By Bridget Spinks
Thousands of Catholics attended Easter ceremonies in their parishes throughout Perth and Western Australia this year with a special highlight being the ceremonies at the newly completed St Mary’s Cathedral.
It was the first Easter celebrated in the historic building since it was closed for completion works in late 2006.
Parish priests around Perth reported larger than usual congregations turning out to mark the week of ceremonies focusing on Christ’s death and Resurrection.
Fr Tony Maher, a priest of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate who resides at St Patrick’s Basilica in Fremantle, said he did not know what the reason was for the big Easter turnout at his parish. But the tendency in Western countries “to find faith and to come back to church, back to the Sacraments” has started, he said.
“Even though the movement is very small, it’s started.” The Easter ceremonies at St Patrick’s Basilica, which has a seating capacity for approximately 700 people, were “very well attended”, especially the 3pm Good Friday ceremony which drew 900, making it “standing room only”.
Fr Maher has only been at the Fremantle Basilica for several months but has witnessed Easter trends around Australia over the last five years.
He served at St David’s in Tea Tree Gully, Adelaide from 2001–2007 and at St Eugene de Mazenod in Burpengary, Brisbane from 2008–2009.
He’s optimistic about the future of Catholicism in Australia: “People are slowly but surely coming back to the values of the Catholic faith”.
For Fr Maher, the return of Catholics to the Church at Easter and Christmas “to connect with their faith, to renew a spiritual commitment” is growing. “Overall, things are on the move and on the mend. We’ve got a long way to go, but certainly there’s a great renewal in faith.”
The northern suburbs parishes of Morley’s Infant Jesus and Ocean Reef’s St Simon Peter also drew large numbers.
Infant Jesus in Morley drew 500 for the Easter vigil which was a “much bigger crowd than expected because we had nine adults being baptised and two being received into the Church,” Angela Youens, the parish administrator, told The Record.
Good Friday drew up to 900 people.
But the 10am Easter Sunday Mass had the biggest turnout of an estimated 1000 people.
It was “absolutely overflowing” with people standing outside while inside four children were baptised, Ms Youens said.
At St Simon Peter parish in Ocean Reef, Salvatorian Fr Derek Krzysztalowicz said 800 people came to the 10am Easter Sunday Mass, even though the Church only has a seating capacity of 400.
Four others were confirmed and received into the Church, and another person received confirmation.
In the centre of Perth, at St Mary’s Cathedral’s first Easter ceremonies in three years, the attendance was better than expected.
“I thought it was amazing. I didn’t think it would be so well attended,” Dean of the Cathedral, Monsignor Keating, said.
He estimates that 9,000 people came to the Cathedral between Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday.
The Cathedral’s capacity is 1,100, but at least 2,000 came to the Cathedral on Good Friday and on Easter Sunday up to 3,000 people attended overall.
Easter Sunday’s 11am Mass at the Cathedral was preceded by a special musical presentation of Mozart’s Exultate Jubilate (Rejoice and Exult) sung by soprano Stephanie Gooch and accompanied by violinists Sarah Ellison and Kathleen O’Hagan.
Mgr Keating estimated that 1,500 people attended this Mass. “In a sense, people were marking with their feet the belief in Jesus and I thought expressing their support for the Pope and the Archbishop who have been under fire a little bit, a bit challenged,” Mgr Keating said.
There was also strong demand for the Sacrament of Confession at the Cathedral on Good Friday.
Five priests heard confessions after the 10am Stations of the Cross and after the 3pm Good Friday ceremony, Archbishop Hickey and nine other priests heard confessions “for some time afterward”.
This showed, Mgr Keating said, that “people have been moved by the death and Resurrection of Jesus”.
“That was proof to me that people were moved and wished to repent and turn back to God and that was one way they could do it and show it,” he said.