Catholic Life - December 2011

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Catholic Life

Publication of the Diocese of Sale

Bishop’s Christmas message - Page 3

ISSUE 157

Celebrating Golden Jubilee - Page 6

Happy Christmas

W

ishing all over readers, advertisers and contributors a very safe and holy Christmas.

As usual, Catholic Life will not be published in January and will return in February with our first issue being published on February 8.

Celebrate diocese 125 years A GRAND cabaret style ball will be held early next year to celebrate 125 years since the Diocese of Sale was created.

People from all over the diocese are invited to attend the gala function at Kernot Hall Morwell, on Friday, April 27.

Organisers want people to reserve the date in their diaries to ensure the success of the evening.

A 16-piece big band will provide the music for the dancing and a full supper and drinks will be provided in the ticket price.

The ball will be on a scale which has not been seen in Gippsland for several decades and is sure to be a night to be enjoyed and talked about for long afterwards.

Parishes will be asked to try

Your gift will go on giving

to get a table or two together to ensure the success of the evening.

During the night there will be various raffles and the auction of items.

All inclusive tickets are $125 and there are also sponsorship packages being sold to the business community ranging for $1000 to $20,000 per package.

It is hoped 350 to 400 people will attend the event which is also expected to have a keynote performer appear.

Proceeds from the evening will go towards the St Mary’s Cathedral Restoration Fund.

Sale Diocese was carved out of Melbourne Archdiocese in 1887.

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

THE nativity window at St Patrick’s Church, Stratford

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 to organisations running programs to assist families in Sale Diocese.

Send tax deductible donations to Bishop’s Family Foundation, PO Box 508, Sale, 3853 Phone 5144 6132 for more information

December 2011

Diocesan forums summary - Pages 10-11

Page 2 - Catholic Life, December 2011

Surrender anew to the supremacy of God’s Grace My dear people, 2012 is shaping up to be a “Year of …..” for so many important events and anniversaries.

To date, the following are to occur: • Year of Grace (Pentecost 2012-2013) • Year of Faith (celebrating 50 years since the opening of the Vatican II Council, October 1962) • 125 years since the establishment of the Diocese of Sale (1887-2012) • The publication of the Diocese of Sale’s Pastoral Priorities What is to unite all these important events? Is there a link from our faith that brings them all together? Surely it is that all is united in the grace of Jesus, our Lord and Saviour.

One of the masterpieces in religious art that inspires so many to think of the supremacy of grace is the Calling of St Matthew (Rome, San Luigi dei Francesi) by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571-1610).

Here we have the famous scene of The Lord calling St Matthew by pointing his finger towards him. Somewhat stupefied, St Matthew points to himself as if to say: “Who? Me?”.

There is no doubt who is taking the initiative in the vocation of St Matthew here. It is the amazing grace of Jesus who beckons the tax collector to respond to a call that will change St Matthew’s life

Bishop Coffey on the mend DIOCESE OF SALE

To God’s People in the Catholic Diocese of Sale forever.

Likewise, no matter what event or anniversary we may celebrate next year and beyond, it is the GRACE OF GOD who will be calling us to contemplate the face of Christ more profoundly than ever. This is the genesis of any missionary/evangelisation effort.

Only in this way will hearts be converted to the Saviour.

As Christmas and the holiday season approaches, we could well ponder further this central foundation of our faith.

Calling of St Matthew by Michelangelo Caravaggio

BISHOP Emeritus Jeremiah Coffey is recovering at Epworth Eastern Hospital, Box Hill, following major surgery on November 16.

He suffered a slight stroke about a week after the eight hour operation but has made good pro-

Catholic Life

PO Box 183, Sale. Vic. 3853 Phone: (03) 5144 6132 Fax: (03) 5144 3855 catholiclife@sale.catholic.org.au www.sale.catholic.org.au

The amazing grace of God - the supremacy of grace – is surely witnessed in the manger of Bethlehem more than anywhere else.

Here “the Word becomes flesh and made his dwelling among us” (John 1:14).

I believe that one of the saddest lines in the Gospels is the human response to this greatest act of grace from God. We read that the Holy Family needed to find accommodation in a stable because “… there was no room for them at the inn”(Luke 2:7). Will the Lord

gress and has been up walking.

He is expected to stay in the hospital for a week or two more before entering rehabilitation care.

He hopes to be back at his home in Paynesville early next year.

find a treasured central place in our hearts this Christmas? Let us make room for Jesus!

Pope Benedict XVI, with his deep understanding of our Catholic patristic and medieval tradition, offers us this profound reflection on Christmas: “The Lord made his word short, he abbreviated it … the Son himself is the Word, the Logos: the eternal word became small – small enough to fit into a manger. He became a child, so that the word could be grasped by us.

Now the word is not simply audible; not only does it have a voice, now the word has a face, one which we can see: that of Jesus of Nazareth.” (Verbum Domini, 2010, n.12) May I, therefore, take this opportunity to ask God’s grace and blessing to come upon you all at Christmas time and the New Year. I thank especially those in our diocese who have taken on any responsibility to assist us in the building up of the Kingdom of God in our midst over the year.

We have a big year ahead of us.

Let us all have a good rest in January 2012 and return refreshed and renewed to surrender afresh to the supremacy of God’s grace.

“Grace and peace be yours from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ”. (2 Thess.1:2) God bless always, + Bishop Christopher Prowse Catholic Bishop of Sale

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Catholic Life, December 2011 - Page 3

2011 Christmas Message to the Diocese of Sale T

o my dear people at Christmas time.

Last Christmas an elderly and very prayerful Catholic woman in one of our diocesan parishes told me something that really helped me celebrate Christmas.

She wanted to do something special for Christmas. She felt sorry that so many Australian soldiers were in Afghanistan away from their families and loved ones at this special time of the year. She also loved animals, especially dogs. She came up with an idea. She would send a Christmas parcel to a soldier overseas who supervised a sniffer dog.

She went to the chemist to collect items. She told the pharmacist what she was doing. She asked him for advice

on what to buy. He was most helpful. In the end he gave her everything she chose without cost.

She went to the supermarket. The same thing happened.

It was all given to her cost free by people impressed with her project. They rewarded her generosity with generosity.

Before long she had plenty to send to the soldier and his dog. She was so happy when she sent the large parcel overseas. It was a real practical expression of her Catholic faith.

Let us reflect on this.

First, her Christmas prayers led her to be generous. The greatest generosity ever shown was God in sending us his only Son in the Bethlehem manger. The divine became human in Jesus Christ.

Secondly, her good example inspired others to become selfless. The most selfless act of all time was when Jesus on the Calvary Cross died for merciful love of us in all our sinful ways. In his humanity Jesus raised us up into his divinity.

Thirdly, the big heartedness of this wonderful woman was as large as the oceans but was expressed in a humble parcel to an unknown soldier and his dog.

All of this reminds me of a beautiful Christmas quote from one of our Church Fathers, St Peter Chrysologus (406-450).

“Today the wise ponder in profound amazement over what is seen there: Heaven on Earth

Earth in Heaven Man in God God in Man And Him whom the whole world cannot contain, confined in one tiny body.”

Let us imitate this woman of faith.

What will our practical response be this Christmas?

May God’s choicest blessings be on you and your family in this Christmas time.

God bless always, + Bishop Christopher Prowse Catholic Bishop of Sale

Two new principals for 2012 in quite year for changes THERE will be only two new principals at Catholic primary and secondary schools next year.

It is the least number of changes among the schools for many years.

New principal of Nagle College, Bairnsdale, will be Neville Powles who is well-known in this diocese after previously having served as deputy prin-

cipal at both St Francis Xavier College, Beaconsfield, and Marist-Sion College, Warragul.

He is currently principal at Xavier High School in Albury, NSW. He will replace Rob Brennan who has taken the position of principal at Salesian College, Chadstone, which is an all boys school.

St Michael’s Primary School,

Important liturgy role DIOCESAN pastoral coordinator Sophy Morley has been appointed to the National Liturgical Council for a three year term, commencing in February.

The council advises the Bishops’ Commission for Liturgy and the Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference. The commission nominated Mrs Morley and it was approved at the November Plenary of the Australian Catholic Bishops.

Mrs Morley has worked in liturgical formation and resourcing for many years across the diocese and in her parish of St Mary’s in Newborough.

Following a successful career as a microbiological scientist,

Mrs Morley began studies for a Bachelor of Theology and graduated from the Melbourne College of Divinity in 2001.

In 2006 she commenced her Master of Theology and was awarded it by the Sydney College of Divinity in May. Mrs Morley said that she was honored to be nominated and looked forward to making a contribution to the work of the council in advising the Catholic bishops.

Mrs Morley has been asked to co-present a paper on the rite of marriage at the National Liturgical Conference in Hobart in February.

Berwick, will have a new principal in Dr Angela Kelly who will be coming to the school from St Mary’s, Colac, where she was also principal.

She replaces Michael Hanney who will take up a position as an education consultant at

the Catholic Education Office, Warragul.

He will work with various schools across the diocese.

In other changes Christopher Dortmans, who has been acting principal at St Laurence’s Primary, Leongatha, has now been

appointed full-time principal.

And in Maffra, principal Anita Little will return to the school after two years of maternity leave during which time Cathy Mesaric and then Jenny Smart have each been acting principals for a year.

From the Mountains to the Sea CDF is supporting our Parishes, Schools and Catholic Communities

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The Catholic Development Fund Serving the Diocese of Sale Telephone: (03)5144 4311 Email: cdf@sale.catholic.org.au 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 investment with the Catholic Development Fund, Diocese of Sale rather than with a profit 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 benefit 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.

Page 4 - Catholic Life, December 2011

The smallest Christmas gift

Christmas spirit

IT is interesting to see the vast difference in effort being put into Christmas decorations by various towns and cities across the diocese.

Sadly quite a few have virtually no Christmas decorations on display and others are putting out the same old tired decorations they have produced for the past 30 years.

The only really bright spots appear to be around the big shopping centres where there is an effort to create a “Christmas spirit” aimed at helping families unload hard-earned dollars on presents.

Sadly, if a recent radio segment is correct, this could be one of the last years that people decorate their homes in an abundance of Christmas lights.

The cost of electricity has soared and it won’t be until households get their power bill in the new year that they will realise just how costly it is to spread a bit of cheer in the festive season.

No doubt they will reassess that for next Christmas.

Trees are dying

WHAT is happening to all the cypress trees in Gippsland?

We have noticed lately that there are many cypresses dead and dying in patches across the region.

A couple of the worst areas are between Warragul and Trafalgar and in the BerwickClyde area.

The dieback is affecting both

young and old trees in farm windbreaks and we have also noticed a few pine trees dying.

It can’t be the wetter than normal season because cypresses are a hardy species able to tolerate most conditions.

We wonder if it is a resurgence of something like the highly invasive sirex wood wasp which attacked our conifers back in the 1960s.

Wet or dry?

IT was interesting to hear a radio news bulletin announcing that there was a 40 to 50 percent chance of us having above average rain this summer.

It you turn it around, that would make it a 50-60 percent chance of it being below average.

The news suggested that farmers should prepare for a wet summer, when in fact a drier than normal year is more likely on those statistics.

Personally, we find it all a bit over the top, making a story out of nothing on a quiet news day.

If the weather forecasters can’t get it right 3-4 days away, what hope of predicting a whole summer?

The seven day predictions are a joke - write them down and compare a week later.

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SOME years ago a friend, a sister of Mercy, who was visiting other Mercy sisters in South America, went with them to the local prison on Christmas morning.

The sisters regularly visited this grossly overpopulated men’s prison. Its very poor facilities housed men and boys, those judged guilty and those still waiting, in some cases even for years for their day in court. It was a depressing and often violent place.

As a Christmas treat, the nuns distributed a small paper cup of chocolate milk to each of the hundreds of inmates. She was surprised by the joy it brought, the lift in spirits, the obvious gratitude.

To say the least, everyone was excited. But, as they were nearing the end of the line, quite a vicious riot broke out when the rumor spread that the supply of milk was running out and some would miss out.

Every year at this time I think of that story – at just how much joy that small gift brought to those men; small by our standards perhaps, but it took months for those nuns to save up sufficient funds to purchase enough flavored milk powder.

That small cup was all those prisoners received to mark the celebration of Christmas. I wonder how we would react if that was the only gift we received at Christmas?

The Hebrew Scriptures tell us that the quality of our faith will be judged by how we care for the ‘widows, orphans, and strangers’.

The great prophets asked ‘how are the three weakest, the mostvulnerable, treated?’ Jesus strongly endorsed that view.

In Matthew’s famous text about the Last Judgment, Jesus tells us that, when we stand before the great King on the Day of Judgment, we will be asked only one set of questions - how we treated the poor: Did you feed the hungry?

Give drink to the thirsty? Welcome the stranger? Clothe the naked?

Visit the sick? Visit prisoners?

It is a very challenging passage because it asks us what we are doing for real people now!

Spiritual writer, Ronald Rolheiser wrote that: “I was once at a talk given by Gustavo Gutierrez where, after the presentation, a man stood up and, with pained honesty, shared about his own helplessness in reaching out to the poor: What can one person do in the face of all the global issues of injustice that beset us?

