Tauranga’s Knight Commander
S
ir Peter Trapski’s many years of service to the Church have been acknowledged with a New Zealand first.
When asked what his faith meant to him, his response was that it was at the core of his being. “It is, I think, basic to the way I try to live my life,” he said.
Pope Benedict XVI has conferred upon Sir Peter the honour of being a Knight Commander, with star, in the Pontifical Equestrian Order of Pope Saint Sylvester.
To list all of Sir Peter’s contributions to the New Zealand Church and wider community would require many pages. New Zealand’s first Principal Family Court Judge and a former Chief District Court Judge, Sir Peter’s services to the Church include having been adviser to the New Zealand bishops on both sexual abuse matters and the protection of assets.
An investiture by Bishop Denis Browne was held during a Mass at St Mary Immaculate Church, Tauranga, on the Solemnity of the Assumption of Mary on August 15. Sir Peter, who was made a Knight in the same order in 1996, told NZ Catholic that he felt “deeply honoured but humbled” by the delighted reaction of his fellow St Mary’s parishioners. A poem was written to acknowledge Sir Peter’s honour by R.J. Barry, an old university friend, was read out at the Mass by Tauranga parish priest Msgr Frank Eggleton, who also read out an accompanying letter by Sir Peter’s god-daughter. The order of St Sylvester was instituted in 1841 by Pope Gregory XVI and made a separate order of knighthood by Pope St Pius X in 1905, especially to reward laymen who are active in the apostolate, notably in their professional duties and who are leaders in their particular field. Being a pontifical equestrian order, members have the right to ride a horse in St Peter’s Basilica in Rome. But Sir Peter said, “I won’t be riding any horses”.
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As a young man, he was a member of Bishop Reginald Delargey’s original Commission on the Laity after Vatican II and he has, more recently, been an adviser to dioceses on the establishment of clergy trust funds, a mediator on different matters for bishops, adviser and patron of the establishment committee of Aquinas College in Tauranga, chairman of parish councils in Mt Maunganui, Tauranga and Lower Hutt and a parish council member in the Cathedral in Wellington. Other services include being a choirmaster at St Mary’s, Rotorua, a co-chairman of the Wellington Archdiocesan Synod, the chairman of the Wellington Archdiocesan Taskforce on Welfare and Justice and being a CCD teacher.
He is currently a member of the Hamilton Diocese Finance Council and serves in his local Tauranga parish as a reader and commentator at Mass. ketekorero Issue 4 2012
Sir Peter Trapski
Sir Peter, who worked as a mediator and arbitrator after his career as a judge, has been married to Lady Helen for 52 years. They have five daughters and six grandchildren. Courtesy of (abridged)
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Catholic
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