POPE FRANCIS,  SLAP, BAD EXAMPLE, ‘I APOLOGISE’

“Love makes us patient,” Pope Francis told faithful gathered to celebrate the feast of the Solemnity of Mary and the 53^rd World Day of Peace.

“We often lose our patience. Me too, and I apologize for the bad example I set yesterday,” he added.

In apologizing Wednesday, Pope Francis spoke about “stepping down from the soapboxes of our pride."

“So that the year that begins will be a journey of hope and peace, not in words, but in daily actions of dialogue, reconciliation and the care for creation,” he said. 

The pope’s apology could teach other public figures about being contrite

Gwendolyn Smith

Sorry doesn’t have to be the hardest word, as Pope Francis proved after slapping the hand of a woman who grabbed him

On New Year’s Day, the Pope veered off script during his address to a packed St Peter’s Square to apologise for his behaviour the previous night. Unsurprisingly, this did not involve the traditional end-of-December misdemeanour of drinking excessively and vomiting on a host’s sofa. Instead, while greeting pilgrims at the Vatican on Tuesday evening, he slapped a woman’s hand away after she grabbed him and yanked him towards her. He may have labelled the slap a “bad example” but, appropriately for a spiritual leader, the apology itself provided an immaculate blueprint for saying sorry.

Why was it so laudable? First, it came swiftly. Less than 24 hours after the incident. There was no whiff of hoping the fuss (inevitably, the slap had sparked criticism on social media) would blow over, nor of waiting for advisers to conjure a glib, legally watertight statement. Second, it was unequivocal. “So many times we lose patience – even me, and I apologise for yesterday’s bad example,” were his words in full. They contained no attempt to excuse or diminish the wrongdoing. He merely acknowledged his human fallibility, which may have chimed with those who have recently watched Netflix’s The Two Popes: the show offers an unsentimental portrait of how, in becoming pontiff, one is expected to have miraculously morphed from flawed human to spotless martyr.

Of course, it may sound odd to look to the leader of the Catholic church for tips in contrition – Francis has been criticised for not tackling the sexual abuse crisis more decisively. He’s perhaps more than adept at addressing his own personal faults than those of the institution he represents.

A proper apology from an adult human shouldn’t be remarkable. It’s something you’re expected to have mastered around the time you graduate from reception. In an alarming indictment of our education system, however, it seems hordes of people get through school without a basic grasp of how apologies work. While we’re discussing the best and worst trends of the last decade, I’ll venture that the 2010s were the exasperating era of the non-apology. The age in which the “I’m sorry if…” format rose to prominence, letting the wrongdoer off the hook by implying the victim had mistakenly detected offence in what was clearly an innocent act. You know, kitten slaughter, or something like that: “I’m sorry if you were offended that I murdered little Ginger. That was not my intention.”

Here’s hoping the pope has set the precedent for a new decade where public apologies are heartfelt, not laughably hollow.

NEW BOOK BY MICHAEL FALLON MSC: JESUS OF NAZARETH as portrayed in the New Testament

To find the online text of this book (102) pages, go to Michael’s website, mbfallon.com

You will find the title in the first list of books on the home page. Click to Download.

JESUS OF NAZARETH as portrayed in the New Testament

by Michael Fallon msc 2020

Cover image: painting by Michael J Nelson “Jesus kneeling in prayer and meditation”

PREFACE

The story of any people reveals a pervading fascination with things divine. We are no exception. Some try to build walls round the city of the human spirit, but the divine cannot be kept out; it is within, at the heart of our being. Our questions cannot be suppressed, any more than our experiences can be denied.

One such question is ‘Who is God?’ It is a very practical question, really, for on its answer depends the way we live our lives in the light of our religious experiences. It arises when we take seriously the mystery of our living and our loving. Granted the depth of the question and the limits of our minds, it is not surprising that answers differ. The tragedy is not that our answers differ, but that they so often share an undertone of fear, arising from the insecurity that is part of the human condition.