“Gutierrez acknowledged the

Reflections

by Jim Quillinan complexity of the question and sympathised with the man’s helplessness, but then added: “Minimally, make sure that you always have at least one concrete poor person in your life to who you are specially attending. This will ensure that your commitment will always at least have some concrete flesh!

(Newsletter July 8, 2011) One real person – patronising perhaps?. Not really, rather it is an acid test! One real person takes it from being just an ideal, something we say that makes us feel better to responding, serving someone real.

The question for us at Christmas is ‘how am I actually reaching out to the poor?’ Do I have real “orphans, widows, and strangers” in my life? Is my commitment to the poor something only in theory?

Something I only talk about?

Christmas is also timely to remind ourselves that the demand

to live lives that reflect justice and real, practical, tangible concern for the poor is an essential part of the gospel.

How are we working for justice, for fairness? Were my gifts this Christmas propping up an unfair, an unjust political and economic system? Did those who produced my gifts get a fair day’s wage for their work – were they children perhaps?

We can all do something, no matter how small. In East Germany there is still a section of the infamous Berlin Wall remaining.

A number of famous artists have painted sections – one such section contains these words:

Many small people in many small places do many small things that can alter the face of the world.

That’s something to take to heart this Christmas.

CWL’s pink event

LOOKING for a bargain on one of the stalls at the morning tea.

Women from local church comMORWELL - The members munities attended. of Morwell Catholic Women’s Hand-made craft items and bakLeague branch recently held a pink ribbon morning tea to ing was for sale as part of the fund raise money for breast cancer raising effort which resulted in $1495 being raised. research.

Photo classifieds are here!

CATHOLIC Life has introduced photo classifieds.

Our classified advertisers can now include a color photograph with their advertisements for just $10 extra.

Photo classified can be used to enhance any category of advertisements be it For Sale, Wanted, Wanted Known, or even to announce milestone wedding anniversaries or birthdays.

Just use the coupon on Page 19 to calculate the cost of your advertisement, then add $10 to the total. Send the coupon and photo with a cheque or money order en-

closed and let us do the rest.

As a trial last month, two items advertised for sale with photographs both sold straight away to Catholic Life readers.

When previously advertised in a local newspaper without photographs, no responses were received.

Catholic Life has a circulation of over 15,000 copies each month which makes it one of Gippsland’s larger publications.

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Catholic Life, December 2011 - Page 5

Foster-Yarram parish priest resigns BISHOP Christopher Prowse has accepted the resignation of Fr Jacob Thadathil as parish priest of Foster and Yarram.

Fr Thadathil had been on a extended administrative leave and has now left the diocese.

Bishop Prowse said Fr Thadathil had given almost nine years service to the Diocese of Sale and he wished him well in the future.

Fr Thadathil was the first of the Indian priests to serve in the diocese and came here after almost a decade in South Africa.

He was instrumental in organising the first African Mass for the diocese at Narre Warren.

New candidate for priesthood in diocese A YOUNG Indian man who has offered himself as a candidate for the priesthood in Sale Diocese has arrived in Australia.

Avinash George comes from Kerala, India, the same place where most of our Indian priests have come.

After spending a couple of weeks acclimatising in West Gippsland, he is now undergoing pre-seminary testing at Corpus Christi College.

Bishop Prowse is hopeful that he will be able to enter first year training at the seminary next year as a candidate for the priesthood for the Sale Diocese.

New Indian priest in January A VINCENTIAN priest from India will arrive in Sale Diocese next month.

Fr Sabu Adimakiyil is from the Vincentian Congregation in Kerala.

Sale Diocese has been informed that his visa has been granted.

It is anticipated that he will arrive in mid-January and be given a placement by Bishop Prowse.

Vietnamese seminarian’s slow recovery SEMINARIAN Tao Pham continues slow recovery in St Vincent’s Hospital, Melbourne.

He has been in hospital since collapsing on June 26 shortly before assisting at a Mass.

He was to have been ordained a deacon for Sale Diocese in March but this was postponed because of his illness.

Tao has spent much on his time in intensive care, suffering the effects of septicaemia which has affected multiple organs.

Medical staff have been performing procedures on his legs to strengthen the bones and joints.

St Agatha’s celebrates 150 years

By Regina T Abraham I HAVE been reading through the history of St Agatha’s, going through a few records that I have managed to lay my hands on from around the parish to write this article.

Time and again during this process I have been touched by the spirit-filled actions of generosity, of the forefathers of our parish, right from raising of the first timber structure in 1861, to the second church on South Gippsland Highway in 1929 and to the current church located on Sladen St. I was also humbled to learn of the contributions made by non-Catholics in raising up the church; what a spirit of community existed back then!

In a two part series, I wish to pay a humble tribute to those who have gone before us giving us the rich Catholic heritage that we have at St Agatha’s, Cranbourne.

THE day after the Feast of St Agatha on February 6, 1861, the first Catholic church was established in Cranbourne.

The initial church was built of timber and blessed and opened

by Archbishop Goold.

From a record from Archbishop Goold’s Diary, we learn that he left Melbourne at 11am on February 5, 1861 to reach Cranbourne at 6pm that day. (Currently travel time from Melbourne to Cranbourne would be approximately 50 minutes during the non peak hours) The next day he dedicated the new church to St Agatha.

He held a retreat, heard confessions during the day with prayer and instructions. He writes that there were numerous people at church that day.

This church serviced the Catholics in Cranbourne for 70 years after which It was sold for £50 and shifted to Devon Meadows.

Cranbourne was then part of the Dandenong parish and Fr William Quilter was appointed the first parish priest.

On January 20, 1929 a new brick church was dedicated to replace the old wooden structure. Also notable was the fact that it was Archbishop Dr Mannix’s first visit to Cranbourne.

The attendance that greeted the archbishop was the largest ever seen at any function in Cranbourne until then. This included a dozen priests.

The archbishop congratulated Fr Little and his parishioners. An outstanding factor in the building of this church was that the first two donations were given by non-Catholics, displaying the community spirit prevalent among all the existing denominations at that time.

Dr Mannix said building the new church next to the old timber one to show the contrast was “good stage managing”. The new St Agatha’s was erected to the glory and honor of God! Cranbourne was among six parishes transferred to Sale Diocese in the 1950s and in the late 1960s and early 1970s the population boom started when market gardeners started to

move into the Cranbourne area, which previously seemed to have been populated by dairy, sheep and beef farmers and a few tradesmen.

The Melbourne sprawl took over Cranbourne and Bishop of Sale Arthur Fox took Fr Gallagher’s advice and separated Cranbourne parish from Berwick.

Cranbourne became a parish on its own right in April 1973 with Fr Joseph O’Hagen as its first parish priest.

A generous gift of his estate was made by Eddie Donnelly for the building of the church that is now St Agatha’s on 129 Sladen St. Throughout the recent history of this parish we can see the Donnelly family, the Hopkins family, the Nurse family, the much loved priests and religious and so many others have input so much of their time, their talents and their love for God and His Church into vigorous action.

Fr Herman Hengel writes in his foreword for the booklet published for the silver jubilee of the current church, “in this age of democracy and free thinking it seems that many people do not have the time for God and His Church. At the same time St Agatha’s is alive with a wonderful core of faithful people, who keep up the traditions of our fore runners in the faith”.

THE original timber St Agatha’s Church from 1861 beside the second brick church in 1929.

This same spirit is prevalent community, their willingness to at St Agatha’s today. share their knowledge, talents As a relatively new parishion- and all they have; and above all er, migrated from the Archdio- their love for God and His Holy cese of Melbourne, I get amazed Church. by the generosity of our parish

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

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

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

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

Page 6 - Catholic Life, December 2011

Golden Jubilee for Franciscan chaplain to Italians

MORWELL - A Franciscan Missionary Sister who has served the Italian community of Sale Diocese for the past 17 years will celebrate the Golden Jubilee of her first vows on December 15.

Sr Elizabeth Roberts MFIC came to Morwell in 1995 to continue her life’s work of service.

Little did she imagine that it would be longest she has spent in the one place throughout her 50 years as a religious sister.

Sr Liz was born in Brisbane and entered the postulancy at Kedron, Brisbane in May 1959.

Her first religious vows were made on December 15, 1961, as part of a small group of sisters making their vows that day.

When she entered the Missionary Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate Conception she had no idea that she would eventually serve as a chaplain to Italian migrants - she imagined that she would be sent to Papua New Guinea to teach in schools there.

Initially she taught in Brisbane, then came the opportunity to work in a remote Aboriginal mission at Dajarra in North Queensland, close to the

Northern Territory border.

She spent eight years on that mission work and then walked the North Queensland canefields to visit the migrant families, most of whom could not speak English.

Work would often stop when Sr Liz and another sister , in full habits under the hot Queensland sun, would walk into the migrant camps.

The workers were mainly Italian but there were also a few Maltese and Slavic migrants who cut the sugar cane by hand.

Her work there was interspersed with periods of study in Sydney and Melbourne and finally she returned to Brisbane where she taught for a short time at her old school Mt Alvernia.

In 1980 her international posting finally came – not to Papua New Guinea as she might have imagined – but to Italy, land of her beloved St Francis.

She spent the next eight years in pastoral work at Molfetta on the Adriatic Coast where she worked in the parish of St Teresa of Avila, teaching religious, running a youth group and visiting families.

While in Molfetta she cel-

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Sr Liz Roberts MFIC ebrated her Silver Jubilee with a Mass celebrated by the late Bishop Tonino Bello, whose cause for beatification has recently been introduced to the Vatican.

After that she was fortunate to spend a year at the Mother House in Rome where she worked with the older sisters, taking them for walks and serving in what she calls an internal ministry for the elderly.

Her next posting was Egypt and with it came a huge culture shock as conditions were little better than she had experienced in her first posting to the Aboriginal community.

Raw sewerage ran down the streets and the people were ex-

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tremely poor.

She says the five years she spent there were at a dangerous time in Egypt’s history with frequent bombings and civil unrest.

The house where the sisters lived always had a policeman standing guard at the gate and they knew when things were starting to get out of hand because the number of guards would suddenly swell to four or five armed men.

In Egypt she studied Arabic at Heliopolis, aided by the fact that Italian was a common language with which she could converse with some of the teachers who did not speak English.

She worked at Shabin El Kom training lower primary teachers and used to visit the Cairo prison once a month.

The prison visits were made unbearable because the guards used to make visitors stand around for hours in the boiling sun before admitting them to gaol.

Her migrant missionary work continued through working with a Carboni Father with Sudanese refugees.

The call to return to Australia came in 1995 and she took up residence at Morwell, replacing Sr Gina who had been the chaplain to Italian migrants.

Sr Liz’s work takes her all over the diocese but the main Italian communities are in the Latrobe Valley, Koo Wee Rup, Mirboo North, and Orbost.

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weddings and other family celebrations.

She conducts regular prayer meetings and up until recently also organised Italian missions but the number of Italian priests willing to conduct the missions has dwindled.

Sr Liz said he life had been blessed because she had been able to work in the service of so many others.

It had been an interesting 50 years in which she had served in missions in various countries and at home in Australia.

Serving the Italian migrant communities in North Queensland and Gippsland had been different and then she had the wonderful opportunity to work with Italians in their homeland.

Some of her fellow sisters had not been as fortunate having served in the one place for most of their lives.

Sr Liz’s personal motto is one she proclaimed on her profession day - “I want to love people into life.”

Bishop Christopher Prowse will celebrate Mass in honor of Sr Liz’s Golden Jubilee at Sacred Heart, Morwell at 10.30am on December 15.

Those attending are asked to take a plate of lunch to share afterwards in the Josephite Centre at Sacred Heart Primary School.

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Financial planning important for next Christmas THIS is the last column for this year, and I’d like to take this opportunity to wish all our readers a very happy Christmas and especially a very prosperous New Year.

The investment markets this year didn’t make this year as prosperous as we’d like, but things never work in a straight line, either.

Still, some people made better than average by exercising their choices and getting involved themselves.

But this is Christmas and hopefully all will be well with you and yours. Christmas is recognised as a stressful time for many families, with expectations and conflicting commitments and, yes, the definite increase in expenses around this time of year.

I quite often speak about budgeting and planning for Christmas, but telling you now won’t I think help for this year.

But what about next year?

Take a look at how you’ve prepared for what you want to do. Have you been putting a little away all year so that now there’s an amount you could

DOLLAR$ & SENSE with David Wells

use that you wouldn’t have had otherwise?

Or are you like many who just “put it on the card” and worry about it when the bill arrives in January?

I must confess I have been known to shop on Christmas Eve – not always successfully either. In fact, usually disastrously.

My son is a little like me when it comes to buying presents.

My mother, on the other hand, especially when she retired and was on a limited income, started in January.

She would write a list and plan for all the presents she would need – and she had nine sons, 22 daughters-in-law including exes, and 36 grandchildren, so she needed to be organised.

Most years she would make

Please advise student numbers

SCHOOLS are asked to advise Catholic Life of how many families they have on their books for next year so that the number of papers can be adjusted if necessary.

Please email requests to catholiclife@sale.catholic. org.au before the start of first term.

some jams, pickles, chutneys and other conserves for the boys and little collections of items for the ladies. The grandchildren would get a book or something similar. But no-one missed out.

She also used lay-by. Is this something that’s been forgotten these days of internet shopping?

She would find something and then “lay-by” it for as long as possible so that she’d pay as little as she could in instalments.

