indeed among nations, the Church con-siders above all in this declaration what we have in common and what

draws us to fellowship.’ (Nostra Aetate, Pope Paul V1, 1965)

Considering what we have in common and what draws us to-gether begins by listening to others – in our own faith tradition as well as those who belong to other faiths or none.

What stops us from listening to each other, what stops us from working to discover what we have in common, the values and beliefs we share?

Too often we can make assump-tions about the others’ motives, about the rightness or accuracy or orthodoxy of their religious be-liefs.

Too often we see sameness as a virtue and we do not rejoice in the many images and ways in which people fi nd God who is seeking them out, who wants to be known by people of different races and cultures and in different times in history.

There will always be people who have a deep need to be right. To fulfi l that need some will con-sider others to be wrong. Perhaps we would be better off asking our-selves why we have such a need.

If people of differing views be-gin really listening to each other, it might help us to rediscover where our interests are mutual rather than where we are different.

We might be better served by not being so self righteous but rather seeking out the best of what reli-gions have to share, focusing and appreciating what we share in common, how we might work to-gether.

Of course there are differences but perhaps what may help bring us together is acting together, shar-ing in how we live out our faith.

Some who claim to be atheists or agnostics or people of no faith ar-gue that living the Golden Rule is independent of religion – it is part of being human.

That may be true and it may be why the Golden Rule is shared byvirtually every faith and religioustradition – different words perhaps but the same call to action. That’ssomething we share in common.

Seeking common ground, start-ing afresh takes action. For Chris-tianity the commandment to love God and show it through the prac-tical love of one’s neighbor is fun-damental.

In Luke’s gospel Jesus’ ques-tioner asks, “And who is my neigh-bor?” (Lk 10:29). The parable Je-sus tells actually turns the man’s question on its head.

The question is no longer about the limits of my obligation to love. It is, rather, how can I show myselfa neighbor to others, any others byresponding to them in love.

Sadly another thing we all share in common, no matter what faith tradition we belong to, is our per-sonal and communal failure to liveup to the ideals and behavior our faith teaches us.

It takes a lot of courage to ac-knowledge to each other our failures to love, to be that kindneighbor Jesus spoke about in hisparable.

It is very hard to admit our fail-ures, especially if we have a deep seated need to be always in the right. That is a real test of our abil-ity to listen from a position of hu-mility and a desire to learn from the other.

Both John the Baptist and Jesus began their ministries with the callto repent, to admit failures and mistakes, to change our hearts.

The Year of Faith and the Yearof Grace calls on us to start afresh – not to stay the same but to listenwith open hearts, to act with open hearts and pray with hearts open to the Spirit who changed and in-spired the disciples at the fi rst Pen-tecost.

What we have in common

MORWELL - Well known Morwell parishioner Noel Black was presented with life membership of the Knights of the Southern Cross at an after-noon tea gathering at St Vin-cent’s Hall, Morwell East on May 20.

The presentation of his lapel badge and citation was made by Des Duggan, who repre-sented the State Council of the Knights.

Mr Duggan is a Knight of Honor, the highest award avail-able which acknowledges his long-time service to the Knights Order.

Mr Black joined the Knights in Benalla in 1968 and moved to Morwell in early 1970’s to manage Beaurepaires Tyre Ser-vice.

Later followed a move to Colac as manager for a period before returning to Morwell, again in management, for many years until he retired a decade ago.

The life membership ac-knowledges his work for the Knights in the branches at Be-nalla, Colac and Morwell.

He has been the chairman of Morwell branch for many years, and has been heavily in-

volved also in parish activities throughout the same period.

Following the Black Saturday bushfi res he was responsible for organising, with tremendous support from his wife Joan, several functions to support the family of the late Fred Frendo and his son following their deaths in this tragic event.

The award was approved in latter part of 2011 but the pres-entation was held over to allow Mr Black to fully recover from open heart surgery.

The presentation was ar-ranged to co-incide with the 70th birthday of his wife and attended by about 70 people comprising family members, local and visiting Knights, pa-rishioners and many Morwell friends.

Morwell parishioner honored with Knights life membership

NOEL Black proudly displays his life membership citation pre-sented by Des Duggan, representing the state council.

THE Catholic Women’s League Sale Diocesan committee annu-al conference was held in Mor-well last month.

Sixty-two members from 18 branches attended, along with representatives from Sandhurst and Ballarat dioceses.

Morwell branch president Pam Shaw welcomed mem-bers and introduced Latrobe City’s Cr Bruce Lougheed who opened the conference.

Reports were given by spir-itual director Sr Lynette Young and on social questions WUC-WO, Lodwar and The Horizon.

Diocesan Caritas, Missions and social justice employee Susan Grout, spoke about the prison system and the support needed for the group of priests and lay people who visit and help prisoners.

She said prisoners coming out of gaol were worried about leaving prison and the com-munity needed to help them to have a normal life.

Maureen Pawley spoke about her role at Fulham Correctional Centre which she visits every Friday to spend 4-6 hours talk-ing with prisoners who were grateful for the fact that some-one cared about them.

Mass was celebrated at the prison on 1st and 3rd Fridays by Sale priests and Bishop Prowse attended at Christmas and Easter.

Anyone wishing to help may contact Kairos prison ministry which supports prisoners, fami-lies and children of prisoners.

Mass was celebrated by Fr Otobo who is from Nigeria. He spoke about the role of women

in Nigeria.After lunch Sr Lynette spoke

of the 2012 theme for CWL “Things Both New and Old.”

With Pentecost Sunday com-mencing the Year of Grace, members needed to focus on the presence of God in their lives.

Sr Lynette recommended a good book God Knows the Way Home.

General president Jewell Start from Ballarat, spoke about the work of the governing body and the president’s collection in July which was for women and children.

Diocesan president Sylvia Neaves thanked all branches for their work over the past 12 months.

She mentioned the wonder-ful work done by the nuns at St Clare Home Craft School in Kenya which is supported by CWL.

The drive for new members is ongoing. Members have been speaking at Masses encourag-ing women to join as members or associates.

Mrs Neaves then fi nished her three years as president by handing over the presidency to Pat Allway.

A presentation was made to Val Feltham in appreciation for all her work over the past nine years as a member of the dioc-esan committee.

She was treasurer for three years and spent two as WUC-WO representative. She was also a government body repre-sentative for the past year.

Raffl e winner was Tessa Mounsey and second prize went to Anne Brown.

CWL conference

Page 7: Catholic Life June 2012

Catholic Life, June 2012 - Page 7

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By Regina Abraham

FATHER of Faith is a website created for the purpose of unit-ing a wide network of interces-sors to pray for common inten-tions, either for individual or for community needs.

Nine out of 10 people these days are computer literate and an intercessory website is an ideal instrument for the People of God to use, having one sin-gle location to lodge all their intentions so that Christians in Victoria, Australia and even around the World may be able to uphold one another in prayer. (1 Peter 5: 8 - 9)

This website also aims to ful-fi ll the prayer of Jesus for unity among Christians in John 17: 22, “May they all be one, as you Father and I are one!”

My family and I committed ourselves to the service of Jesus and His Church about 20 years ago and since then we have been actively involved within our local parishes, the Charis-matic Renewal, in many prayer groups and ministries in India and Australia.

We have come across many people who are committed to life of deep prayer and have an active personal relationship with Jesus.

At the same time we have also found that there are “pock-ets of prayer” all around the world and even within a parish

or diocese. Our collective experience is

that, when we make an effort (up to now only verbally) to communicate to all these pray-ing people the same intentions and ask them for prayer for one common purpose that particu-lar intention has an outstanding result far beyond our expecta-tions. I think all who are in the Ministry of Intercession will able to quote various instances of a similar nature.

A very recent example of this was our parish stewardship program, we were given a pro-jected fi gure of the income we would need, but the actual stew-ardship program targeted for an income of $500 lesser than this amount.

A group of us, who were in-terceding for this, consciously asked the Lord for the projected amount or more. At the end of the program we received over and above what we asked the Lord for!

