A special celebration was held this month to give thanks to God for the Divine Word Missionaries of the AUS Province who are marking their jubilees of religious vows or priestly ordination.

Ten SVD confreres are celebrating significant jubilees this year, with Fr Ennio Mantovani SVD marking the wonderful milestone of 70 years in vows.

Other jubilarians are Fr Wim Valckx (65 years in vows and 60 years ordained), Fr Larry Nemer (60 years ordained), Fr Jim Knight (60 years in vows), Fr Stephan Gerdes (25 years ordained), Fr Urbanus Usen Bunga Lolon (25 years ordained), Fr Asaeli Rass (25 years in vows), Fr John Quang Phan (25 years in vows), Fr Ho Bach Tran (25 years in vows) and Fr Thuy Xuan Pham (25 years in vows).

Provincial, Fr Asaeli Rass, was chief celebrant at the Eucharist held at Marsfield on Friday, October 23. He preached on the Gospel reading, the Prologue to the Gospel of St John.

Sharing his own experience of working with the Arrernte people of Central Australia, Fr Rass said he came to realise that they had known of the Logos, or the Divine Word, long before the first Lutheran missionaries arrived.

“They have their own way of describing the dynamic of the Logos, the Divine Word, as if it was already known to them before the first Lutheran missionaries arrived,” he said.

“In order to do our mission, our work, together with the local people, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, it is always our duty as Divine Word Missionaries to discover the truth of John’s Prologue which exists among the people.”

He said that all the jubilarians had discovered this through the people they worked with in Papua New Guinea, America, Europe and other places.

Fr Rass said the Mass of Thanksgiving for the jubilarians was an opportunity “to thank God for these men saying ‘yes’, for giving their life to God in professing to be part of the SVD community”.

During the celebration the jubilarians renewed their vows and recommitted themselves to the mission.

Looking back on his 70 years in vows and 60 years as a missionary priest, Fr Ennio said he cannot separate his life in vows from his priesthood.

“As a missionary in PNG it was my ministry that determined my life and it was there that I experienced the changes,” he said.

“I became part of a community called by God in baptism, empowered by the Spirit in confirmation and nourished by the Eucharist to carry out Christ’s mission.”

Fr Ennio said that as a pastor he was guided by the principles of subsidiarity and solidarity.

“The vows took second place: chastity was demanded by my priesthood as well, while obedience and poverty were seen in the light of my ministry, both as pioneer missionary and as a member of the Melanesian Institute (in PNG),” he said.

After the Mass, there was a meal and a cake to celebrate the jubilees.

PHOTOS

TOP RIGHT: Fr Thuy Xuan Pham, Fr Wim Valckx, Fr Larry Nemer, Fr Stephan Gerdes and Fr Asaeli Rass during the jubilee celebrations at Marsfield. 

BOTTOM LEFT: Fr Ennio Mantovani celebrated his 70th jubilee with a special Mass at the Janssen Centre in Boronia, Victoria.