That way she had a low regular payment and paid no interest.

She never used a credit card and I’m not even sure she had one. She also shopped in Warragul and Drouin and her shopkeeper would look after her well.

With credit card interest rates in some cases over 20 percent annually, not repaying a card in full each month can be very expensive. And for cash advances they charge you more and it’s from the date of the advance.

It can make Christmas very expensive, especially if holidays are included at the same time, which it is for many.

It shouldn’t be compulsory for people to feel they have

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Christmas is for celebrating the birth of Jesus and enjoying this with the love and fellowship of family and friends.

Commercialism has taken over for many people.

This year take note of what you do and what you would have preferred to do. Have a look at the notes in January and then start planning for 2012.

If you want a more peaceful Christmas, you’ll have time to let others know, and for you

to organise it. If you do want a more commercial Christmas, you can start saving earlier, maybe even visit the sales and buy the presents now and keep them hidden. Can you do that?

I can’t.

Whatever you do, use this year to start planning a better Christmas next year. If it gets better every year then you will have succeeded.

Just try not to blow the budget this year – love and fellowship and friendship shouldn’t cost a fortune.

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Page 8 - Catholic Life, December 2011

Announcing Year of Grace

ST COLUMBANS MISSION SOCIETY

Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

Columban Christmas for all 2011 Christmas Appeal As Christmas approaches our thoughts turn to the Madonna and Child. This mother and child are poor rural people who have moved to Shanghai. As migrants they have few rights and limited access to education and social services.

The mother and child represent many who have been helped over the years by the generosity of Columban supporters.

Columbans work in 15 countries in an effort to bring equality and justice for all.

We invite you to be part of this mission by supporting St Columbans Mission Society.

2011 Christmas Appeal

ST COLUMBANS MISSION SOCIETY

ADDRESS SUBURB

P/CODE

Donations non tax deductible

Please accept my

VISA

The Far East Subscription ($10 per year)

$

Total

$

Please accept my:

MASTERCARD

Money Order

EXPIRY DATE

NAME ON CARD (PLEASE PRINT)

Credit Card (Fill in details below) Cheque

CL/Dec2011

Online Donations: www.columban.org.au Donation $

NAME

SIGNATURE

/

Send to: Fr Gary Walker z St Columbans Mission Society, PO Box 752, Niddrie Vic. 3042 Phone: (03) 9375 9475 Fax: (03) 9379 6040 Email: info@columban.org.au A.B.N. 17 686 524 625

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

I am writing to you on behalf of all the Bishops of Australia, giving thanks to God for your faith and witness. We now share with you a message of hope.

We call the Catholic people in Australia to a Year of Grace, to span the time from Pentecost 2012 to Pentecost 2013.

Like the disciples at the first Pentecost, we commit ourselves to start afresh from Christ.

For several years the bishops have been reflecting deeply on the life of the Church in Australia. We have asked how we can better serve the needs of you, God’s faithful people, in bringing the peace and good news of Jesus Christ to our nation.

Pope Benedict XVI has also proclaimed a Year of Faith for the whole Church, to begin on 11 October 2012, the 50th anniversary of the beginning of the Second Vatican Council. We are confident that, with grace leading to faith, and faith responding to grace, the Year of Faith and our Year of Grace will complement each other.

We recognise, firstly, God’s abundant blessings to us. You will know many of these in your own lives. We have seen them, too, in large public celebrations such as World Youth Day in Sydney and the Canonisation of St Mary of the Cross MacKillop.

We also acknowledge with sadness that we are a Church in need of healing.

There are many wounds – most especially the wounds of abuse which have left not only those abused but the whole Church in need of healing.

There is also the struggle to defend the dignity of the first Australians and those

who come as migrants and refugees to our shores. We need to extend the hand of friendship to those of other nations and faiths and to be good stewards of the created world.

Most deeply, we desire for the light of Christ to burn more brightly in the heart of each Australian.

As bshops, we asked ourselves where we can turn with so many issues confronting us. Our response in faith is to start afresh from Christ. We make this call, firstly and most urgently, to ourselves as Bishops. We are resolved, in the words of Pope John Paul II, to contemplate the face of Christ. Both these phrases come from his Apostolic Letter, Novo Millennio Ineunte (At the Beginning of the New Millennium), and we use this letter as our guide and inspiration.

As we address this challenge to ourselves, we invite you to walk this journey with us in hope.

We commit ourselves to pray daily, seeking the mind and heart of Jesus Christ.

We commit ourselves to repent for the areas in which we have failed, individually and together, seeking healing and renewal through the grace of Christ’s forgiveness.

We commit ourselves to the path of holiness, cultivating the many gifts of the Spirit and seeking to grow as disciples of Jesus.

We entrust this year to the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and through this renewed commitment, we are confident that the Church in Australia will be transformed by the power of Christ’s resurrection in our lives.

Planning has already begun in every diocese in the country, so that the Catholics of this nation may respond to this fresh invitation to “contemplate the face of Christ”.

We invite you to join us in this journey of prayer so that this “Pentecost” year will be for our nation and all Australians truly a “year of grace”.

Your brother in Christ, Archbishop Philip E Wilson President, Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference

BECOME A PILGRIM IN

2012

NEW IN

2012

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JOURNEY TO EASTER

With Fr. Artur Wojtowicz A 14 day pilgrimage Departing 31 March 2012 • Dead Sea • Sea of Galilee • Bethlehem • Jerusalem • Also available EXODUS JOURNEY Egypt • Mt Sinai • Petra • The Holy Land Departing: 24 March 2012

GRACES OF JAPAN With Fr Donal McIlraith SSC A 19 day pilgrimage Departing 13 April 2012 Featuring: • Nagasaki • Kumamoto • Hiroshima • Kyoto • Tokyo • Akita

THE ST PAUL EXPEDITION

A 20 day pilgrimage journey Departing 18 May 2012 • Athens • Corinth • Meteora • Philippi • Kavala • Thessaloniki • Patmos • Ephesus • Canakkale • Troy • Anzac Cove • Gallipoli • Istanbul • Cappadocia

ROME & MEDJUGORJE GRACES OF Anniversary Pilgrimage EASTERN EUROPE with Fr Andrew Grace A 15 day pilgrimage Departing 17 June 2012 Featuring: Rome (4) • Medjugorje pilgrimage (7)

VISITATIONS OF MARY

With Fr. Christopher Sarkis A 16 day pilgrimage Departing 9 May 2012 Featuring: Lisbon • Fatima • Avila • Segovia • Zaragoza • Barcelona • Montserrat • Lourdes

A 16 day pilgrimage Departing 16 June 2012 Featuring: Prague • Czestochowa • Auschwitz • Wadowice • Krakow • Budapest • Zagreb Also Departing: 20 August 2012

The Harvest Team wishes all pilgrims a Holy Christmas & an adventurous 2012 !

GRACES OF ITALY

A 14 day pilgrimage journey Departing 28 May 2012 Featuring: Venice • Padua • Florence • Siena • Assisi • San Giovanni Rotondo • Monte Sant’ Agnelo • Pietrelcina • Pompeii • Rome

ITALY IN PASCHAL TIDE

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Catholic Life, December 2011 - Page 9

School halls rip off? - Not likely OVER the last 12 months or so, it has been my pleasure and privilege to take part in ceremonies of opening and blessing of new school facilities right across our diocese.

How exciting it has been to see such beautiful new halls, libraries and classrooms in our schools! The designs are spectacular, built always with a view to enhancing student learning in today’s world.

No doubt, many readers are aware of the clichĂŠ that has dominated many media reports: “School Hall Rip Off!â€? (what a pity it is that politicians on all sides revert so often to such meaningless clichĂŠs). One only has to look at the results of the Australian Government’s “Building the Education Revolutionâ€? program in our Catholic schools to know that, for us, at least, it has been anything but a “rip offâ€?.

Our schools - and children they serve – have clearly made excellent use of this generous and unexpected government funding. The wonderful facilities we now have will last for generations.

There are a number of factors that have contributed to Catholic schools’ reaping such benefit. Firstly, there is local ownership. Each school community chose, within the limits of government conditions, exactly what they believed they needed to build, where they would build it and who would design and build it. As a result,

schools were able to get what each believed would best promote the effective learning of their students. Some chose libraries, some chose halls, some chose to refurbish classrooms – and all have ended with facilities that are already making a difference.

Secondly, Catholic schools have always been required to run on far less funding than their counter-parts in the government sector and in much of the independent sector, too. As a whole system, and as individual school communities, we know how to make best use of scarce dollars. When the government presented us with this wonderful opportunity, Catholic schools were able to make the very most of it.

At the same time, of course, schools were able to use local builders and sub-contractors wherever they could, thus helping the government put money into local communities at the time of the Global Financial Crisis.

For Catholic schools it has been a blessing and a success all round. It was yet another example of Catholic schools using public funds effectively and efficiently. Indeed, the government’s own MySchool website shows that we do such wonderful work with less funding that either government or independent schools, and that includes school fees.

In coming weeks, an independent review into school

Faith

...

funding across the whole nation, commissioned by the Australian government will be presented to the government (the Gonski Review). It will be a critical time for the future of all schools, not just Catholic schools.

While we have no idea at all about what the report is likely to recommend, we have every confidence that the great work, the effectiveness and efficiency of Catholic schools will be recognised and acknowledged. It is interesting to note that the Victorian government’s sub-

with Talking Peter Catholic Ryan Education

mission to the review (reported in The Age, November 13, 2011) argued that, for every 1 percent, or 3000 students who move from non-government schools to government schools, the Victorian government will be required to find an additional $17.6 million every year. We have always known that Catholic schools saved governments

money! It is great to see that acknowledged and quantified.

However, we still need to be on our guard. The political processes that will follow the release of the report are likely to be intense. We need to ensure that our funding is maintained at realistic levels so that we can continue the great work that Catholic schools do.

Maffra student’s art victory MAFFRA - Daisy Payne, a Year 3 student at St Mary’s Primary School, Maffra has won the national prize in the K-mart Art Of Giving art competition from a field of over 7000 primary students from across Australia.

The competition provided students with a fun way to think about how they help others at home, in the local community and in the wider world.

Daisy’s work entitled “If we help each other we can solve any problem� depicting children helping each other to pick apples from a tree, was initially judged as the state winner with Daisy receiving a camera and the school receiving $2500.

Later that week, Daisy was notified to say that she and

her mother would be flown to Sydney to appear on the KerriAnne Morning Show where the national winner would be announced.

Daisy enjoyed a chauffeur driven trip to Melbourne, a flight to Sydney an overnight stay at the Sofitel, and lunch at the Opera House with view of Sydney Harbor.

While appearing on the program Daisy was announced as the national winner and was awarded a movie camera for herself and a further $10,000 to the school.

Daisy’s art teacher Brigette Koeinger, was thrilled with the recognition and prize money to St Mary’s and will be purchasing a pottery kiln to supplement the Art program.

Learning

...

Daisy Payne

Growth

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Page 10 - Catholic Life, December 2011

Responses from second round consultations * More youth Masses to encourage youth. x 2 * Youth programs to provide support and openings for youth with involvement in Liturgy and Music. x 3 * Connections – using active youth from west to encourage pool of youth in other regions. * Keep momentum form WYD going. * Need of analysis of youth and how best to make them participate in the family of the church * Nurture faith of youth, not just social events. x 2 * Invest in and train dedicated youth with leadership qualities to teach and train other youth. * Need Diocesan Youth team to be available to visit various Parish Youth Groups and interact with them. *Networking/conferences across regions twice a year for Youth leaders to promote diocese goals * Youth would like leadership and evangelisation training made available. x 2 * Taking care of youth, as they’re the church of tomorrow * Parish Dinner hosted by youth * More youth weekend events. * Promote Diocesan Youth workers. * Help Youth understand their gifts. * More Youth Activities * Activities that bring Catholics together * Encourage children’s liturgy x 5 * Godstart x 6 * Acknowledge and thank the young women involved with Children’s Liturgy * School – strengthen and promote Catholicity of the schools * Review RE curriculum ensuring it is strong, * PD for school staff in RE Curriculum * Strengthen the links between schools and Parish School x 8 * Class Masses at Parish weekend Masses. * Encourage School celebrations and ceremonies and service roles * Catholic schools are open to and very welcoming of ‘special needs’ families. * Student parent nights lead by experienced Spiritual directors. * Good connections between Parish and Catholic schools. * Gather families together through our school communities, * Does Parish need to be more proactive in fostering relationships with school staff, students and their families * Engaging with young parents of children in school. * Encourage young families as they enrol their children in the Parish school to be active in the Church as well as the school. * CEO to have more RE Faith Development days. * Evangelise the school family. * Evangelise the teaching staff in schools (retreats) especially the RE staff. * Religious Education to be based not just on History or Science by based on Christian values and our faith. * See Spirit in the parish in school; parents seeking catholic education for children. x 2 * Partnership of parish, family, and school * Great influences from schools. * Develop devotional and missionary life by tapping into school resources. * Educate children through teachers with a strong faith. * For schools to focus on the faith and devotional life of the young and young families, regularly evaluating and auditing the effectiveness of religious education and pastoral efforts in school. Feed information back to Parishes. * Develop a clearer profile of wider parish presence and involvement in the religious education effort of our schools. * Ensure that in all our schools

