A broad-based group of religious and lay people has joined forces to form ‘Partners in Mission’, aimed at working together to support mission in both prayerful and practical ways.

A working party of interested partners met recently at the Divine Word Missionaries offices in Sydney, to formulate a mission statement for the group and plan a way forward.

Actions speak louder than words in most of Papua New Guinea Culture. It is customary that when a person does something good, words do not express fully the appreciation. One has to reciprocate with actions.

A common practice is the idea of saying thank you with action, rather than words. The Catholic Archdiocese of Mt Hagen recently organised a special pilgrimage to say thank you for 80 years of the Gospel in the Highlands.

Walking with people on the margins is a central focus of the Divine Word Missionaries, and two young SVD students, from Argentina and Mexico, are spending two years of their formation in Australia to do just that, as part of the Overseas Training Program (OTP).

Arturo Manuel Barrios from Argentina and Simon Dominguez Prospero from Mexico, have arrived in the AUS Province to immerse themselves in pastoral life here, and both say their experiences so far have helped them to become better missionaries.

Fr Stephen Pilly SVD and Fr Joseph Vu SVD have both emphasised ‘family’ as they take up their new appointments at the multiculturally vibrant St Mark’s Parish, Inala, in Brisbane.

Fr Stephen has been appointed as Parish Priest of St Mark’s, while Fr Joseph has been named Assistant Priest of St Mark’s and Chaplain to the Vietnamese community in the Archdiocese of Brisbane.

The Holy Spirit Missionary Sisters in Australia and Fiji are celebrating the 125th jubilee of their congregation, which was founded in Holland by St Arnold Janssen, the founder of the Society of the Divine Word, and established in Australia at the end of World War II.

In preparation for the Jubilee, which will be formally celebrated with a Mass at the Holy Spirit Chapel in Carseldine, Brisbane on December 7, the Sisters have arranged a workshop with Sr Mary John Kudiyiruppil SSpS, from India, to reflect on the congregation’s call to Mission, both in the past and now.

Fr Asaeli Raass SVD has returned to the Northern Territory to take up a new ministry as Head of Catholic Mission and Faith Formation in the schools of the Darwin Diocese – a challenging role, but one he says he is excited about.

Fr Raass is no stranger to the Territory, having worked in Central Australia from 2003 to 2008 amongst 17 Aboriginal Catholic communities, as a chaplain to the Eastern and Central Arrernte people.

At their recent Executive Committee meeting, members of the Conference of Leaders of Religious Institutes in NSW [CLRI(NSW)] expressed dismay at the policies of both major parties that have condemned asylum seekers, attempting to reach Australia by boat, to 
indefinite detention at Manus Island and Nauru. 

President of CLRI(NSW) Sr Laureen Dixon rsc said: “Many of our members have lived and worked in detention centres in Papua New Guinea and other places and know that the health, safety and welfare of asylum seekers are at grave risk in all offshore detention centres. The recent tragedy at the Manus Island detention centre in which one man died and many more suffered serious injuries has borne out that knowledge”.

As a young person making her mark in the corporate world, working in Mission had never entered Lana Turvey’s mind – that is, until Providence led her to a job at Catholic Mission, which she says allows her to employ her corporate skills not to acquire personal wealth, but in the service of the wider world.

“Over time, I’d worked out that I wanted to do something that made use of my commercial skills but actually engaged me in the bigger world,” she says.

The people of Central western Queensland are doing it tough as drought continues to threaten their livelihoods and well-being, but Fr Ronaldo Rodriguez SVD, says he has been heartened by the generosity of people across the Diocese of Rockhampton and beyond to offer a helping hand to his suffering parishioners.

Fr Ronaldo has pastoral care for the Catholic communities of Blackall and Tambo Parish, which fall under the Western Deanery.

Chaplaincy to migrant groups is a particular focus of the Divine Word Missionaries AUS Province, and for the Slovak community in Sydney, that commitment has resulted in a warm and loving pastoral relationship over many years.

SVD AUS Provincial, Fr Henry Adler has been the spiritual leader of the Slovak community of Sts Cyril and Methodius in Lidcombe for two years, but the relationship between the Slovaks in Australia and the Divine Word Missionaries can be traced back to the 1970s, with the appointment of Fr Jan Krasnansky SVD to work with the growing numbers of Slovak immigrants in Sydney.