There are also many other instances when things have not moved in a spirit of unity in

prayer and therefore also in ac-tion and those programs need-less to say have not been suc-cessful.

There are also instances when one group of people is involved and the other groups are not available for support because it is not part of their portfolio etc. This is not intentional but is just that things get over looked in the buzz of daily life.

It is my hope that all people of prayer will be able to look in one place to discover (some-times surprisingly) the needs of many others and place our in-tentions together as one family before our Lord!

The Lord has also impressed upon me through various ex-periences in the last few years of my service to Him the im-portance of praying in “Agree-ment” according to Matthew 18:19-20 and praying in His name according to His words in John 15: 7.

I strongly believe this website is an inspiration from the Lord to promote Christian love and unity so that soon there may

be one fl ock and one Shepherd. (John 10: 16)

It is the aim of my life to pro-mote fellowship, love and unity among all Christians especially among those in prayer within all our parishes/ministries — men and women committed to the service of the Lord. It is my prayer that all of us may come to together in the Name of Jesus, raising Holy hands in Prayer and praying according to the will of the Holy Spirit.

You can view common prayerintentions through the calendar on the website and if you have registered to become a mem-ber of this network of interces-sion, you will also be notifi ed of prayer requests sent to your e-mail.

Link to the website is: http://fatheroffaith.com/

The Father of Faith websitewas developed by Amod An-tony of Jireh Technologies.Amod and his family are fairlynew migrants to Australia fromBahrain. He has developed a few websites for the parishion-ers of St Agatha’s and besidesthis he also designs logos, post-ers, business cards and otherpromotional material.

Intercessory website developed for the peopleA group of faith-fi lled Catholics from Cranbourne and Melbourne have set

up a website to encourage others to develop their faith by interacting with the wider Catholic community. It was initially the dream of regular Catholic Life contributor Regina Abraham. The Father of Faith website encourages prayer and at the same time can help people in their faith journey.

Page 8: Catholic Life June 2012

Page 8 - Catholic Life, June 2012

Reflect On Your Life

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Our principals study tour in Canada and RomeTalking

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DURING May, a number of our primary and secondary prin-cipals, accompanied by some Catholic Education Offi ce staff, experienced the privilege of a study tour to Canada and Rome.

In Rome, the group was joined by our Bishop Prowse, and it is obvious why they were there. Rome is at the heart of our Catholic church.

The places the group visited, the things they experienced were designed to put them fully in touch with themselves as tru-ly Catholic leaders. The reports that have come back clearly in-dicate that this goal was well and truly achieved!

The reason that Canada, and in particular, Toronto, Ontario was chosen as a site for this study tour is quite simply that this province has been identi-fi ed as one of the highest per-

forming school systems in the world. We wanted to learn from them.

The Toronto system is guided by Michael Fullan, one of the world’s leading educational re-formers, with a strong record of success behind him. Our group was privileged indeed to spend signifi cant time with Profes-sor Fullan and his staff and to visit a number of schools and the Catholic Education Offi ce equivalent in the province.

It is very apparent that the learning among the group has been rich indeed. Continued school improvement, meas-ured by ongoing improvement in student learning outcomes, is a key goal for us in Catholic schools in the diocese of Sale.

Professor Fullan’s research and experience shows that this desired improvement is best

achieved when schools work as part of a whole system, when in our context, we can think of improving learning for every child and young person in our State, not just in our own school (though that is important, too.) This means that maximum im-provement can only be achieved by introducing and sustaining change at whole-of-system lev-el, as has happened in Ontario and in other high performing systems throughout the world.

We do not have such a mecha-nism in Australia, spread as we are. We do not even have it in Victoria or in Catholic educa-tion. However, we do have such potential in our own diocese. It incumbent on all of us to make the most of what opportunity we have.

Some of the strategies used in Ontario, then, are not fully

available to us – but some are. We need to take full advantage of those we can impact upon.

Fullan argues that, in order to truly improve our schools, sys-tems need to:

• Develop the entire teaching profession

• Focus on a small number of very ambitious priorities

• Ensure that teaching and as-sessment are properly linked

• Develop leadership of all levels of the system

• Focus on non-punitive, com-prehensive, relentless interven-tion strategies where schools seem not to be doing as well as they might and

• Concentrate the use of funds into these fi ve areas, rather than continually thinking up new ideas that do not relate to these focus areas.

Clearly, as I said above, some

of these we can infl uence onlyindirectly, if at all. But some wecan control and we should.

It is important to note, though that Michael Fullan challenges some of the more populist ap-proaches to school improve-ment which seem to be beloved of our various politicians. Hesuggests for example, that hisresearch and experience showsthat the continuous drive toexternal accountability, per-formance pay for teachers and the provision of technology as though that will cause improve-ment, not only do not work, but actually, in the long run, makethings worse!

Our grouped learned and ob-served that here in our diocese we are doing many things well,indeed very well. We still have much to learn and look forward to that. If the excitement andenthusiasm I have seen in thegroup on its return is any indi-cation, our schools can certain-ly look forward to a very bright future.

CWL conference at LakesTHE Catholic Women’s League eastern region conference was held at Lakes Entrance.

Ladies from Sale, Stratford, Maffra, Bairnsdale, Orbost and

Lakes Entrance gathered at St Brendan’s for the annual con-ference. The day began with Mass concelebrated by Bishop Christopher Prowse and Fr Ber-nard Buckley, parish priest of Lakes and Orbost.

St Brendan’s Primary School grade six students also attended the Mass.

During the day reports from branches indicated the many and varied tasks and functions undertaken during the past 12 months.

The Diocese of Sale’s 18 branches support a homecraft school for girls in Turkana, Kenya, for which diocesan rep-resentative and Lakes Entrance branch member Lena Zagami spoke of with the help of a pho-to display.

The efforts in East Gipps-land have helped the school to, purchase sewing machines and computers for the girls.

Louise and Michael Ankatell made a presentation of their re-cent trip with a group of 39 who volunteered through the organi-sation of Tabitha which builds houses for villagers in Cambo-dia.

Several Lakes Entrance and Bairnsdale residents are on the team which has built 80 houses during their visits in the past two years.

The branch held a luncheon

last year which raised $500, one-third of the cost of a house.

Following lunch Lynice andGeoff Wigney spoke of their experiences in Thailand whichled them to open Empower,a shop in Bairnsdale, to sell ahuge variety of articles made by women and children in ThirdWorld countries and so savesome from slavery and traffi ck-ing - a very practical way to as-sist.

Shop stock comes from manydifferent countries and attend-ees heard of a New Zealandfamily living and working inCalcutta who help women thereby starting workshops in whichthe women work and are treat-ed with dignity and respect, not abuse.

No Word photosWE have mentioned it several times over the past couple ofyears.

Can contributors please not send Catholic Life photographs in Word fi les. Photo quality isseverely affected once the im-ages are extracted and for thisreason we will not use them.

Similarly, contributors shouldavoid using text boxes, coloredtext or Wordart because this islost when we convert the Wordfi les to plain text.

Articles for consideration should be sent as a plain Wordfi le and the names of thoseappearing in accompanying photographs should be clearly marked as captions at the foot of the document.

Photographs should be sepa-rate jpg fi les attached to thesame email and should prefer-ably be at least 500kb in size. Ensure when sending the email that photograph attachments are sent “original size”, so do not select small, medium or large options which can all re-duce fi le size.

Page 9: Catholic Life June 2012

Catholic Life, June 2012 - Page 9

TONY Murnane’s spoke of the title ‘Mother of Mercy’ as be-ing one that is well entrenched in Catholic Church devotion and teaching.

She is referred to as such in the ‘Hail Holy Queen’, the ‘Memorare’. In a vision to St Faustina Kowalska She stated that She was ‘Mother of Mer-cy’. Pope John Paul II referred to Mary as Mother in the 1980 encyclical, Dives Misericordia.

Mr Murnane said she has been very much seen in this role through her many apparitions around the world. This has oc-curred in a particularly strong way at Medjugorje where so many millions of people had experienced God’s Divine Mercy, by going to confession for the fi rst time in 20, 30 or 40 years there and at so many other shrines of apparition like Lourdes, Fatima and Knock.