there is a strong pastoral care link between the school and the family, a pastoral presence that extends beyond the school gate. * Parish invited to school liturgies * Parish support school programs fundraising, prayer. * Send letters to year 12 exam participants where parishioner adopts year 12 student and sends a message/ prayer * Parish involved in class liturgy. * Shared times when Parishioners and school children meet. * Encourage school children to be involved in the Mass. * Schools are the new place of evangelisation for young families. * Link CYSMA students with Parish activities. * There need to be more parish activities through the schools where most of the children are. * Reach out to those parents and children of Catholic faith in non Catholic schools. * Parish to go to school and be involved in their activities and get to know, to evangelise by example. * Good links between CEO and Diocese. * Support School Family Partnerships * Children do not understand the Latin Mass * Parish - emphasise Spirituality as an essential in life * Emphasise that all baptised are called to mission, ministry and evangelisation * Parish Sacramental Program provide opportunities for families to deepen faith. x 2 * Provide Baptism programs x 2 * Sacramental Program follow up x2 * Further encourage and support Sacrament and Spirituality programs. * Sacramental program focusing on explanations of the Mass during the Mass * Getting through to sacrament receivers that they are part of the Parish. * Sacramental preparation, an opportunity to build lasting ties between school, parish and families. * Better education on the sacrament of marriage. (enrichment) x 3 * Encouragement for further faith development after presentation of children for Baptism – small groups for catechesis. * Gather families through Sacramental programs. * Continue baptism and sacramental programs. * Parents with children with special needs are not catered for sacramentally or socially. * Baptism: priest and parish welcoming the families of the child. * 3rd Rite of Reconciliation. * Support Marriage Encounter weekends – plan and schedule regular Marriage Encounter retreats for married couples. * Engaged Encounter – plan and schedule regular engaged encounter retreats for those preparing for the sacrament of marriage. * Sacramental programs that are linked to the parish. * Keep families connected after Baptism through Godstart, children’s liturgy, Care Groups. * Promotion of marriage as sacrament of Vocation. * Faith formation; nurturing of families who have presented their children for the sacraments. Keeping contact after the sacraments. * Review what we now do and how can we do better * Be welcoming and social. x 2 * Be aware of single parishioners with no children – support everyone. * Ability to pick up people * Knocking on the door of the Parish * Support the prayer time of families x 7 * Diocesan family – workshops, prayer groups. * Regional support for singles. * Spirituality programs on Parish and Diocesan level

* Reach out to all Catholic families, * After school programs for children attending non-Catholic schools. * Family involvement within the Church – offertory, welcoming. * Inner faith and commitment to God. * Stewardship – a way of living. * Develop use of Contemplative prayer x 3 * Mary as model of contemplative * Mary – turned to her in time of suffering – she knew what is was to lose a son * Head faith and heart knowledge must come together and the soul make the essential link between inner spiritual life and outer daily life. * Many faith filled people in our parishes, Can learn from these people. * Evangelisation is meant to be for everyone * St Vincent De Paul members do a wonderful work in reaching out to others. * We need guidance to discern what God is asking of us and the ways to go about responding to that which is best for the other. * We need to speak the TRUTH to please God and not for worldly approval. * It is from faith filled and prayerful families that our future priests will come, * Use of silence and contemplative prayer during Sunday Mass times. x 2 * Witnessing at Mass * Family means a sense of love and belonging, of acceptance no matter what. * Family-support and encouragement in using God’s gifts. * Action for Justice part of our concern * People often feel threatened by evangelisation for it challenges their way of life. * Secularism is real challenge * Need for us to Live our Christianity as model to others eg Mother Teresa * Working on connections with all families * Godstart, Baptism and Sacrament preparation down within Parish. * Playgroups and Mums, run by Parish * Care for elderly and their carers * Reflection day for launch of visitation groups. * Encourage teachers to attend Mass, be involved in the Parish. * Provide variety of education opportunities * Continue to publicise e-conferences * Special occasion Masses for children and parents/grandparents etc. * Engage with young families and prep families. * Provide Diocese staff to work with Parishes, workshops on topics of need. * Training for those involved with families at parish level. * Keep up quality of visiting presenters of Faith/Parish workshop days * Formation of Liturgical ministers – readers, special ministers, collectors * Processes like “Year of Grace” * Mentor partnerships between new arrivals to Parish communities. * Support Family-School Partnerships * Encouraging the little day to day expressions * Encourage school celebrations, ceremonies and service roles. * Keeping schools strong and linked to parish communities * Support current priests with workloads * Encourage vocations from within the Diocese * Provide strong cultural orien-

tation for priests from overseas. * Everybody sitting in the pews needs to do something in Outreach * Need diocesan promoter/voice/ liaison with parishes in pro life issues and voice at Council * United pastoral outreach to families of the disabled * Diocesan Devotional calendar set in advance * Each parish with devotional liaison person with PP support * Catechesis * Need times to ponder and treasure for faith to grow. * Putting aside time to ponder and treasure allows the Holy Spirit to work/speak. * Ours is a living Church – need to ponder and treasure * Mary significant when we become parents, seeing your children suffer, worrying about the Church, praying the Rosary * Gospel reflection groups * Get involved in Vinnies, Caritas, Catholic Missions etc * Being open to the Holy Spirit encouraging us to help others * Be part of social justice and charitable pathways that already exist. * Gospel always encourages us to love others. * Being courageous in faith by recognising a need and even though difficult doing something about it. * Be courageous by being prepared to speak out about wrongs in society. * Evidence of missionary impulse in RCIA, and other groups in parishes, also in WYD attendees , sense of social justice in schools. * We need God’s help to love neighbour * We need the support of a Christian Community * We need spiritual strength to keep going when times get difficult. * We need the reinforcement of prayer and spiritual guidance to discern God’s plans\. * Our thoughts and actions often need to be reformed and nourished. * Where families are at and their needs should be priority. * Families and parishioners need to talk more about their faith and faith matters. * Catholic values demonstrated in our families and schools are the basis/example of a caring society/ * Start with social functions that bring families together; fetes, Parish picnic, small groups, sacramental programs and celebrations * We need to see faith as being about relationship with Jesus rather than rules and regulations. * We need to encourage people to see what is important. * Need to want to belong * Belonging means being active. * Ongoing catechesis vital to both old and young. Parish Missions * Ongoing formation in faith: keeping up to date with what the Church is teaching * Encouragement must be given to existing Parish groups. * Need Sunday obligation to be fed with the body of Christ.. * For all of us conversion is a lifelong task * Those already active put energy into being welcoming gifts * Develop awareness of God in Daily lives – his love will work through people to develop interest in global family * Have space to listen and pray to God * We have in services for computers so in services for the revival of Christ * The grace of God is the prime mover and so prayer is essential * Introduction and availability of learning /experiences of prayer methods to all. * Need to make opportunities for quiet reflection/prayer/meditation

* Being informed about social justice and poverty in the world around us. * Be active in social justice issues * Be part of St Vinnies. * Adult faith formation together/ through children * Accompany parents on their faith journey and assist them in their desire to give the gift of faith to their children * Social entryways activities to bring people together with ‘faith’ as part of their gathering * Be welcoming and family friendly in our liturgy * Adult formation at Parish level * Reconnect program * Good liturgies and homilies. * Looking after the sick and needy in the Parish. * Study opportunities for individuals in aspects of faith * Using Catholic Press to stimulate and educate. * Encourage Social Justice groups * Emphasis on welcome/invitation to young people. * Reflection/research on family life in our contemporary society * Challenge is to adapt/accommodate the circumstances that families are faced with in modern society. * Continue to provide resources/ seminars to support and encourage families. * Build on family life experiences to respond more deeply to the presence of Jesus in their Lives. * More understanding and importance of the community aspect of living their faith, Living faith as witness to others * Pray to the Holy Spirit for a new Pentecost. * More people to come to prayer groups * Ensuring that we continue our care for all parishioners, particularly the frail and elderly. Support for their carers also important. * Social justice- expanding our horizons to thank and act on issues that affect our wider community, church and world. * It all needs to lead to active prayer and actions. * Simple prayer resources for families * Liturgy needs to connect with or draw the younger generation. * Family of church needs to encourage and support priests, support domestic families and their young by study of scripture and through texts eg “Theology of the Body” * The diocese could support and emphasis the special role and man and woman through study of scripture and Mary and Joseph. * Develop faith through service to others e.g. soup kitchens women’s shelters * To sustain a vibrant faith to be loved by others who are like minded in a faith community is essential * Faith life and witnessing needs to be encouraged with the help of others in a community who believe as we do. * At Mass need to be able to put the name to the face of commenters, readers etc we don’t really know each other. * More social gatherings would allow us to get to know our fellow parishioners. * Family groups. * The Catholic church needs to be noticed doing good things in the community x 3 * For church to be seen as family priests need to be married and have family issues so they can better understand how modern families work.

Catholic Life, December 2011 - Page 11

at diocesan forums for new pastoral plan * Provide meaningful opportunities for people of all ages to do good things, to help others to be Jesus in the community. * Develop zeal through empowering people with opportunities that real people want to be involved in. * Train more deacons * More leadership in our priests * Run six week programs to involve people in discussion groups. * Encourage Mothers Clubs to have a prayer element to meetings. * Being aware of people in the parish who need help- financially, spiritually or emotionally and direct them to where they can get help * Spiritual education courses ALPHA * Providing resources encouragement leadership programs. * Being more supportive of new Catholics in the Parish. * Do good works in the community * We are not good at looking after our practising Catholics. We can go to Mass and no one speaks to you. * We see many young families at Sacrament times but never again. * Supportive of new parishioners * Provide spiritual education * Weekend work makes it difficult for family * Church is a very TOP down model and many young people resent this. * Clergy need to be at grass roots not just at Church Difficult with shortages. * Availability of guest speakers, * Small groups build up community * Service and social engagement flow from small groups * Priests to tell the stories of our faith, eg saints, Jewish tradition, background to rituals etc * Counselling support for struggling families. * Diocese to provide as many visual aids as possible for showing during weekend Masses * Need to hear real life testimonies * Diocese need to encourage lay trained motivational speakers within the Diocese * Diocese should have dedicated intercession team to ensure that all the outcomes from this forum and others are successful. * Need for full time workers in each Parish, who can be counsellors, coordinators, animators, * Employ people for a 12 month period and fund their remuneration via sponsors and various ministries within the church. * Training and conferences on Catholicism, Our Saints, Our rich heritage our history and general knowledge. * Give prominence to the Holy Family of Nazareth, educate ourselves about this model family of God. * Need to revisit basics of Catholicism, re educate about the Holy Mass; reverent silences before Holy Presence * Having special Masses or celebration for the whole family to participate in. * Promote a culture of the family of Christ as children of one Father. * Make people welcome at Mass by having committee who can interact with new comers and follow up with them. * Having more professional and faith filled counsellors available for Parishioners seeking people in need. * Talks by people in various ministries on what they do * People to be encouraged about their testimonies of faith * Teachings on social justice and relationships between man and woman - Theology of the Body. * Parish retreats, missions * Lenten and Advent devotions * Healing Masses * First Friday and first Saturday devotions * Novenas to the Holy Family and Saints * Intercession of and prayer for the Holy Souls

* Develop programs for instilling in people the desire to pray, activities for the whole family to participate in. * Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament in every Parish, if possible a 12-24 hour one. * Promote a spirit of one family in Christ at parish events * Promote family prayer * Restore the meaning of Father * Remember and recognise that change starts with the individual. * Encourage parents to build up communication with each other and the children, encourage communication at a Parish family level. * To be a missionary diocese need to work on the ignorance within our diocese (of the Scriptures, of the Catechism, of the Church, Apostolic tradition and writings, Rituals and Symbols of the Holy Mass especially at Easter and lastly the outstanding and unshakeable history of our 2000 years. * Need to re-visit the messages given to the world, through our Lord and His Blessed Mother. * We need to be welcoming of overseas/ new ministries; every one has something to contribute to the family of Christ. * People of God need to see and understand the world through the eyes of the church. * Catechism classes for adults and strong faith foundation in Catechism classes at school. * Attract young people and new arrivals to participate in the weekend worship. * Commitment from parents and the young families to join in with the local community along with their children to join in the Sunday mass * Begin a home visitation project. * Commitment from those 50 years and younger to be part of the Liturgy celebrations, organise functions to bring people together, * Responsible for liturgy, prayer, welcoming, festivities * The younger generation need to be seen in action, * Setting an example, giving witness to the Gospel * Bishop’s foundation to support the poorer countries. * RCIA * Few people try so hard to keep their parishes going by participation. * Church the home of healing * The Church will lead people to solid foundation in life. * Presence of the Blessed Sacrament. * Holy hour devotion. * New ecclesial communities * See Spirit in parish in warm welcome to new comers. * See Spirit in explanations of readings by Parish Priest prior to readings * RCIA – adults coming to faith. * Concern among people as to where the church is going in the future * Important to keep doors open for the people who have drifted away. * Say good day to the people around you at the beginning of Mass * Buildings are a reflection of the presence of the Holy Spirit. * Spirit leading more people to take an active part in liturgies. * Spirit leading to outreach to people in need. * Mass for the grandparents and grandchildren. * Bishop to visit and celebrate Mass in parishes more often * Increase presence (even regionally, perhaps with time to mingle and attend welcome dinners) * Bishop to listen * Reconnect – 6 weeks is too long. * Less emphasis on money * Less emphasis on showing wealth – living above the glass ceiling and ignoring the poor nearby. * Teaching and preserving faith among the youth, helping them to grow to be practicing and happy Catholics with a vibrant faith * Encouraging young back to the church and other lapsed Catholics * Priests to be real “Shepherds”

