A Bob Irwin MSC headline – bilocation? Trilocation? More?

In collecting photos from our colleges for our files, we found photos of the celebration of the Feast of the Sacred Heart – at Downlands, at Chevalier, at Monivae, at Daramalan.

Downlands

And the common denominator: Bob Irwin.

Chevalier

There is talk of bilocation. But, three – trilocation? But our – has anyone heard of quatrolocation?

Monivae

A brainteaser, but with the obvious solution: our colleges celebrate the feast on different days according to term dates and exams. But, quatrolocation is not a bad word (not recognised as a word by Word spellcheck!).

Daramalan

Rest in Peace, Rustico Tan.

Over the last decades, many MSC confreres have chosen to leave the congregation, starting a new life. Sometimes, we are in touch. More often, we lose touch. When those who have shared years of lives die, it is an opportunity to remember them and their lives.

Who knows where our lives lead us?

Rustico Tan was one of the Filipino students who came to Croydon for their theological studies in the late 1950s and through the 1960s. Rustico Tan was at Croydon in the second half of the 60s.  He returned to the Philippines in troubled times which had an intense impact on his life when he left the priesthood.  Here are two reports, one from the Catholic Asian network, Ucan, and one from the significantly name site, Defiant.

Ucan Report

A former priest and chief negotiator for a Philippine rebel group has been shot dead at his home in Cebu province, police said.

Rustico Tan, 80, was shot several times while he slept in a hammock at his home in the town of Pilar in the central Philippines on May 28.

Tan left the priesthood several decades ago and joined the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP), a coalition of left-wing groups.  

He went on to serve as a peace negotiator for communist rebels in peace talks during the administration of president Corazon Aquino and was still serving the rebels as a peace consultant shortly before his death, according to police.

A police spokesman in Cebu denied rumors police may have been involved in the shooting due to Tan’s links to the rebels and their armed wing, the New People’s Army.

“Tan’s killing seems to have something to do with a personal grudge. An investigation is still ongoing,” Sergeant Florente Gorrea said.

Clearly, this killing has the aim of driving terror into the hearts of the people and their revolutionary forces

The Communist Party of the Philippines [CCP], however, blamed current Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, saying Tan’s murder was part of an orchestrated campaign against senior rebel figures.

“The fascists are targeting peace consultants who are in their senior years ... Clearly, this killing has the aim of driving terror into the hearts of the people and their revolutionary forces,” CCP spokesperson Marco Valbuena said in a May 29 statement.

Several figures linked to the NDFP have been killed in recent years.

Peasant leader and activist Randall Echanis was killed in his home in Quezon City in the Philippine capital on Aug. 10 last year.

Anakpawis, a left-wing political party, said Tan was “summarily executed” following a directive from Duterte “to take no prisoners” in quashing communists in the Philippines.

Duterte’s spokesperson said on May 20 that communist rebels would be hunted wherever they were regardless of age. “Justice will catch up with them,” Harry Roque said.

www. Defiant report

The news item was about an alleged high-ranking leader of the New People’s Army (NPA) who was apprehended in Barangay Pasil in Santander last Thursday night. When I further read the news report, this high-ranking NPA leader turned out to be Rustico “Paking” Tan, who was once known as Fr. Rustico Tan. Apparently, because it was too long ago, people forgot this priest-turned-rebel who once represented the National Democratic Front (NDF).

Right after the EDSA Revolt of 1986, when the Communist of the Philippines (CPP) held peace talks with the Philippine government, and thus CPP-NDF-NPA officials roamed free all over the country without fear of arrests, the Rotary Club of Cebu then had Fr. Rustico Tan as our guest speaker. After his speech, which revealed many of the plans of the communists, I asked him during the Q and A: If the CPP would get hold of the Philippine government, would Filipino intellectuals be sent to the countryside just like what they did in Vietnam or China when the communists took over? His answer was a resounding “Yes”!

Given the timing and similarities in circumstances, it won’t be surprising to learn if Tan was killed by agents of the state also. After all, this wouldn’t be the first time the former priest landed himself in trouble with Duterte’s armed forces.

