District Newsletter – December 2007

My Dear Brethren,

Very soon you will have the pleasure of a visit from our Superior-General, Bishop Fellay.  He will celebrate Mass at most of our principal churches as well as confer ordination to the priesthood and the diaconate at the Seminary at Goulburn on Thursday 27th December.  His programme has been arranged as follows:

Tues 11th – Fri 14th December  Priests’ meeting in Sydney

Sun 16th     Mass at Oxley (Brisbane) 9.30am

Mon 17th – Fri 21st     Visit to Seminary

Sun 23rd     Mass at Tynong at 10.00am

Mon 24th     Ordinations to Minor Orders at 9.30am

Thurs 27th     Ordinations to Priesthood/Diaconate at 9.00am

Sat 29th      Mass at Perth at 8.00am

I hope that he may give a conference at some places but it is not scheduled that he will administer confirmation as this will be done by Bishop Tissier de Mallerais who will come to Australia during the course of next year.  As well as these visits from our bishops, I expect one from the Second Assistant of the Society, Father Alain Nely, in March and the First Assistant, Father Nicklaus Pfluger in May.  Father John Fullerton, the Superior of the Society in the United States of America, will arrive in January to preach a retreat to our priests at the Seminary in Goulburn.

A General Meeting of all of the priests of the District of Australia will take place in Sydney from Monday 10th until Friday 14th December.  This will be an occasion for us to review and discuss various aspects of our apostolate and to get to know each other better.  As this country is so vast and the priests’ appointments change so frequently, we only rarely have occasion to meet each other with the exception of myself who am constantly travelling around as part of my duties as Superior.  This meeting is especially important to us as we will have the presence of Bishop Fellay.  I regret, however, that this event does mean that there will not be any Masses in our various churches during this time due to the absence of the priests in Sydney.  Nevertheless, I am sure that you will understand the necessity of this in view of the unique nature of the occasion.

I am very sorry indeed to announce that Father Fabrice Loschi will soon be leaving us.  After many fruitful years as Prior of Tynong and Principal of St. Thomas Aquinas College he will be returning to France.  When Father arrived at Tynong nearly seven years ago the College was quite small and in dire financial straits.  Now it is a large and prospering institution, very firmly established and going from strength to strength as each new school year sees a considerable increase in the number of pupils being admitted.  It is foreseen that this will be the case for many years to come as the Tynong community continues to be prolific in offspring!  So much so, that we can now seriously pursue a means to abandon co-education in the secondary school.  Until the present this has not been feasible for various practical, but mainly financial, reasons.

Accordingly, we have very much to be grateful for, thanks to Father Loschi, and we offer him the assurance of our abiding affection and esteem.  Thus we pray and are confident that his apostolate will continue to bear abundant fruit in another part of the Lord’s vineyard.

The success story of Tynong has likewise its positive effects elsewhere.  I know full well that until now – without in any way wishing to deny Tynong its blessings – certain of our Faithful in other places have regretted the loss of so many young families from their congregations in the “exodus” to St. Thomas Aquinas College which has taken place over the last few years.  However, I am pleased to say that the time has come when it is possible tentatively to consider the establishment of another secondary school elsewhere.

The obvious place for such a project to begin is Brisbane.  St. Philomena’s at Parkridge is the second in numerical importance amongst our schools.  Furthermore, it occupies a large piece of land so that the purchase of a new property is not required.  Father Benoit Walliez has a conceived plan to build up a secondary school gradually, year by year, as each class completes its primary education.  The final result will take several years to achieve but “mighty oaks from small acorns grow” and we congratulate him on his initiative in this regard at the end of his first year as Principal of the school.

So, once again, we all find ourselves at the close of yet another year of grace.  Or rather, each moment of time already has the imprint of eternity.  This is charmingly expressed in a little rhyme I read recently :

Time is too slow for those who wait,
Too swift for those who fear;
Too long for those who grieve,
Too short for those who rejoice;
But for those who love, Time is eternity.

May God grant you all an abundance of His graces and blessings this Christmastide.

Yours most sincerely in Christ,

Father Edward Black – Superior.