It is here that the subject of this book becomes significant. As we shall see, those who knew Jesus of Nazareth saw in him the answer to this ultimate question. When they asked ‘Who is God?’ they came to point to Jesus, for they saw in him the human expression (the incarnation) of God. They also observed in him a way of living that revealed to them how someone free from fear of God or man could respond to the divine.

It is hard to keep impressions sharp and clear, and we have an uncanny ability not only to forget but also to distort. The historical Jesus, too, has been distorted in many ways through the centuries, with the consequence that often the Jesus presented by Christians has failed to connect with people’s life-questions. Christians have even been guilty of oppression in his name.

Yet Jesus was not an idea; he was a person who lived and died in this world of ours.

Fortunately we have in the New Testament the record of the impression he made on those who grew to love him. With disciplined study it is possible to clarify the essential features of this wonderful person, and so to correct many of the false portraits that abound. Saints and scholars will be forever refining our insights into this rich material but, while there will always be areas of debate, the New Testament, as I hope this book will show, is not unclear in its portrayal of Jesus.

I have been living with the question for many years, and wish to share with the reader what I have come to see, so that together we can come to know the real Jesus of Nazareth. The answer can be found only when we share our lives in love, and take time to relish and deepen our experiences in prayer. Studying the texts can act as a stimulus inviting us to this personal encounter. It can also guide us through the shoals of self-deception.

I hope that we can all come to know Jesus more truly, and that, listening to the desires of his heart, we may be more effective and more courageous in continuing his healing mission of love in this very lovable and very love-needy world.

Feast of Saints Peter and Paul, June 29, 2020

CONTENTS

Preface 3

Chapter One ‘God’ 5-13

Chapter Two Jesus’ Contemporaries and their image of God 14-23

Chapter Three Jesus’ Image of God 24-28

Chapter Four Jesus’ Communion with God 29-31

Chapter Five Jesus’ Love 32-38

Chapter Six Jesus: The Word of God made flesh 39-41

Chapter Seven Jesus’ Teaching about our response to God 42-50

Chapter Eight Jesus’ Conception 51-53

Chapter Nine Jesus’ Miracles 54-65

Chapter Ten Jesus died as he lived 66-73

Chapter Eleven Jesus: The Crucified One who Lives 74-87

Chapter Twelve Jesus: The Saviour of the World 88-94

Chapter Thirteen So, Who is Jesus? 95-101

ROSEMARY TAYLOR RIP. SIGNIFICANT LIFE AND MISSION. VIETNAM.

Rosemary Taylor died last month and is to be buried on Thursday.

The MSC connection is her brother, Fr Brian Taylor, who has been working in Japan for almost sixty years.  Her brother, Robert, spent some time as an MSC student.

Brian Taylor with Chris McPhee in 2018.

Here is a brief outline of her work for children in Vietnam, especially during the war.

‘FRIENDS OF ALL CHILDREN’

LAST MESSAGE FROM ROSEMARY TAYLOR, 2019

Meanwhile I am trying to finish yearly & accounts, & trying to simplify financial operations in view of the fact that I may soon or will eventually pass on to another state of existence. I count on Irene Duarte, 20 years younger, to be there to carry on for a longer time. FFAC was never expected to go on forever. It is a very small group and has been able to provide aid at a certain time in history. We

A few days ago I found myself reading a passage from the Book of Wisdom, & I saw it as an appropriate Christmas /New year meditation for those on my ever dwindling Newsletter List, friends who express their understanding of life in a language so different from my own, each person in a way that is utterly unique for them, as the world they must create, as their human responsibility, is utterly unique.

So in the coming year my wish for you is not focused on “prosperity”, ‘good fortune”, “health”, or even “happiness” (whatever that means), but for a continued growth in “Wisdom” which is, in my understanding, the necessary concomitant of any human progress. And with the Wisdom, a spirit of JOY renewed as we celebrate the Christmas mystery.

Rosemary Taylor

Rosemary Taylor Babylift Adoption Hero Vietnam

By By Patricia Palmer

Story of Rosemary Taylor and her adoption work in Vietnam 1967-1975 and during the babylift.