Clearly Our Lady has fa-cilitated so many conversions through her apparitions where she has been leading people back to her son in the confes-sional and also in the Blessed Sacrament at these shrines.

He conveyed how the enthusi-asm for Our Lady’s apparitions and messages, so prevalent in the late 80’s and early 90’s in Australia and other parts of the Western World, had waned. But he said the messages were so much more urgent now.

The moral decline in our world has gained in pace since then, a glaring example being the 2008 legalisation of abor-tion in Victoria, all the way through to nine months gesta-

tion, but also in many other ways.

He said that in the Church ap-proved apparition of Our Lady of Good Success, in Quito, Ec-uador, which occurred over 400 years ago, Our Lady described what the world would be like in the 20th Century referring to an ‘almost total and general cor-ruption of customs’.

She referred to the corruption of children, the scandals within the clergy as inciting the hatred of enemies of the Church and causing enormous sufferings to the good pastors, and also, in-iquitous laws that would attack the sacrament of matrimony.

He then drew attention to the Church approved apparitions of Our Lady of All Nations in Am-sterdam commencing March 25 1945, where approval came not on the basis of physical mira-cles, but on the basis of so many of the prophecies given there, actually materialising, such as the Chernobyl disaster, the war in Yugoslavia, the war on terror, the time of the death of Pope Pius XII and many more.

In this apparition she said, from moral degeneration comes disaster with a particular em-phasis on disasters of nature, and from degeneration comes war. She also speaks of eco-nomic disasters and catastro-phies. She gave the world a prayer to preserve us from de-generation, disaster and war.

So at Quito she describes the corruption of customs, and in Amsterdam she explains the consequences of that moral degeneration. Similar conse-

quences are conveyed by OurLady in Fatima (Portugal),Akita (Japan), and Kibeho (Rwanda), all Church-approved apparitions.

However, as in so many of theapparitions, she speaks at Quito and Amsterdam, of a wonder-ful ‘Era of Peace’ to follow the‘times of tribulation’, the period of peace she spoke of at Fatimathat would follow the Triumph of Her Immaculate Heart.

Mr Murnane asked the ques-tion that as we enter times of plunging morals, times of es-calating disasters, is there any reason for fear?

He says absolutely not, and that if we are in a state of grace,are living close to the Lordand Our Lady in prayer, we have nothing to fear, and thatwe have everything to spiritu-ally achieve if we pray and do penance for the conversion ofsinners as Our Lady has been calling us to do since 1917 in Fatima and in so many of herother apparitions.

He said Our Lady had led so many people to the growing de-votion of Eucharistic adoration.He conveyed that it is a devo-tion where we experience theLord’s peace, love and gracein a powerful way developinga strong personal relationshipwith Him before the tabernacle or the Blessed Sacrament ex-posed and conveyed a numberof powerful anecdotes illustrat-ing this point.

TRARALGON - More than 120 people attended the 16th Diocesan Marian Conference at St Michael’s, Traralgon on May 12, which focused on Mary, Mother of Mercy and her ma-ternal desire for all her children to live trustingly in full union with her Son and all people.

The day comprised of Mass, offered by Fr Andrew Grace and concelebrated by Mgr John Allman, Benediction, Exposi-tion of the Blessed Sacrament, Confession and recitation of the Rosary and Divine Mercy Chaplet.

Also, included on the day were three thought provoking and hope-fi lled presentations, one by Fr Grace, parish priest from Griffi th, NSW, followed by Tommy Canny, self taught international religious artist from Glasgow, as well as Tony Murnane, universal advocate of Our Lady’s messages to the world.

Andrew Grace was the fourth child of a family of six children, born to a devout Irish Catholic mother and a convert father.

It was his parent’s daily “liv-ing” faith and trust in God, along with prayer which later played a major role in their son’s spiritual direction.

While studying a Civil Engi-neering Degree he stopped go-ing to Mass and embraced the secular and permissive world and its values. Progressively he became closed to God’s call to return to Him and His Church.

After the tragic loss of two close friends, Andrew Grace began seeking the answers to the major questions of life “from the one to who we sin-ners pray to help us at the hour of death – our Blessed Mother”. It was at that crossroad in his life he knew he needed to make a choice “either for God or for Lucifer”.

As he refl ected upon Our Lady’s messages from Medju-gorje, he renewed his childhood love and devotion to Our Lady.

He began fasting and reading the Bible – it was a whole new experience for him, one which led him to hosting a weekly Marian Movement of Priests (Cenacle) Prayer group which involved individual consecra-tion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

However, for more than a year after his conversion he re-mained drawn to a successful career, reaping and enjoying high fi nancial rewards.

“The richer I became, the more Our Lord’s words echoed in my heart – What profi t a man if he gain the whole world but loses his soul?”

Up to that point of time, An-drew Grace was hoping he would be called to married life, however, in 1993 at the age of 30, he was involved in his sec-ond serious motor accident – one which would lead him in a short space of time to the peace and beauty of Medjugorje, to discern what vocation God in-tended for him.

There he prayed to Our Lady, the Mother of Priests for dis-

cernment and he was graced with the knowledge that God was calling him to the priest-hood.

Shortly after returning from his overseas trip, Fr Grace en-tered the Vianney College Sem-inary at Wagga Wagga and was ordained into the priesthood in 2001 at St Michael’s Cathedral.

Fr Grace loves his role and life as a priest. This is very apparent to those who had the privilege of listening to and meeting him. “The privilege of saying Mass everyday; preaching the Word; being an instrument of mercy in the Confessional; pointing the way to Heaven for people of all ages, is a true joy no words can adequately express”.

Fr Grace’s inspiring testimo-ny empathised that it is God’s desire for us to live holy lives joyfully each day, fully trusting and united with Him, lead by Our Lady. It is then as we strive to glorify God daily that we are graced and called to share God’s Love and Divine Mercy with others, unconditionally and without seeking reward.

Later in the day, Scottish self taught religious artist Tommy Canny presented a talk and DVD on his life work, includ-ing the many beautiful religious artworks he has painted in “pro-moting and contributing to the rebirth and renewal of interest in Catholic sacred art in the church and in the home”.

St Luke painted perhaps the earliest known image of the Blessed Virgin 2000 years ago, and since that time the Church has always encouraged the cre-ation and veneration of sacred images.

From his earliest years Canny was often found drawing with a pen or pencil, on scraps of paper. At the age of 19, he and his family visited Rome where he was immediately inspired by “the awesome beauty in the works of Michelangelo, espe-cially the Sistine Chapel, the works of Raphael, the Vatican museums and the architectural majesty of St Peter’s in the works of Bernini”.

Canny continues “It was a re-defi ning moment in my artistic direction and had a profound impact on my work from then on”.

From that time on, graced with a greater appreciation of sacred art founded in our Cath-olic heritage and ancient faith and the unique universality and beauty of the One, Holy Catho-lic and Apostolic Church, Can-ny was drawn to the beauty of the Marian devotion. Our Lady then led him to St Faustina Kowalska and her diary and the message of Divine Mercy.

Over the past 10 years, in-trigued by Our Lord’s words to St Faustina “Paint a picture ac-cording to the pattern you see”, Canny’s paintings and illustra-tions have included a number of subjects relating to the mystical visions of St Faustina.

Also, inspired by the writings and preaching by the late Arch-bishop Fulton Sheen, Canny has painted several exquisite,

thought-provoking paintings of Christ’s Passion – prints of which were displayed and available for sale at the confer-ence.

In thanksgiving and praise of

God for gifting Canny with his many artistic talents, through his artworks and the “The Art of Divine Mercy” apostolate, it is Canny's fervent desire and primary goal to share images

of Christ’s merciful love so as to inspire and reach souls in search of Divine Mercy.

It was indeed our privilege toview Canny’s inspired paint-ings and illustrations.

Good crowd attends diocese Marian conference

THE spectacular Tommy Canny painting Cor Ad Cor Loquitur (Heart Speaks to Heart) painted this year, which he displayed at the conference.

