Rafael passed his IELTS exam results!
Last Friday, Rafael passed his
results. When he got the text
message he jumped up and down
with a big smile (almost reaching
his ears), thanking everyone in our
community and making phone
calls to thank others.
To celebrate, Chris Monahan
prepared a delicious fish and chips
meal. While some of us had prayed
he might fail to keep him with us
longer, we recognised that passing was the best outcome for him,
-as God gives
what is best for us.
Rafael described the exam as “the most difficult experience” he has faced, especially
after spending 11 years as a parish priest in rural Indonesia, where he had little
focus on studies or English. His transition to Australia was challenging, but we have
all witnessed his hard work and significant progress, especially in recent months. IN
addition to the stress, his eyesight had been poor until he got new glasses after the
exam! We congratulate him for this achievement, which enables him to begin his
new mission in Vanimo, PNG.

Joey is back
Joey arrived back in Melbourne yesterday
after three months of traveling in the USA,
begging for money to support Passionist
Mission Projects for PNG. The photo was
taken at St Therese of Carmel, the second last
parish, before he completed the mission
appeals at St Luke’s Church.
Below is his reflection while at St Luke’s.
“Finally it ends here at St. Luke Church, Foster
City, CA! It seemed impossible at the beginning! With every step of the journey,
there was discovery, growth, and a transformative experience within! The incredible
hands of God was at work in all the experiences, the challenges, the travels and the
connections with people! I am grateful to the people of the Church in the States!
May God bless you all for your love, generosity, hospitality and friendship! Everyday I
travelled, I had my rosary in one pocket, and my phone on the other! Yes, my Blessed
Mother was with me all the way, and through her prayers I’ve done something that
seemed impossible possible! Ironically, I finished at a church whose patron saint is
St. Luke! The author of St. Luke’s Gospel wrote the Acts of the Apostles! Which is
about the spread and growth of the early Church, the mission to the gentiles, the
evangelization of the gospel of Christ to the ends of the earth! A powerful reminder
that this is not where the mission ends, but where it begins! Have a blessed week
ahead!”

Greetings to you all.
Once again while Brian is away, I will be communicating with you through this
means. It is an honour to continue Brian’s initiative, but I am afraid that I am not
anywhere near as good as him when it comes to writing.
There is a saying “If you don’t have anything good to say, stay mute.” If you do not
hear from me or find yourself going through the newsletter in 43 seconds, you will
know why. There will be still things that you may prefer not to read because it’s not
important to you, all because of my verbal diarrhoea, but let us hope we can keep in
touch until Brian, our leader returns.
I look forward to hearing any interesting news you might share with me, preferably
with a photo, so that I can add to this communication – Thank you to those that
shared personal news with me last time.

Dublin seminary has only one student
Fr Séamus McEntee, the vocations director for the Archdiocese of Dublin, confirmed that Holy Cross, the Dublin seminary has just one student, with a second man joining next month. The news comes amid Ireland’s Catholic Church consolidating its six dioceses into three. It is the largest restructure in nearly 900 years.
As well as a shortage of priests, the consolidation comes amidst a declining number of practising Catholics and, with many priests nearing retirement combined with the significant lack of new seminarians, the future looks very different from what the country is used to.
Ireland has 2,100 priests serving an estimated 3.5 million Catholics, which is similar to Australia which has 2,900 priests for 5.2 million Catholics. New Zealand has 530 priests for 300,000 Catholics. Papua New Guinea has for 400 priests for 4,200,000 and Vietnam has 27,00 priests (and 2,600 seminarians) for 7,000,000 Catholics

A lot going on
Over the past two weeks we have undertaken a lot of maintenance tasks which will stretch our finances, but they were necessary and an ongoing challenge for us. First up was carpeting the 70 metre long top corridor of the Holy Cross Centre, 24 bed rooms, 2 flights of stairs as well as 3 rooms in the student section of the community corridor and another flights of stairs. There was a lot of furniture moving required to undertake this.

Next was the replacement of out hot water system, which was 15 years old. Three of the eight units had given up the ghost, and the others were fading.
Providing heating and hot water around such a large building is quite a task and because it runs on gas, it is very expensive.. A couple of Groups using the Centre a few weeks ago were not impressed when the system was only operating at about 75% capacity. Had the entire system broken down at that time, we would have lost clients for the time it took to book and arrange replacement units.

We celebrated Tri’s birthday at breakfast on Monday, because he had evening class that day. Following our tradition, Tri received a tee-shirt, extinguished the candles and cut the cake.
Erick led the singing and is now an expert in leading the hip-hip horray. It wasn’t always so! The first known use of this cheer was in 1813.

Marg Casey
We will celebrate Marg’s first anniversary next Wednesday August 7th, two days before another wonderful character, John Lazzari. Marg was a truly dynamic women, deeply loved by her family and many other people. She was an immense gift to the Passionist Family Group Movement. Her photographic artist daughter, Aletheia said of her, “Mum took life on with more enthusiasm, passion and delight than anyone I have ever known”.

Aletheia won the World Press Award for Southeast Asia and Oceania (Open Category) photography in 2024. In 2022 she won the Environment category of the Australian Photography Awards, and in 2021 won the Head On Landscape Award. She has twice been a finalist for the National Photographic Portrait Prize.

- A reflection and sharing from Joseph Liaia (photos included by the editor)

It’s been exactly 2 months and 5 days today (Tuesday, 16th July) since I left our beautiful Holy Cross Community to come to the States and do mission appeals. It’s been an exciting journey: one of discovery, encounter, and fascination. I like joking around when people ask me “why did they chose you to come to do the appeals?” My response is: “they don’t like me there so they sent me here”. Often I get a roaring laugh after that.

I am of course grateful for the opportunity to make some little sacrifices for our Province, but also for the people that we minister to in Papua New Guinea and for our Passionist communities-in Boroko and Vanimo. Thank you to you all for your support and prayers for me as I travel to different parishes and often in different States to do the appeals.

Tri made his final profession (life-long commitment) as a Passionist at Holy Cross last Friday night, in a delightful liturgy led by Provincial, Denis Travers. One of Tri’s first cousin’s and his wife represented his family, and there were members of three choirs who sang beautifully, brilliantly led by Bro Triệu MSC. The choir members generously contributed most of the supper.

Provincial Visitation
As mentioned last week, Denis Travers has been visiting Holy Cross this week. This enables Denis to meet with each individual and discuss what he may need or desire in terms of ongoing community placement and ministry. Denis also met with the community to share the vision of the Province and to encourage us in our life and ministry.