Golden Jubilee

+ Cardinal George Pell, Archbishop of Sydney
7 Feb 2009

We are gathered today to celebrate the Golden Jubilee of St. Bernadette's Church, Carlton; to thank God for the many blessings the worshipping community has received here over these fifty years and, equally importantly, to ask God's continued blessings on this parish for today and many tomorrows.

As I learnt (and you all know) the parish itself is a bit older than your Church, being founded in July 1957 by Cardinal Gilroy, whose family lived here after moving from Broadway.

The small three square kilometres parish area was cut out off the Hurstville and Kogarah parishes, after the first Mass in this area had been celebrated in 1952 in the School of the Arts.

It is always very moving to see the pride of those families or their descendants who were deeply involved in the construction of a parish Church, and from the Golden Jubilee booklet I see this is true also here.  Parishioners are proud to have contributed to the building and nearly as proud to have contributed to the special collections, fetes, house parties or through participation in the weekly "Housie" to pay for it.  We should acknowledge here the special help received from the Enmore parish from their weekly Thursday night "Housie".

Every parish has characteristics proper to it, although we find much that is common across most Australian parishes.  A visitor to planet earth would find it difficult to discover quickly whether they had landed in Sydney or Melbourne.  But local differences are real and important.

St. Bernadette's parish has always been a strong centre of Marian devotion, which is a tribute to the leadership of the parish priests.  1958 marked the centenary of the Lourdes apparitions and to remember this apparition and maintain the link with it, the name of Bernadette was given to the parish.

The parish is also unusual because you have known only two priests in 50 years.  The founding father was Father John Bird, born in Drummoyne in 1913 and ordained in 1941.  Famous for his German Shepherd dog, he retired in 1981.  Before his appointment as parish priest in July 1957, he had worked in the Archdiocesan offices, holding a bewildering range of roles, by contemporary standards. He was in charge of migration, adult education, the social science movement and Catholic school committees.  For five years he spoke regularly at the Catholic Evidence Guild in the Domain.

In October 1982 he was replaced by your much loved Father Brendan Shiel, who was born in Kilkelly, County Mayo and arrived in Australia, after some health problems, without a visa in 1952.  He was allowed to stay and his presence and work have brought many blessings. He is now the oldest parish priest on fulltime duty in the Archdiocese.  His presence reminds us all of the great debt we owe to the Catholic Church in Ireland, who were the main group in planting the faith here.

St. Bernadette's has also produced many important people: five priests, including Cardinal Gilroy; Brother Kelvin Canavan, the Sydney Director of Catholic Schools; Michael Whiteley, Director of Caritas for 18 years; and Josie Tesoriero private secretary to three Archbishops of Sydney.

The parish has been blessed with active lay faithful in abundance. Has a strong St. Vincent de Paul group, and while it has no Catholic school the people of the parish are energetic in support of other Catholic schools.

You have many reasons to thank God for what you have achieved and I am delighted to join my prayers to yours in asking for his continued blessings as you move into the future.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.