– more priests and deacons in the parishes. * Education of young and old on Catholic faith – revision. * Remain open to change, launch into deep, evangelise. * Stand up and be counted, more publicity by the Bishop and leaders to be more of a ‘voice’. * Support devotional and missionary life by doing our faith in our own way by living it, being an examplework around other commitments to make Mass a priority. * Grandparents have a major role in the faith development/prayer development among grandchildren. * Always be open , listen for people wanting to come back. * Have Holy pictures in the home, statues to create an opportunity for discussion – visible presence – grandparents especially * Need to form Social Justice groups * Need to support refugees and their issues. * Support for new mothers. * Adopt a “family”/’grandparents” * Promotion of family movements * Family/Parent Nourishment Weekends supported by Diocesan Spirituality roup. * Continue Parish Mission programs * See Spirit in welcoming * Responses at Mass have increased ... showing that we are praying together * Various migrants joining our Parish and their involvement in the Liturgy. * People mix well, especially after Mass * Children’s Liturgy * St Vincent De Paul * Parish Committees * Prayer life of Parishioners * Various church groups * Have parents supporting parents * Support people whose marriage has broken up * Continually evaluating the quality of liturgy at all levels * Ensuring that liturgy presents church teaching through preaching that is positive, faithful, clear and challenging. * Ensure that liturgy provides a theological vision that accepts and harmonises the old and the new and draws all people to experience the catholic centrality of liturgy in their daily lives. * Organise and encourage prayer groups to meet the various prayer needs of the parish and wider community. * Ensure an ongoing prayer priority * Encourage participation in Lectio Divina * Develop strategies that recognise and support the changing nature of parish leadership; * Develop strategies that welcome and supports ethnic and racial diversity as a touchstone for intercultural sharing and Catholic family unity and the newest face of church leadership. * Encourage elder priests in sharing their wisdom and experience in supporting ‘family’ faith life and evangelisation efforts, * Encourage elder priests who may wish to continue in school and parish ministry beyond retirement age to do so with provision of adequate supports. * Invite and support Australian and overseas religious orders to continue their long history as missionaries to the people of Sale Diocese. * Home bound and the Frail elders – plan and resource ministry and supports to parishioners who are home bound. Provide Holy Eucharist, Prayer services, the Sacrament of Reconciliation and ensure regular communication about parish and diocesan happenings and activities, * Evaluate the effectiveness of church social services in relation to home bound. * More opportunities for prayer before the Blessed Sacrament and Benediction.

* Establish a Diocesan Devotional and Faith Life directorate, - to focus on diocesan efforts towards initiating programs and activities that build a viable devotional life for parish communities. * Establish a Diocesan Evangelism Committee with regional representation to examine ways and means of reaching our and building relationships with non practicing Catholics in our communities. * Seek the wisdom of elders in educating the young in matters of faith and catechesis. Encourage their participation in programs in parish; e.g. RCIA, Marriage preparation. * Family retreats for families to have the opportunity to interact and learn about the catholic faith. * Parish Missions for outside speakers to give talks to parishioners to build faith and spirituality. * Home outreach visits – form evangelism teams to make home visits, visits to retirement homes, and other areas within the Parish community. * Ensure adequate and ongoing formation for men, women and young and old to undertake the evangelisation mission * Provide information in teaching and the proclamation of the gospel message and how to transmit this message today. * Ecumenical outreach through the promotion of involvement with non-Catholic churches and build relationships with people of other religious traditions, * Encourage collaboration on issues of common social policy between churches. * Reach out and invite Catholics who have left the Catholic Church to facilitate their return to the Church. * Hold Missions for families at schools: (parent information) * Ensure Centacare is able to run * Prayer groups – accessible for younger families, - provide baby sitting * Programs outside of working hours * Support for families that need to travel to be involved in Parish activities * Publicise retreats for families/ parents. * Liturgies that are respectful to meaning and presented to a way that is vibrant/ exciting * An evening weekday Mass * Organise activities after Mass that are young family friendly. * Develop programs that encourage social interaction across the ages of Parishioners. * Godstart program * Ecumenical Christmas nativity plays. * Parish picnics and ‘cuppas’ * Sponsor a child in prayer * Grandkids day – where grandparents invite grandkids to Mass. * Need to have time to ponder and treasure * Marian devotion has been support in past and in formative years * Time spent with Scripture and daily encounter with Jesus provide inner courage to face the challenges of the day. * With God as Father we are all part of the family ; the poor become our family responsibility, the dignity of human life becomes our family responsibility. * Daily focus on Scripture transforms the heart. * Daily focus on Scripture leads to trust in God. * N.E.T. in diocese * Priests not seen as “Father” – imagery for God * Find ways that make family involvement in Parish life enjoyable experiences * Be aware of and welcome new families * Support families in times of difficulty * Be with families caring for the aged and informed.

* Support the ‘carers’ in the Parishes * Keep families connected after Baptism through Godstart, children’s Liturgy, care groups * Visitation programs involving families * Adult education speakers * Encourage small groups * Develop spirituality centre in Diocese * Church in families can be seen in its actions of caring for the young and for each other. * Study of “Theology of the Body” * More youth Masses * We are missing activities that bring Catholics together. * Outreach to men * Parishioners need to know the rules of the church. * We must be trained and educated to develop and have an “informed conscience” * By looking how we care for the bereaved of our Diocese long after the funeral. * Website of the Diocese needs enlarging. * Find ways of enlivening the liturgy so that families and children are more engaged in the Mass and adoration of God. * Use some money distributed by the Bishop’s Foundation in the parish; in ways that manifest the church’s concern for families. * Resources for the times families are in touch with the Parish, baptism, sacraments, RCIS, RCIC * Use a more compassionate and, realistic of family and especially hold our signs of the Church’s hopes for other types of families.

Time is scarce for families. * Assist development of the devotional life of all aged individuals which will lead to the family’s devotional life- speakers, resources, spirituality team * Advocate on behalf of families in all areas of community involvement. * Include families, make them feel part of our extended families and accepted where they are at.

Welcome them all, not judge them, (love the sinner hate the sin) homosexuals, unmarried, divorced. * Support families, help with child care- play groups. Feed them – if they are hungry. * Broaden the concept of family.

Embrace all family types. * Families need to feel welcome in our churches. If we invite families to special Masses, our older parishioners should accept that small children may not be quiet for the duration. * In our current society it is usual for both parents to work, Time is scarce * Welcome people to our weekly celebrations * Share ourselves with others at cuppa times * Teach people to pray. Mass themes, * Visiting families and other members of the Parish community. * Reach out to families that don’t attend mass regularly * Welcome new members to the parish socially. * HOTLINE to those who need “Spiritual help” * Baptised Catholics need to be taught the faith, through teaching (catechism) and taught to pray through example. * Need provision of resources for study of the Catholic Catechism * Need priests to teach through example, in homilies, parish missions, study evenings. * We lead and influence others mostly by our example and our own devotional life – being Jesus for others and seeing the Face of Jesus in others. * Priests need to regularly explain the need for receiving Holy Communion in a state of grace * Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament.

Page 12 - Catholic Life, December 2011

Br Lalith returns for mission RENOWNED Sri Lankan evangelist Br Lalith Perera and his team will return to the western end of Sale Diocese in late January to conduct praise and worship mission.

His visit is being co-hosted

by Bishop Christopher Prowse and on the first weekend the theme is Everything for the Gospel, the title of the bishop’s Pentecost pastoral letter.

The visit will begin on Friday, January 27 at Our Lady Help of Christians Church, Narre Warren. Bishop Prowse will introduce Br Lalith who will lead a session on experiencing the power of anointed praise and worship.

Sessions on Saturday and Sunday will be held at St Francis Xavier College auditorium at the senior campus in Beaconsfield, starting 9.30am both days.

The theme of these sessions, co-hosted by the bishop is Everything for the Gospel, and the

BR Lalith Perera with Bishop Christopher Prowse at last year’s mission Sunday session will be fol- session on Encountering the lowed by Mass.

Risen Lord at 7.30pm.

Br Lalith will travel to SaThe next three nights see him cred Heart Church, St Albans, back at Narre Warren leading on Monday, January 30 for a 7.30pm sessions. On Tuesday the theme is “Bringing Down the Glory of God”, Wednesday is “Learning to Hear God’s Voice”, and Thursday “Discovering the Hidden Power of a new school was built on the God.” present site next to the church On Friday, February 3 the and presbytery. Since then action moves to St Michael’s the school has been refurChurch, Berwick, where Bishbished and extended. op Prowse again joins Br Lalith The anniversary celebrafor “The Life that Brings Transtions will take place on Satformation to Others” urday March 24 and Sunday On Saturday, February 4, Br March 25.

Lalith will lead“Four Step ReAll past and present stufresher” and reconciliation at St Francis Xavier College at 1pm. dents and staff members are The visit winds up on the invited to go along and help Sunday with “Quiet Time with the school celebrate this Jesus in Prayer,” at St Francis milestone.

Xavier College at 9am, followed by Mass.

KWR celebrates St Sofia Festival

Trafalgar turning 80 TRAFALGAR - Next year St Joseph’s School will be celebrating its 80th anniversary as a school.

The Sisters of St Joseph first came to Trafalgar in 1930 and began to teach classes in the old church.

The number of children soon grew so a new school was built in 1932 and that was the beginning of St Joseph’s School.

Over the years the old school was pulled down and

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FESTIVAL goers watch as balloons in the red, white and green colors of Italy are released during the St Sofia Festival.

KOO WEE RUP - The 39th St After the procession, it was Sofia Festival took place at St back to St John’s for lunch. Due John’s Parish, Koo Wee Rup to the inclement weather, the last month. rest of the afternoon was spent The day began with 9.30am in the hall where the crowd Mass concelebrated by Fr John was entertained by a concert Allen and Fr Benedict Volpe. performed by the Bellini Brass The Fruilano choir sang beau- Band and also two Viva Italia tifully throughout the entire shows.

Mass to a full congregation.

An auction of donated goods The statue was then brought and the raffle was drawn. outside to the accompaniment Next year, it will be the 40th of the Bellini Brass Band and anniversary of the St Sofia Fes500 balloons were released as tival and plans are already in the statue of St Sofia was car- place to make it a day of celried outside. ebrations and entertainment.

St Kieran’s debaters victorious

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PROUDLY showing their winner’s shield are (from left) Brandon, Alfranz, Dylan, Matt, Lachlan and Sarah with teachers James Hassett and Lisa Broeren MOE - The 2012 Interschool Debating Challenge was held at St Kieran’s Primary School in Moe. Six schools participated - St Kieran’s, Moe, St Marys, Newborough, St Joseph’s, Trafalgar, St Gabriel’s, Traralgon, Lumen

Christi, Churchill and St Vincent’s, Morwell.

In all a total of 36 children debated a range of topics. These included whether Facebook was suitable for children, and whether intelligent life exists elsewhere.

The winning team was St Kieran’s. They received the Andrea Morgan Memorial Shield.

This is named in recognition of Andrea’s inspiration and contribution to school debating.

Her family donated a cheque for $500 to the winning school.

Catholic Life, December 2011 - Page 13

Stunning scenery in Daily readings and reflections inspirational books Talking about Books 366 DAYS WITH THE LORD 2012 - Verbum Domini, a Liturgical Biblical Diary, published and distributed by St Paul’s, hardback 372 pages, rrp $24.95.

AUSTRALIAN landscape photographer Ken Duncan is well known for his hundreds of panoramic shots of Australian scenes which adorn calendars and framed prints.

His passion for photography is renowned and he has three fantastic new books released which would make ideal Christmas gifts.

Two small postcard sized books Inspirational Love and Inspirational Hope reveal there is a deeper dimension to Duncan than just his photography.

Both books contain about 40 of his signature panoramas and alongside each there is a short quote.

The quotes come from a surprising array of people from pop stars, poet laureates, Lord Tennyson, William Shakespeare, Mahatma Ghandi, Bl Mother Teresa, John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King and the Bible.

These hardback books are $12.95 each at most bookstores and would be ideal small gifts.

Australia - Our Island Paradise is Duncan’s latest coffee table book, hardback with dust jacket.

The book features the photographer’s favorite corners of Australia with many of the pictures revealed in the stunning

5:1 widescreen ratio. Other shots are in the usual 4:3 ratio.

This is not just a book of beautiful pictures taken by Australia’s top photographer because at the rear of the book, he introduces readers to the variety of cameras he uses and explains the circumstances when each might be used.

And in a handy addendum there are the photographer’s notes on each photograph featured in the book. This provides which camera he used, the particular lens, filters, film type, shutter speeds, exposures, aperture settings, whether it was shot on a tripod and whether the displayed picture is a single shot or a digitally stitched compilation of images.

This information makes the book of extreme interest to anyone who wants to move their photographic hobby from point and shoot snaps to capturing stunning images of nature.

It is a fantastic book which Duncan dedicates to “The Lord God Almighty, Creator of Heaven and Earth.”

