SVD students at Dorish Maru College in Melbourne have been spending their summer academic break well, with some completing hospital pastoral placements and others enjoying time in SVD parish communities.

Formator of Scholastics, Fr Linh Nguyen SVD, said the summer placements aimed to give the students pastoral experience, as well as deepen their cultural understanding and English language skills.

Two students, Gusty Siga and Krisna Papalesa have been completing the practical component of their Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) in Melbourne hospitals.

At the same time, three first year theology students – Luong Tran, Khoa Duong, and Jacob Yang have been enjoying a 3-month Summer Parish Pastoral Experience, with Luong assigned to the Tiwi Islands, Khoa to St Mark’s Parish, Inala, and Jacob to St Maximilian Kolbe Parish in Marsden, both in Brisbane.

For the more newly arrived students who are still completing their English Language Studies, the summer involved one month of living in an SVD parish and community. Christopher Boss was assigned to Mary Mother of the Church in Macquarie Fields, NSW, while Mengjie Li was at Sacred Heart Preston, Victoria, and Jacub Doktor was assigned to the SVD Marsfield community.

Krisna said his time doing the CPE at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre (PeterMac) helped him develop deep listening skills which will assist him not only now, but in his future ministry.

“Doing CPE in PeterMac has been a remarkable experience,” he said.

“For me, three highlights of doing CPE are learning about active listening, understanding people’s vulnerabilities and being ready to know people’s end of life,” he said.

“The highlight of CPE is to be with people and become an active listener. I am required to be with patients and try to understand their vulnerabilities in their lives as well as listen to their reflection on life without interruptions and distractions. Active listening in CPE also means being ready to know how hard the end of life for some people is.”

Krisna said that the opportunity to work as a spiritual care intern at PeterMac and experiencing a lot of encounters with the patients made him realise how important active listening is to his future ministry as a candidate for priesthood in the SVD.

“I am aware that active listening is not only a skill for mission but also a tool for living with people around the world. If I have the ability to be active in listening, I am confident that I will survive, and I can carry out the SVD’s mission in the future.”

Gusty completed his CPE at the Royal Melbourne Hospital over a 10-week placement which ran from November until the end of January.

“I really enjoyed the CPE program,” he said.

“I realise that I have developed my spiritual and pastoral care skills through my clinical days, group education and supervision.

“I learned a lot about how to be present, how to listen attentively and how to support wholeheartedly. Furthermore, I learnt how to take care of myself.

“This program will be so helpful for my future since I will be working in various areas of ministry and meeting and working with a lot of different people. This unit helped me to discover my spiritual and pastoral tools to be able to listen, accompany and strengthen people with love, sincerity, and compassion.”

Meanwhile Luong Tran swapped Melbourne for the Tiwi Islands where he spent his Summer Parish Pastoral Experience with the SVD community there.

Luong said that coming from Vietnam, he had a lot to learn about the history and the current situation of Australia’s First Nations peoples and as he learnt, from the other missionaries and the people themselves, his understanding deepened.

“I learnt that the missionaries must be patient, flexible and creative, and especially to have a special love for the indigenous people,” he said.

“The missionaries in the indigenous land have to be familiar with the people, not be guests who ‘come and go’ but familiars who ‘come and stay’.

“Coming and staying is not just an existence but a living presence and becoming a part of people to seek their benefit.

“I have seen the enthusiasm and optimism from the missionaries there. They love the First Nations people there. They try to find flexible ways to get close to people and help them advance in both faith and life.”

Luong said that although it is very hard and long-term work, the missionaries still have very strong faith in their work.

“Mission in the Tiwi Islands requires the cooperation of many individuals and organisations, both civil authorities and spiritual leaders to raise the awareness of our Aboriginal brothers and sisters there. However, I see the optimism of the missionaries, and it is enough for me to believe in positive change in the Tiwi Islands,” he said.

PHOTOS

TOP RIGHT: Krisna Papalesa did his CPE placement at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Institute.

MIDDLE LEFT: Gusty Siga is pictured during his CPE at Royal Melbourne Hospital.

BOTTOM RIGHT: Luong Tran spent his summer on a pastoral placement in the Tiwi Islands.