Some recent Province photos

Steve Dives sent this photo of Len Helm celebrating his 93^rd birthday this week with the Douglas Park community (with Peter Curry).

Alison McKenzie, Interim Director of Heart of Life, joins the Melbourne community for its monthly meeting.

Dominic Gleeson in Fiji for the 30-Day retreat with our MSC novices.

Randwick. Bill Brady has kindly organised framed copies of the Uluṟu Statement to be displayed in our Parish Churches. As a community, we recognise the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation as the traditional custodians of the land on which we gather and pray, and extend our respect to all Indigenous Australians, particularly those who are part of our Parish community.

Shared from John Walker’s Facebook page.

Fortunately, we had not seen the photo and threat when he was asked to write the Analecta history.

Heart of Life Centre transition of Directors

Clare Shearman, retiring director, writes

And now for something different, Campbell Town, Tasmania, celebration. 

Appreciation to Ed Travers MSC for organising this event and for the story. Thanks to Bartha for the photos.

One hundred and twenty one years ago the Australian Province of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart established its first mission in its own right in the Archdiocese of Hobart. Campbell Town was chosen as the place. Accordingly, we, who are now very few, gathered there to celebrate Fr Chevalier's 200th birthday which happened also to be the 120th anniversary of the death of Fr Henri Chetail MSC, one of our first of our confreres in this place who died with a reputation for sanctity which endures amongst local people to this day. Moreover, two of the churches of this region, in the villages of Ross and Mangana, were dedicated to Our Lady of the Sacred Heart thus standing in testimony to the influence of our pioneer members in this region.

Archbishop Julian Porteous considered the event sufficiently important for him to attend and preside at the concelebrated Mass at which Frs Bartha Paniyadimai and Ed Travers  MSCs were joined by five of the diocesan clergy and a couple of local parishioners. At the end of the liturgy we processed into the churchyard and prayed prayers of gratitude and petition at the grave of Fr Chetail whose remains rest there between two other priests of note, namely, Fr O'Çonnell OSB, a local man of this village who was the first Australian born priest and Fr Leo Kirkham a former parish priest who died in the 1980s and who also had a reputation for sanctity.

We then retired to a local cafe for a modest lunch amongst that day's crowd of tourists.

Bartha at Fr Chetail's grave

Over the meal Fr Chris Hope, a senior retired priest of this archdiocese and former professor of scripture in the Melbourne seminary, remarked that the thing most appreciated about all of the MSC who have served over these 121 years has been their having contributed as though they were themselves members of the local presbyterate. I had heard these same appreciative words used in formal speeches of thanks by now deceased senior priests forty and more years ago. It seemed to us that Fr Founder would have been gratified to hear of such a long line of his spiritual sons being appraised in those terms. Disponibilite!

More Bicentenary Glimpses, around the Province

Colleges

An unexpected cleric!

Downlands

Monivae and a new heart design - in cupcakes icing

Daramalan - and cupcakes

Adelaide celebration

Randwick parish

Jules Chevalier Bicentenary celebration, OLSH and MSC, Sydney, Kensington

Today, we joyfully commemorate the 200th Anniversary since the Birth of our founder and the founder of our MSC brothers, Fr. Jules Chevalier.

In our Mother House in Kensington, our OLSH Sisters and MSC Brothers came together for a Eucharistic celebration, presided over by the MSC Provincial, Fr. Stephen Hackett msc, concelebrated by our brother MSC Priests.

Following the Mass, we gathered for a beautiful morning tea,

in which included the unveiling of a commissioned artwork of Mother Marie Louise Hartzer and Fr. Jules Chevalier by our Provincial Sr Philippa Murphy fdnsc, alongside a commemorative bust of our founder Fr Jules Chevalier to be housed in our Mother House.

On this special and significant milestone for our congregation, we extend our warmest wishes and blessing to all. May the vision and spirit of Fr. Jules Chevalier continue to ignite our hearts, inspiring us to embody divine love as envisioned by him, forever nurturing the mission of being the heart of God here on earth.

Three weeks to go.  An invitation

To the priestly ordination of Kenji Konda MSC.

Kenji was ordained deacon on March 17^th last year. After attending the Provincial Chapter, managing the logistics, he flew to his origins, Japan, for his diaconate ministry.

Now for priestly ordination.

Congratulations Steve Dives, Golden Jubilee profession, 1974-2024

Celebrations were held at St Mary’s Towers, Douglas Park.

Guest estimation 120-140. Guests in fact, 120-140 (perhaps a few more!).

Many of Steve’s family were present and associates from the YCW from times past.

Stephen Hackett, Provincial Superior presided at the Thanks giving Mass,

concelebrants included two diocesan priests from Wollongong Diocese, (Fr John studied at St Paul’s and has a nephew in MSC formation in Vietnam), Fr Kimi Vunivesilevu, First Councillor and Community Leader, Douglas Park, Fr Simon Mani MSC, Rector of the Regional Pacific Seminary, Suva, and former leader in the Pacific, Fr Tru Nguyen MSC, about to move to Kippax, Fr Mark Hanns MSC, Blackburn, and Fr Raas SVD, provincial Period..  Many more MSC confreres were present in the congregation.

Kimi preached – entertainingly and provocatively (thoughtfully challenging!).

It was a sunny day at a green St Mary's Towers.

There were 84 places for lunch in the retreat centre dining room, and tables outside on both sides.  Speeches from Stephen Hackett, YCW past, family, Simon Mani

(who told a very interesting story from Steve’s past and his discipline for the students in Suva which should moderate Steve’s memories of obedience and decisions during his novitiate where this present writer, site editor, was his Novice Master – the key phrase for Suva being Kava-drinking, the students that is).

Steve also spoke - and remembered his life and responsibilities.

In his now almost 50 years as a priest, Steve has ministered in Port Moresby and the seminary, Kiribati, Fiji – formation and area leader, Superior at Douglas Park, Treand House, and has just moved back to St Mary’s Towers.

Our thanks to Nang for the photos.

MSC in Canberra, 2024

A memory of the celebration of the memory of the celebration of the 50^th anniversary of St John’s parish Kippax with several priests who have served there: back, Frank Dineen, Michael Fallon, John Bosman; front: Michael Nithin, Chris McPhee, Kimi Vunivesilevu, Gerard McCormick, Mark Hanns.

MSC have been in Canberra since 1960 when we opened the Monastery on the Federal Highway as our Philosophy student house, closed at the end of 1973 when all students were at Croydon (the Monastery open for almost ten years after this as archive house). Then Daramalan opened in 1962. Kippax parish in the early 1970s.

Now 2024

Priest-in-Residence, Charnwood – Fr Gerard McCormick MSC

Gerard is a music man

Priests at Kippax – Fr Tru Nguyen,

Tru shows a pastoral bent

Fr Chung Minh Tran

Koala meets Chung

The Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn has asked that the bringing together of the neighbouring parishes of Charnwood

and Kippax

proceed and has initiated the process for this to occur. Fr Tru Nguyen MSC, Fr Chung Minh Tran MSC and Fr Gerard McCormick MSC have been appointed priests in solidum, that is, with each having the faculties of a parish priest, and Fr Tru Nguyen, already appointed Parish Priest of Kippax, has been appointed Moderator of the two parishes.

Tru will continue in the chaplaincy at Daramalan. The photo below is a sign of what he can look forward to when he finishes at the College, as Kimi has after six years.

However, Kimi is not lost to Canberra – his spirit will pervade from St Mary’s Towers as he is the Community Leader, including Canberra.

A Joyful day for the Australian MSC Province

Trieu and Daniel make their perpetual profession,

St Thomas’ Church, Blackburn, had a capacity congregation for the ceremony.

There were three choirs, St Thomas’ Choir, a Vietnamese choir and an Indonesian choir.

Readings in Indonesian and Tagalog

Stephen Hackett MSC, Provincial Superior, received the vows.