It has a recommended retail price of $50.

All three books are published

by Panographs Publishing Pty. Ltd.

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

Proceeds from your purchase will aid the cathedral restoration fund.

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

THIS book is right up there with the best when it comes to having daily readings laid out and explained in simple terms.

The Gospel reading for each day of the year and a short explanation or reflection is offered. And at the foot of each page is a couple of reflection questions.

For Sundays all readings are published.

On most pages there is also a short explanation of something from the reading or perhaps on one of the characters.

For instance on January 1 we are told that Jesus, the Greek name by which we know the Lord, really comes from the Hebrew Joshua, or more correctly Yehoshua which means “Yahweh saves”.

Joshua was a common name in Biblical times and so we have Joshua, successor of Moses, and Jesus, son of Sirach, who wrote Ecclesiasticus.

In order to distinguish Jesus from others of the same name, the disciples used phrases such as “Jesus of Nazareth”, “Jesus, Son of David”, “the Galilean” and “the Nazarene.”

Later these titles would be replaced by those with theological connotations such as “Christ (the Messiah)” and “Lord”, a title usually reserved for God. The beginning of the book contains an abridged version of Pope Benedict’s Apostolic Exhortation Verbum Domini.

GOD’S WORD 2012, Daily Reflections, published and distributed by St Paul’s, hardback, 370 pages, rrp $14.95.

THIS book is in a similar vein to the one just reviewed but it comes out of the Catholic Bishop’s Conference of India.

It too offers a page a day and a double page spread with colored illustrations for Sundays.

It differs in that it includes all readings for every day.

There is a short reflection for each day and a list of the various solemnities and feasts during the year.

A nice touch is that pages are color coded for the liturgical seasons.

craft activities which will enable youngsters with not much supervision to make a nativity scene using covered toilet rolls, cardboard stars for the Christmas tree, fan decorations, fancy envelopes, greeting cards and even how to make gingerbread Christmas trees.

It is a good book to help children get into the mood for Christmas without it just being all about presents.

MY CARRY ALONG CHRISTMAS ACTIVITY BOOK, published by Lion Hudson, distributed by Rainbow Books, cardboard cover, rrp $13.95.

WIPE CLEAN CHRISTMAS STORY, by Lion Hudson, distributed by Rainbow Books, cardboard cover and pages, rrp $6.95.

HERE’S a fun book crafted into a novelty shape so that the pages form a handy carry handle.

There is a double pages of stickers which children can peel off and stick in the appropriate places, for instance to decorate a Christmas tree.

There are various quizzes and puzzles and some simple

THIS is another good book for youngsters with lots of activities for them to do.

If they use a felt tipped pens or crayons on the laminated pages, everything can be wiped clean afterwards, ready for their next attempt at the puzzles of for the next child to try.

Central Catholic Bookshop 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 sacramental and religious gifts, or search for specific items by author, title or keyword.

Open seven days Phone and mail orders welcome. Credit cards accepted.

Phone (03) 9639 0844 custserv@catholicbookshop.com.au

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CDF Pre-Paid Funerals are the only Fund established specifically for South Eastern Victoria.

Monies paid are invested locally through the government approved Trust Fund.

Organise and pay for your CDF Pre-Paid Funeral through any participating funeral director within Gippsland, Mornington Peninsula and outer eastern suburbs of Melbourne.

For more information contact:

CDF Pre-Paid Funerals PO Box 508 Sale 3853 Phone 5144 4311 Email: cdf@sale.catholic.org.au

Page 14 - Catholic Life, December 2011

Recalling displaced persons’ camp at Yallourn North A RECENT book by Josef Šeštokas called Welcome to Little Europe is a history of the North Camp at Yallourn North, which accommodated displaced persons from Europe after the Second World War. The immigrants from wartorn Europe went straight to work for the State Electricity Commission who needed workers to expand electricity production.

The inmates of this camp were males. Ann Synan has covered the West Sale Migrant Holding Centre for women and children in her book We Came With Nothing.

Displaced persons were refugees who found themselves stranded in 1945 at the end of the war. They were distributed around the world if they could not be sent back to their home countries.

The first group who arrived at the Yallourn North camp in 1948 were from the Baltic countries – Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia. Later followed waves of Poles and Ukrainians, and then Yugoslavs. Many of their descendants now live nearly at Moe and Newborough.

Most of the Poles, Lithuanians and Ukrainians were Catholics, though some had despaired of religion after experiencing the horrors of total war.

The author Josef Šeštokas is now a policeman living in Sale.

His father Juozas Sestokas, a Lithuanian, was one of the first group of refugees to arrive at the Yallourn camp.

It was while talking to his father about his experiences that the son decided to write this book in homage to his father, and so that the lives of his father’s colleagues would not be forgotten.

As a poem written at the time by the Lithuanian Juozas Mikstas put it: If in ages to come the

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Gippsland History with Patrick Morgan contract is completed And the European winds blow here, Will our nights, oft drunk away till morning Be understood by anyone?

One of the virtues of this book is that the author has not just concentrated on life in the camp itself, but has explored wider issues in Australia’s changing immigration policy. This helps explain the problems the displaced persons faced.

The author describes the three-stage tragedy of the East Europeans during the Second World War. They were living under unwanted Communist tyranny when the war began. Then the German army invaded them, and they were often accused of being pro-Communist and further persecuted.

Then when the Soviet army retaliated and moved west, they were accused of being Fascist collaborators. Many were shot or sent to Siberia.

The survivors had to make their way west in the last months of the war through a devastated landscape to escape the Soviets, but at the same time had to avoid the retreating German army with its scorched earth policy.

Most survivors - there were millions of them - ended the war in Germany or Austria.

They were in a terrible state dirty, hungry, frightened and exhausted, but relieved.

First the Allied armies looked after them, and then United Nations agencies, which declared them displaced persons and arranged their future locations.

Many from East Europe didn’t want to return to their own countries which were Communist controlled.

The author found during his research that the Australian Government at the time, and the Immigration Minister Arthur Calwell, weren’t initially as in favor of refugee immigration to Australia as has previously been thought.

We wanted British immigrants or orphans at first, but when other countries began to take large number of immigrants, our options were lessened and we accepted northern European ones as our first intake.

The immigrants worked at first at menial jobs at the open cuts, at the power stations, on the SEC railway system, as builders of new camp accommodation, and as camp cooks and at other jobs at the camp itself.

An article at the time described the camp: “Most people in the camp have a separate room. People here do not fear the winter cold.

All the rooms have electric radiators. You can use them as

much as you like for electricity is very cheap. The camps are provided with showers, dining rooms, etc. Food for a week costs £1-1-0 ($2.10). A room costs sixpence (5 cents).”

Local Australians objected at first to the new arrivals’ strange languages, and often told them

They drank after a hard day’s work at the Yallourn Hotel.

One inmate described a typical evening scene at the camp: “On many a stifling Saturday night, after a hellishly hot day, life in the tent camp continues in its usual drunken, noisy, angry, irritable manner.

“There is both serious talk and empty prattle. Whether inside the camp, or outside its borders, there are those who try to win back from life that which was denied them in war ravaged Europe, where they endured the poverty, hunger and miseries of exile, whilst others withdraw

A GROUP of Lithuanians outside their tents at the end of a day’s work in the Yallourn brown coal mines, 1948. to ‘speak bloody English’, which caused some fights in the early days.

When asked if he was frightened by the locals one immigrant replied “They were pussies. We survived the Germans and the Russians.”

The cultural gap between the two groups gradually narrowed.

into their own little corners to wallow in hopeless apathy and melancholy.”

The Baltic arrivals of 1948 were single males often from rural backgrounds. They were followed at the Yallourn North camp by a Ukrainian group in 1949, some of whom were married and whose wives had to re-

main at the Bonegilla camp.

A Polish group followed in 1950, a Yugoslav group in 1951, and others, including Southern Europeans, in later years.

The subsequent life of each of the early immigrants at the Yallourn North camp is briefly described in this book with a photo from government files.

Most had successful lives here, but alcoholism, depression, marriage breakdown and failure to settle down are recurring patterns in these files.

By looking at immigration department files now in the National Archives in Canberra, the author has found that many of these migrants had serious personal problems like war trauma and other mental illnesses, but the authorities covered this up and presented a rosier picture of the immigration and settlement program than was the actual case.

Nor did they provide services to look after the special needs of those immigrants who for understandable reasons found it difficult to settle down here.

This is a very impressive book, as it brings to life local events by interpreting them in a wider perspective. It adds a lot to our knowledge of Latrobe Valley, Gippsland and immigration history.

• Josef Šeštokas Welcome to Little Europe: Displaced Persons and the North Camp, Chicken Little Publishing, is available from Collins Bookshops at Traralgon, Sale, Bairnsdale, and Warragul, and from the ABC Bookshop at the Morwell Newsagency.

Catholic Mission gets $955

CHECKING out the goodies on one of the stalls.

WARRAGUL - November 4 was Mission Day at St Joseph’s Primary School in Warragul.

The grade 5/6 leaders of the school organised and ran an amazing array of activities in the school hall with classes visiting at various times.

The hall was full of wonderful and challenging games, music, raffles, stalls, secondhand items for purchase and lots of exciting activities for students to par-

ticipate in with many chances to win great prizes.

One of the most popular stalls was to have the chance to pay to water bomb some teachers!

Students were encouraged to bring along coins to participate and really responded to this with a total of $955 raised! It was a fantastic day, very well organised, lots of fun and will most likely become an annual event during Mission Month.

The money raised will be going to Catholic Missions, which raises money for the Catholic Church in our world. It is the only Catholic organisation dedicated to children.

They work in over 1100 dioceses in 125 countries throughout the world and St Joseph’s were very proud to present Susan Grout, our Caritas and Catholic Missions representative with a cheque.

Catholic Life, December 2011 - Page 15

Quick calendar

Bishop’s Diary December 9-11 - Parish visitation, Sale.

December 13 - Lunch with Catholic Church Insurances.

December 14 - Council of Priests meeting and Consultor’s meeting, Sale.

December 14 - Diocesan Finance Council and CDF board meetings and combined dinner, Sale.

December 15 - Mass and lunch for golden jubilee of Sr Elizabeth Roberts

MFIC, Sacred Heart, Morwell.

December 16 - Staff Mass for Catholic College Sale, 10.30am December 20 - Attend 50th aniversary of ordination to priesthood of Archbishop Adrian Doyle, Hobart.

December 24-25 Christmas Masses.

December 26 - January 26 - On Leave.

January 27-29 - Co-

What’s on & when

hosting mission led by Br Lalith Perera, Narre Warren and Beaconsfield.

February 1 - Returns to office.

Berwick stadium is opened

PACKED to the rafters. Students and staff have a great vantage point for the opening of the new multi-purpose stadium at St Michael’s Primary School, Berwick.

BERWICK - St Michael’s Primary School last month celebrated the official opening of the school’s multi-purpose stadium.

The ceremony commenced with a blessing by Vicar General, Fr Peter Slater. He reflected on the importance of this exceptional facility, which has provided the school and wider community with a significant long term asset to use and enjoy.

Laura Smyth MP. Federal Member for LaTrobe and Peter Ryan, Catholic education director, were invited to participate in the official opening.

Parents, students and staff of St Michael’s together with several other delegates including Edrington Ward Councillors Simon Curtis and Judy Owen were also in attendance.

Ms Smyth spoke about the Federal Government’s stimulus package which was made available to schools, known as Building the Education Revolution (BER) and how she was extremely pleased to see St Michael’s embracing the opportunity with a very industrious attitude, meeting all the criteria of the initiative.

The ceremony concluded with the unveiling of official

plaques by Fr Slater and Ms Smyth. Principal Michael Hanney thanked everyone for attending the ceremony and in particular, those who were in-

volved in the project, including the architect Greg Strickland and the builder, Brendan Pryor.

2012

April

January 1 – New Year’s Day 1 - World Day of Peace 2 – New Year’s Day public holiday 8- Epiphany 9 – Baptism of the Lord 17 – Memorial of St Anthony 24 – Memorial of St Francis de Sales 26 – Australia Day public holiday 27 – Start of Br Lalith Perera retreat, Our Lady Help of Christians, Narre Warren, 7.30pm 28 – Everything for the Gospel retreat co-hosted by Bishop Christopher Prowse and Br Lalith Perera, St Francis Xavier College auditorium, Beaconsfield, 9.30am 28 – Memorial of St Thomas Aquinas 29 - Everything for the Gospel retreat co-hosted by Bishop Christopher Prowse and Br Lalith Perera, St Francis Xavier College auditorium, Beaconsfield, 9.30am, followed

by Mass 30 – Deadline for February Catholic Life

February

Archbishop of Brisbane retires POPE Benedict has approved the retirement of Archbishop John Bathersby of Brisbane.

In what is seen my many as an unusual move, he has appointed Lismore’s Bishop Geoffrey Jarrett as Apostolic Administrator for the archdiocese.

Bishop Jarrett, who turns 74 this year, will administer the archdiocese and his own northern New South Wales diocese at the same time.

Bishop Jarrett was an Anglican priest before moving to the Catholic Church in 1965.

The appointment was last night met with surprise by some Catholics, who had expected a permanent replacement or an administrator to be appointed from within Queensland.

