St Patrick's Parish, Cooma
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PO Box 186 Cooma, NSW 2630
Catholic Presbytery is located behind Church
46 Murray Street Cooma NSW 2630
Fr Mark Croker Parish Priest
(02) 8331 7609 or urgent ph 0428 190 759 (02) 8331 7608 Parish Secretary
Mon, Wed, Thu – 9am to 4pm 02 8331 7608

Parish News

Message of His Holiness Pope Francis

LENT 2024

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ARCHBIAHOPS CHRISTMAS MESSAGE 2023

LOVE ALWAYS TRIUMPHS

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Pastoral Letter Archbishop Christopher Prowse

Indigenous Voice to Parliament Referendum

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Archbishop Appointments 2023

Clergy Appointments 11 Jan 2023

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Parish Newsletters

Parish Bulletin

17th March 2024

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Cooma Bulletin

TSW Fifth Sunday of Lent/B

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4th Sunday of Lent/ B

10th March 2024

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Second Sunday Lent /B

Parish Bulletin

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Snowy Monaro Parish Mass Timetable


St Patrick's Parish Cooma Family

Cooma Parish Sunday's at 10am

Sundays 10am 

Weekday Mass at 10am Tuesday, Thursday & Fridays

3rd Friday of the month Nursing Home Masses= 9.30am Yallambee Lodge 11.30am Sir William Hudson

St Andrew's Nimmitabel

1st 2nd & 4th Sundays Vigil *5pm Liturgy of the Word

3rd & 5th Sundays Vigil (Sat) *5pm Mass

All Saints Numeralla

2nd Sunday on the Month Liturgy 5.00pm Liturgy of the Word with Holy Communion 

4th Sunday of the Month 5.00pm Mass

St Mary's Adaminaby = Easter Sunday 8am

No mass -            interest sought for a Leader for Liturgy of The Word with Holy Communion 


Acknowledgement to Country

'In the spirit of reconciliation St Patrick’s Parish Cooma acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.'

 

 STATIONS OF THE CROSS

Stations of the Cross – St Patrick’s Parish Cooma   Friday evenings 6pm during Lent

 Palm Sunday 24th March 4th Sunday schedule

T

Three Parishes Together  Easter 2024

2nd Rite of Reconciliation- to prepare for Easter

Cooma – Tuesday 19th March 2024 at 7pm

Jindabyne offered after Vigil Mass 24th March  Bombala offered after Mass

 

Holy Thursday 28th March

Cooma 6pm   Delegate 5.30pm  Bombala 7pm

 

Good Friday 29th March

Cooma –10am Stations of the Cross/

Jindabyne Stations of the Cross10am(Leader)/

Berridale (Leader)

Bombala – Stations of the Cross 9.30am (with a Leader )

Nimmitabel 12pm (with a Leader)

Cooma 3pm Passion       Jindabyne 3pm Passion

 

Holy Saturday – 30th March

Cooma 6pm        

Nimmitabel 6pm Liturgy of the Word with Holy Communion

Bombala 6pm 

 

Easter Sunday – 31st March  

Adaminaby 8am  + Cooma 10am

Berridale 8am Mass + Jindabyne 10am 

Jindabyne Contacts

St Columbkille Parish

St Columbkille's, 24 Kosciusko Rd
Jindabyne NSW 2627

Postal Address: PO Box 186 Cooma NSW, 2630

Phone: (02) 8331 7609

email:  cooma@cg.org.au

Suburb/Town:
Berridale, Dalgety, Jindabyne, Moonbah and Thredbo

website:  cg.org.au/Jindabyne

Bombala Contacts

St Mary’s Parish

Queen St
Bombala NSW 2632

Postal Address: PO Box 186 Cooma NSW  2630

Phone: (02) 8331 7609(Cooma priest)

Email: cooma@cg.org.au

 

website:  cg.org.au/Bombala

 

Message of His Holiness Pope Francis Lent 2024  in Parish News to the left

 

How proud am I to be Australian?
I am deeply loyal and proud of the country I was born nearly 65 years ago.  As boy from the bush, that loyalty and sometimes  has needed to be tempered.  Like the football team we support, parochialism can be caught up in one-eyed views, seeing red, the raw deal my lot gets etc.  All this is good to a point.  We know this can lead to even deep bitterness.  Even as religious leader, over the years dealing with so many events, so many things aren’t black and white.  I have strong views on saying the Church is the home of all people no matter their background. As Pope Francis said, ‘it is a hospice for the sick.’ 
This is where we need to be able to stop, to listen, to hear one another.  No country has ever been perfect.  Whether we got it wrong, or right in the referendum last year the majority was clear. In fairness we still have a long way to go in acknowledging our indigenous brothers and sisters.  
In the meantime, it would be nice to get on celebrating the country we live in.  What right do 81 councils around Australia have to hold their people at ransom in deciding they will not be celebrating Australia Day?  Why shouldn’t we have citizenship day on this our Australian National holiday? Why should Woollies, Bunnings and Aldi take it on themselves to say they won’t sell Australia Day memorabilia this year? But who cares? These huge franchises justify their bullying by forever boasting about the best deals on offer.   Their specials come from squeezing producers to  the point  where they can’t even cover their costs.  Bunnings is great value!  How much of what is sold in their stores comes from exploiting people who are vastly underpaid in poorer countries offshore from Australia? 
You can be assured it is not the people who give great service in these shops who will unfairly be at the wrath of other disgruntled Australians.  No, these decisions are made by a few big fat cats that sit in highchairs drinking lattes and watching boats sail below on the waters of Sydney Harbour. 
We need to remember what built and makes this country so lucky before we have blown it all. Remember those who stayed on after their time as convicts and the toil they put in. Remember the explorers who opened up the inland – not to mention those game enough to go and live in the wilderness. Remember the men and women who fought for this country so we could have what has long been unique.  The list goes on. Dwell on it and be grateful. Let us be unified, and in faith – remember that in those Irish brought here in chains that nothing could stop the Christian faith which many today have abandoned.
 Don’t worry about a Woollies flag!  When the time comes put your Akubra on, a bit of zinc for the nose, your Jackie Howe singlet and fire the BBQ up. It’s a day for those who were here before us, for us who arrived late, and for those who have just arrived.
Fr Mark 



