“If we’re brave enough and inventive enough, we can find ways to help people who are desperately in need,” Perth Archbishop Timothy Costelloe SDB has told parish priests and appeal representatives at the liturgical launch of his 2026 Christmas Appeal for LifeLink.
Speaking at St Mary’s Cathedral on Thursday 29 October 2026, Archbishop Costelloe drew on St Francis of Assisi and his own recent encounter with people experiencing homelessness near the Vatican.
The appeal seeks a minimum of $700,000 to support the Archdiocese’s welfare and social service agencies, with parishes across Perth preparing for the official appeal this weekend on 7 and 8 November.
Archbishop Costelloe welcomed Perth Auxiliary Bishop Nelson Po, who joined the LifeLink launch for the first time as a bishop.
Recalling a recent visit to Rome for a private meeting with Pope Leo XIV, Archbishop Costelloe described people putting up tents around the porticos of St Peter’s Basilica after the tourists had gone home.
They knew they could find safety there under the Pope’s protection, he said.
Archbishop Costelloe linked that experience to the economic and social circumstances of people seeking help through LifeLink, encouraging parish representatives to consider their own response and enlist their parishioners’ support.
Marking the 800th anniversary of St Francis’ death, Archbishop Costelloe spoke of a ministry which everyone present shared.
“We all share in this ministry of being living signs to those in need of God’s love for them, to be refuges for the poor,” he said.
He recounted a story of Francis praying in the hills outside Assisi, with Brother Leo following him to discover how Francis combined a deep relationship with God with his attention to people’s needs.
Archbishop Costelloe explained that Francis’ understanding of Jesus shaped Francis’ care for the poor, the marginalised, the lonely and the lost.
“Francis carried the wounds of the Lord in his body,” Archbishop Costelloe said, reflecting on the stigmata and the saint’s closeness to Christ.
“We’re disciples of Jesus, wanting to walk in His footsteps, and so we need to know what the path that those footsteps are taking will mean for us,” he said.
Bishop Po proclaimed the Gospel from St Matthew, which recounts the rich young man’s encounter with Jesus. Archbishop Costelloe acknowledged the man’s goodness and his fidelity to the commandments.
Jesus invited the young man to sell his possessions, give the money to the poor and follow him. The man walked away sad because of his wealth.
“His passion for his possessions was the thing that stopped him from giving himself fully to the Lord, and therefore also fully to those in need,” Archbishop Costelloe said.
Archbishop Costelloe invited those present to examine the attachments in their own lives, naming wealth, pride, selfishness and the conviction of having all the answers.
“It could be so many things, but there will be something stopping us from giving that wholehearted yes to God that, in the depths of our heart, we want to give,” he said.
He also encouraged them to seek St Francis’ prayers to help identify and overcome those obstacles to generosity.
For more information about the Archbishop’s 2026 Christmas Appeal for LifeLink, or to donate, go to www.lifelink.com.au.