Archbishop Bathersby said “It has been a privilege and a lasting joy to have been Archbishop in Brisbane with so

8 - Immaculate Conception 14 – Council of Priests and Consultors meetings, Sale 14 – Joint meeting of CDF Board and Finance Council 15 – Golden Jubilee Mass for Italian chaplain Sr Elisabeth Roberts MFIC, Sacred Heart, Morwell, 10.30am 16 - Primary schools breakup 25 – Christmas Day 26 – Boxing Day 31 – New Year’s Eve

7 – Catholic Life published 8 – St John of God Memorial 12 – Labor Day public holiday 17 – Solemnity of St Patrick (St Patrick’s Day) 19 – Solemnity of St Joseph 21 – World Forestry Day 22 – World Water Day 24-25 – 80th celebrations at St Joseph’s School, Trafalgar 26 – Annunciation of the Lord 28 – Ride to School Day 30 – First term holidays begin

December

many excellent bishops, priests, deacons, religious, friends and lay people.

“I thank in a special way the auxiliary bishops when I came to Brisbane, and the hard working auxiliaries of the present.”

In the coming weeks, Archbishop Bathersby will leave Brisbane for his hometown of Stanthorpe, where his brother and sister live.

The Brisbane Archdiocese has two auxiliary bishops – Bishop Brian Finnigan who is currently Apostolic Administrator at Toowoomba since the Pope forced Bishop Bill Morris to resign, and the Gippslandordained Franciscan Bishop Joseph Oudeman who is also nearing retirement age.

Archbishop Bathersby’s retirment brings to five the number of dioceses in Australia awaiting new bishops.

1 – First term begins 1-2 – Br Lalith Perera retreat, Our Lady Help of Christians, Narre warren, 7.30pm each night 2- Presentation of the Lord 2 – World Wetlands Day 3 – Br Lalith Perea retreat, St Michael’s Church, Berwick, 7.30pm 4 – Br Lalith Perera retreat, St Francis Xavier College auditorium, Beaconsfield, 1pm 5 - Br Lalith Perera retreat, St Francis Xavier College auditorium, Beaconsfield, 9.30am, followed by Mass 8 – February Catholic Life 11 – Our Lady of Lourdes 21 – Shrove Tuesday 22 – Ash Wednesday, beginning of Lent 27 – Deadline for March Catholic Life

March 2 – Schools Clean-Up Day 3-4 – Living Parish weekend, Berwick 4 – Clean Up Australia Day

1 – Passion Sunday 6 – Good Friday 7 – Holy Saturday, Easter Vigil 8 – Easter Sunday 9 – Easter Monday public holiday 10 – Deadline for April Catholic Life 15 – Divine Mercy Sunday 16-20 – Sale Diocese clergy retreat 16 – Second term begins 18 – Catholic Life published 18 – World Heritage Day 25 – Anzac Day 30 – Australian Catholic Media Congress, Sydney

May 1-2 - Australian Catholic Media Congress, Sydney 3-10 – Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference plenary session, Sydney 7 – Deadline for May Catholic Life 11-18 – Bishop Prowse leading Catholic Education Office retreat to Rome 13 – Mother’s Day 14-20 – National Volunteer Week 16 – Catholic Life published 19-27 – Bishop Prowse at charismatic conference, South Korea 20 – Ascension of the Lord 24 – Solemnity of Our Lady Help of Christians 26 – National Sorry Day 27 – Pentecost Sunday 28-31 – Bishop Prowse at Federation of Catholic Bishops’ Conferences of Oceania meeting, New Caledonia 31- Feast of the Visitation of BVM

June 3 – Trinity Sunday 4 – Deadline for June Catholic Life 5 – World Environment Day 10 – Solemnity of Corpus Christi 11 – Queen’s Birthday public holiday 13 – Catholic Life published 15 – Solemnity of Sacred Heart of Jesus 16 - Memorial of Immaculate Heart of Mary 24 – Solemnity of Nativity of John the Baptist

Page 16 - Catholic Life, December 2011

A Page for Youth

‘Planted and built up in Jesus Christ, firm in the faith’ (Col 2:7)

Heading back to primary teaching

TEACHER Liz Keogh from Nagle College, Bairnsdale, with some of the CSYMA, Youth Ministry Class (from left) Jack Pawata, Caitlyn Hunter, Emily Richter and Georgia King.

By Kelly Lucas the CEO and Diocesan staff for their support, my mentor AFTER three great years in the Rhonda O’Connor for teaching role of Youth Minister for the me the ropes and my husband Diocese I have made the tough Simon for his understanding. decision to return to fulltime Above all I would like to teaching at Columba Catholic thank Jess Denehy, my partner School in Bunyip. in crime. Over these three years I would like to thank all those Jess has become not only a who have supported me in this wonderful colleague but a truly adventure and who helped wonderful friend. youth ministry in schools grow I will miss our midnight paand develop. It has been a great trols on retreats, long car rides honour to be involved with stu- to events and our early morning dents in their faith journey and coffees. I pray that youth minone I will never forget. I thank istry in the Diocese of Sale will the REC’s their hard work, the continue to grow strong.

CSYMA teachers for their trust, God Bless and thank you all.

Good Youth News with Jess Denehy & Kelly Lucas

ADVENT has begun and in no time at all we will be celebrating Christmas.

The end of the year always seems to rush at me (and sometimes past me!) in a blur of motion, noise and over-indulging.

Increasingly it is hard to carve out some time to appreciate the season and reflect of what is important to us at this time of year.

My Christmas prayer for all of us this Advent is that we make the time to do just that.

Take advantage of some of the many retreat opportunities and prayer resources that are available and give yourself the gift of reflecting on how you lived as Christ in the world in 2011.

Spend some time recalling and appreciating the difference that little baby’s birth 2000 years ago makes in the world.

The difference it makes it your life today.

Prayerfully discern what your priorities and hopes are for 2012. Give thanks for the blessings in your life.

When I consider the blessings of the last year for the Youth Ministry Office they are abundant.

I give thanks for the opportunity of journeying with the hundreds of Catholic Schools Youth Ministry students around the diocese. Their enthusiasm and passion for exploring their faith and sharing it with others continues to renew my own.

I give thanks for confirma-

tion candidates who we met this year and who shared the story of their chosen saint with me. They reminded me to go back and consider the saint I had chosen (many, many years ago!) and how their example might affect my life now.

I give thanks for the teenagers who participated in the Call & Response youth camp during the July school holidays.

The joy of both the participants and the youth leaders and their willingness to challenge themselves was an inspiration.

I give thanks for the World Youth Day Madrid pilgrims.

The pilgrimage begun together back in 2010 has been one of growth, humour and faith. For me it was the pilgrims themselves that made the journey such a special one. They taught me so much about the person I hope and pray to grow into.

I give thanks for the Daughters of Our Lady in Talavera, Spain who welcomed us wholeheartedly into their community and who continue to pray for us and send us words of encouragement.

I give thanks for the many volunteers, leaders, lay ministers, parents, students, priests and religious who have given tirelessly of their time and talents to support, encourage and lead youth ministry in our diocese this year.

Every time you put your hand up you are reaching out in invitation to the young people of our community and we thank

God for your dedication!

Finally I give thanks for the gift of Kelly Lucas as part of the diocesan Youth Ministry Office for the last three years.

As you may know Kelly is leaving her position with the diocese to resume primary teaching.

I cannot adequately express how thankful I am for Kelly’s contribution, both professionally and personally, over the last few years.

Kelly has been instrumental in the introduction of the Catholic Schools Youth Ministry program to all of our diocesan secondary schools. She has supported and befriended the teachers and young people she has worked with.

On more than one occasion Kelly has taken what I have considered impossible or impractical, and with enthusiasm, an appetite for hard work and an unshakable positive attitude, she made it happen.

Her strong faith inspires her zest for life which I have in turn found inspiring.

I will miss you in the Youth Ministry Office Kel but I am sure you won’t be too far away to all the youth ministry happenings in the diocese in 2012!

All the very best for your next adventure.

Wishing you all a very happy and holy Christmas and peace and joy in 2012. Stay safe and we will see you next year!

Diocese youth gather at Cranbourne for a retreat YOUNG adults, teenagers and the young of heart, gathered for a day of reflection, prayer and joyful preparation at St Agatha’s in Cranbourne for the “God is with Us” Advent miniretreat.

Experienced spiritual direc-

tors Sr Margaret Fahey OLSH and Ruth Spierings from the diocesan spirituality team led the retreat.

Sr Margaret has experience in education, pastoral ministry and spirituality. She trained in retreat-giving and spiritual

YOUTH chaplain Fr Darek Jablonski, Cranbourne, with Mick Darling, Ed Barnes and Gerard Barnes.

direction at Sain Bueno’s in Wales and at the Heart of Life in Melbourne.

Ruth is married with three adult children and previously held a managerial position in hospitality. Ruth was trained to be a spiritual director and giver of the Spiritual Exercises through the Arrupe Program at Campion. Her desire is to bring prayer days, retreats and the Spiritual Exercises to all within country and regional Victoria.

The “God is with us” was an opportunity for young people to take some time out together in the lead up to Christmas and the New Year. The day began with participants joining St Agatha’s parishioners for Mass. Sr Margaret and Ruth then asked participants to prayerfully consider how God might be with them this Advent season and throughout the coming year.

Natasha, a “God is With Us” participant, thanked Sr Margaret and Ruth for conducting the retreat; “I really appreciated

SETTLING down for a picnic lunch in the hall are Jason Dam, Susie Graham, Laura Jenkinson, Clarissa Lane and Ruby Jenkinson the opportunity to make a lit- of the Cranbourne presbytery tle space in my life and to en- which was thoroughly enjoyed ter more prayerfully and more by all. deeply into the Advent season.”

Many thanks to all who we Following the mini-retreat contributed to hosting “God is participants shared a picnic With Us”. lunch together in the backyard

Catholic Life, December 2011 - Page 17

For the Young and Young at Heart Time for a Laugh IT was Christmas and the judge was in a merry mood as he asked the prisoner, “What are you charged with?”

“Doing my Christmas shopping early”, replied the defendant.

“That’s no offence”, said the judge. “How early were you doing this shopping?”

“Before the store opened.”

WHAT is fat and jolly and runs around on eight wheels?

Santa on roller skates.

IT was coming up to Christmas and Sammy asked his mum if he could have a new bike.

She told him that the best idea would be to write to Santa Claus. But Sam, having just played a vital role in the school nativity play, said he would prefer to write to the baby Jesus. So his mum told him that would be fine.

Sam went to his room and wrote “Dear Jesus, I have been a very good boy and would like to have a bike for Christmas.”

But he wasn’t very happy when he read it over. So he decided to try again and this time he wrote “Dear Jesus, I’m a good boy most of the time and would like a bike for Christmas.”

He read it back and wasn’t happy with that one either. He tried a third version. “Dear Jesus, I could be a good boy if I tried hard and especially if I had a new bike.” He read that one too, but he still wasn’t satisfied.

So, he decided to go out for a walk while he thought about a better approach. After a short time he passed a house with a small statue of the Virgin Mary in the front garden.

He crept in, stuffed the statue under his coat, hurried home and hid it under the bed. Then he wrote this letter. “Dear Jesus, If you want to see your mother again, you’d better send me a new bike.”

A WOMAN went into a post office to buy some stamps for her Christmas cards.

“What denomination do you want?” asked the lady at the counter.

“Goodness me” she replied, Has it come to this? I suppose you’d better give me 20 Catholic and 20 Protestant ones.”

A MAN found himself in terrible financial difficulties.

He is so desperate that for the first time in his life he gets down on his knees and prays to God for help.

“Dear God, I desperately need your help. I have no money to spend on Christmas presents for my family.

Could you possibly arrange it so that I win the lottery?”

The lottery draw is held, but he wins nothing. He sends another prayer to God. “My business has gone bust and if I don’t get some money soon I’ll lose my car and my Christmas will be will be very difficult. Please fix things so I win the lottery.”

Lottery night comes, but he’s unlucky. So he prays to God again. “Please God, I’ve lost my car and now they’re trying to take my house. Please help me to win the lottery or our Christmas will be ruined.”

Come lottery night, he again fails to win anything.

Undeterred, be prays to God again. “I am now a bankrupt, my house has been repossessed by the finance company and so has my car. We are now living on the street, but all I need to get my life back together and perhaps enjoy some kind of Christmas is to win the lottery.”

Suddenly there’s a flash of brilliant light as the heavens open and the man is confronted by the very voice of God himself. “Hey, do me a favour will you? Buy a ticket!”

“MUM, Can I have a dog for Christmas?”

“No you can have turkey like everyone else!”

A FEW days before Christmas, two young brothers were spending the night at their grandparent’s house.

When it was time to go to bed, and anxious to do the right thing, they both knelt down to say their prayers.

Suddenly, the younger one began to do so in a very loud voice.

“Dear Lord, please ask Santa Claus to bring me a Play-Station, a mountainbike and a telescope.”

His older brother leaned over and nudged his brother and said, “Why are you shouting your prayers? God isn’t deaf.”

“I know” he replied, “But Grandma is!”

They laid him in a manger

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

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

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

Send entries to: Colouring Contest, c/- Catholic Life, PO Box 183, Sale. 3853

Colouring contest winner IT was extremely hard to pick a winner this month because we received hundreds of entries, many in class lots.