In 2017, Tan was abducted by state authorities only to be resurfaced at a prison facility in Bohol. He was arrested on a dubious charge of 14 counts of murder, an allegation that was never substantiated to begin with.

The trumped-up nature of the charge was vindicated as the Tagbilaran City Regional Trial Court dismissed those charges in October 2019. Unsatisfied, state authorities again filed a fabricated murder charge against Tan in December 2019 which was still ongoing.

Tan’s last hearing was on 27 May, a mere day before his assassination. It is quite clear that Tan was going to beat another falsified criminal case against him, and hell-bent on silencing him, his enemies thought of doing so through extrajudicial means.

Tan was 80 years old, and along with his 74-year old colleague Reynaldo Bocala you have two elderly victims of extrajudicial killings. It is baffling to think that either one of them could be a threat to public safety.

It is also disgraceful that two peace negotiators, who were told in good faith that they would be immune to prosecution or to the belligerence of the state, would be slain in such a fashion. Neither of the two men was a combatant, they did not deserve to be targeted by the state’s armed forces.

The killings of Rustico Tan and Reynaldo Bocala show the Duterte regime’s disdain for the peace process. If you can’t even grant immunity to peace negotiators, how could you discuss peace in good faith?

Some significant July days for the Chevalier Family 2021

July sees the feast of Blessed Peter To Rot.

July also seems to have been a mission establishing month: MSC in Yule Island, PNG; MSC in Bangalore, India; MSC in Canada; MSC Sisters in Peru.

It is also a month of memories of murdered MSCs, in Indonesia during World War II, of Peter To Rot in New Britain and in Central America of Faustino Villaneuva.

2021 is also the year of St Joseph. Acknowledgement of images to monasteryicons,

1 July, 1885
Father Verjus, Brothers Salvator Gasbarra and Nicolaus Marconi arrive in Yule Island. The mission in Papua begins!!



2 July, 1985
Opening of the first MSC House in India. the original house was rented from the Holy Cross Fathers, in Bangalore.



4 July, 1885
Father Verjus celebrates the first Eucharist on Yule Island and 48 years later in 1933 Monsignor de Boismenu consecrates a chapel built on the site of the first Eucharist.



5 July, 1941

Unveiling of the statue of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, Miribel, France. The statue is 33 meters high!



7 July, 1945

The death of Peter To Rot, Martyr and Catechist in PNG. He was beatified, 17 December, 1995.



10 July, 1980
Father Faustino Villanueva, MSC, from the Spanish MSC Province, is assassinated in Joyabaj, Guatemala.



11 July, 1946
The body of Marie Louise Hartzer is transferred from Thuin, Belgium to the Mother House of the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart in Issoudun.



14 July, 1859

Father Jules Chevalier visits the Curé d'Ars, Jean-Marie Vianney. The Curé confirms Chevalier in his mission as founder! Two days after their visit, Father Chevalier and Piperon start a novena with the Curé d'Ars, who died shortly after on 4 August, 1859.



17 July, 1874
The church in Issoudun is erected as a Minor Basilica: the Basilica of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart.



19 July, 1876
Father Chevalier buries his mother in Richelieu.


19 July, 1947
The first missionary group of MSC Sisters leave Germany to begin a mission in Peru.



20 July, 1926
Monsignor Couppé, MSC, founder of the Daughters of Mary Immaculate, a local congregation in Papua New Guinea, dies at Douglas Park in Australia.



21 July, 1896
Father H. Linckens, MSC, is appointed Provincial of the newly-erected German MSC Province.


21 July, 1982
Father Eugene Cuskelly, MSC, former Superior General, is ordained auxiliary bishop of Brisbane, in Australia.



24 July, 1828
Jean Charles Piperon, one of Father Chevalier's faithful founding companions, was born about 50 kilometres from Issoudun, at Vierzon, France.



30 July, 1942

Monsignor Aerts and 12 Dutch MSC confreres are killed at Langgur, Indonesia, during World War II.



