Events

For Passionist priests Fr Joash Oloo Okeyo CP and Fr Julius Philip Ouma Nyandiga CP, accepting an offer from their Superior to come to Australia was a lot easier than saying goodbye to the communities they served in Kenya.

For Passionist priests Fr Joash Oloo Okeyo CP and Fr Julius Philip Ouma Nyandiga CP, accepting an offer from their Superior to come to Australia was a lot easier than saying goodbye to the communities they served in Kenya.

When he’s not travelling the world researching the history and culture of Christianity, Fr Michael Trainor’s focus is firmly on the future.

As an advocate of education, interfaith dialogue, the importance of empathy and contemporising the Catholic faith to meet the needs of the modern world, he doesn’t shy away from frank conversation.

“I don’t advertise the fact that I’m a priest,” said Fr Michael, parish priest of Lockleys and senior lecturer in biblical studies at ACU’s National School of Theology.

Fr Tony Egar CP has moved 14 times in his 60 years as a Passionist priest but one constant has been the influence of his three ‘families’ along the journey. The sprightly 84 year old spoke to The Southern Cross after his diamond jubilee on July 18.

With older brother Rob in the seminary and sister Ruth in the convent by the time he turned 16, there was a certain inevitability about Tony Egar choosing a religious vocation.

More than 300 people from the Newton Catholic community gathered to say goodbye to the Capuchin friars who, after more than 70 years, have left the parish of St Francis of Assisi.

The event in the parish hall on Sunday January 21 was festive but full of melancholy to say goodbye to Fr Eldridge and Fr John.

John Di Fede made a heartfelt and touching speech that retraced the 70 years of the Capuchins in the parish and what was achieved, memories that will be told in a book soon to be published. He paid special tribute to the last Capuchins at the parish, Fr John Spiteri and Fr Eldridge D’Souza.

It was on February 2 in 1964 that a group of young postulants, all in their late teens or early 20s, first walked through the doors of the St Joseph’s Convent at Kensington.

Sixty years later, on that very day in 2024, the Josephite sisters, now in their 70s and 80s, gathered once again at their ‘Mother House’ to remember that momentous day and recount memories from years gone by.

Sr Helen Duke, Sr Ursula Hoile, Sr Christine Schwerdt and Sr Colleen Roberts were among the 12 young women who arrived at the convent in the 1960s from various parts of Australia.

When Fr Paul Kim arrived in Adelaide on January 25 he was pleasantly surprised by the diversity of culture.

“The diverse languages spoken, the diversity of people and the cooperation between them,” Fr Kim told The Southern Cross, with the assistance of an interpreter.

It is Fr Kim’s first time in Australia, and he looks forward to his role as chaplain to Adelaide’s Korean community. He will call Adelaide home for approximately four years and hopes his family will one day make the 8100-plus kilometre journey to visit.

Sr Norah O’Hara is not one to talk about herself and thinks celebrating her 70th anniversary as a Dominican Sister is “no big deal”.

But the 91 year old has an enviable attitude to life as she lives each day “in the present” and thankful for all God has given her.

“The words ‘thank you Lord’ have always come “very easily” to me,” she told The Southern Cross.

When Sr Jenny Seal fdnsc left Adelaide last year for a three-month sabbatical in Malta, she carried with her a family heritage closely connected to the history of the small Mediterranean nation.

A first generation Australian of Maltese parents, along with her four brothers, Sr Jenny said when she arrived in Malta, she immediately felt a “sense of belonging” and “being home” as she recalled the places, streets and stories shared over dinner when she was growing up.

It all started with a taxi driver asking her to pray for him and from there Josephite Sister Margaret Hehir’s ministry has grown to see her now praying for nearly 1500 people each day.

Sr Margaret’s prayer list – which is a collection of handwritten names in a small, tattered notebook – is never far from her side. Each day she begins her ministry with a prayer asking for St Mary of the Cross MacKillop’s intercession, and she then proceeds to say the names of each person on the list. The first page is devoted to priests and from there, it is anyone for whom she has been asked to pray.

In reflecting on the Christian life in homilies over the years I’ve often said ‘no one is a Christian on their own’. It’s my way of naming how we are saved in Christ.

The Dogmatic Constitution on the Church from the Second Vatican Council puts it this way:

‘God...has, however, willed to make men holy and save them, not as individuals without any bond or link between them, but rather to make them into a people.’ It then proceeds to speak of all the baptised as being ‘a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation…who in the times past were not a people but now are the People of God’.

It’s a long way from her home country of Croatia but Sr Ljilja (Lily) Muzic ASC says while she “never dreamed” of living in Australia, it is all part of God’s plan.