April is the anniversary of Operation Babylift, the mass evacuation of Vietnamese orphans in the care of American connected adoption programs due to the imminent takeover of South Vietnam by North Vietnamese troops.

Rosemary Taylor did not come to Vietnam to set up an adoption program or even to work specifically with homeless children. But when she saw firsthand the suffering and the dying of so many orphans of war, she established nurseries where infants' lives could be saved and babies and older children lovingly cared for until they could be sent abroad to adoptive families. Of the several adoption programs eventually operating in Vietnam, Rosemary Taylor's program was the longest running and most extensive.

Rosemary Taylor, an Australian high school teacher, went to Vietnam in February 1967 as an educational social worker and the first Roman Catholic to join a refugee service sponsored by the Australian Council of Churches. Two months later she left her first assignment and began to work as a volunteer at Phu My, directed by the Sisters of St. Paul de Chartres. Phu My was a refuge for some 1500 people, including the homeless, the destitute, the incurably ill, and the dying, and also included an orphanage and center for polio children. A small room at Phu My was to be Rosemary's home for the next eight years.

At Phu My Rosemary met a Swiss nurse who was involved in arranging the adoptions of a few orphan children into European families. Rosemary soon began helping with the adoptions by bringing the children ready to leave for Europe to Saigon from provincial orphanages, a challenging task due to the difficulty of finding transportation. When the Swiss nurse had to leave Vietnam at the end of 1967 she asked Rosemary to be responsible for the departure of several dozen children whose adoptions were still in progress. In her book "Orphans of War" (Collins, 1988) Rosemary Taylor told of her early months working with orphans in Vietnam:

By now I had visited a dozen other orphanages in Saigon and in the provinces and begun to appreciate the dimensions of the problem of abandoned and orphan children. Nothing in my previous experience or reading had prepared me for this. I was coming into contact with hundreds of newborn babies with no identity and no prospects. There were healthy and handicapped babies; the fully Vietnamese and the mixed-race; the legitimate and the illegitimate! Many of the orphanages were run by Vietnamese Catholic Sisters, who were mostly doing the best they could under the worst conditions in a situation that was never meant to be. The offspring of men arrive one at a time for a reason. These babies came by dozens each month to the already overcrowded orphanages. They were never the center of anyone's universe and never received the nurturing warmth of parental love. They often lacked the minimum necessary to animal existence. How much more did they lack the affection and stimulation needed to promote their human development. My instinctive reaction was to resist this destruction of personality and work towards getting as many of these babies as possible into the mainstream of human development. To give them caring parents was the first step." (p. 15)

In August 1968 Rosemary and a Spanish nurse decided to open their own nursery where they could give the intensive care needed for the survival of abandoned newborn babies and where they could implement standards of hygiene and child care without the frustration inevitable as foreign intruders in an already established orphanage. Their first "nursery" was merely a rented room in a rundown building in a rat-infested alley. It was called "To Am" - warm nest.

The organization that Rosemary Taylor developed in Vietnam was primarily a salvage operation, saving the lives of as many children as possible and then sending them to the safety of adoptive homes outside of Vietnam. Starting out by herself, her team grew to include fifteen foreigners, "American, Australian, British, French, German and Spanish nurses and administrators who with Rosemary worked around the clock, receiving little or no compensation” and 400 Vietnamese nurses, childcare workers, physical therapists, early childhood development specialists, maintenance personnel, and administrative staff.

By 1972 Rosemary and her staff were operating three nurseries--huge rented houses that could accommodate large numbers of babies or older children. During 1972 alone they placed over 500 children in adoptive homes, working in liaison with professional agencies in most countries and, in particular with Terre des Hommes in Switzerland, Germany, France, Belgium and Luxemburg. From 1968 to 1972 Rosemary and her staff managed to place a total of 1132 orphans, having arranged the majority of all adoptions of Vietnamese children during those years.

