Synodality is ultimately about mission says internationally renowned theologian Fr Stephen Bevans SVD , who was in Australia recently to attend a major mission conference and deliver a presentation to the SVD community.

Fr Stephen, who is the Louis J. Luzbetak SVD Professor of Mission and Culture, Emeritus at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, was one of five Divine Word Missionaries attending the 15^th Assembly of the International Association for Mission Studies at Morling College in Sydney this month, exploring the theme: ‘Powers, Inequalities, and Vulnerabilities: Mission in a Wounded World’.

The Catholic Church in Australia is about to celebrate Vocations Awareness Week from August 7–14. It’s a time to stop and listen in awe to the way God has worked in people’s lives and called them to walk different paths in service to God and others.

In the AUS Province we are blessed to once again have a ‘full house’ at our formation house, Dorish Maru College in Box Hill, Melbourne. The pandemic-related international border closures meant that for the past two years, the young men who had been due to start their theological studies here could not gain entry to Australia. It is a delight to now be welcoming them into our Provincial community.

The seminarians in the Divine Word Missionaries’ Australia Province have been hitting the road recently to spend time getting to know some of the youth in SVD parishes in Queensland and sharing their vocation stories with them.

The road-trip from Melbourne’s Dorish Maru College to the parishes of St Maximilian Kolbe in Marsden and St Mark’s, Inala, is part of the mission outreach of SVD Youth, which was established in the Province earlier this year.

SVD student, Shehan Fernando, says his pastoral experience in Central Australia has been a great learning experience in his training for life as a missionary, as he encounters Christ in the people and the land.

Shehan, who is Sri Lankan, and has been undertaking studies and formation at Melbourne’s Dorish Maru College, arrived in Santa Teresa in March, and will be based there until September when he moves on to Alice Springs.

More than 20 years ago, the SVD established its presence in Thailand by creating the Mother of Perpetual Help Centre to assist people with HIV-AIDS. Today, the Centre is still providing its much-needed care, along with a range of outreach services to help poor families and school students, while also educating the local community about HIV spread and prevention.

On top of that, SVD confreres are serving the poor and marginalised in rural parish ministry, supporting Vietnamese migrants in Bangkok in a series of ministries described by the Provincial, Fr Asaeli Rass SVD, on a recent visitation as “truly missionary and truly inspiring”.

For SVD student Antonius Kristanto ‘Krisna’ Papalesa, from Indonesia, the daily activities of life in Dorish Maru College, Melbourne, are immersing him in the local culture and preparing him for a life of mission.

Krisna was born in 1995 and spent most of his life in Jakarta with his parents, three brothers and four sisters.

As my 20^th anniversary to priesthood is approaching this year, I am tempted to look back and see for myself what I have achieved, or not achieved, and what are my hopes and dreams for my future, writes Fr John Quang SVD.

During those 20 years, I have been through a number of ministries: parish, formation, social communications, with migrant workers, provincial counsellor. Through my various ministries, I’ve found that I spend lot of time worrying about formulating vision/mission statements. These are important as far as they help us to have a purpose and show us how to gear ourselves towards that achievement. They are a means, not an end in themselves. No one dies for a statement. But people are willing to live and die for their conviction.

The Divine Word Missionaries have accepted an invitation from Darwin Bishop Charles Gauci to take up the pastoral care of the people of the Tiwi Islands and Daly River.

The SVDS are already active in Darwin Diocese, having been present in Central Australia for the last 20 years, in Alice Springs, Santa Teresa, and in the Aboriginal Catholic Chaplaincy.

Fr Hung Nguyen SVD has returned to the Australia Province where he undertook the Overseas Training Program some years ago, to complete English language studies before beginning his pastoral ministry.

Fr Hung’s arrival in Australia for his first missionary assignment since taking his final vows and being ordained a priest in Vietnam, was delayed by two years, thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic travel restrictions.

Born in East Timor and raised in Kupang, Indonesia, Agustinus ‘Gusty’ Siga Buu Araujo has arrived at Dorish Maru College in Melbourne to complete his Theological studies and formation as a Divine Word Missionary.

Gusty’s father is from Indonesia and his mother is from East Timor. When he was three years old, in 1999, the family moved from Dili to Kupang, where he grew up.