Mother of Mercy messages

Page 10: Catholic Life June 2012

Page 10 - Catholic Life, June 2012

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Nagle College’s VCAL achievement awardsVICTORIAN Certifi cate of Applied Learning Achievement Awards recognise outstanding achievements in the VCAL for 2011.

The students, teachers and partner organisations were ac-knowledged in an awards cer-emony held at BMW Edge at Federation Square in Mel-bourne on May 10.

Nagle College was well rep-resented on the day and were the recipients of two major awards.

Congratulations to the Nagle College applied learning co-ordinator Tina Sonka for being awarded the VCAL Teacher of the Year.

She has been involved in VCAL since its inception and has taught the program in three schools, covering all four strands at all levels.

Tina’s outstanding work in applied learning has been wide-ly recognised with awards and accolades from her peers.

With a focus on developing

students’ entrepreneurial skills through small business pro-jects, Tina has worked hard to raise VCAL’s profi le both with-in schools and communities.

Thanks to her, retention rates at Nagle College have increased and many students have been placed into apprenticeships or full-time work.

Nagle College also received the VCAL Teacher Achieve-ment Award for Team Teach-ing.

Congratulations to Chris Bittner, Mark Dowley, Chris Eaton, Dean Hamer, Kerryn Katal, John Katal, Louise Kel-ly, Kobie Pattison, Bryan Smith and Tina Sonka, who made up the Nagle VCAL team.

Pooling their collective wis-dom, the Nagle College VCAL teaching team devised a project that drew on the skills and inter-ests of each of its members.

Through the eStore initiative, the team mentored their stu-dents in designing, developing, manufacturing and marketing their own unique products.

The project required students to design a product using re-cycled materials and develop a prototype, which their peers and teachers critically evalu-ated.

They then used this feedback to refi ne their fi nal products. Students had to photograph their work, write appropriate material and cost the products before placing them for sale on the eStore.

The eStore project developed students’ entrepreneurial skills

and encouraged them to solve problems and work effectively in teams. But it was also hugely satisfying for the teachers in-volved, enabling them to pass on skills and knowledge they rarely have the opportunity to do in their teaching.

Minister for Education, Mar-tin Dixon was present at the awards and added his congrat-ulations to the Nagle College staff on their achievement.

“The students, teachers and

organisations we acknowledge today represent VCAL excel-lence across Victoria. Their commitment to the goals of VCAL and their exceptional achievements are an inspiration to us all. VCAL makes a sig-nifi cant contribution to keeping more young people engaged in education and training.”

The VCAL Chair’s Award went to the Catholic Education Commission of Victoria in rec-ognition of its strong support

of VCAL since its inception in 2002.

Initiatives to support the VCAL by CECV included scholarships for teachers, sup-port for Catholic Schools to deliver VCAL, promotion of VCAL through CECV pub-lications, and provision of an innovative Vocational Educa-tion and Training arrangement to support the delivery of VET, which is an important part of the VCAL.

AT the 2011 VCAL Awards ceremony at Federation Square in Melbourne are Nagle College awardees(left to right): John Katal, Chris Bittner, Tina Sonka, Chris Eaton, Education Minister Martin Dixon,Dean Hamer, Louise Kelly, Kobie Pattison and Mark Dowley.

Page 11: Catholic Life June 2012

TIMES are tough for many people these days.

In reading the daily newspa-pers and watching the evening news bulletins on TV you’d believe that the economy is in recession.

That’s clearly not the case, with our offi cial growth run-ning at 1.3 percent for the fi rst quarter, just about the best in the developed world.

And yet our offi cial cash rate (interest) has just been cut to 3.25 percent which is the low-est since the global fi nancial crisis.

Yet, with our two paced econ-omy we all will need to be wary of the future.

Australia’s economic wellbe-ing is beyond our immediate control. Our governments can infl uence things to a great de-gree, but at a cost.

Reading the Reserve Bank of Australia notes on the most re-cent rate cut, we see that Europe is a real threat, with the turmoil over debt-ridden nations such as Greece and Spain (and Italy and Ireland and…). The forth-coming Greek election will give us a vety good look at what might happen in Europe.

USA is recovering but more slowly than any one would want and today’s numbers also indicate that the Chinese econ-omy is giving very strong indi-cations of a genuine slow down there.

As an investment adviser, these have ramifi cations for where to put your investment funds. But they are all what we could call “macro” issues – large scale, world wide fac-tors that are beyond Australia’s scope to control.

At a far more down to earth level, every household will have to make its own decisions as to the effect that our econo-my will have.

If you are, or were, a Hast-ie employee, then you’ll be aware of the vagaries of busi-ness. Some have jobs and some don’t.. Many big businesses are sending jobs off shore or re-trenching staff. This has a fl ow on effect in all communities.

A dollar spent on a new building may circulate up to nine times – a $300,000 house providing up to $2.7 million in value to a community.

If the house isn’t built, then maybe six people won’t have a job directly, but the other $2 million lost will cause other jobs to go in the same commu-nity, too. With new building ap-provals low and not improving it may be pertinent for many to consider their budgets.

I have written other articles on budgeting, but simply put using a budget is a way to help man-age your money effectively and constructively. It helps iden-tify where and on what you’re spending your hard earned.

Try writing down everything your spending on a daily basis, then a weekly basis and then per month. Multiply this to give quarter of expenses and then by four for an annual amount, af-ter adding in the annual costs – registration, insurances, maybe rates and or school fees etc.

Before you look at the num-

bers, make sure you’re sitting down. You’ll be shocked. It will, especially if you’ve been honest doing it, help you look at where you can trim costs.

Are you paying too much to service your debt? Do you eat out too much? Do you switch to homebrands, many of which are made overseas and cost jobs here? Is there a better way to do things?

Always shop with a prepared shopping list and stick to it. Is there a better and cheaper in-surance, especially if you go on line? If you live in town, can you walk rather than drive.

These are just some questions to answer. At least you’ll have the information at hand to help you plan what you need to do if the gap between income and out-go is too negative. And you can prioritise your spending to ensure you can keep afl oat and still do the most important things.

If managing your money is diffi cult there are services available in most larger towns

and through the web that can help you. They are generally confi dential so don’t be too proud. And now there is a Gov-ernment backed plan for people who have too much debt to help them get back in control.

It does have conditions on who can use it, but it’s free and effective and may just get everyone off you back to allow you and the economy time to recover.

I now work with EL & C Bail-lieu Limited, AFSL 245421. If you have any questions you want answered specifi cally, contact the editor with your de-tails, and I’ll respond promptly.

• This report is intended to provide general advice. In preparing this advice, David Wells and EL and C Baillieu Ltd did not take into ac-count the investment objective, the fi nancial situation and particular needs of any particular person. Before making an investment decision on the basis of this advice, you need to consid-er, with or without the assistance of an adviser, whether the advice is appropriate in light of your particular investment needs, objectives and fi -nancial circumstances.

Catholic Life, June 2012 - Page 11

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PLANNING has begun for our World Youth Day 2013 “One Year To Go” celebration and we’d like to invite you to be part of it!

Fr Robert Galea will lead a special praise and worship ses-sion at St Mary Star of the Sea Church in West Melbourne fol-lowed by Mass celebrated by Archbishop Denis Hart.

After Mass the celebrations will continue with a huge Bra-zilian Carnivale, giving every-one the chance to experience the amazing culture of Brazil.

This event is open to all those from around Victoria who want to start getting ready for World Youth Day in Rio de Janeiro,

whether they will be able to at-tend World Youth Day or not.

It will be held on Friday July 27 with Praise and Worship starting at 6.30pm and Mass at 7.30pm.

The Carnivale, with food, drinks, prizes and entertain-ment will begin at 8.30pm.

Make sure you put this date in your diary and join our Face-book page at “WYD Rio Victo-ria” to stay in touch with all the latest WYD developments.

We’d like to help out with coordinating shared transport / buses to the WYD2013 launch so if you would like to attend please drop Jess an email at [email protected].