In 1973 it became necessary for Rosemary Taylor's program to register under an official name in order to "continue the work we had been doing without one." In March of that year Friends of the Children of Viet Nam (FCVN) was licensed by the Colorado Department of Social Services and signed a contract with the Vietnamese government. A year later, due to internal problems within FCVN in Colorado (which was comprised of a volunteer organization providing support for Vietnamese orphanages as well as the adoption agency affiliated with Rosemary Taylor's nurseries), the adoption agency staff resigned from FCVN and negotiated a new agreement with the Vietnamese government under a new name, Friends For All Children (FFAC).

Depending heavily on volunteer help in both Vietnam and Colorado and despite a perpetual shortage of funds, Rosemary Taylor's operation to save the lives of Vietnamese orphans continued to expand during the last years of American presence in Vietnam. The work in Vietnam was financed privately for the most part by supporters in the USA, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Belgium, England, Italy, Sweden and Switzerland. Adoptive parents were viewed as part of the team to save the children, and adoption fees were kept to an absolute minimum: "All we ever requested as a "fee" for an adoption was barely enough to cover the most obvious procedural costs." (p. 91)

In November 1973 the work was expanded to a fourth and fifth facility. Added to the second To Am Nursery, Allambie for older children, and Newhaven Nursery were Hy Vong ("Hope") intensive care nursery and Rathaven (most aptly named), used as staff living-quarters, meeting place and warehouse. By this time Rosemary Taylor's program was employing a total of about 200 Vietnamese staff, some of whom had been trained as Mothercare nursery nurses.

An American volunteer wrote home in November 1974: "Rosemary is up to her eyes in work. She returned from Australia a bundle of energy and I would guess that her optimism dwindled in the first sixty minutes. Her task is enormous, overwhelmingly complex, completely impossible, and never-ending. Her spirit is remarkable, her methods courageous, breathtaking, hazardous and dictatorial. Without her the whole team would fold up. Because its structures comprise a complex maze of ingenious channels of operation totally dependent on her leadership: simple, forthright, autocratic and totally altruistic."(p. 126)

As the political situation in Vietnam deteriorated during the early months of 1975, it became clear that an evacuation of children already assigned to overseas families, as well as of other adoptable children in FFAC care, would be necessary in order for the children to join their adoptive families. Rosemary later wrote of the tense situation that existed by the end of March 1975: "No one knew how much time we had before Saigon would fall. Some thought it might be six months, others not as long."

There were now about 600 children under FFAC care in the four nurseries, including the remaining Cambodian refugees. The children were cared for in shifts by the 400 local staff and fifteen foreign staff nurses and administrators. Should the situation in Saigon deteriorate, the Vietnamese staff would be unable to report for work, and without them there would be no way in which the rest of us could cope. It would be physically impossible to transport so many children to the airport or to the helicopter pick-up points in the event of an emergency evacuation. The radio newscasts on Easter Sunday were reporting the panic in Danang and the clogging of all circulation; it could be much worse in Saigon: "No one considered leaving the children behind. It was accepted that if the children did not depart prior to a change of regime, they would never leave Vietnam for the families that awaited them in other countries. The only logical solution in Wende's mind [Wende Grant, director of FFAC in Colorado and at that time in Vietnam helping with the children] was to evacuate our children before there was an acute shortage of food and medical supplies, before Saigon could be flooded with refugees, before the fighting was too close to the city, and before the airport could be closed by shelling or a panic-stricken populace. Once this was clear, there was no time to be lost and everyone started working on this plan immediately. We prepared memos to the nurseries warning them of the departure and the need to pack supplies for three days. Each nursery was to submit to the office the names of resident children in permanent custody with notations concerning their travel fitnes." (pp. 151-153)

FFAC staff in Vietnam and Colorado tried in vain to charter a plane for the evacuation, contacting Pan Am and other airlines. On April 4 a call came from USAID in Vietnam, notifying FFAC that the US had authorized transportation for the Vietnamese orphans scheduled to leave Saigon and offering a US military C-5A departing that afternoon. Space for 230 children was offered, and FFAC was assured that the C-5A had seats, seat belts, oxygen and emergency evacuation equipment. Rosemary and her close friend and associate Margaret Moses discussed the plan and agreed to accept the offer.