The standard was very high and in the end the winner was judged on the toss of a coin.

Congratulations to Brodie Leyshan, 6, who attends St Gabriel’s School in Traralgon.

Next year we are going to change the format and ask children to send in their own drawings rather than colouring contests.

This will open the way for secondary students to show KEVIN Thomas, from St Catherine’s Primary, Berwick South, displays the book he won in our coloring contest. their skill as well.

Page 18 - Catholic Life, December 2011

Heyfield takes art to the street Benedict declares a Year of Faith

HEYFIELD - St Michael’s Primary School has staged a highly success Art on Davis Street exhibition featuring student artwork.

The exhibition included decorated old shoes and a special mural of St Mary of the Cross MacKillop.

There was also face painting, temporary tattooing, mosaics and a jumping castle to keep children entertained.

One of the major raffle prizes was a handmade quilt of Cat in the Hat donated by Gale Mowat, the mother of Year 5-6 teacher Louise Mowat. Louise also donated a photo print.

On the day local mosaic artist Raymond Darby completed a mosaic for the school which will proudly be on display. Visitors are welcome to call by the see this work.

DISPLAYING the raffle quilt donated by Gale Mowat are (rear) teacher Louise Mowat and Chloe Jones, and (front from left) Jack Kay, Ben Darby, Dan Burton, April Burton and Jack Burton.

Vinnies bring cheer to prison

INMATES at Victoria’s second largest prison will all receive Christmas hampers courtesy of St Vincent de Paul Society. Volunteers, aided by students at Catholic College Sale, packed more than 800 hampers last week for distribution to inmates at Fulham Correctional Centre near Sale. Here the packers gather around one of the utes filled with boxes containing the hampers.

Ex-director speaks in Rome DR Therese D’Orsa, the former director of Catholic Education in the Sale Diocese, was last week one the principal speakers at a symposium held at the Pontifical Salesian University in Rome.

The symposium, attended by over 100 specialists and doctoral students in Missiology drawn from around the world, examined how the nature of the Church’s missionary activity is changing as more and more priests, religious and lay people from what were previously called “mission countries” are actively supporting the local churches in developed countries.

The symposium also examined how, as a consequence of globalisation and the movement of people, many ex-patriate missionaries have now returned home and taken up a new ministry with the peoples from the countries in which they once worked.

These two forms of missionary “cross-fertilisation” are a relatively recent phenomenon.

We have examples of Mission

Inter Gentes, as it is now called, here in the diocese with the presence of priests from India and Nigeria, and sisters from Nigeria.

Dr D’Orsa, and her husband Jim, were in Rome for an executive meeting of the International Association of Catholic Missiologists which was called to plan the 2013 International Conference which is held every four years.

The next conference, which brings together those from around the Catholic world who are responsible for the training priests religious and lay people for mission work in is various forms both at home and in other cultures will be held in Africa for the first time. Nairobi, Kenya was selected as the venue.

Dr D’Orsa represents Oceania (Australian New Zealand and Pacific nations) on the executive committee The IACM website iamcatholic.com provides a good window on things Catholic at the international level. As part of the meeting the executive also met with the head of the

Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples, Archbishop Savio Hon Tai-Fai, who is the first Chinese priest appointed to a top Vatican post and reflects the growing importance of the Chinese Catholic Church at the international level.

The archbishop’s reflections on the Church in China, its growth, and its complex relationship with the government were of particular interest to the group.

While in Rome, the D’Orsas visited and attended Mass at the newly opened Domus Australis, a centre set up by the Bishops of Australia to provide good and identifiable “Aussie centre” providing good quality accommodation for Australian pilgrims visiting Rome.

They were both very impressed with the facilities and the welcome they received from Fr Denton a priest from Melbourne who has had the difficult tasks of supervising the redevelopment of the site an launching the centre.

POPE Benedict XVI has declared a Year of Faith which will begin in October 2012, the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council.

“It will be a moment of grace and commitment to a more complete conversion to God, to strengthen our faith in Him and proclaim Him with joy to the people of our time,” said the Pope, making his announcement at St Peter’s Basilica.

The Year of Faith will run from October 11, 2012, until November 24, 2013, which is the Solemnity of Christ the King.

The Pope said that it will give “new impetus to the mission of the whole Church to lead men out of the desert in which they often find themselves, to the place of life, of friendship with Christ.” He also said that “reasons, purposes and guidelines” for the year will be set out in an Apostolic Letter to be published “in the coming days.”

The vast congregation at this morning’s Mass largely consisted of those involved in the “new evangelisation,” who were in Rome for a summit organised by the recently formed Pontifical Council for Promotion of the New Evangelisation The new evangelisation aims to revivify Catholicism in traditionally Christian countries which have been particularly affected by secularisation in recent decades.

Drawing upon the Scripture readings for the day, the Pope outlined a road map for the new evangelisers. In the first reading, the Prophet Isaiah recounts how King Cyrus, the Persian Emperor in the 6th century BC, played his part in fulfilling a divine plan despite that fact that he “did not know” God and was not even Jewish.

“Even the mighty Cyrus, the Persian Emperor, is part of a greater plan, that only God knows and carries forward,” observed the Pope.

This demonstrates, he said, the need for a new “theology of history” as an “essential part” of the new evangelisation “because “the men of our time, after the disastrous season of totalitarian empires of the 20th century, need to find a comprehensive vision of the world and time,” more compatible with the vision of the Church.

In the second reading, taken from St Paul’s First Letter to the Thessalonians, the Pope said new evangelisers are reminded that “it is the Lord who touches hearts by His Word and His Spirit, by calling people to faith and communion in the Church.”

The fact that it is God and not the evangelist who touches hearts, shows the importance of recognising God as the prime mover in any apostolic activities which “must always be preceded, accompanied and followed by prayer,” he said.

Pope Benedict also highlighted the importance of having collaborators like St. Paul who had Silvanus and Timothy as his companions in his work, and said today’s new evangelisers should also seek co-workers in spreading the Gospel.

Pope Benedict XVI He then turned to the Gospel and said that it provides the key message the new evangelisers must bring to the world.

In it, Christ tells the Pharisees to “render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” This is a reminder that the Church’s message is not primarily a political one, the Pope said.

“The mission of the Church, like Christ,” he said, “is essentially to speak of God, to commemorate His sovereignty, reminding everyone, especially Christians, who have lost their identity, of God’s right over what belongs to Him, which is our lives.”

Later in the morning, the Pope used his Sunday Angelus address to further explain his plans for a “Year of Faith” to over 40,000 pilgrims gathered in St Peters Square. He summed up the initiative as “proclaiming Christ to those who do not know him or have, in fact, reduced him to a mere historical character.”

He finished his address by placing all those involved in new evangelisation under the protection of the Virgin Mary who “helps every Christian to be a valid witness to the Gospel.”

Emily’s doodling attracts judges eye

CHOSEN out of thousands of entries, Ebony Cridge’s Doodle 4 Google, was selected as one of the 320 finalists across the country. The theme of the contest was My Future Australia. Over 4000 schools entered the contest and Ebony from Lavalla Catholic College, caught the judges eye with her use of Australian animals.

Catholic Life, December 2011 - Page 19

Classifieds wanted known

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Online purchase of big photographs for convenience. Covering Melbourne and outlying areas, though flexible. Please email info@sadaaqat.com for portfolio. Call 0430 188 200.

TRY our new Photo classifieds. Make your advertisement be a strandout. Just $10 more to include a colored photograph.

Bishop’s Family Foundation

for sale

PRINCESS parrot. Australian parrot royalty. Young blue princess hatched October 2011, ready for new home for Christmas. Unsexed. Needs aviary rather than cage. $70. Also normal green princesses available in New Year. Phone 0407 213 328.

public notices

If you are making or updating your will, you may consider leaving a bequest to the Bishop’s Family Foundation.

The Bishop’s Family Foundation has produced some easy-to-read booklets explaining bequests which may be an advantage to read before seeing your solicitor to prepare or update your will.

Copies may be obtained by phoning Pat on 5144 4991 Do it today and sleep easy knowing you have done your part.

VOCATIONS Priests & Deacons

COROMAL caravan 2007 Excel 542 Poptop 17’8” used only once, tandem independent suspension, front kitchen, central dining opposite three seater lounge, two single beds, inner spring mattresses, roll out awning, full annex, A/C, gas/electric stove/grill and many extras. $33,000 neg. Phone (03) 5134 4876 or 0407 511 115.

VESPA GTS 250 ie 2007 Model, 7800 kilometres. Extras include Top Box and Windscreen (Not fitted). Excellent Condition. $7500 or best offer. Phone 0408 516 892

Are you considering a vocation as a priest or deacon for the Diocese of Sale?

If so please contact Diocesan Vocations Director

Fr Darek Jablonski 5996 1985 vocations@sale.catholic.org.au

CHRISTMAS gift “On the Tarra”. Growing up in post war Yarram. Author John O’Callaghan. Cheque or postal order $15 to Rotary Club of Yarram St Jude account, PO Box 198, Yarram 3971.

TOYOTA Corolla Ascent, registration number, WFT-935, white automatic sedan, plated Feb 2008, 125,000 kilometres, $14,000. Phone Jeff 5144 4311.

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Catholic refugee office welcomes bridging visas THE Australian Catholic Migrant and Refugee Office has welcomed the decision by the Minister for Immigration Chris Bowen to move asylum seekers arriving by boat into the community on bridging visas while their claims are assessed.

Director of the ACMRO Fr Maurizio Pettena CS said that the announced policy change is another important step by the Government to alleviate the detrimental effects of prolonged detention of desperate people.

“This is a very appropriate step and one that has been made due to the passionate support of the Departments and charitable organisations who have made hosting asylum seekers in the community such a great success.

“It shows good will for which we are very grateful. Australia’s commitment to uphold the dignity of those who seek asylum was stated when signing the 1951 refugee convention.

These changes seem to reflect something of that statement”, he said.

The ACMRO also welcomes the decision to grant work rights to those on bridging visas. The right to work is essential for anyone in order to protect and provide for their family.

“I believe this policy will be well executed, and asylum seekers who are given the opportunity to live and work in the community with the support of the department and other non-government organisations, will see their lives greatly improved and the community will be all the richer for it”, said Fr Pettena.

The policy would see asylum seekers released into the community as soon as it is deemed that they do not present a security risk to the country, and they would be allowed to live in the community freely until their claims for asylum are adequately processed.

Those considered too vulnerable to be given “bridging visas” such as unaccompanied minors have already been released into the community under an existing program, and under this policy, would continue to be given a high level of support.

Mr Bowen said the first group consisted of long-term detainees, all single men, previously accommodated at a range of detention facilities across Australia and at various stages of their asylum claims. They are mostly Afghans and Sri Lankans.

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Page 20 - Catholic Life, December 2011

Off to opera bootcamp Nagle hockey state champions

SHAKIRA Dugan performs at Opera Bootcamp in 2010.

SALE - Catholic College Sale impressed with and commented Year 12 student, Shakira Dugan on her improvement in singing has been give a full scholarship over the past year. to attend the Australian Opera Shakira attended her first Bootcamp in Sydney in Janu- Australian Opera Bootcamp in ary.

2009 at the age of 15, this will Shakira recorded an audition be her fourth time attending DVD in the Sion Chapel which Bootcamp and she is very exthe musical directors were very cited.

NAGLE’S state championship members included (back row in photo) Digby Mauder, Jack Bowden, Angus McGuinness, Jack Neal, Chas Newcomen, (middle row in photo) Ben Howden, Kyle Grummish, Oscar Crunden-Smith, Declan Shepherd, Kurtis Geier, and (front) Darcy Willowhite.

BAIRNSDALE - Nagle Col- Melbourne. Nagle scored first Earlier in the day, Nagle relege’s Year 8 boys hockey team and maintained the lead to run corded a 3-0 win over Northcote recently won the School Sport out winners. The Nagle team Secondary College to move in Victoria State Championship in included several new players to the grand final match.

Melbourne defeating Warrnam- who all combined well around Prior to the state finals day, bool 4-2 in the grand final. the stronger experienced play- the Nagle had won the South The final was played at the ers to produce a great team ef- East Conference round played State Hockey Centre in North fort. at Hawthorn, the Gippsland ReNagle’s goalie Darcy Wil- gion played at Drouin and the lowhite used his experience and East Gippsland Zone played in confidence to keep the Warrna- Bairnsdale. bool attack out.

The team was coached by At the other end of the field, Bryan Smith, with assistant Jack Bowden, Chas New- coaches Graham Readett and comen, Ben Howden and Oscar Michael Howden helping out Crunden-Smith lead the Nagle on the Grand Final day. attack.

Catholic Life

A Papal Blessing

NELLIE Rooney displays the Papal Blessing as she is congratulated by Fr John O’Kelly.

Aid to the Church in Need …. a Catholic charity dependent on the Holy See, providing pastoral relief to needy and oppressed Churches

OMEO - A Papal Blessing has been presented to a former Omeo woman to acknowledge her service to the community.

Nellie Rooney, now living in Bairnsdale, was presented with the certificate by Fr John O’Kelly at an ecumeni-

cal service held at Immaculate Conception Catholic Church, Omeo.

The service was attended by about 20 people honoring her service to the Catholic Church and community over 40 years.