 

BAPTISM

Baptism Request

Baptism Request and Consent Form is required for Sacrament of Baptism, a welcome into Parish Family will be celebrated at Mass Sunday during Mass 10am.


Please see Application Forms to download a request Form and phone parish office during work hours to discuss suitable appointment time for your child's welcome into our Parish Family.

Thank you Fr Mark.

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

Archbishop Christopher Prowse

LAUNCH OF THE “YEAR OF THE HOLY SPIRIT” IN THE ARCHDIOCESE OF CANBERRA AND GOULBURN

HOMILY

ANNUAL PILGRIMAGE

ST MARY OF THE CROSS MACKILLOP

EDEN, SATURDAY, 19 AUGUST 2023,

READINGS: 20TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (Year A)

Isaiah 56/1,6-7; Romans 11/13-15, 29-32; Matthew 15/21-28)

 

We gather once again for our annual pilgrimage to Eden to walk with our Australian Saint, Mary of the Cross MacKillop. This place was always special to Mary MacKillop. As we know, her saintly mother Flora drowned off this beautiful coast with many others on the SS Ly-ee-moon ferry in 1886 just off Green Cape Lighthouse, Eden.

Jesus uses an expression at the end of his teasing dialogue with the Canaanite woman in today’s Gospel. It could also be used in describing both St Mary MacKillop and her mother, Flora. It is the expression: “Woman, you have great faith”. It is from this faith that the Grace of Jesus was able to heal and give great joy.

Today, I have great joy in liturgically inaugurating “The Year of the Holy Spirit” in the Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn. I did so this time last year here at Eden concerning “The Year of Walking Together”.

My hope as your Archbishop is that the Risen Lord Jesus will continue to shower the Holy Spirit upon us afresh in our time and place. May the Lord say to us in mercy: “Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn, you have great faith”. Let us pray for deeper faith by consecrating this upcoming year to the Holy Spirit’s guidance and Mary’s intercession.

Let us not walk too fast for the Holy Spirit. Doing this will only produce mere practical outcomes and resources that are not the fruit of “pondering and treasuring”, like Mary. All our efforts and energies would then produce only a modern form of a “Tower of Babel” in the Archdiocese – impressive structures that produce no conversions to God.

On the other hand, let us not drag our feet behind the movement of the Holy Spirit in our midst. To do so will only produce a pietistic Archdiocese who refuses to evangelise all the Gospel, to all the world, all the time.

Synodal evangelisation requires patience and discernment to the subtle directions of the Holy Spirit in our midst. What might seem to some as a lack of practical progress may not be so. Waiting for the reign/rain of God takes time for us to embrace fully. It took time for the early Church, in their discernment of issues in their time, to declare: “It seemed good to us and the Holy Spirit” (Acts 15/28)

Recently, well known Fr Timothy Radcliffe op, made comments in relation to the upcoming international Synod on Synodality in Rome. These words could equally be applied to our “Year of the Holy Spirit”. He said:

Journalists will be saying: “They’ve been meeting for two weeks and they haven’t made any decisions!” And that’s an entirely mistaken approach because what we should be doing is chatting – talking and listening – and then we will be changed. It will be very slow. All our study and argument and analysis is not about finding what to say, but preparing to receive the gift.

To assist us to receive this transforming current of grace of the Holy Spirit, you have already been given many fine resources and documents. They will explain fully the aims and approaches to our Year. The first action is to create “evangelisation circles” in your communities.

All of us, not just some parishes, or some schools or some communities, are strongly invited to participate. We have struggled to do this in the past. Walking in parallel lines is not enough! We must intersect together to allow the Holy Spirit to weave amongst us and lead us. This attitude is the first impulse for our year together.

In the latter part of 2024, we will all meet and listen to what the Holy Spirit is saying amongst us all.

Mr Huw Warmenhoven will serve us in the leadership of accompaniment in all this. He is available to assist: huw.warmenhoven@cg.org.au

Let us place this next year in our prayers and pastoral actions.