31 July, 1873
Father J.B. Chappel and Brother H. Dechâtre leave France for the very first MSC overseas mission: the mission in Canada! In 1875, they establish the first MSC residence in the USA, at Watertown, New York State. Former MSC Superior General, (2005-2017), Father Mark McDonald, MSC, was born and grew up in Watertown!


31 July, 1878
Father Chevalier signs the purchase deed of the Church of St James of the Spaniards, Piazza Navona, Rome. Today it is known as the Church of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart.

Chevalier College, celebrating 75 years, 1946-1971.

A photo of the Sacred Heart Statue that has stood at the original entrance to the school for the last 75 years. It stood there overlooking new arrivals as they were greeted by MSC at the main entrance to the old Riversdale House.

It is now in a more central place in the school in front of the Prentice Chapel which was dedicated and consecrated to the Sacred Heart on the Feast of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart in the early 80’s.

It was lowered into place early last Wednesday morning as senior students were arriving for early morning study. The mystery as to what would stand on the sandstone block was revealed!! We have been upgrading the lawn space around the chapel: new grass; trees etc. our thanks to Kimi Vunivesilevu msc who generously provided a replacement statue for the plinth in front of Riversdale House.

This all part of the evolving history of the school as it celebrates its 75 Years of life, education, teaching and learning. John Mulrooney msc.

Photos: some history, and celebrating the Feast of the Sacred Heart, 2021.

First Rector, Fr Harry Reid MSC welcomes the first student

Fr John Mulrooney, College Chaplain

Fr John Franzmann

Fr Bob Irwin

First Friday of July. A Heart ready.

From the letter of the general Council, December 8, 2020, An Open Heart for a Time of Lockdown:

Either we make this time of suffering a time of learning or we will continue in the same way. From the great trials of humanity – among them this pandemic – one emerges better or worse. You don't emerge the same.

“I ask this of you: how do you want to come out of it? Better or worse?", Questioned Pope Francis.

Chevalier Family Justice and Peace, Poster and Intention for July

Since then, we have certainly come a long way in this learning process, personally and as a community. We have learned to live with a number of restrictions and we have found ways to help our more isolated confreres or those who are struggling because of the pandemic. Little by little, we have mastered the means of communication better. A lot of creativity has been deployed.

“The life-giving breath of the Spirit does not enter hearts closed by ignorance, prejudice, cynicism or fear. The Missionary of the Sacred Heart has a heart that is ready to cross over to the other side. Heart missionary has a heart that is ready to go through all environments, to meet all kinds of people because they all matter. (See chapter 2, Constitutions.)

NATSICC award to Leo Wearden MSC

Letter from Malcolm Fyfe MSC, Vicar General of the Diocese of Darwin

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Sunday Celebrations (4 July),

I write to remind you that this Sunday is Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Sunday.  You can easily access a wealth of resources that will enable you to acknowledge and celebrate this annual event. The following paragraph is copied from the NATSICC mail-out:

”The COVID-19 Pandemic forced us to think differently about the ways in which we connect with each other. It also made clear our need to stay in touch and stay connected.  For NATSICC, the resulting shift in focus meant that, for this year’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Sunday Celebrations (4 July), we have been able to create multimedia components to complement our hard copy Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Sunday resources. For Parishes, Schools and organisations, the result is that we will be able to connect with you and your congregations like never before through video, music and imagery. Please see below and visit www.natsicc.org.au to access the resources.”

And Special Congratulations to

Brother Vince Roche CFC and

Father Leo Wearden MSC on their being recognized in a special way, namely as Winners of the non-Indigenous NATSICC Awards

Again I quote from the NATSICC mail-out:

“Br Vince Roche and Fr Leo Wearden In what seems to be award season in Wadeye, two much loved and respected men are the latest award winners from this remote Northern territory Community. Br Vince Roche and Fr Leo Wearden are both winners of the non Indigenous NATSICC Service to Community Award. 

