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Record
PERTH, WA: November 9, 1995
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What's Inside . . . While some talk about evangelisation and options for the poor, the prayer life of the Holy Spirit of Freedom community impels them onto the streets of Perth to bring the hopeless back to Jesus - Pages 8 and 9 Pro/hers keep up the lonely fight against abortion and euthanasia - Pages 3 and 7 Sister Shelley Barlow gives an expanded explanation of the validity of liturgical dance - Page 6
New Broome bishop Father Chris Saunders to replace Bishop Jobst By Peter Rosengren
The administrator of the Cathedral parish in Broome, Father Chris Saunders, is to be the new Bishop of Broome following the retirement of Bishop John Jobst earlier this year. The Vatican announced through the
Canberra office of the Apostolic pro-nuncio to Australia. Archbishop Franco Brambilla, last Friday evening, November 3. that Pope john Paul had nominated Fr Saunders as the next bishop of Western Australia's northern-most diocese. Bishop Jobst, the legendary 'flying' bishop, has been bishop of the far-flung diocese for the last 37 years. Fr Saunders will be consecrated bishop February 3 next year and has asked Bishop Jobst, who ordained him to the priesthood in 1976, to ordain him as bishop. "My response, certainly, is one of elation, of happiness that this trust has been placed in me. mixed with a certain amount of fear and hope." he told The Record this week. He said that while he felt unworthy of the position, he accepted it in trust and the knowledge that the grace of God came with it. "The great burden of ills the first thing that hits you," he said, "but as one of the bishops said to me 'it's the will of God and, as such, God gives you the grace to meet the challenge.'" When asked what his approach to the duties associated with his new role would be, he said it would be characterised by one of his favourite quotations from a contemporary of Cardinal Newman, which his father had written in the front of a prayerbook which he gave him when he entered the seminary: "God does not look down and choose the worthy. He looks
Bishop John Jobst: 35 years pioneering service in the Kimberley
down, he chooses and his choosing mak(. them worthy." Fr Saunders' appointment as the second Bishop of Broome was welcomed by his fellow Western Australian bishops early this week as they met in Perth. Bishop Jobst. said he was very pleased by Fr Saunders' appointment. "If we believe in the guidance of the Holy Spirit in the Church, he will be the right man to take over the governance of the diocese and I think he'll be a very good man at the helm," he said. Bishop Peter Quinn, bishop of Bunbun,. said he was confident Fr Saunders would more than ably lead the Church there. Bishop Justin Bianchini of Geraldton offered his congratulations to Bishop Saunders and said he knew bishop-elect Saunders would have the support of bishops as "I have had over my few years as a bishop, and I offer him my support personally too." Archbishop Barry Hickey said he was delighted with the appointment and said there were great advantages in appointing a priest of the Broome diocese to the position. "He knows the local situation very well and is able to carry on the great traditions that have been established by his predecessor and the other bishops before him. "The diocese of Broome is known around Australia as a pioneering missionary diocese . . . . I have great confidence that the good work will continue," he said. Fr Saunders said he believed his ministry as a bishop should be a collaborative one as the coming millennium would be a "a very poignant time for Catholicism and Christianity in the North." "If we're going to make our presence felt, and shape somehow the future of this northern part of Australia, it will require of us great dedication and prayer and working together. "So for people, priests, religious and bishops it's a time of great reflection now and a time to sit down and try and map out the future - but together," he said. Fr Saunders' parents, who live in St Ives in the diocese of Broken Bay, Sydney, were overjoyed at the news, he said. Fr Saunders was born on 15 January, 1950 in Brisbane. He was about 12 years old when he first thought about becoming a priest. After school Fr Saunders commenced studies for the priesthood with the Collin-than missionary fathers and spent three years studying philosophy. At the end of that period he took 12 months off to consider which direction he wished to take as a priest. Invited to dinner by the Columban vocations director one night, he met Bishop Jobst, who, he was told, was from Broome. "And I said 'where's Broome?"' Fr Saunders laughed. Already interested in Aboriginal issues and involved with some Aboriginal study groups he visited Bishop Jobst and a short while later offered himself as a candidate
Bishop-elect Saunders: the approach of the next century offers great opportunity for Catholicism and Christianity in the north of Western Australia
for the priesthood. He completed his theology studies at St Francis Xavier seminary in Adelaide and was ordained on the feast of St Augustine, 28 August 1976. Fr Saunders commenced work as a priest at La Grange and spent two years there and then moved to Lombadina mission from 1978 to 1982. When the Benedictines withdrew from Kalumburu he moved in and stayed there from 1982 to 1988. In 1989 he was appointed to Broome as Administrator until 1992 when he went to Canada and took a degree in Canon Law at St Paul's Pontifical University in Ottawa. He returned to Broome in August last year and took up his position as Administrator again. As the second bishop of the Broome diocese, Fr Saunders will be in charge of one of Australia's most unique dioceses. Combining one of the largest land areas of any diocese in Australia - 773,00o square kilometres - with a total population of 26,000 people, he will travel enormous distances in his job as he ministers to, and oversees, the welfare of the 7,000odd Catholics in his care. Combining enormous distances with sparse population - a significant part of which is Aboriginal, will present a variety of interesting challenges to the new bishop but it is one that he is already used to. holding a pilot's licence since 1981.
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No stopping Mum now Despite facing a knee operation in the near future, Bishop Saunders' mother, Mrs Joan Saunders, said nothing would stop her and her husband Joseph from travelling to her son's consecration as bishop. "We're very thrilled that he's been chosen and we're very happy for him. Its a great honour of course, and we're all delighted," she told The Record from the family home in St Ives, New South Wales. Mrs Saunders said that her son had wanted to be a priest from when he was 11 years of age. "He didn't say anything to me at the time," she said. "A visiting missionary priest came to the school and gave the boys a talk, telling the boys what his life was like. It must have impressed Chris very much indeed." After young Chris wrote a letter of interest to the Manly seminary, he and Joan were asked to attend an Open Day there. "And that was the beginning of it and from then on, it just went on from there. He was always interested in it," she said.