Archbishop Christopher Prowse

Catholic Archbishop of Canberra and Goulburn.

19th August 2023

 

Archbishop Christopher Prowse Pastoral Letter- Year of the Holy Spirit

PASTORAL LETTER - YEAR OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

TIME TO GATHER FOR AN ARCHDIOCESAN ASSEMBLY – WITH A VIEW OF

RE-ESTABLISHING A DIOCESAN PASTORAL COUNCIL

Dear FRIENDS IN CHRIST,

8th AUGUST 2022 - 8 AUGUST 2023

YEAR OF WALKING TOGETHER.

We are coming towards the end of our Walking Together Year. This time has always had modest expectations. It arose immediately after the Plenary Council of Australia. The focus was on its themes of synodality.  It asked the Archdiocese to scrutinise how she can truly Walk Together in evangelisation.

I have observed that the expression itself is now quite widely used around the Archdiocese. It carries a hope of listening better together. Another hope is the networking of our pastoral activities more acutely towards evangelisation. This latter aim has been difficult to activate. We tend to do what Pope Francis warns us against: “walking together in parallel lines that never meet”.

___________________________________________________________________________________

8th AUGUST 2023 – 8TH AUGUST 2024

YEAR OF THE HOLY SPIRIT - “IT SEEMED GOOD TO US AND THE HOLY SPIRIT” (Acts 15/28)

I believe it is now time for us to journey the next steps together in a focussed manner. The next year is to focus on the work of the Holy Spirit in us.

We need to gather for an Archdiocesan Assembly with a view of re-establishing a Diocesan Pastoral Council.

To move towards this end under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, four important focus areas need thorough discussion in our parishes and local communities of faith.

FOCUS ONE: AN ARCHDIOCESAN UNDERSTANDING OF EVANGELISATION.

We need an articulated and shared understanding of evangelisation within the Catholic Tradition. This forms a pastoral/theological foundation for all that follows.

Recently the Australian Bishops have published a short and helpful document articulating just this from a biblical/theological perspective. It is titled: “Evangelisation: Encounter, Discipleship and Mission”. In our listening / sharing circles, we are to deepen our communal understanding of this vision of evangelisation.

FOCUS TWO: EVANGELISATION IN A SYNODAL AND MARIAN WAY.

Following on from this agreed understanding, we then examine how evangelisation is expressed in a synodal and Marian way. This dynamic topic is the source of much present day global discussion within the Catholic Church. Also, past Synods of the Archdiocese still offer us wisdom for the future.

We examine how this arises from our shared Baptism (Confirmation/Eucharist). 

The Holy Spirit is the principal agent of evangelisation. This belief involves examination of the charisms of the Holy Spirit in our lives of faith. What Holy Spirit gifts do we discern in our own lives and the lives of others to project forward the mission of the Church in the world of today?

There are many new and helpful statements on these topics on the national, regional and international levels. We can examine some of these to assist us in our local and communal discernment.

FOCUS THREE: SPECIFIC AREAS OF EVANGELISATION.

Responding with the above foundations, we can then consider a local appropriation to the 8 main Decrees of the 8th Plenary Council of Australia.

Just recently, a helpful Australian pastoral resource has become available for us to gather in evangelisation circles and consider these Decrees.

FOCUS FOUR: ARCHDIOCESAN ASSEMBLY.

With the above sensibilities in mind and heart, we can gather as an Archdiocese and share the fruits of our listening to the Holy Spirit together. Relying on the movement of the Holy Spirit, we discern, for example, the exact nature of a Diocesan Pastoral Council for our Archdiocese.

Learning from the creative ways we responded electronically to the Covid pandemic, we could utilise the multi-modal ways of gathering not simply physically in one place but in many places simultaneously around our rural diocese.

We need to pose the question also during this assembly regarding the move towards an Archdiocesan Synod in the near future and what form such a formal gathering would take.

I notice that the young adults of our Archdiocese have shown conspicuous leadership in gathering using all the electronic means available. They have developed also creative ways of leading such discussions. Perhaps they could offer some leadership in advancing an Archdiocesan Assembly. Maybe we could gather in the second half of 2024.

________________________________________________________________

I suppose when we place our own present day challenges and hopes in advancing the great mandate of the Lord Jesus to evangelise, we can look contemplatively to the Acts of the Apostles for biblical leadership and pastoral authority. After all their communal discernment of the Holy Spirit in the particular pastoral problems of the apostolic times, they concluded by using a wonderful expression that ought to animate our own humble attempts. Before articulating a specific response to an issue, they exclaimed:

“IT SEEMED GOOD TO US AND THE HOLY SPIRIT” (Acts 15/28)

Let us pray that as we set out on a new journey of evangelisation as an Archdiocese, we can reach this same statement of faith in a synodal and Marian way.

Soon a further document will be sent out with further details and resources listed.

Archbishop Christopher Prowse Pastoral Letter-INDIGENOUS VOICE TO PARLIAMENT REFERENDUM

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


Video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bv1PIk9d5p8

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St Patrick's Cooma
46 Murray Street, Cooma, NSW 2630
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