Tragically the C-5A crashed within minutes of take-off. Seventy-eight children died and ten were hospitalized. Of the eight FFAC staff who had accompanied the children, only one nurse survived. Among those who perished was Margaret Moses, Rosemary's friend from their school days in Australia who had left her position with the education department in 1971 to heed Rosemary's plea to come to Vietnam to assist her in running the nurseries.

There was no time for Rosemary and the remaining FFAC staff to mourn, for immediate arrangements had to be made to evacuate the surviving children and the other children still in the nurseries. 324 children had to be prepared again for departure, new supplies packed and identities of the surviving babies confirmed. Rosemary Taylor wrote of that terrible time: "The living still had to be cared for; there was no time to dwell upon the tragedy. I myself was numbed beyond the possibility of emotion. All the remaining staff knew what had to be done and did it with a minimum of wasted words. In the back of my mind I knew that I could "think about it later," to use one of Marg's favorite phrases." (p. 175)

One day after the crash of the C-5A, FFAC children and escorts left Vietnam on a chartered Pan Am 747. This group arrived safely in the USA.

Rosemary and three other staff members stayed on in Saigon, rejoined during the next ten days by two other staff members who had escorted children out of the country. They closed Hy Vong, giving most of the equipment, furniture and food supplies to Phu My. But then more children poured in from provincial orphanages as the Sisters commuted back and forth from the Mekong Delta, bringing children promised to families in France and Italy. Over the next three weeks the population of To Am, Newhaven and Allambie built up again to maximum capacity, after most of the local staff had been dismissed and extra supplies dispersed. Rosemary continued to process normal travel documentation for as many individual children as possible, sending them out of Vietnam on either Pan Am or Air France flights which were still operating. On April 22 Rosemary was told that she and other foreign staff "would have to evacuate very soon if necessary without our, by now, 200 children. [Major B.] seemed surprised, but realized I was serious when I said that we would not leave without the children." (p. 199)

It was next to impossible to secure a plane to evacuate the remaining children. Finally on April 26, four days before Saigon fell, a small C-141 cargo plane was obtained for the, by then, 270 children. One of the escorts later recalled: "The older children were strapped in canvas seats along the side of the fuselage with one common seat belt to secure them. Approximately seventy-five children traveled in this fashion. The remaining children were placed in blankets spread over the metal floor. The tiny babies in boxes and baskets were placed in the rear of the plane with Susan [McDonald] and the other [far too few] escorts scattered throughout. We ran out of water one hour out of Saigon." (p. 203)

Again Rosemary stayed on in Vietnam to close the nurseries: "As the plane moved away with the last of our children, I felt only an immense sense of relief and freedom, such as I'd never before experienced. The burden of all those children for so many years had been weighing intolerably. (p. 208)

On April 29 Rosemary, two other remaining staff, and the young adopted daughter of one of them, left Vietnam on one of the last helicopters to take off from the roof of the American Embassy. They spent several days on a ship before Rosemary was finally able to fly to Colorado on May 7 to assist with all that was left to be done for the FFAC children and their adoptive families.

The Australian government subsequently awarded Rosemary Taylor the decoration Member of the Order of Australia for the work she accomplished on behalf of the children of Vietnam.

In 1979 she returned to Southeast Asia, with Friends For All Children, to assist in refugee programs and in projects for orphans, handicapped and deprived children in Thailand. Today Rosemary Taylor lives in Bangkok where she continues to devote her life to needy children.

EPIPHANY/REVELATION/EVANGELISATION - PLENARY COUNCIL 2020

2020 in Australia is a potentially powerful year for the Church in Australia, with thought and action in prayer and discernment for the Plenary Council. An opportunity renewal and for the future of the Church.

It seemed a good moment at the beginning of the year to highlight the Plenary Council. But just as some serious focal points were emerging, the following cartoon appeared. A perspective on Plenary Council agenda.

It seemed, then, a good idea, not simply to repeat the points – confirmed when the other two cartoons appeared, both from the prolific cartoonist, David Hayward, with his nom-de-plume, The Naked Pastor.

