A program to provide formation for indigenous catechists from the Arrernte and Walpiri people of Central Australia to hand on the faith in their culture is under way in Alice Springs, with the local parish embracing the opportunity.
Speaking at the Mission: One heart, many voices (MOHMV) conference in Sydney this month, Parish Priest of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart parish in Alice Springs, Fr Prakash Menezes SVD and two parishioners, Dolores Furber and Paula Turner explained through words and art, how the program is unfolding.
Fr Prakash said the idea for the catechist program was first raised at the MOHVM conference in 2016 and the Divine Word Missionaries were asked to take part.
“Jenny Collins-White from Catholic Mission had done research about catechists around the world and written her thesis on this, and she approached us and asked if we were interested in taking part in a pilot program,” said Fr Prakash.
“Later, around 2019 when Fr Asaeli Rass SVD, who had been parish priest in Alice Springs, was elected Provincial of the SVD AUS Province, heard of a catechist formation program being proposed by the Diocese of Darwin, Catholic Mission and NATSICC, he said, ‘This is great, can we run it here (in Alice Springs)?’.
“From there, Fr Ollie Noclam SVD (who was then Arrernte Catholic chaplain) and the elders and everybody got on board and the formation began.”
Fr Prakash said the idea of the catechist formation program is two-fold, with the program being very strongly faith-based, but carried out in a way that allows for culture to thrive.
“We jumped at the idea of being part of it, and then we talked to the elders and the elders said, ‘Wow, fantastic, we need this’, because Central Australia is a vast area,” he said.
“Our parish covers about 600km of area from north to south and from east to west, we cover from the Queensland border to Western Australia. We have got about 16 Aboriginal communities spread across this area. Out of that, eight of them are around Alice Springs and the others are spread across more isolated communities.
“The elders said, ‘This is good, we need people in the community to pass on faith and culture to our young ones and we need some formation’.”
Fr Prakash said the parish began to lay out a plan of what could be done. The considerations in making that plan included asking: Who are the people who would be the catechists?
“First of all, they need to be someone committed, who knows what the Catholic faith is, somebody who is baptised and regularly attends Mass, because unless and until they know their own faith, how can they pass it on?” he said.
Secondly, they had to be someone already serving the community and working with the priests in preparing for Masses, baptisms or funerals.
Nominees should also be from different camps and outstation communities also from different families and skin groups and have completed some studies at Darwin’s Nungalinya Theological College, an ecumenical college in Darwin which trains people for ministry.
“We send people there to do some ministry training in Bible and some of them in music and several other studies. We do have some community members who have done those studies already,” said Fr Prakash.
Once the nominations were put forward, the names were presented to the elders, and discussed the candidates over a period time before making the list final.
When the list was approved, Darwin Bishop Charles Gauci wrote a letter of formal invitation to the proposed candidates, explaining the process and the expectations of their participation in the program.
“At the end of the day everyone was able to decide if they wanted to be a part of it and thank God, everyone said yes,” Fr Prakash said.
During a liturgical celebration in 2021 the nominees were commissioned for the catechist formation.
“Then we also started asking does the word catechist make sense? Does it mean anything to the people? What does it mean? Because it is a foreign word to them, it is not a word the Arrernte people use and English is a second or third or fourth language for most Arrernte people,” Fr Prakash said.
“So, we started using the term ‘Faith Leaders’ and also encouraged the elders to come up with a word in their own language.”
After much discussion among the elders, the Arrernte term TYERRTYE AKNGERREPARTE - an elder, a leader – was chosen to describe the catechist or faith leader.
Fr Prakash said the central aim of the program is to empower the next generation so that they can have a proper role in the Catholic Church and grow strong in both knowing and explaining their faith to others.
It will also enable them to lead prayer services in their communities.
“At the moment there is a very strong dependence on religious and priests, so the aim is the catechists or faith leaders will be able to take up the responsibility of leading these prayers and sacramental preparations and hopefully take up some of the ministries currently being carried out by priests and religious such as ministry to schools,” said Fr Prakash.
The formation content will include Bible, liturgy, Church history, sacraments, other courses set by the Diocese and also Nungalinya College, as well as using resources from Catholic Mission and NATSICC.
“Once the formation is finished there will be a celebration and the faith leaders will be acknowledged and presented to the community,” Fr Prakash said. “Bishop Charles will be invited to come and commission them to go forward with this ministry.”
Last year, the Alice Springs parish community was asked to give a presentation about the catechist formation program at the NATSICC conference in Townsville, showcasing it through a painting, specially created for the occasion.
Explaining the meaning of the painting at the MOHVM conference, Paula said it shows God (God Father, God Son, God Spirit) is the heart of the leadership.
“God is the Great leader, and this great leader is presented by the Tyerrtye Akngerreparte (Church Leader)- Catechists, who speak to other people about God’s way,” she said.
“We are the Church represented under the cross by Mary, John, and other women.”
Dolores said the painting depicts in traditional ways, God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, and the faith leaders sitting in circles with others, explaining the faith.
“In the painting, the story about our faith is in the tracks and the circles, representing our country and the country that our ancestors had travelled, just like Jesus had travelled with his followers, preaching the Word of the Gospel,” she said.
“We also have our elders and young ones all painted up – we have all the women with their dancing sticks and coolamons with ochre paints in them, and there are young ones sitting around and the elders are teaching the young ones how to dance and to do body paint.
“The painting shows the elders preparing the young people for the sacraments, with the Missionaries of Charity.
“The dots represent all nations coming together in our parish. Together we come as church and learn about faith and culture from each other. We have our multicultural Mass which is not only us Arrernte people, but all nations, we celebrate Mass together.”
Fr Prakash said when he saw the painting, he was struck by the visual representation of the synodal reality of the Church as depicted by Dolores and Paula.
“The circles, representing the people of God and the passing on of the faith, and journeying together fit exactly with Pope Francis’ notion of synodality and for that to come out so strongly in this traditional Arrernte artwork is, I think, quite beautiful.”
PHOTOS
TOP RIGHT: Fr Prakash Menezes SVD and Luke Tobin from Catholic Mission hold the painting while Alice Springs parishioners Paula Turner and Dolores Furber explain its meaning.
MIDDLE LEFT: The painting expresses in traditional art the reality of the Catechist Program in forming leaders from the community to pass on the Catholic faith within the context of local Aboriginal culture.
BOTTOM RIGHT: The Catechist Program will help train faith leaders in some of the more remote communities in Central Australia to work with the priests in supporting the faith life of their communities.