“This morning, as we celebrate this wonderful anniversary of 70 years of fidelity to the Lord here in this parish, maybe we should listen to the Lord once again, take the words to heart and respond to them,” Perth Archbishop Timothy Costelloe SDB told parishioners gathered at St Vincent’s Catholic Church, Kwinana, Sunday 14 December.
Archbishop Costelloe was principal celebrant at a Mass of Thanksgiving on Sunday 14 December marking 70 years since the original St Vincent’s Catholic Church and School was opened by Archbishop Redmond Prendeville on 18 December 1955.
More than 500 parishioners gathered for the occasion, including concelebrants Kwinana Parish Priest Fr Thi Lam and former Baldvis Parish Priest Fr Geoff Aldous, together with St Vincent’s Catholic School Principal Anne Aquino, members of the Sisters of St Joseph of the Apparition, and parishioners past and present.
Prior to the commencement of the Mass, Archbishop Costelloe, together with Fr Thi Lam, conducted a blessing and turning of the soil at the site of the new parish Centre.
Turning the soil for the occasion was Archbishop Costelloe, Fr Thi Lam, Parish Finance Council Chair, John Iriks and Parish Pastoral Council Chair, Aileen Eguia.
The Mass also included the blessing of the new statues of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St Vincent inside the Church, which were unveiled by St Vincent de Paul Society representative Barry Sutton and Parish Pastoral Council Deputy Chair Ana Valderrama.
At the conclusion of Mass, two more statues – one of the Blessed Virgin Mary and one of St Vincent de Paul were also blessed, with these being unveiled by St Vincent’s Primary School Principal, Anne Aquino and Mayor of the City of Kwinana, Peter Feasy.
Reflecting on the readings of the Third Sunday of Advent, Archbishop Costelloe spoke about St John the Baptist’s question from prison and the prophet Isaiah’s call to “strengthen your weary hands”.
“In our relationship with God, we have to have trust in faith and be patient and full of hope,” he said. “But as everyone in the Church knows as well as I do, sometimes these are difficult qualities to live by.”
He returned repeatedly to the theme of divine mercy, telling the congregation that God “looks always on us with love, never with condemnation, always with compassion, never with harsh judgment”.
“It is God’s mercy that will save us. It is God’s mercy that will lift us up. It is God’s mercy that will enable us to grow into the people God created us to be,” he said.
Archbishop Costelloe concluded his homily in speaking about Christ’s invitation from the Gospel: “Come to me if you are heavily laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon yourself and learn from me, because I am humble of heart.”
Established between 1953 and 1956, the Kwinana Parish was created to serve Medina, a new town built to accommodate workers for the developing industries along the coastal strip.
In June 1955, Archbishop Prendeville provided a loan for the purchase of land and the construction of St Vincent’s Catholic Church and School, with the Vincentian0020Fathers invited to assist the Catholic community.
The building work was carried out by first parish priest Fr Gerard Harper CM, with the parishioners, and completed in time for Christmas Mass. St Vincent de Paul was selected as patron.
The school opened on 14 February 1956 with an initial enrolment of 102 students under the care of the Sisters of St Joseph of the Apparition.
The original building consisted of three classrooms separated by timber partitions on rollers.
Each Friday afternoon, the schoolchildren opened the partitions to form the first church in Kwinana, before closing them again after Sunday Mass.
A separate church was built in Medina and blessed by Bishop Myles McKeon on 12 December 1968, when Fr Ray McGuire was Parish Priest.
As the south metropolitan population grew, a new St Vincent’s Catholic School opened in February 2004, followed by a new church on 7 March 2004, dedicated by then Archbishop Barry Hickey.
Today the parish has more than 700 parishioners attending Mass regularly, representing numerous migrant communities, while the school has some 400 students.
In a written message marking the anniversary, Fr Thi described St Vincent’s as “a special dwelling place of God’s presence among us, especially in the Holy Eucharist, which is the heart of every parish community”.
He said the parish was “truly blessed with many parishioners who generously share their time and talents”, extending thanks to the Vincentian Fathers, the Sisters of St Joseph of the Apparition, and former parish priests.
“May God bless us all, and may the Blessed Virgin Mary, St Vincent our patron saint, and the holy angels guide us and keep us under their protection as we continue to go forward into the future with grace, hope and confidence,” he said.