Marist Messenger

by Dan McAloonWhen ABC TV’s Compass program announced last year that it was seeking applications from Australian women willing to take up the challenge of living the life of a contemplative nun for 33 days and nights, nearly 1,000 applications were received. As only five could be chosen for The Abbey TV documentary – a three-part series that begins screening on 14 October – we’ll never know what effect entering the cloisters of the Benedictine monastery at Jamberoo in the New South Wales southern highlands might have had on those who were not picked. Read more »

The current constitution of Iraq was approved by a referendum that took place on 15 October 2005. The constitution was drafted in 2005 by members of the Iraqi Constitutional Committee to replace the Law of Administration for the State of Iraq for the Transitional Period (the “TAL”). The TAL was drafted between December 2003 and March 2004 by the Iraqi Governing Council, an appointed body that was selected by the Coalition Provisional Authority after the Iraq War and occupation of Iraq by the United States and Coalition forces.The text of the new Constitution of Iraq recognises and guarantees religious freedom and practice. Read more »

December 3: Saint Francis Xavier (1506-1552)Born in Spain, Francis Xavier attended the University of Paris where he encountered St. Ignatius Loyola. A proud, if impoverished, young gentleman, Francis had no thought of a religious vocation, and was not impressed, but after three years Ignatius (or God) broke through, and Francis became one of the first seven Jesuits and perhaps the most generous and beloved of the many Jesuit saints. Read more »

From the Eulogy by Fr Des Darby sm

A nearby local lad from Temuka, John was born on the feast of John the Baptist in 1924. He spent the war years at St Bede’s College and then went on to the seminary at Greenmeadows. His health failed him and he left the seminary. Read more »

Brother Christoper was born Bryan Joseph Bellamy in Greymouth on 17 October 1939. An early photo shows a crop of fair curly hair. This latter became the bane of his life – he was always trying to plaster the curls down. Later the family moved to Christchurch where Chris attended Catholic schools finishing at St Bedes College in 1954-5. Chris entered religious life in March 1957 at the age of17 years, making his novitiate at ‘Highden’. Read more »

Fr Des Darby delivered the Eulogy Read more »

Eulogy: Br. Robert Johnsen sm
If you have never pondered your own personal uniqueness, as a fingerprint of The Creator, then please accept the unrepeatability of Brother Alban, James Patrick Wilder. Read more »

From the Homily by Carl Telford sm

Only a few weeks ago a very frail but alert John asked me to give this homily. I have prayed since that the Lord would help me to break open these Words with reverence Read more »

Fr Léopold Verguet visited Kororareka in the Bay of Islands for two or three weeks in May-June 1847. During his brief stay he sketched a number of black and white portraits and landscapes which he tinted with water colours after he had returned to France. Eventually some of these found their way to Marist archives in Rome. In 1992 Fr Theo Koq, then archivist there, presented originals of four of these sketches of Maori chiefs to the NZ Historic Places Trust. They were reproduced in the Trust’s journal Historic Places, No 44 (November 1993), pp 8-9. This was the issue which featured the restoration of Pompallier, the Catholic printery at Kororareka. Verguet’s own story can be pieced together only by outlining a wider segment of the narrative of the Society of Mary founding the Catholic Church in south-western Oceania. Read more »

Though never stationed in New Zealand, Victor Poupinel merits recalling because he was closely-involved with the Oceania mission for its first forty years. Read more »

In 1957 Mary Goulter wrote of John Anthony Seon in Sons of France: ‘He came to us, he lived among us for nearly forty years, the memory of his virtues yet lingers about his name. Yet when we wish to put on paper a concrete account of the man, he is gone on silent feet and we grasp only a shadow’ Read more »

Asked by Abbe Trompier if he would like to be a priest, 11-year-old Peter Chanel replied, ‘Father, that’s just what I’ve always wanted.’ Thus began his journey toward becoming the first Martyr of Oceania, and of the Society of Mary. Read more »

WILL WE EVER KNOW?

MAny times since December 2001 in my mind I have visited Tikopia in Temotu Province. I have happy memories of my visit there with Retired Anglican Bishop, Right. Rev. Lazarus Munamua, in June 1992. Read more »

The priest who became known as the ‘Hermit of Vava’u’, was born in Belley, southern France in the year 1815. Ordained a priest for that diocese he ministered there for thirteen years before he joined the Society of Mary and was professed in 1863. Read more »

Catherin Louis Servant was the first Marist priest to land and serve in New Zealand. As one of the founding group of 20 marists he transferred from France the tradition of doing Mary’s work in a way that left him unknown – even hidden. Read more »

Missionary in Tonga
He was born in a small town in Brittany in 1846 into a strong Catholic family. As a seminarian in France we heard a talk on the missions from Bishop Elloy sm (Tipasa Uluaki). He joined the Society of Mary with a view to going to Oceania. He was professed in 1872. He was guided in his studies and spiritual life by men who had personally known Father John Claude Colin. After ordination he taught for two years at a seminary in France. Read more »

The name Islam is often interpreted as peace, which is contrary to most people’s perceptions today, when we hear constantly of suicide bombers, jihads, bloodshed and violence. A better translation, however, would be submission. A Muslim is, therefore, defined as a person who submits him/herself to the will of God. A Christian also is expected to seek and follow the will of God. So Muslims and Christians have a great deal in common and can learn from one another.
A modern martyr whose last message proclaimed this fact was Christian de Chergé, a Trappist monk who, with six fellow monks, was killed by Algerian guerilla fighters in the Atlas Mountains in 1996. Read more »

From Lakemba to New Zealand, via Rome.
By Professor Frederic Angleveil
Translated by Fr. B.G. Quin sm

In 1896, Fr Soakimi Gata died at at Meeanee, Hawkes Bay, New Zealand. How did it happen that this Tongan, born in Fiji in 1838, who grew up in Futuna and then in Wallis, who was formed for the priesthood in Rome, who came back to share in the evangelisation of Central Oceania, arrived in New Zealand in 1876 and died there in 1896? Read more »

Given by Br Petelo Sekeme SM – 27 April 2004, at Poi, Futuna
From notes taken by Brian O’Connell

“Niuliki was the only king on Futuna at the time. His son Meitala lived in a different part of the island near the present airport, and when he was converted to Christianity there was trouble. Read more »

from the Eulogy by Noel Delaney sm:

The Marian Court Community Silverstream has truly lost a cherished friend, a thoughtful leader and a most zealous pastoral chaplain. Let none forget that Michael Leonard Tomasiwas born and raised in the town of Kumara. Love for and loyalty to Kumara stayed with Mick all his life. Read more »