The Albert Park/Pennington Parish celebrated their Feast Day on Sunday 26 October.

Mass was celebrated at 10am in Our Lady Queen of Peace Church, Albert Park with the theme: “Honoring Mary, the Mother of Jesus”

A Multicultural lunch followed along with entertainment games and activities for the children and the whole family.

Cristina Descalzi
Coordinator
Multicultural Pastoral Services

On Sunday 19 October the Institute of the Canossian Daughters of Charity celebrated 200 years. This coincided with the celebration of Mission Sunday and gave the opportunity to share something of the missionary spirit of the Foundress of the Canossian Sisters, St Magdalen of Canossa (1774 – 1835).

The missionary dimension, which is proper to every authentic Christian vocation, was very evident in Magdalen of Canossa.
Though she never went to the missions, there is no doubt that the call she received from the Lord to found an apostolic Institute had a universal dimension, open to the whole world.

Magdalene’s dream became a reality 25 years after her death when in 1860 the first group of Canossian Sisters left Italy to bring the Good News of Jesus and the work of his mercy to the mission of Hong Kong and from there, before the end of that century; they spread to China, East Timor, India and Singapore. Today more than three thousand Canossian Sisters are present in the five continents in 33 countries. In Adelaide we have 3 Canossian Sisters.

There was a Multicultural Mass celebrated by Archbishop Philip Wilson at St Augustine’s Church, Salisbury followed by a presentation in Siena Hall.

Cristina Descalzi
Coordinator
Multicultural Pastoral Services

On Sunday 12 October, Croydon Park Parish had many reasons to celebrate and so they did!

The 10:30am Mass was celebrated by Fr Maurice Shinnick to commemorate the Feast of St Margaret Mary while on the same day in Rome, Pope Benedict declared Blessed Alphonsa Muttathupadathu of Kerala State, India, a new Saint of the Church.

Croydon Park is a very Multicultural Parish and members from various CALD groups took part in the celebration.

The Hymns were sung in Filipino, Burundi, Vietnamese and English.
The Adelaide Tongan Catholic Community led the Gospel Procession and children from the Indian Community took part in a traditional veneration after the memorial acclamation.

The Sacrament of Confirmation was also celebrated during this Mass by two members of the Burundian Community.

Following Mass there was a shared multicultural lunch and cultural event with a traditional costume parade and children activities.

It was a wonderful day shared by all.

Cristina Descalzi
Coordinator
Multicultural Pastoral Services

From the 27 to 30 October I participated in an inter-cultural program designed for overseas priests coming to work in Australia’s various dioceses.

The program called: ‘Journeying Together: A Programme for Welcoming, Enabling & Integrating Overseas Priests’ took place at the Campion Centre of Ignatian Spirituality in Melbourne.

Together we explored topics such as culture & transitions, cross-cultural communication, accent modification, history of the Catholic Church in Australia, the place of women in Australian society & the Church, role of priests in parish, migrant chaplaincy, mentoring and integrity in ministry.

The Catholic Church in Australia has always received priests from overseas and there have always been pressures on them (as per other immigrants) to achieve a certain level of English and to integrate to Australian society.

These priests come to enrich us with all the gifts they bring and they get enriched by us and our culture.

As more and more priests from overseas come to work and settle in Australia we will need to develop more of these programs to assist them to feel welcome and learn skills they need to integrate and contribute to our Multicultural Church.

Cristina Descalzi
Coordinator
Multicultural Pastoral Services