Peter Harvey Jackson, their novice master, Chris McPhee, former Provincial,

Peter Hendricks, Province Secretary, and Frank Dineen, former formator, were witnesses to the profession.

Both Trieu

and Daniel spoke warmly

at the end of the ceremony.

And all went over to the school hall, quite crowded, for a lunch-feast, very Asian, very Vietnames, but with a Profession fruitcake.

                                         A day of joy to remember   

                                                                 Photo, Geralyn Anderson, Blackburn parish

A Voice Letter from Wadeye

We are holding over the Chevalier Family Justice theme till later for a pressing Australian First Friday issue.

Leo Wearden has written this letter from Wadeye.  He can be contacted:

0402 850 084     and   This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Dear MSC Confreres

Yes to the Voice

The MSCs have always said Yes to our Indigenous people. I plan to continue that tradition by voting Yes at the 14 October referendum. In voting Yes, I want to acknowledge our First Peoples in Australia’s Constitution and to agree to their request to be heard on matters that directly affect them by our nation’s principal decision makers. 

I hope all my MSC confreres will vote Yes too.

My reasons are based on my understanding of our MSC mission and on my experience here in Wadeye, where I am parish priest.

The MSC Yes tradition started here nearly 90 years ago when in 1935 Fr Richard Docherty MSC set up what was then called the Port Keats mission. His initiative in this remote part of Australia, undertaken at great personal cost, exemplified the seminal spirit of the MSC Constitution. ‘We will be attentive’, it reads, ‘as our Founder was to those who suffer and are in need’. The Constitution goes on to say: ‘We will seek to identify the causes of their suffering and to discern what our response will be by following the light of the Gospel and by listening to the world and to the Church’. (#21) 

Wadeye, the biggest Aboriginal community in Australia, is precisely the sort of community that the Voice is intended for. Males in Wadeye die on average 20 years younger than the national average. Funerals are constant and many from tragic circumstances. The effects of long term substance abuse amongst the young are rarely out of sight. A few nights ago my sleep was broken by the psychotic howls of a man outside my house. One of the most faithful Church leaders regularly has 30 people living in his two bed room house, all unemployed. Young men turn up repeatedly at Wadeye’s monthly court sessions and are over-represented in NT prisons. Roads and other important infrastructure for the well being of the town go for years without attention. An outbreak of violence in 2022 attracted national publicity. The rioting traumatised the town and resulted in the smashing of buildings, burning of dozens of homes and cars and the flight of hundreds many of them holding children. The people hang on to the practices of their culture and their language but life is a constant struggle that saps self-confidence, dignity and pride.

As our MSC Constitution urges, I have tried to discern my response to this reality by listening. To me the situation in Wadeye amounts to a confused and complex cry from the depths. Sadly it is also representative of other major Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory.

Its source is complex and manifold. It includes the lasting effects of colonial dislocation.  But as Pope John Paul II reminded Aboriginal people in Alice Springs in 1986, ‘What has been done cannot be undone’. He went on to say, however, ‘What can now be done to remedy the deeds of yesterday must not be put off till tomorrow.’ 

I think Yes is part of the remedy called for by the Pope. Many in Wadeye have indicated they favour Yes. It will not be ‘a magic wand; it’s going to take work’, as an Aboriginal leader from my part of Victoria says. But it makes sense to listen to respected First Peoples leaders who themselves have listened, in many cases for their whole lives, and are asking to take more responsibility for the situation of their communities.

Yes will not materially disadvantage other Australians. On the contrary it will demand more accountability of First Peoples and ensure better value for money spent.

What will change in Wadeye with a No result? It will ensure more of the same which, as the situation in Wadeye demonstrates, is not working.

Our bishop, Bishop Charles Gauci, and some other religious leaders have publicly stated they will vote Yes. I pray that all MSCs will join them. It will be our collective gift to the people of Wadeye and other First Peoples of Australia, and ‘must not be put off till tomorrow’.

Leo Wearden MSC

Wadeye, 4 October 2023