The effervescent 43 year old arrived in Adelaide in late 2018 and is based at St Joseph’s convent, North Adelaide, where she lives with Sr Slavica Turcic, also of the Adorers of the Blood of Christ congregation.

After a journey spanning five years and two continents, former credit analyst James Thomson was ordained to the priesthood in St Francis Xavier’s Cathedral on May 27.

Family, friends and a large contingent of priests from the Archdiocese attended the morning Ordination Mass celebrated by Archbishop Patrick O’Regan. Special guests included Fr Thomson’s formation adviser, Monsignor William Fay, who travelled from Pope John XXIII Seminary in Boston, USA, while fellow seminarians watched the joyful ceremony via livestream.

Father Denis Travers has made an enormous contribution to the Passionists in Australia and around the world over five decades. The affable parish priest spoke to Jenny Brinkworth after celebrating his golden jubilee on January 21, in the same church where he made his first vows.

In his myriad of ministries as a Passionist priest Fr Denis Travers has been guided by a vision of God as “nothing but kindness and compassion”.

Sr Mary Cresp rsj is a great believer in the value of storytelling. 

“Stories are one way we get encouragement from each other,” she says.

“The Gospel is a story, and right from the beginning we, like the first peoples of Australia, have learnt about the meaning of life through stories.”

Arriving in Adelaide in the middle of the busy Advent season, new international priest Fr Santhosh Nazareth CSC didn’t take long to find his feet.

A day after touching down at Adelaide Airport on December 8, the 40-year-old priest from the Congregation of Holy Cross was joining Fr Anthoni Adimai in celebrating the Year 6 graduation Mass at Nazareth School and was soon assisting fellow CSC Fr Lancy D’Silva in the Sacred Heart parish (Hindmarsh-Findon).

Sr Sally Duigan OLSH, director of the Holy Family Care Centre in Limpopo, South Africa, was back in her home city of Adelaide visiting family and friends late last year. She spoke to JENNY BRINKWORTH about her work with orphans and vulnerable children in the Diocese of Tzaneen.

At the height of the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Africa, there were times when Sr Sally Duigan’s faith was put to the test as she witnessed the devastating impact on families.

Even now when there is treatment available, it’s not necessarily accessible in places like Limpopo, the northern most province of South Africa.

It should have been one of the best days of his life. After 14 years of Jesuit studies and preparation for the priesthood and the day after his ordination on December 9 1972 in St Ignatius Church, Norwood, Fr Greg O’Kelly was celebrating his first Mass at Holy Name Church, St Peter’s, when tragedy struck.

Witnessing the “big sky country” of the Mid North, learning about the early Polish Catholic settlement in the Clare Valley and celebrating the feast of St Hilarion were among the highlights of the Apostolic Nuncio’s first visit to South Australia.

Archbishop Charles Balvo officially commenced his position of papal ambassador to Australia when he presented his credentials to the Governor General David Hurley on April 1.

A member of the diplomatic service for 35 years, the personable American speaks six languages and has served  in New Zealand and the Pacific islands, Kenya and South Sudan, Latin America, the Baltic States, the Middle East and, most recently, the Czech Republic.

One of the key principles at Mercy Works is to walk with vulnerable people, to empower them to take responsibility for their lives and become their own agents of change.

Mercy Works’ Prospering After Prison pilot project, based in Port Augusta, is a partnership with Centacare Catholic Country and has been running for two years, providing holistic care for Aboriginal women leaving prison to enable them to prosper in their community.

In the past year, 21 Aboriginal women were assisted in the development of personal and financial resilience, living skills, cultural healing, spiritual support and community connection under the guiding and dedicated care of three Sisters of Saint Anne of Chennai: Sisters Delma Rani, Elizabeth Royan and Sheela Thomas.

Fr Tony Densley and Fr Michael Brennan were ordained at a time of great excitement and hope for the Catholic Church as the reforms of Vatican II were being implemented around the world. Fifty years later, they reflected on their experience of priesthood with JENNY BRINKWORTH.

Father Tony Densley was happily working on his father’s farm in Keith when his “guardian angel” kept nagging him about becoming a priest. “If your guardian angel is poking you, you can resist for a long time but in the end you’ve got to say yes,” he told The Southern Cross.

Father Michael Brennan - It took Father Michael Brennan a while to work out that being a priest didn’t mean having to save the world, let alone the Church and everyone in it. The first hint that maybe he was trying too hard came the year after he was ordained when he went to visit Bishop Philip Kennedy. “He said your hands are shaking and I said ‘that’s why I’ve come to see you’,” Fr Michael recalled.

Ordained by Archbishop Patrick O’Regan in St Francis Xavier’s Cathedral on Saturday September 3, Deacon James reflected on the events of the day after returning to Boston, USA, where he will complete his final year of studies.