Carnivale to launch Rio WYD event

TARWIN LOWER - 10 years of celebrating Mass at St An-drew’s Church, Tarwin Lower was celebrated on April 14.

Mass was concelebrated by Bishop Christopher Prowse and Fr Peter Kooloos.

It was followed by a light supper in the community hall,

where a cake was cut to mark the occasion.

Tarwin Lower is a small com-munity in South Gippsland, close to Wilson’s Promontory.

Numbers vary from week to week depending on holiday makers, especially at Christmas and Easter.

Tarwin Lower's 10years of Masses

CUTTING the anniversary cake are (from left) Bishop Prowse, Margaret Ballon and Fr Peter Kooloos.

Page 12: Catholic Life June 2012

Page 12 - Catholic Life, June 2012

Central CatholicBookshop

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]

The seesawing fortunes of fi nding the Gld. capital

with Patrick Morgan

GGiippppssllaannddHGiissttoorryy

MOST regions in Australia which are comparable to Gipps-land have a large capital at their centre.

Toowoomba in the Darling Downs has a population of 130,000 people, Launceston the central town of northern Tas-mania has 105,000, Cairns in north Queensland has 150,000, Wagga Wagga, the capital of the Riverina, has 60,000, and Tamworth, the most important town in NSW’s New England district, has 45,000.

Why then does Sale, in the geographical centre of Gipps-land and the pivot of its early squatting properties, have only 13,000 people today, when we might expect 50,000 to 100,000?

Gippsland has never had a sizeable town. In the 19th Century its biggest town was Walhalla, with a population of 6000-8,000, and in the 20th Century the biggest was Traral-gon which passed 20,000, still a small size by Australian re-gional standards.

Sale never became the capi-tal, nor most important town in Gippsland, though it tried too. Through the second half of the 19th Century Sale and Bairns-dale competed vigorously with each other for the title. Neither won, which meant that Gipps-land has never had a capital generally recognized across the region.

Instead, through its history Gippsland has had a succes-sion of towns which have risen to pre-eminence for economic reasons, and then declined as developments moved else-where.

The fi rst town in Gippsland was Omeo, which from 1835 onwards the explorers used as a staging post, and the early squatters as a transit point for

their fl ocks on the road from Monaro south to the central plain.

Angus McMillan’s discovery of Port Albert in 1841 as an en-try and exit port for Gippsland meant that it replaced Omeo in that role, as it was much less remote. Port Albert became the principal town of Gippsland in the 1840s, especially when the government ruler of the province, the Commissioner of Crown Lands, C.J. Tyers, set up his administration there in 1844.

But by the 1850s Sale had become the dominant town as it was at the centre of the prov-ince, and squatting was the main economic activity. This was acknowledged when Tyers moved his administration there.

The road to Melbourne was opening up, which meant Port Albert was by-passed and de-clined, as cattle, produce and people could now get in and out of Gippsland by land.

By the 1860s the economic powerhouse of the province had become gold-mining, which took place in the mountains to the north, around Walhalla, Omeo and Crooked River. Gold caused economic lift-off for Gippsland, with the fabulously rich Walhalla mines as it central point. The traders of Sale now depended more on gold than squatting for their prosperity.

As the output from gold de-clined in the later 19th Century, it was in turn replaced by the farming industries, principally

dairying, which sprang up with the large infl ux of selectors into west, south and central Gipps-land from the 1870s onwards.

Gold towns like Walhalla de-clined, to be replaced by ones like Korumburra, which by the turn of the century was the most important town in the province. Korumburra had the combined advantages of dairying, coal mining and the railway.

After the economic boost caused by supplying troops in the First World War, a rural de-cline set in in the 1920s, exac-erbated by the depression of the 1930s. Internal and export mar-kets for dairy products were not holding up.

Some small farmers walked off their properties, others took up employment in the new

brown coal electricity-gener-ating industries being set up in the Latrobe Valley from the 1920s onwards.

The Latrobe Valley than be-came as the economic engine of Gippsland for most of the rest of the 20th Century, and its biggest population centre with eventually about 80,000 peo-ple. But it comprised fi ve towns of up to 20,000 people each, rather than one substantial town of 50,000 to 100,000 people, as in other comparable regions of Australia.

Late in the 20th Century the brown coal industry faltered, the SECV disappeared, and the Valley experienced a small decline, rather than continual

expansion as in the past. What will be the next area of eco-nomic expansion in Gippsland?

The answer is as yet unclear, but it may be the lower lakes re-gion from Bairnsdale to Lakes Entrance, which has Melbourne development capital coming in to boost its fi shing, recreation-al, retirement, tourism, market gardening and other industries.

At the other end of the prov-ince a massive housing ex-pansion is under way in West Gippsland, stretching from Dandenong to Cranbourne and Pakenham and beyond. This is said to be the fastest growing area in Australia at the moment, but it is more an expansion of Melbourne than an internally generated Gippsland develop-ment.

All this means Gippsland has had a succession of shifting foci: one town and sub-region rises to prominence on the back of some new industry, then declines and the momentum moves elsewhere. This means no town has had suffi cient dom-inance for a long enough period to be acknowledged as a perma-

nent capital. It also means that no town has been able to gain a sizeable population of 50,000 and above.

In each new development the incoming population had been bigger than the preceding one. There were only a few thousand people running squatting; gold bought in perhaps 20,000, se-lection more, and the Latrobe Valley over 70,000.

On the other hand, the previ-ously dominant towns have not disappeared; they have man-aged to become self-suffi cient as supply and administration centres for their immediate dis-trict. They have survived the disappearance or diminution of the original activity which

brought them into existence. This has led to internal rival-

ries - Gippsland consists of fi ve or six sub-regions which are all of roughly equal strength, with none dominant. The reformed boundaries of the new larger shires correspond pretty well with these natural and historic divisions.

As a result of these factors Gippsland consists of a very dispersed population, dense by Australian regional and rural standards, with no really large towns, but an intricate network of small-to-middle sized ones.

Another reason for this was transport diffi culties in the early formative years. Because of the combination of mud, mountains, forests, rivers and high rainfall, it was hard to get around the region. People had to operate and manage their af-fairs within a relatively small radius of about 30 kilometres (20 miles), which led to a pro-liferation of small town com-munities rather than larger re-gional centres.

Talking aboutBooks

CELEBRATING WITH CHILDREN, Vols 1 & 2 by Robert Borg, Gerard Kelly and Brian Lucas, published and distributed by St Paul’s Publications, hardback, rrp $29.95 and $24.95.

THESE books are a revised edi-tion of the popular children’s liturgy resource and readings, fi rst published in 1990.

This new edition in two vol-umes includes the revised trans-lation of the Order of Mass.

The fi rst volume deals with the various resources and has been prepared to assist those who are responsible for plan-ning and implementing chil-dren’s liturgies.

It provides a specifi c prayer focus for 100 celebrations in-cluding the liturgical seasons; feasts; and religious, civic and school occasions. There are suggested activities, homily notes, and sample general inter-cessions.

All the prayers for the priest and a penitential rite are includ-ed so the volume can be used at the chair and altar.

The authors have compiled this material as a response to all those, and particularly teachers, catechists and priests, who have

indicated a need for a basic re-source to be used for planning liturgy but which, at the same time, also respects the princi-ples that govern good liturgy.

For durability each volume is hard bound with large print and sturdy paper. Ribbon place-holders provide additional ease of use.

The slightly cheaper second volume is a collection of scrip-ture passages (First Reading, Responsorial Psalm, Gospel Acclamation and Gospel).

It follows the same prayers contained in volume one. Also included in the companion vol-ume is a section with the Scrip-tures in dialogue form and the text of all the General Interces-sions offered in the sample lit-urgies, arranged alphabetically by topic.

The authors are noted Aus-tralian priests and include Fr Brian Lucas who is the gen-

eral secretary of the Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference.

LISTENING TO GOD WITH BLESSED JOHN PAUL II compiled by Amy Welborn, published by Our Sunday Visitor, distributed by Rain-bow Books, hardback, $18.95.

