*** St Mary's Adaminaby Mass 9am Sunday 9th June 2024 ****
Welcome to Fr Xavier who joins Fr Mark for the next few weeks to 15th June assist with our Parish Churches.
St Mary MacKillop Pilgrimage 2024 INVITE: Pambula Pambula Parish Pastoral Council 79 Main Street, Merimbula NSW 2548 16th May, 2024 Dear Friends The Catholic Parish of Pambula invites members of your community to join with Archbishop Christopher Prowse and other pilgrims, as he leads a pilgrimage to Eden on Saturday 3rd August. This pilgrimage will commemorate Australia’s first saint, Saint Mary of the Cross MacKillop, at the site she visited on two separate occasions, in 1899 and 1901. St Mary has played a very significant role in the establishment of Catholic education in our archdiocese. This pilgrimage is an opportunity to give thanks for the work done in Catholic education and honour Australia’s first saint. Archbishop Christopher will lead the pilgrimage leaving from St Christopher’s Cathedral at 7.30am on Saturday 3rd August and travel to Eden by private vehicle. It is hoped that pilgrims will travel from parishes and school communities within the archdiocese to join with the Pambula Parish community in Eden, to celebrate this important event and place in our church history. Pilgrims are encouraged for the final sector to journey on foot, with fellow pilgrims, walking in prayer and solidarity. It is suggested that pilgrims, where possible park at the Eden AFL ground in Barclay Street, Eden. The Sacrament of Reconciliation is offered to Pilgrims along this walk. A summary of the program for the day: • 11.00am (optional) Pilgrim’s walk from Eden AFL grounds to Our Lady Star of the Sea Church. Refreshments will be available at Church. • 12.00 noon Concelebrated Mass with Archbishop Christopher and visiting priests • 1.00 pm Lunch will be provided by the Parish of Pambula. An occasion to share fellowship with other pilgrims. The Mary MacKillop Hall, has a wonderful collection of memorabilia, will be open to all. We will have available members of our community who are very knowledgeable on the history of St Mary, her mother Flora and their strong connection with Eden. As we are organising lunch, it would be appreciated if you could advise if you are attending so catering can be arranged, please book in via our website Catholic Parish Pambula or on the following link Archbishop's Mary MacKillop Pilgrimage If there are any special dietary requirements, please make these known to us. You can contact either Sue Heffernan (0405 251 947) or myself (0429 774 119) Hope to see you on 3rd August. God Bless Bernade'e Bernadette Wood (Chair) Pambula Parish Pastoral Council Phone: 0429 774 119 Email: woodb4922@gmail.com
Direct Debit giving can also be arranged to support our parish running costs.
From July 1st, no more tax deductions will be available for Planned-Giving. 5% of Planned-Giving in each parish was previously given to the Schools Building Fund, the only tax deductible component of your offering. That Fund is no longer attached to our parishes. Tax deductibility remains for special Archdiocesan donations, e.g. The Annual Retired Priests’ Collection. In 2023 tax receipts from parishes will not be necessary.
Please contact John Vincent if you are unsure of this explanation.
We sincerely thank you for your ongoing financial support in our Gospel mission.
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2023 CHRISTMAS MESSAGE
LOVE ALWAYS TRIUMPHS
The birth of Jesus, the Light of the World, always triumphs over the darkness.
The hope and light of the First Christmas in the Gospels is proclaimed from the darkness of the night. There is a star that guides. There is the joyful light that the shepherds, the Magi, and all creation encounter in the humble stable.
The surrounding “night” is not simply due to the fact of no sun. It is because there is no Son (of God) in the hearts of some. There are those who plot the killing of the Christ Child. Jesus himself is clothed in cloths and placed in a wooden crib – all suggesting a future death on Calvary. There is no hospitality for the “Prince of Peace” here.
This pattern continues even today.
There is the continuing darkness of the wars in Ukraine, the Holy Land, Africa and other places. Let us not forget that war is always a defeat for humanity – here darkness is chosen over the light of love and peace-making.