Vince Roche

Br Vince Roche has lived for almost 40 years in the remote communities of Wurrumiyanga on the Tiwi Islands but mostly at Wadeye (Port Keats). This year 2021 marks 40 years since the Christian Brothers began ministry at Wadeye. In many ways his constant and faithful service goes unnoticed but the people of Wadeye hold Vince in the highest esteem. He initially taught at the schools in the communities. He later moved into Adult Education programs. He has been a crucial contact person for families who have had their children attend boarding schools interstate such as Worowa Aboriginal College in Vic Vince is always available to the many people who knock on the door of his house and he inspires all of us with his consistent and quiet service of all who come his way. He is a trusted advisor to many and he continues to assist people with the challenges experienced in remote communities where his knowledge and experience with application forms for setting up bank accounts, mobile phones and tax payments and the demands from Government bureaucracies are treasured. The Church leaders at Wadeye have nominated Br Vince for this award.   

Recent Photo portrait, John Walker MSC

Fr Leo Wearden

Fr Leo has been Parish Priest at Wadeye for around 15 years. Previously he was on Bathurst Island for 10 years. He is totally committed to making Jesus present in the Indigenous Communities of the Northern Territory. He is a kind, generous and respectful man, sensitive to the cultural needs of the people, and humbly walks with them in times happy and sad. He has been invited by Traditional Elders to say Mass and bless the candidates for cultural ceremonies. This is an indication of the high esteem in which he is held by the community. He will often be invited to say a home Mass on occasions of bereavement and anniversaries. Father willingly celebrates Mass on homelands, at the local school on special Feast Days. He has learned the local language, and leads prayers and sings in Murrinhpatha. During a recent period of ill health, the people missed him greatly and greeted his return with banners and songs of welcome.”

Congratulations:  60 years ordained

The ordination group of 1961 has its 60^th anniversary of ordination. Adrian Meaney and Kevin Barr have died.  Brian Taylor celebrates in Japan, Russell Andersen in Eastern Papua, Paul Castley in Kew, covid preventing him joining Patrick Sharpe and Michael Fallon at Kensington.

This photo shows the group in 1961 on the steps of Croydon Monastery Chapel.

We salute each of this group and acknowledge their extraordinary ministries: almost 60 years in Japan, almost 60 years in Eastern Papua, substantial time in the Northern Territory, New Guinea, Fiji, schools – Daramalan, Chevalier and Monivae in the 1960s, involvement in art and chaplaincy, Clinical Pastoral Education, Supervision and Spirituality, University Chaplaincy, books and commentary on Scripture and Theology. And, of course, the establishment and the extraordinary international expansion of the MSC Mission Office (watched over now by Adrian from Heaven).

Celebrations at Kensington, photos courtesy of John Walker MSC. (Presence limited by Sydney’s lockdown.)

Meanwhile at Amici restaurant on Burke Rd, Camberwell Junction. Paul and the Kew community, (Melbourne not in lockdown!)

The evangelising power of Christian art -  Stephen Hackett MSC

Jesus said nothing about art. He did, however, speak using images that were at once familiar enough to be grasped and yet evocative enough to provide a glimpse of the mystery about which he was speaking – God, the Kingdom, the Temple, the Cross, eternal life.

The Church, from early times, turned to art in its life, worship and mission. Art, in the form of figurative and symbolic images, was used to portray or signify important people, places and events in the Christian story. Art, in images of the Scriptures, the saints and history was used to catechise. Art, in churches and other sacred places, was used in a sacramental way to make present and to honour those whose images were portrayed – Christ crucified, the Virgin Mary, biblical figures and the saints.

Across the centuries and across cultures, art has connected Christians of every generation with the story of salvation in Jesus Christ in which they participated in their own time and place. Art has heralded new beginnings and, after periods of darkness, given rise to a fresh impetus to rebuild the Church and to evangelise anew. And art has faced challenges – from iconoclasts who wanted to rid the Church of images and, in our own time, from those who regard art as a commodity to be traded or exhibited but not as a bearer of meaning, or of beauty, or of Christian culture or of the mysteries of faith.

Just as the printed word requires a certain literacy to be intelligible, so, too, does art. The more Christian symbolism is embedded a work of art, the greater the artistic literacy that is needed to comprehend the meaning of the artwork. Yet art cannot be limited to what is immediately comprehensible, for the beauty of art is first apprehended, speaking as it were to the spirit rather than to the mind.