THE late Pope John Paul II was well-known for his many refl ections given over his long pontifi cate.

Here some 100 of his short spiritual refl ections are con-tained in the one small book.

Each quote is just a few para-graphs long and is accompanied by a Bible quote and reference for the reader to ponder and perhaps gain a deeper under-standing.

The message throughout is to be not afraid to listen to God and respond to His call howev-er, and whenever it comes.

Celebrating with Children

WALHALLA, Gippsland’s largest town in the 19th Century.

Page 13: Catholic Life June 2012

Catholic Life, June 2012 - Page 13

Quick calendarWhat’s on & whenJune15 – 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 retreat4 – South region meeting,

Leongatha, 11.15am9 – Deadline for July Catho-

lic Life9 – Diocesan staff relocated

to Sion House, Warragul16 – Term three begins18 – Catholic Life published20-22 – Heart Region snow

retreat, Cowwarr/Mt St Gwinear27 – Schools Tree Day29 – National Tree Day

AugustCentacare Gippsland collec-

tion month6 – Feast of the Transfi gura-

tion6 – Deadline for August

Catholic Life7 – East region meeting,

Bairnsdale, 10.30am8 – Solemnity of St Mary of

the Cross MacKillop9-11 – Bishop Prowse at

Bishops’ Commission for Mission and Faith Formation meeting, Sydney15 – Assumption of the

Blessed Virgin Mary15 – Catholic Life published16 – Valley region meeting,

St Mary’s, Newborough, noon18 – Diocesan Pastoral Coun-

cil meeting, Sion House, War-ragul, 10am20-26 – Keep Australia Beau-

tiful Week21 – Central region meeting,

St John’s, Trafalgar, 7.30pm22 – Queenship of Mary

September1 – National Wattle Day2 – Father’s Day2 – Annual Father’s Day Ap-

peal for Priests Welfare Foun-dation5-7 – Australasian Catholic

Press Association conference, Wellington , NZ7-9 – Australasian Religious

Press Association Confer-ence, Wellington, NZ8 – Feast of the Birth of the

Blessed Virgin Mary10 – Deadline for September

Catholic Life12 – Offi cial opening of Sion

House diocesan headquarters by Apostolic Nuncio Arch-bishop Giuseppe Lazzarotto14 – Feast of the Triumph of

the Cross17-21 – Sale Diocese clergy

in-service, Corpus Christi, Carlton19 – Catholic Life published21 – National Walk to Work

Day21 – Third term holidays be-

gin21-23 – Bishop Prowse at

National Youth Conference, Wollongong27 – Memorial of St Vincent

de Paul

October1-5 – National Aboriginal

and Torres Strait Islander’s Catholic Commission confer-ence, Melbourne2 – Memorial of the Guardian

Angels4 – Memorial of St Francis of

Assisi4 – World Animal Day8 – Fourth term begins8 – Deadline for October

Catholic Life8-28 – Bishop Prowse repre-

senting Australian bishops at Synod of Bishops in Rome15 – Memorial of St Theresa

of Avila16 – World Food Day17 – International Day for the

Eradication of Poverty17 – Catholic Life published18 – Valley region meeting,

Lumen Christi eco-centre, Churchill, noon21 – Mission Sunday22 – Blessed Pope John Paul

II

November1 – All Saints Day2 – All Souls Day5 – Deadline for November

Catholic Life6 – Melbourne Cup Day7 – South region meeting,

Leongatha, 11.15am12-18 – National Recycling

Week13 – East region meeting, Or-

bost, 10.30am14 – Catholic Life published17-18 – Heart Region youth

beach retreat, Lakes Entrance18 – Diocesan pilgrimage to

Our Lady of Perpetual Help, St Mary’s Cathedral, Sale, 2pm20 - Diocesan Pastoral Coun-

cil meeting, Sion House, War-ragul, 10am 21 – Presentation of the

Blessed Virgin Mary21 – World Fisheries Day25 – Solemnity of Christ the

King26-30 – Australian Catholic

Bishops’ Conference plenary meeting, Sydney27 – Central region meeting,

St Joseph’s, Warragul, 7.30pm

December2 – First Sunday of Advent3 – Deadline for Catholic

Life5 – International Volunteer

Day6 – Valley region Christmas

lunch, Morwell Club, noon6 – St Nicholas Day8 – Immaculate Conception12 – Catholic Life published21 – Summer holidays begin

(primary schools)25 – Christmas Day26 – Boxing Day30 – Feast of the Holy Family31 – New Year’s Eve

Bishop’s DiaryJune 13 - Council of

Priests meeting, followed by Consultors meeting.

June 15 - Confi rmation visits to St Michael’s and St Catherine’s Schools, Berwick

June 15 - Narre Warren confi rmations

June 16 - Narre Warren and Berwick confi rma-tions.

June 17 - Mystagogia Mass at Narre Warren.

June 20 - Diocesan Fi-nance Council and CDF Board meetings, followed by dinner.

June 21 - Berwick con-fi rmations

June 22 - Cranbourne confi rmations.

June 23 - Breakfast meeting with Cranbourne

groupsJune 23 - Berwick con-

fi rmations.June 24 - Iona-Nar Nar

Goon and Koo Wee Rup confi rmations.

June 26 - Mass at St Pe-ter’s College, Cranbourne

July 3-8 - Personal re-treat, Kew.

July 8 - Masses at Cran-bourne and Cranbourne East (to be confi rmed)

July 14 - Celebrate Mass and talk at Young Men of God weekend at Phillip Is-land.

July 15 - Mass in St Mary’s Cathedral, Sale (anniversary of installation as Bishop of Sale).

July 15 - Talk to Knights of the Southern Cross, Warragul.

July 21 - Meal and holy hour with participants in Cowwarr Retreat Centre snow trip.

July 26 - Maffra confi r-mation

July 27 - Churchill con-fi rmation

July 28 - Orbost confi r-mation

July 29 - Lakes Entrance and Bairnsdale confi rma-tions.

Men Alive retreat for men coming to Sale in AugustBy John H. Cooney

SALE - A team of men from Hobart, Melbourne and Bris-bane will conduct a menALIVE parish retreat at the Chapter House, St Mary’s Cathedral on the weekend of August 4-5.

The theme for this retreat is St Irenaeus’ response to the prob-lems caused by the Gnostics of his time, God is glorifi ed when men are fully alive.

The aim is to help us advance our personal quest for Truth it-self.

St Irenaeus was Bishop of Lyons during the later part of the 2nd Century. He was a disciple of Polycarp who was himself a disciple of John the theologian. So St Irenaeus lived within living memory of people who had known Jesus personally.

They were troubled times. St Irenaeus followed a bishop who was martyred and it is thought that he also suffered martyr-dom.

Yet St Irenaeus’ main con-cern, as a bishop, was Gnosti-cism. The Gnostics proclaimed salvation by knowledge, knowl-edge that they alone had, and which made them superior be-ings.

There is some debate about the source of Gnosticism but it was evident in a number of places before the time of Christ.

The Gnostics used other peo-ple’s knowledge, hence readily incorporated elements of Chris-tianity into their own world view. They divided God into a number of divine aeons.

St Irenaeus, on the other hand, stressed the unity of God. A central principle of Gnosticism is philosophical and religious pessimism, rather than trust in God.

St Irenaeus also stressed the

need to trust in God and that God is glorifi ed when men are fully alive. In short, we are to rise above the limitations of knowledge as such.

A contemporary commenta-tor, Kansas super lawyer John M. Ostrowski, introduces his paper Environmentalism as Religion by quoting from The Martyrdom of Polycarp.

St Irenaeus’ master, Poly-carp, refused to temporise with Roman offi cials trying to incite him to avoid punishment by honoring the imperial deity.

Ostrowski refers to our con-temporary ideology ‘The prime deity is none other than the Earth, or Mother Earth as ad-herents to the new religion call it. Adherents treat threats to their deity – quixotic as they may be – with ultimate serious-ness. And the prime threat to Mother Gaia is anthropogenic climate change. … like many religions, there is strong em-

phasis in environmentalism on the end of the world. Fear mongering and predictions of the apocalypse are the primary evangelising tools of environ-mentalists.’