The Bishop of Darwin and former Adelaide priest brought four decades of pastoral wisdom to the Australian Plenary Council assembly in Sydney recently, sharing his experience as a Church leader covering the vast northern diocese that is two-and-a-half times the size of France.

The musical talents of some of Adelaide’s clergy were on show at a ‘Vianney Day’ gathering at The Monastery last month.

The day was named after St John Vianney who is the only parish priest to be canonised.

In addition to their involvement in music ministry, the 81 clergy in attendance were active in reading, serving, facilitation, introducing speakers, reporting on small groups and offering blessings.

In his message for World Day of Prayer for Vocations earlier this year, Pope Francis said: “…in every vocation, we are met with the gaze of God, who calls us. Vocation, like holiness, is not an extraordinary experience reserved for a few. Just as there is a ‘holiness of the saints next door’ (Gaudete et Exsultate), so too there is a vocation for everyone, for God’s gaze and call is directed to everyone.”

These words truly set the theme once again this year for National Vocations Awareness Week incorporating the first two weekends of August. It’s all about the unique call and vocation of God to everyone.

Fr George Nader turned up to celebrate Mass on Kangaroo Island one Sunday wearing dark sunglasses, not because it was a particularly sunny day but because he had a black eye from playing Aussie Rules footy the day before.

A member of the Kingscote 1970 premiership team, Fr Nader is one of a handful of South Australian priests who continued to play sport after their ordination – Bishop Eugene Hurley and Fr Adrian Noonan are two others that come to mind.

Celebrating the big moments and seemingly little moments in life are so important for our wellbeing and our life together. They give us the opportunity to become more aware of what is important to us and to develop our relationships with one another. The joie de vivre of what celebrations offer, helps us too, to share in and express what it is that we truly value.

On the last Sunday of July 1972, the first Rock Mass in Adelaide took place in St Francis Xavier’s Cathedral. 

Life has always been a drama for Mercy Sister Kathryn Travers, but at the age of 83 she says she wouldn’t have it any other way.

There was cause for celebration as two Sisters in the Archdiocese achieved significant jubilee milestones last month.

Sr Joan Mangan has seen plenty of changes in her 75 years as a Sister of St Joseph. Ahead of her jubilee celebration in March, the diminutive but sprightly 95 year old reflected with JENNY BRINKWORTH on her early days in the convent.

“Leaving the boat and their father, they followed him.” – Matthew 4:22

Susan Pollard rsj happily admits she had a mid-life crisis when she turned 40.

After 20 years as a teacher and principal in Josephite schools, she felt the need to take a sabbatical and with the encouragement of her province leadership she embarked on a trip to the UK and Europe that would change her life dramatically.

Sister Janet Mead has been remembered as a much-loved musician, educator and Sister of Mercy who was an advocate for the voiceless and impacted the lives of many.

Sr Janet, 84, died peacefully at home after succumbing to cancer on the morning of January 26, 17 years to the day that she became the first woman to be named South Australian of the Year.

Recognised for her social justice work, she was actively involved in anti-war protests, support for refugees and First Nations people, and fundraising for those in need locally and overseas.

Keep up with the readings each day and reflect with us. Even though we may not be able to receive Holy Communion, we can still invite Christ into our hearts through spiritual communion.
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Thailand may be a Buddhist country with only 1.14 per cent Christian and 0.5 per cent Roman Catholic but if the diminutive Sr Ratana Sriwarakul is any indication, Catholics certainly punch above their weight.

The Daughter of Charity Sister was born and raised in a small town in the north east of Thailand, the sixth of eight children. After completing her education in a Catholic school she had no intention of becoming a nun and was considering a career in engineering or architecture.

But she went to visit her older sister Chula, who had already joined the Daughters of Charity, and accompanied some of the Sisters who were working with leprosy patients at a government-run leprosarium in Khon Kaen Province.

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Half a century ago they were part of a record number of young men to be ordained priests in the Archdiocese. Frs Allan Winter, John Vildzius, Richard Morris and Peter Fountain reflected on their combined 200 years of priesthood after their anniversary celebrations last month.

Fr Allan Winter recalls his ordination on September 4 1971, as the most wonderful day of his life, despite a slight glitch.

“As the nine deacons knelt in front of Archbishop Gleeson I noticed that my deacon’s stole was on the wrong way,” Fr Winter told The Southern Cross.

“All the others had their stoles going from left to right, mine was going from right to left. Was I validly ordained? It brought a smile from my classmates.”

Fr Winter is one of five remaining clergy from the group of nine, one of whom lives in Brisbane (Mgr John Butler). Four of the group left the priesthood.