This is one way in which art serves to evangelise, as the encounter with art draws forth a person’s deeper desire or longing, which one way or another is for the transcendent “other” whom we know to be God.

In this way, art evangelises by prompting or impelling someone to see, to recognise what, or actually who, it is that they are longing for. The beauty that is experienced in the encounter with art is of the essence in this process of evangelisation, as beauty transforms us by touching us so profoundly as to effect conversion. Pope Saint John Paul II explained as much in his Letter to Artists of 1999, where he wrote:

The Return of the Prodigal Son, by Rembran(d)t Harmenszoon van Rijn, c. 1669.

Beauty is a key to the mystery and a call to transcendence. It is an invitation to savour life and to dream of the future. That is why the beauty of created things can never fully satisfy. It stirs that hidden nostalgia for God which a lover of beauty like Saint Augustine could express in incomparable terms: “Late have I loved you, beauty so old and so new: late have I loved you!”.

Another way in which art evangelises is by capturing the attention of the Catholic imagination, which is incarnational, and so open to expression via artistic media. It isn’t an escape from what is real into fantasy. Rather, it can open the way by which a person engages with what is real in a deeper, more profound sense, drawing a person beyond what is seen to all that is beyond. Whether encountering a pious picture not regarded as having artistic merit or a work of art recognised for its greatness, the Catholic imagination makes present what is signified. Rembrandt’s The Return of the Prodigal Son and the depiction of the Divine Mercy inspired by St Faustina’s vision of Jesus in 1931 each draw the viewer beyond the image to the mercy of God revealed in Jesus Christ.

The Catholic imagination relies on Christian remembrance, which serves to evoke the story of salvation in Jesus Christ as attested to in Scriptures and celebrated in the liturgy. It manifests an openness to the revelation of God in Jesus and in history.

The home of the Catholic imagination is the Church, because the home of the Scriptures and the liturgy is the Church. The Catholic imagination does not spring from philosophy or theology – though it may be studied within these disciplines – and even less from the realm of abstract ideas, but from faith lived in the communio of the Church.

Christ our Joy, painted by Amunda Gorey. Copyright: Australian Catholic Bishops Conference.

Lastly, art can be created to intentionally evangelise by encouraging people to reflect, pray and act. In this sense, art is not just illustrative but is formative. The painting entitled Christ Our Joy by Indigenous artist Amunda Gorey was commissioned for the Australian 2018 Year of Youth to evangelise by focusing attention on the call of Pope Francis to young people and the Church to “open new horizons for spreading joy”.

Art helps us transcend our horizons so that we “see” God in new ways, or at least in ways that seem new. Art takes us out of ourselves as well as leading us deep within ourselves to encounter afresh the mystery of God. Art touches us with its beauty and draws us to beauty’s source in Jesus Christ. Art evangelises.

Fr Stephen Hackett MSC is the General Secretary of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference.

This article was published in The Bridge, the e-publication of the National Centre for Evangelisation.

Images: Supplied by Stephen Hackett MSC

Congratulations, Trieu Nguyen MSC, Graduate, English as a second language

Trieu is now a distinguished graduate of the English as a Second Language for Pastoral Ministry School at the Yarra Theological Union. Trieu studied there in his pre-novitiate year, 2019.

Trieu will begin his theological studies at YTU next semester, joining Daniel who has successfully completed his first semester there.

Midwinter visit to some MSC Parishes – a variety of activities

Peter Anthony at North Randwick

John Kelliher at St Paul’s Nightcliff

Terry Bowman, Kensington, with OLSH Provincial, Philippa Murphy.

Ecumenism at Kippax, Anglican Mark Short, Catholic Christopher Prowse

Come to Moonah, St Therese.

Participating from the Crying Room at St Thomas, Blackburn, Photo Trieu Nguyen.

And now, for something completely different! OLSH, Henley Beach.

LOVE IN A BAG  (A regular request but a variety of products)

The collectible items this weekend are TEA, COFFEE or MILO.

Please bring them on the weekend and place in the tubs at the back of the Church.

Thank you