Sunday 7 April 2019

Sr Colleen Livermore, a Sister of Mercy together with Sister Carmel Boyle, a Presentation Sister were entrusted with the pastoral care of the communities of Blackwater, Duaringa, Dingo and the Bluff (the Parish of Blackwater/ Duaringa) over 12 years ago by my predecessor, Bishop Brian Heenan.  Last night, I joined the Catholic Community who gather on a Saturday evening at Mary Immaculate Church, Blackwater and celebrated Sister Colleen’s fifty years of professed religious life. Sr Colleen has spent a quarter of her religious life in Blackwater and with Sister Carmel, they have loved and nurtured the faith of many people of the towns and properties within the parish and beyond.

This year, four of our religious Sisters of Mercy celebrate significant anniversaries: Sister Denise Hinton – 50 years, Sr Amabile Speranza – 60 years and Sr Anne Marie Kinane – 70 years.

Congratulations Sisters on your marvellous commitment and love and being Mercy to the people of our Diocese and beyond.

As well, Sister Anne Baxter smsm, who serves our community at Monto, is celebrating 50 years of religious profession.  Congratulations to you sister from all within our diocese.

After the mass, it was good to join the community for the shared meal and reconnecting with the many people of the community. During the mass, Paias and Apolonia, regulars at Blackwater joyfully presented their young son Wojem for Baptism.

The past month has been very full of happenings across the Diocese. In these past five years, I am still coming to grips with the vastness of the Diocese and its complexities. My diary normally tracks most of my movements and each month, these are put into the Bishop’s diary at the top of this newsletter.

Over the month, as Bishop, weekends are spent with a parish community and most recently these have been the communities of North Mackay, Cathedral Parish, Peak Downs Cluster of Parishes and Blackwater. This past week has included the blessings of a Memorial garden at St Peter’s, Allenstown to remember two wonderful teachers, Mrs Mary Jones and Mrs Cathy Williams. Then, at St Joseph’s Wandal was the blessing of classrooms followed by the new Kindergarten at St Anthony’s, Rockonia and the new Library at The Cathedral College.

This month too our priests gathered under the leadership of Fr Paul Chandler, O Carm, the Spiritual Director of Holy Spirit Seminary as we prepared to celebrate the Easter Triduum. The Mass of the Blessing of the Holy Oils where all of our priests and religious and people from around the Diocese gather at the Cathedral and renew our commitment to the mission of Christ and receive the Holy Oils fittingly completed the week together.

The Diocesan Assembly of last weekend brought our Diocese together after the past two years of meeting with you in the various regions. I am deeply grateful for all who have contributed to the discussion and for the discernment over these past few years of how best to plan for the future in our Diocese. I look forward to the formation of the Regional Pastoral Councils and to a new Diocesan Pastoral Council.

During the month, I joined with the Queensland Bishops in Brisbane and the Bishops of Oceania for a planning meeting for a 2022 gathering. In setting up the diary each year, the following meetings are included: twice a year with the Queensland Bishops, twice a year with the Australia Bishops and every four years a gathering with the Bishops of Oceania (Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, New Zealand and most of the Pacific from Tahiti to Guam and Australia) and then with the Bishop of Rome every seven years. On the local level, I meet with our priests four times a year for two-three days each gathering, every Parish once a year for pastoral visitation, confirmations and special events. As Bishop, I meet at least month with the Directors of Catholic Education, Centacare and Financial Services and more regularly with those who are in the Pastoral Ministries: Regional Tribunal, pastoral projects, safeguarding and professional services, chancellery, St Vincent de Paul, youth ministry, prison ministry and pastoral ministries such as Stella Maris (Apostleship of the Sea). The diary also includes the Councils (Education, Centacare Finance) and when time permits committees including Diocesan Development Fund, Building & Property, Ecumenical & Interfaith Committee, Social Justice Committee. Just last week, I began to look at the Calendar for 2020!

Last week, we received the message from our Vietnamese Community about the death of their young man, David Pham. My prayers reach out to our Vietnamese Community and to David’s Mum and Dad. David completed Year 12 in 2017 at Emmaus College and during the Awards night, he received an award and was in the Confirmation class at St Mary’s a few years back. Please join with me and extend your prayers and support over this grieving community.