His two cartoons offer a Plenary Council challenge to our stances.

And some pertinent words from Pope Francis – to the Curia, and to all of us.

'Today we are no longer the only ones that produce culture, no longer the first nor the most listened to,' he said. 

'The faith in Europe and in much of the West is no longer an obvious presumption but is often denied, derided, marginalised and ridiculed.' 

'Here we have to beware of the temptation of assuming a rigid outlook.

'Rigidity that is born from fear of change and ends up disseminating stakes and obstacles in the ground of the common good, turning it into a minefield of misunderstanding and hatred.'

FIRST FRIDAY, JANUARY 2020, MONTHS OF BUSHFIRES, BUSHFIRES NOW

Each month the Chevalier Family Justice and Peace offer a theme for the First Friday.

This month we have an intention here in Australia: our devastating bushfire destruction.

• Men and women have been injured. Some have died.
• Many homes and properties have been destroyed.
• Thousands have been evacuated, some by sea.
• 
• The consequences for natural resources and re-growth will be widespread
• The consequences for local economies will affect many for a long time
• And future planning for increasing temperatures…

First Friday concern, empathy, prayer, generosity from everyone.

SOME SIGNIFICANT JANUARY DAYS FOR THE CHEVALIER FAMILY, 2020

Archbishop Couppe MSC, See January 15th and January 31st

1 January,
Motherhood of God

6.January,:
Feast of the Epiphany - one of Chevalier's favourite feast. The true nature of God is manifested through the flesh of the infant Jesus.

10 January, 1854
Father Maugenest, 1829-1919, is appointed curate of Issoudun.

10 January, 1979
The FMI Sisters ~ The Daughters of Mary Immaculate ~ founded by Bishop Louis Couppé, MSC, in Papua New Guinea in 1912, elect their first General Superior. Since their foundation a FDNSC sister had been their 'Superior'.

12 January, 1877
The first MSC Constitutions are approved for 10 years by Rome.

13 January, 1985

The cause for the canonization of the lay Papua New Guinean catechist, Peter To Rot, is opened.

13 January,
World Day for Migrants and Refugees ... Chevalier responded to the evils of his time. In our time, we respond to the inhumanity of our world ... with compassion of the Heart of Jesus.

 15 January, 1927
Archbishop Couppé, MSC, who died 20 July 1926 at Douglas Park, Australia, is reburied at Vunapope, Papua New Guinea.

15 January, 1930

Marie-Thérèse Noblet dies. She was Mother of the Handmaids of the Lord, who were founded in Papua New Guinea by Bishop Alain de Boismenu, MSC, in 1920.

16 January,

Anniversary of Archbishop Navarre, MSC, vicar apostolic of British New Guinea.

20 January, 1925
The cause of beatification of Bishop Henri Verjus and of the Baining martyrs is introduced.

21 January, 1852
The young Father Chevalier receives his second appointment after ordination. He becomes assistant priest at Châtillon-sur-Indre.

21 January, 1907
The aged Father Chevalier and his curates are expelled from their home, the presbytery in Issoudun.

22 January, 1811
Jean-Charles Chevalier and Louise Ory, the parents of Father Jules Chevalier, are married in Richelieu.

24 January,

Feast Day of St Francis de Sales (1567-1622).
The 'heart' is the central image for Francis and Jane de Chantal, in their attempt to portray who God is, who the human person is and how they are intimately related. Both these figures appear in stain glass windows in the Richelieu Church.

29 January, 1861

Birth and Baptism of Father Hubert Linckens, MSC, in Wijlre, Netherlands. Linckens is the historical founder of the Missionary of the Sacred Heart Sisters of Hiltrup.

31 January, 1885
The first five Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart arrive in Australia, accompanied by Fathers Couppé, and Verjus, and three Italian Brother Novices.

BLESSINGS FOR 2020, CELEBRATING MARY, MOTHER OF JESUS –

AND CELEBRATING THE MOTHERING OF GOD.