Fr Winter said his calling came when he was a student at Christian Brothers College, city, and the newly ordained Fr Michael Rodger returned to his old school to speak at an assembly.

“We became good friends,” Fr Winter said.

As Catholics around the world celebrate the Season of Creation this month, Willunga priest-in-residence Fr Tom Gleeson talks about how his faith is so strongly connected with the natural world.

Finding God happens for people in so many different ways. For Fr Tom Gleeson his moment of spiritual awakening came in the middle of the night in the desert of far north South Australia.

If you are looking for an example of how to listen to God’s call and how to respond wholeheartedly, St Joseph is a pretty good model. In fact, with Jesus and Mary, he’s in the top three.

Pope Francis nominated the 12 months from December 8 2020 to December 8 2021 to be the year of St Joseph to mark the 150th anniversary of Pope Pius X naming Joseph the universal patron of the Church.

While marking this anniversary is a worthy reason for having a year dedicated to Jesus’ earthly dad, the COVID pandemic makes for a fitting context. St Joseph was very familiar with upheaval and was nimble in changing his plans to accommodate new circumstances and the unfolding of God’s Will.

When Fr John Chambers was ordained on July 1 1961 he made a promise that in every Mass he offered he would thank God for the people in his pastoral care.

Sixty years to the day, at his Diamond Jubilee Mass in Our Lady of Victories Church, Glenelg, Fr Chambers said he had kept that promise to all the “good people who have worked with me, supported me and encouraged me”.

Seated at a portable altar in the sanctuary, Fr Chambers made a subtle reference to his health struggles: “Quite frankly I am surprised to be here with you today … I was even more surprised 60 years ago to be ordained a priest by Archbishop Beovich in St Francis Xavier’s Cathedral, a day very much like today in weather,” he said.

When Sr Maria Cosic asc returns to Croatia on July 27 after 55 years in Australia, she will be sadly missed by both the Croatian community and the tight-knit parish community at St Mary’s Church, North Adelaide, where she has lived for more than 30 years.

Australia wasn’t quite the destination that Sr Maria Cosic had in mind when she told her Mother Provincial that she wanted to be a missionary.

Having been installed as Archbishop some 13 months ago, I have often in this time thought about the Christian notion of ‘stewardship’. While there is rightly a lot of talk about leadership and governance in preparing for both the Diocesan Assembly in September and the Plenary Council which begins in October, at the heart of all of these and underpinning all that we do, is the quality of being a good steward.

Sometimes, when we hear this word, we associate it with financial giving and management, or perhaps a waiter. I’ve come to understand it as one of the most important qualities we can build into our lives. It both assists our understanding in approaching life in general and ministry in particular.

Once we see that all that we have and all that we are is a ‘gift’, then our role is not to ‘own’, but to ‘care for’, ‘look after’. How often do we hear that particular Australian phrase, ‘look after yourself’?

There’ll be lots of talking at the upcoming Diocesan Assembly – of course! It’d be a dull event without conversation.

But according to Pope Francis, the quality of our gathering will be determined by our capacity to listen to one another. In a major speech from 2015 he urged the world’s bishops to foster a listening church: “It’s a mutual listening in which everyone has something to learn...we are one in listening to others; and all are listening to the Holy Spirit.”

So, what should we listen for? And what will we learn?

It’s a warm, sunny day in Semaphore and Fr Roderick O’Brien has a spring in his step.

Just a short walk from the presbytery the coastal waters are like glass and the weather is nothing short of perfect for the keen sailor, although the official racing season has ended. Back at home he is in his element cooking one of his wonderful Malaysian curries before preparing to go and visit a patient at the local hospital.

In his own words “life is good” and he is right where God wants him to be.

His ministry on the idyllic Lefevre peninsula is just one of the many different cultural experiences over his 71 years.

Salve Regina

Award-winning original “Salve Regina” tells the story of Friar Gabriel, who utilises skateboarding as a platform to preach the gospel and exercising the body as well as the soul.

A Spirit Juice Studios production

In speaking about the World Day of Prayer for Vocations, Pope Francis remarked: ‘It is beautiful – and a great grace – to be completely consecrated to God and the service of our brothers and sisters.’

The vocation which God has prepared for each of us is, at its heart, a call to joy: a beautiful and a great grace. I think the Pope reminds us of the joy of God’s call because it is something we can easily forget

Young priests need support to keep their enthusiasm and joy alive, Pope Francis said, reports CNS.

World Youth Day 2016 Krakow, Poland, July 26 – 31

The Prayer Vigil will begin with Mass at 5.45pm in St Francis Xavier's Cathedral, Victoria Square Adelaide, and will incorporate Adoration and Benediction.

Celebrating National Vocations Awareness Week – August 7-14, 2016.