Hail glorious St Patrick!

The newly-restored statue of St Patrick has taken its former place of prominence at the top of the facade of Holy Name of Mary church, Hunters Hill, NSW.

Web visitors may recall the beginnings of the statue's removal and refurbishment in December.

Below, left: Reinstallng the statue. Right: December flashback - St Peter greeting St Patrick during his descent.

Superior-General to visit Australia

Plans have been announced for the visit of Fr John Hannan SM to Australia from Mar 17 to Apr 22

Fr John will be available for personal sessions with members of the Australian province of Marist Fathers working in four states. He will begin his visitation with the province's northernmost community of Gladstone, Qld, and will attend three regional meetings during his visit..

ACU's Professor Rosaleen Smyth presents former BP-er, Saw Dingo, with his ACU student card.

BP-ers doing well in ACU program...

Australian Catholic University's Professor Duncan McLaren reports good progress on the part of graduates from the 'Bridge Program', conducted in 2012 by the Sydney-based Marist Training Resources to assist Burmese refugee youth in tertiary online preparation.

Six 'BP-ers' were accepted into ACU's Diploma in Liberal Arts online program for 2012-13 and were presented with ACU student cards in a recent ceremony at Maesot, Thailand. The Bridge Program for 2013 has commenced with 22 applicants currently engaged in preliminary selection processes.

In addition to the Mae Pa centre, ACU conducts online studies for the Marist Mission at Ranong, southern Thailand, and a new pilot program in Bangkok.

Below: BP-ers are amongst the students at ACU's study centre at Mae Pa, Thailand / BP-ers in their special shirts in 2012.

Fr Michael Mullins SM
/  Dr John Honner

Australian facilitators for CS 2013

After consulting his council and international major superiors, the Superior General of the Marist Fathers, Fr John Hannan SM, has engaged two Australians, Fr Michael Mullins SM and Dr.John Honner, as facilitators for the 4-yearly 'Council of the Society' (CS2013) to be held in October in Dublin.

Both are well known to many Marists. Fr Michael is co-founder and co-director of the Sydney-based Refounding and Pastoral Development unit. He is a registered clinical psychologist and has worked with a number of provinces over many years as well as facilitating meetings of the Marist Annual Review Consultation since its inception in 2010. John Honner is well known to Society of Mary through his work on the review of Marist government, with expertise in community services and organizational management.

Fr Arnold Garferio SM (centre) with concelebrants

Significant steps for young Marists

In five separate centres in the Philippines, New Zealand and Fiji, twenty-three young men took significant steps in recent days to follow their Marist vocation.

Filipino, Fr Arnold Garferio SM, was ordained priest on Feb 02 in North Cotabato. On the same day novices Adrian O'Flynn SM and Brendan Jenke SM (NZ province) and Tom Kouijzer SM (European province) took their first vows at the International Novitiate, Hawkes Bay, NZ.

Beginning their novitiate at this year's International Novitiate, Dumalag, Mindanao, are Patrick Tukidia, Iosefo Vili and Marselino Kolio (Oceania Province) and Kenneth Akwa, Narcisse Mbena, and Christopher Akongnwi (Africa Misison District).

On Jan 26, four novices were professed at the Marist novitatie, Tutu, Fiji: Ephrem Anifaegia SM (Solomon Is), Julian Tenevi SM, Daniel Parmbaru SM and Julius Nalei SM, all from (Bougainville).

On Feb 11 nine first-year entrants begin their studies at Marist College, Suva: Brad Chadwick [Samao], Louis Voreqe [Fiji] Martin Oleofa, [Solomon Is], Tyson Haroman [Bougainville], Mika Rusa [Fiji], Joseph Tora [Fiji] Dick Tawake [Fiji] Justin Paulo [Samoa], and Salafai Malaki [Samoa].

Concelebrants at the Requiem Mass of Fr Patrick McCabe  /  Vicar-provincial, Fr Peter McMurrich, and the final commendation.

Two Marist funerals

In Requiem Masses at Holy Name of Mary church, Hunters Hill, NSW, two Australian Marists were farewelled by family, friends and confreres within three days.

The funerals of Frs John Burns SM and Patrick McCabe SM were held on Feb 04 and 06 respectively with large numbers of family, friends, confreres and concelebrating priests in attendance.

Both were laid to rest at Macquarie Park lawn cemetery, North Ryde. May they rest in peace.

Below, right: Archive photo of Fr John Burns (centre, at back) with members of the Marist mission team at Lahore in the 1980s.

His Eminence, Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, Archbishop of the archdiocese of Lyons, France. Jean-Claude Colin died in the diocese in 1875.

Meeting in Lyons assists Founder's Cause

A recent meeting in Lyons, France, will assist the Beatification Cause of Marist Founder, Jean-Claude Colin. The Australian Province of Marist Fathers resources the Cause by providing a webmaster for the official Colin website which carries this report:

From Rome the General Administration of the Society of Mary advises:

'On Jan 23 a meeting took place in Lyons between the archbishop of Lyons, Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, and some of his staff members and a delegation of the Society of Mary: Fr Larry Duffy, Fr Hubert Bonnet-Eymard, provincial of Europe, and Fr Bernard Thomasset, vice postulator for the cause of Jean-Claude Colin.

The meeting took place in a friendly atmosphere of mutual respect. The diocese of Lyons is happy to collaborate with the Society for the request to the Vatican for the reopening of the cause of Beatification of Fr Colin.'

The Vatican requires that causes for beatification for 'servants of God' be introduced from the diocese where that person died. Fr Colin's cause was first introduced in 1893 but followed a 'chequered path' described in 'About the cause'.

Polish - language of the month

The 'Colin Corner' at St Patrick's, Church Hill, Sydney, will feature Polish as 'language of the month' throughout February.

The 'Fr Coliin leaflet' will be available in both English and Polish, in regular and large print formats, along with the popular Novena leaflet (English only) and a pictorial 'Life of Fr Colin for children'.

January web statistics

An average of 324 visits daily from 86 countries were made to this website during January.

Monthly totals included 10,000 visits and 269,000 hits. 40% of visits were from commercial networks, search engines, etc. 'Real' visits came predominantly from countries where Marist communities exist.