THE MOTHERING  OF  GOD

Isaiah 66: 12-14,

For this is what the Lord says:

“I will extend peace to her like a river,
    and the wealth of nations like a flooding stream;
you will nurse and be carried on her arm
    and dandled on her knees.
As a mother comforts her child,
    so will I comfort you;
    and you will be comforted over Jerusalem.”

 When you see this, your heart will rejoice
                 and you will flourish like grass;

CHRISTMAS GREETINGS  AND BLESSINGS TO ALL OUR VISITORS

Greetings to all visitors to our MSC Australia Province site and to those who receive our Province Facebook page.

And, just letting you know that we are taking a Christmas break until New Year’s Day when we will begin 2020 postings with renewed Christmas energy.

OUR CHRISTMAS MESSAGE IS OF GIFTS OF SELFLESSNESS AND JOY.

Of joy

In selflessness

RIP, BISHOP AMBROSE KIAPSENI MSC, EMERITUS BISHOP OF KAVIENG, NEW IRELAND

News came at the end of last week of the death of Ambrose Kiapseni MSC.  He had been Bishop of Kavieng, New Ireland but resigned during 1918 and was succeeded by Bishop Rochus Tatamai, who was transferred from the diocese of Bereina, PNG.

Here is the announcement of his death.

MicroData Summary for Ambrose Kiapseni
Bishop Ambrose Kiapseni M.S.C. (born 16 Oct 1945, died 20 Dec 2019) Bishop Emeritus of Kavieng

 DARAMALAN FAREWELL

CANBERRA TIMES NEWS/ AND TOLD AGAIN IN THE CATHOLIC VOICE

End of an era as last priests and brothers leave Daramalan College/ and a visit of Archbishop Christopher Prowse.

Megan Doherty

Canberra's Daramalan College was founded in 1962 by the priests and brothers of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart.

Fifty-seven years later, the last remaining MSC (Missionarii Sacratissimi Cordis) priests and brothers are moving to a retirement home in Sydney and their residence on the site of the school is closing.

It's the end of an era.

Father Jim Littleton, 89, and Father Harold Baker, 96, at the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart residence at Daramarlan College. Picture: Elesa Kurtz

While the school now has a staff of lay teachers, there was a time - in the mid-1970s - when close to 30 priests or brothers were working at the school and living in the residence.

Only three now remain.

Father Jim Littleton, 89, was the principal of Daramalan College from 1971 to 1979.

Father Harold Baker, 96, was the deputy principal, teaching maths and religion and providing pastoral care to the year 11 and year 12 student from 1975 to 2002.

Students also have fond memories of him teaching them social dancing.

Picture: Elesa Kurtz

"It's time for me to go," Father Harold said.

Brother John Walker is the third remaining person living in the residence. He was a registered nurse who worked at Calvary Hospital.

They are retiring to a Sacred Heart monastery in Sydney.

Father Harold leaves next week and Father Jim and Brother John early next year.

"I'm sad to be leaving because I've enjoyed living in Canberra," Father Jim said.

Father Jim said after stepping down as principal, his focus moved from the students to staff.

"Helping them to understand the ethos of the school," he said.

"That's is based around a spirituality; helping them to appreciate they're loved by God."

Daramalan College principal Rita Daniels said the brothers and priests had made a huge contribution to the school.

The last on staff was Brother Barry Smith, the business manager, who left in July.

"They have left an extraordinary legacy at the school over 57 years," Ms Daniels said.

"They have been significant in the field of education and supporting young people to be the best they can be."

Ms Daniels said no decisions had yet been made about the future of the residence building.

"It will eventually be handed over to the school for future development," she said.

Daramalan board chair Chris Fearon, who attended the school from 1966 to 1973, said he was sad to see the priests and brothers go but Daramalan would "always be an MSC school".

"They've been a great presence, in many ways, as guides and mentors for the students," he said.

"We recognise things do move on. In reality, I think, people joining the priesthood, the MSC, are not going to be teachers. They want to work in the missions out in the Pacific, PNG. Unfortunately, priests with education as their mission and vocation are becoming fewer.

"But we have a fantastic group of teachers being formed in the MSC ethos and we've taken up the challenge."