In this the environmentalists perpetuate and even enhance the Gnostic principle of philo-sophical and religious pessi-mism, rather than trust in God.

In his Jesus of Nazareth (for Holy Week), Pope Benedict XVI warns against being puffed up by superior knowledge.

‘This combination of expert knowledge and deep ignorance certainly causes us to ponder. It reveals the whole problem of knowledge that remains self-suffi cient and so does not arrive at Truth itself, which ought to transform man’. (p. 207)

Further details on the retreat can be obtained from John Cooney (5148 9220) or Bert Fiddelaers (5144 2762).

St Irenaeus

Page 14: Catholic Life June 2012

Page 14 - Catholic Life, June 2012

For the Young at Heart

A MAN accompanied his wife to a symphony orches-tra concert but they arrived late and had to tiptoe to their seats.“What are they playing?”

whispered the husband.“Beethoven’s Ninth Sym-

phony,” replied his wife. “Thank goodness we’ve missed the fi rst eight,” he said.

A CYCLONE hit a farm-house, tore the roof off, picked up the bed the hus-band and wife were sleeping on, and after a nightmare journey gently let them down 20km away.

The wife began to cry,“Don’t be scared, Mary,”

her husband said. “We are not hurt.”“I am not scared,” she

sobbed. “It just that its the fi rst time in years that we have been out together.”

A MAN put his money in a coffee dispensing machine and watched helplessly as

the paper cup failed to ap-pear.

The machine promptly poured the coffee and milk down the drain.

As he watched this happen he declared “Machines are getting smarter. They have even fi gured out a way to get one to drink your coffee for you!”

A SHOE salesman had dragged half his stock off the shelf for a woman cus-tomer.“Do you mind if I rest for a

while?” he said. “Your feet are killing me.”

MOTHER said to her four-year-old “How come there were two biscuits in the jar this morning and there is only one now?”“I must have missed seeing

the second one,” he replied.

Time for a Laugh

Rub a dub dub, 3 men in a tub

Narre Warren hostsWest-LV meetingNARRE WARREN – The Narre Warren branch of Catho-lic Women’s League hosted the West Gippsland-Latrobe Valley regional meeting.

The day began with Mass cel-ebrated by Bishop Prowse and morning tea.

Branch reports were present-ed and also reports on radio, social questions and WUCWO.

Spiritual director Sr Lynette Young gave a brief talk on the beginnings of the CWL.

A small group of young wom-en formed the organisation to crate a more just society and at the fi rst meeting in 1916, some 2000 women attended.

Mary Glowery, who later be-came a religious sister, was the fi rst president.

Sr Lynette also spoke about the devotion to scripture read-ings at meetings, the important of retreat days and the social questions fi ght for justice.

Bishop Prowse spoke about the ecumenical part of parish life, hospitality to all and the need to look after the poor and oppressed.

He spoke about the diocesan staff moving to Sion House in

Warragul and recommended theCWL shows prudence on who donations go to.

He suggested donations could go towards the seminary by“adopting” a seminarian.

He also encouraged members to write to their Federal Mem-ber of Parliament regarding theabortion and same sex marriageissues.

After lunch Jim Curtain, who is director of St John of God Nepean Rehabilitation Hos-pital, Frankston and Catholic Health spoke about Catholichospitals in Australia.

In Australia Catholic Health had about 10 percent of hospital beds compared with none in the United Kingdom.

Diocesan president Sylvia Neaves thanked branches for their efforts during the yearsand encouraged members to be-come aware of new technology.

She urged members to con-tinue outreach by speaking at Masses and giving personal in-vitations to women in the par-ishes.

The regional retreat is setdown for September 15 at NarreWarren.

NAR NAR GOON - At St James, Nar Nar Goon the new hall is being used to run a play-group for the local families.

Every Thursday parents and young children meet from 9.15 to 11am to play and join in ac-tivities.

The group has been fortu-nate to have had many toys and equipment donated.

While most children attend with mums, some have been attending with their Nanna and even a couple of dads have come joined in.

Each week has a theme and activities are designed around that theme.

One of the themes was Hap-

py Birthday, when everyone’sbirthday was celebrated with cakes, candles, presents and fun for everyone.

A fairy visited for fairy weekand made fairy bread and magic wands.

Everyone wore green hatsand bow ties for St Patrick’sDay when a pot of gold wasfound at the end of the rainbow for everyone to share.

For Anzac Day they marchedlike soldiers and made Anzacbiscuits.

There is so much fun to be had at playgroup. If anyone isinterested in joining please con-tact the St James school offi ceon 5942 5404.

Weekly playgroup at Nar Nar Goon

NAR NAR GOON - St James Primary School children are treated to a fantastic tennis les-son once a week.

Tennis takes place rain, hail or shine, under the big red roof in the school playground.

The senior children take the responsibility of setting up the net each Thursday morning for their tennis instructor.

This year they have a new tennis instructor, called Tadje (pronounced Taddy), who is from Slovenia.

Tadje has been in Australia a short while and is looking forward to seeing some of the beautiful tourist attractions we have to offer.

He has played tennis since he was a little boy and his passion has taken him to many places both playing and coaching.

The children at St James have great fun and they are learningnew skills each week. Tadje in-structs them in perfecting their forehands, backhands and vol-leys.

The part the children enjoythe most though, would haveto be the games at the end of the lesson. With names such as“Around The World” and “Sick,Dying, Dead”- there is a lot offun to be had!

The Preps and Ones have started saying thank you to him in Slovenian which he fi ndsamusing! Along with their other specialist activities dur-ing the week, such as art, mu-sic and sport, this is a defi nitehighlight.

It has been great to see the children master the tennis skills as the week’s progress.

Tennis at St James’

A quick look

THE village blacksmith was working at his forge ham-mering a red-hot horseshoe.

He gave it a few more taps and threw it on the ground to cool.

Just then the village wise guy walked in, saw the horse-shoe lying on the ground and bent down to pick it up.

As he picked it up, he gave a howl of pain and dropped it back on the dirt.

The blacksmith smiled and said “Pretty hot, huh?”

“No,” said the wise guy. “It’s just that I don’t take too long to inspect a horseshoe. They all look pretty much the same.”

Page 15: Catholic Life June 2012

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Catholic Life, June 2012 - Page 15

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public notices

VOCATIONSPriests &Deacons

Are you considering a vocation as a priest or

deacon for the Diocese of Sale?

If so please contactDiocesan Vocations

DirectorFr Darek Jablonski

5996 [email protected]

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Death of Dot Papworth, 103

Golf ball typewriter with varie-ty of golf ball type faces. Phone Fr Brian O’Connor, 5144 6132

wanted to buy

PRELIMINARY NOTICE

Clearance SaleAntiques and offi ce furniture

The Diocese of Sale will be selling surplus furni-ture and fi ttings following its move to Warragul next month.

While most items will be priced for clearance, sev-eral items will be sold on a best offer basis. These include the antique partners’ desk and an antique captain’s chair used by all Bishops of Sale. Letters of providence will provided to purchasers of these items.

Other items will include desks, chairs, bookcases, beds, fi ling cabinets and many other items. Any items not sold will be donated to charity.

The clearance sale will take place at the rear of the Business Offi ce, Foster St (Princes Highway) Sale on

Friday, July 27, 2pm - 4pmSaturday, July 28, 9am-11am

A detailed list of items for sale will beavailable in early July and will be published in

the next Catholic Life.

clearance sale

THE funeral has been held in Melbourne of 103-year-old Dot Papworth who was a long time Gippsland resident.

Named Rosalind Sarah Levey but known to all as Dot she was the third daughter in a family of fi ve and was born in a slab hut that her father had helped to build on the upper Tweed River near the Queensland border in NSW.

Her father Syd was a pioneer of the district, felling huge trees by hand and clearing land to establish a small dairy farm. She was descended from a First Fleet convict Ann Forbes and Third Fleet convict Thomas Huxley, a fact which made her proud of her heritage.

The family moved to Koo Wee Rup after the great swamp was drained, arriving to days of rain the middle of the great 1916 fl ood.

Dot attended Dalmore East State School and like most country children at that time, especially girls, left school af-ter completing year eight - the nearest High School was Dan-denong some 20 miles away.

Dot was lucky to gain admis-sion to Stott’s Business Col-lege in the city and when sister Aileen joined Dot at Stott’s, a whole new world of exciting city life was opened to them.

On one of the weekend trips home to Koo Wee Rup, Dot met the young and recently appointed head teacher of Dal-more East State School Bernie Papworth the young couple were married at Koo Wee Rup Catholic Church on Easter Sat-urday 1934

After a very short Easter hon-eymoon of three days, they boarded with a farming family at Wonga Wonga in the Foster hills until they could rent their own home on the South Gipps-land Highway, east of Foster.

After children Bernice and

John were born, the family moved to another home nearer to Foster .

Bern took up a new posting as head teacher at Port Frank-lin and purchased a small green Plymouth coupe which was to be the family car for the next 16 years. Michael then Peter were born in Foster but Australia was now at war and soon Bern re-ceived a call up notice.

The family packed up and moved to Lang Lang to be near-er to Dot’s family while Bern was at war in New Guinea.

War ended and Bern took up his next appointment at Bethanga State School on the Hume Dam near Wodonga.

In 1952 Maree was born to complete the family

In 1955 the couple moved to Yarram when Bern was ap-pointed head teacher of the Yar-ram State School.

In 1963 Dot and Bern moved to Upper Ferntree Gully then in 1966 they put a deposit down on a house in Ringwood – to be able to own their fi rst home.

Grandchildren were soon ar-riving and building a loving re-lationship with their Grandma that was such a rich blessing for her in her later years.

At Ringwood when the Holy Spirit Catholic Church was opened and the Evergreens (a church group of senior church members who are cared for by younger church members) formed, another very special avenue of life opened.

After Bern retired from teach-ing and he and Dot found time to travel and they also found great enjoyment spending a day or two with their children’s families.

Dot was critically ill with a ruptured spleen when she and

Bern were involved in a traffi caccident, but fully recovered and in 1985 when Bern died of a brain tumor, Dot began thenext stage of her long life

She camped with fam-ily members at Tidal River and climbed Mt Oberon at the age of 80.

She went on a safari trip to Darwin camping out each night in a tent, and rode a camel in the northern desert.

In her 90’s she revisited DoonDoon in northern New South Wales where she was born, andFoster - accurately recallingevents of her early years whereit all began

A couple of falls – the worstbeing in her kitchen at home when she lost balance and fell knocking herself out and breaking her left arm in severalplaces – slowed her down and forced her to rely on a walker

A cancer operation fi ve yearsago looked likely to be the end but a move to Yarram where shecould be near family workedwonders and she soon warmlyregarded Crossley House as hernew home.

Her 100th birthday at the Yarram Golf Club was a dayto remember and even as late as last December on her 103rd birthday when she featured on the WIN television news she looked to be in excellent healthbut by then the cancer had re-turned.

Dot left fi ve children, 24grandchildren and 45 great grandchildren.

Fr Kevin Mogg who had beenDot’s parish priest for many years conducted Requiem Mass at Holy Spirit, Ringwood and Dot was buried with her hus-band in the old Lilydale cem-etery.

DROUIN - A small eager group of primary aged children of Warragul and Drouin parishes involved in the youth group “Kids Life” came together on Sunday May 6 to create a banner to be displayed in the Church foyer at St Ita’s, Drouin on Mother’s Day.

The children had an enjoy-able time decorating the banner, followed by some morning tea and a short Veggie Tales DVD based on the story of David and Goliath. A lot of fun was had by all, and we look forward to Kids Life next month.

- Jacinta Langelaan, Youth Minister

IT is with great excitement we invite youth ministry leaders and volunteers to gather again for the second Australian Cath-olic Youth Ministry Convention in Campbelltown on September 21-23.

The ACYMC is an opportu-

nity for those ministering with young people from across Aus-tralia to come together to share ideas and be formed and in-spired for ministry.

Early bird registrations areavailable until July 13 at www.acymc.org.

The ACYMC in Melbourne was a great success with over400 attendees.

The ACYMC 2012 hopes tobuild upon this momentous startand continue to draw togetherthose engaged in youth min-istry from parishes, dioceses, schools, movements, communi-ties and religious orders from across the Catholic Church in Australia.

It will provide:• High quality formation and

training for those engaged in youth ministry across Australia;

• An opportunity for youthministers to network within and beyond their immediate fi eldsof ministry; and

• A space for youth ministersto seek spiritual refl ection andnourishment.

More information can be found at www.acymc.org.

Kid’s Life helpsmums tocelebrate

Registrations open for convention

Page 16: Catholic Life June 2012

Page 16 - Catholic Life, June 2012

Cath L

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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.

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The Child’s Bible is a perfect gift for

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available for a donation of $7.00.

Rosary from the Holy LandSimple in design and yet profound in its

are also available for a donation of $7.00. All proceeds will go towards the work of Aid to the Church in Need for the poor and persecuted Church worldwide.

NEWBOROUGH - Repre-sentatives from the Newbor-ough Yallourn United Soccer Club visited St Mary’s Catholic Primary School to run a skills clinic with the children.

Steve Baldacchino, Newbor-ough Yallourn Soccer Club leader, said “The children had fun participating in the clinic and we could certainly iden-tify a number of future soccer

stars”. Steve promoted the sport and explained that the children and their families were very welcome at the Soccer Club.

Soccer stars run skills clinic

JEREMY, John and Steve Baldacchino from Newborough United Soccer Club with the Prep Class at St Mary’s School, Newborough.

BUNYIP - Grade 4, 5 and 6 sudents from Columba Catho-lic Primary School in Bunyip were invited to attend the Phil-lip Island Students of the Track day to watch the V8 Supercars on May 18.

The program is a unique learning experience for primary and secondary schools.

It provides students with the opportunity to experience V8 Supercar action fi rst-hand. It is also part of V8 Supercar’s Community Program, which encompasses community and charity involvement, environ-mental management, educa-

tion, school programs and road safety.

While the V8 Supercar driv-ers hit their straps in practice sessions the students were sur-prised at how big an operationit is to put on a V8 Supercarevent, and it made for an excit-ing and interesting visit.

While education is an impor-tant part of the visit, seeing the drivers and their cars up closeand personal in pit lane was a highlight for car-mad students and parents and the students enjoyed the opportunity to take their education out of the class-room and onto the race track.

Columba students in the fast lane

LOOKING over pit lane are Matilda Fitzgerald and Macy Hamp-ton.

WARRAGUL - Catholic Edu-cation Week at St Joseph’s Pri-mary School was fi lled with a huge variety of exciting activi-ties for students and families and had a number of different opportunities to recognise and celebrate the importance, bene-fi t and unique opportunities that Catholic education gives us.

Some of the highlights of the week included a grandparents day which saw an amazing 500 grandparents join students in their classrooms for activities and was followed by a beautiful liturgy together in the hall.

This liturgy included a choir, a band, a prep student playing her violin, students singing, performing and reading, and a grandparent speaking to eve-ryone about what it means to them to be a grandparent.

Students really felt special having their grandparents with them and it was a hugely suc-cessful and momentous occa-

sion (the odd tissue was certain-ly needed at various points!).

The following school day involved two of our grade 1/2classes walking down throughthe town of Warragul withtambourines, chanting, singing songs on various street corners,and really making Catholic ed-ucation and St Joseph’s noticedin the community.

Another event during the week was a family maths night.It was a great fun night with ahuge amount of different maths games and activities set upfor families to experience andshare together.

The conclusion to Catholic Education Week was a concert by well-known composer and singer Michael Mangan. Stu-dents thoroughly enjoy this ex-perience as they sung, danced, performed and immersed them-selves in faith-fi lled songs withteachers and many parents.

Grandparents visit

SOME of the 500 grandparents who visited the school.