There is also the challenge in Australia of re-imagining our relationships with our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people after the defeat of the Voice Referendum.
Also, with the upward trend of the cost of living, this Christmas will be tough for so many to provide the necessities of table and shelter for their loved ones.
Yet, in the midst of these many darknesses, dawns the triumph of Divine Love found in the birth of the Son of God – Jesus, love itself.
Let us in silence and adoration invite this Christmas light, that chases away the long darkness of loneliness and isolation, to triumph in our hearts, our families and our communities!
Let Christmas joy have a practical expression in helping others. Please give generously to the Archbishop’s Christmas Appeal. It will assist greatly places of need throughout the world.
Happy Christmas and New Year to all!
Archbishop Christopher Prowse
Catholic Archbishop of Canberra and Goulburn
Christmas 2023
Pastoral Letter - Indigenous Voice to Parliament Referendum
Pastoral Letter from Archbishop Prowse regarding the Moral and Ethical dimension of the Indigenous Voice to Parliament Referendum.
Video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bv1PIk9d5p8
PASTORAL LETTER
ARCHBISHOP CHRISTOPHER PROWSE
CATHOLIC ARCHBISHOP OF CANBERRA AND GOULBURN
INDIGENOUS VOICE TO PARLIAMENT REFERENDUM
– SOME MORAL/ETHICAL REFLECTIONS -
Regarding the Voice to Parliament Referendum, the Bishops of Australia have encouraged us to consider the moral/ethical dimensions and not simply political arguments.
To assist us in forming our individual and collective consciences, may I offer the following very brief and initial reflections.
We are to ask: “How ought I/we vote? … What ought I/we DO?” This is a good place to start. However, if we leave the question simply at this we may well end up with an answer based on political arguments alone.
The deeper moral/ethical question probes our conscience further. It asks: “What ought I/we BE as Australians given this issue now before us?”
To answer this deeper moral question requires considerations on two levels simultaneously: social structures and human attitudes.
On the level of social structures, there is a strong argument for change. At present, simply being born an aboriginal person places an Australian seemingly in a highly marginalised position.
The Uluru Statement from the Heart (2017) expresses this succinctly. “Proportionally, we are the most incarcerated people on the planet. We are not an innately criminal people. Our children are alienated from their families at unprecedented rates. This cannot be because we have no love for them. And our youth languish in detention in obscene numbers. They should be our hope for the future.”
The entrenched nature of this crisis seems to indicate an intergenerational social structure that is diseased.
Good ethics would insist that a deeper diagnosis of this situation would involve the interplay of structures with human attitudes. This dual consideration assists us in discovering foundations for the common good – the doorway to true justice.
This requires dialogue and listening with our First Australians. It is in this area of attitudes that Aboriginal activist, Noel Pearson (27 October 2022, Boyer Lectures), identifies a major weakness in finding healing solutions. He says in a most disturbing refection: “We are a much unloved people. We are perhaps the ethnic group Australians feel least connected to. We are not popular and we are not personally known to many Australians. Few have met us and a small minority count us as friends. And despite never having met any of us …… Australians hold and express strong views about us, the great proportion of which is negative and unfriendly.”
Regardless of the result of the 14 October 2023 Referendum and the social structural changes proposed, this area of conversion of attitudes would remain.
We all surely have a communal responsibility to ponder deeply on the type of Australia we want to become because of the Referendum. Let us educate our individual and collective consciences on the issues involved and vote according to these deep reflections.
As Pope St John Paul II so famously stated in the much quoted speech he gave to Aboriginal Australians in Alice Springs (29th November 1986),
You are part of Australia and Australia is part of you. And the Church herself in Australia will not be fully the Church that Jesus wants her to be until you have made your contribution to her life and until that contribution has been joyfully received by others.”
Archbishop Christopher Prowse
Catholic Archbishop of Canberra and Goulburn
3rd October 2023