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.

Erick – 36
Erick celebrated his birthday on Monday. We didn’t have a 6 to go on the cake, so consistent with the number on the shirt he was wearing, (300), we gave him 3 and 4 + 2.

You will note that he was given (by Tri) a very delicate knife with which to cut the cake and he did an excellent job.

Genesis says that Enoch lived for 365 days, so Erick’s on his way. He arrived in Australia aged 17. I reminded him that he has now doubled his age since then (almost exactly). The next time he does that, he will be 72, and the time after that, 144. Then he getting into Enoch territory!

News from Baltimore Archdiocese…..parish closures
Baltimore, USA was in the news in late March, when a container ship struck the city’s iconic bridge, resulting in six deaths and the partial collapse of the bridge. The Archdiocesan proposed plan to deal with declining Mass attendance is also newsworthy. Baltimore is the oldest diocese in the United States and is predominantly African American. Catholics make up 16% of the population and operate in 144 parishes. The Archbishop said that while it would never happen, the fact is that the Cathedral could hold the entire number of city people who attend Mass on a Sunday.

Property Consultation
As advised last week, we have been asked to think creatively and bravely about how best to use our houses and their surroundings, so that we can establish suitable regular income to meet our costs, which continue to rise with the need for employed staff (25% of our costs) throughout the Province, the maintenance of our properties, and to meet the needs of our growing numbers in Vietnam.