With the help of generous donors and partners in mission, the Divine Word Missionaries have finally taken delivery of a small campervan which will allow the missionaries in Central Australia to stay with outlying Aboriginal communities for longer periods.
Previously, the missionaries have driven hundreds of kilometres to be with the people in those communities, but often, after celebrating Mass or other sacraments, they have to turn around and make the long drive back to Alice Springs again.
“We have about 12 Aboriginal communities outside of Alice Springs and they don’t have a place for us to stay, so having the campervan means we could go and really spend time with the people, instead of just coming and going,” says Fr Olivier Noclam SVD, Parish Priest at Santa Teresa.
“For us, it is really important to be with the people and spend time with them, getting to know them and their culture and their way of life.
“Even for things like the sacramental program, we need to spend time and prepare them for the sacraments.
“We also find that the main time the people pray together in the community is when the priest is there and so we want to provide those opportunities for them to come together and pray.”
The campervan will also assist a new initiative for Central Australia which is a collaboration with Catholic Mission, the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Catholic Council (NATSICC), the SVD and the Diocese of Darwin, to have a lay prayer leader or catechist in these outlying communities, as authorised recently by Pope Francis.
“The priest will have to stay in the community and provide formation and support for this person, so we will need to have somewhere to stay,” Fr Ollie says.
Parish Priest of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Alice Springs, Fr Prakash Menezes SVD says the campervan would provide a new way of being with the people in the far reaches of the vast parish.
“Our parish covers about 600km in diameter,” he says.
“In the north, we are almost bordering with Tennant Creek; to the south we go to Uluru; almost to the Queensland border in the east, and the WA border in the west.
“The community of Yuendumu is about 300km away and Harts Range is 250km away in the other direction.
The SVD has also recently taken up the pastoral care of the Daly River community.
A special appeal for the campervan raised about $31,000, which went towards the purchase of a utility vehicle-campervan.
This month, Fr Prakash and Fr Ollie drove the utility vehicle to Coffs Harbour where it was fitted with the campervan and then drove all the way back to Alice Springs in it, where it is now ready for use in ministry.
They say the campervan will make a difference not only to the missionaries but to the people they serve.
“It means we can really stay with the people for longer and be with them and minister to them,” he says.
“And it will really help us to support faith and leadership among the community members themselves because they are the ones who are there caring and sharing their faith with others every day.”
Fr Prakash says they are hoping the campervan will allow them to extend their remote outreach even further.
“There are a lot of even smaller communities out there, as well as cattle stations and we hope this will help us to establish a relationship with the people,” he says.
“Most importantly, this initiative is coming from the communities themselves. They want us to go there. This is an invitation from the people and we are eager to respond.”
PHOTOS: Fr Prakash Menezes SVD and Fr Ollie Noclam SVD drove the newly fitted campervan back from Sydney to Alice Springs, where it will assist the Central Australian missionaries in their ministry to outlying Aboriginal communities.