My thanks to His Grace the Archbishop of Honiara, Most Rev. Chris Cardone OP, for the honour of preaching at this Mass of Thanksgiving. I have known Archbishop Chris since the 1980s when I was a student in the Dominican Order and he was a newly-minted priest.
Mother Teresa visited Australia repeatedly and left her in footprint on this land through the 14 Mission Houses of her sisters here, including their Pacific mother-house in Surry Hills.
Welcome to All Saints Church for the Funeral Mass for Fr Frank Furfaro. I acknowledge the presence today of Fr Frank's two sisters, Josie and Tina, their husbands and his extended family, to whom in particular I extend my sympathies and those of the Archdiocese of Sydney.
He was destined to be a brilliant chemist and in 2006 to discover the elusive process for clean coal technology: electricity with no carbon emissions into the atmosphere.
In the Middle Ages one of most popular devotional items, found in the best Christian homes, was a carved head of St John the Baptist on a plate!
It is the most confronting image amongst the enormous cast of characters in the Sistine Chapel.
We live in the age of “I” and “my”. Devices are called ‘iPhone’, ‘iPod’ and ‘iPad’. ‘MyTrains’ or ‘MyBuses’ take us to ‘MyZones’ or the web takes us to ‘MySchool’ and ‘My eBay’. Ever since ‘the Me generation’ we’ve been bombarded by such self-centred language.
In the fourth instalment in the Die Hard series, released in 2007, John McClane, the old detective played by Bruce Willis, asks the following question: “You know what you get for being a hero? Nothin’. You get shot at.
In the early hours of yesterday morning-last night for us-85-year-old priest, Fr Jacques Hamel prepared to say Mass. What he didn’t know was that this would be the last Mass he would ever say: just as he was finishing Mass, two terrorists claiming allegiance to Daesh or ISIS stormed the church, taking Fr Hamel and four others hostage.
The allegations against Cardinal George Pell aired on the ABC's 7:30 Report were extremely distressing for all parties, are as yet untested, and have been emphatically denied.
Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney
