By Jamie O’Brien and Joel Hall
“We become missionaries ourselves in our own ways,” Perth Auxiliary Bishop Nelson Po has told the Perth Tamil Catholic Community, encouraging its members to share their faith beyond cultural and language boundaries.
Bishop Nelson celebrated Mass at Sts John and Paul Church, Willetton, on Friday 30 October for the community’s 17th anniversary, thanking the people who began the group and those who have sustained it.
The occasion marked his first celebration with the community. He spoke of the contribution migrant Catholics make to parish life across Perth and of his own arrival as a seminarian.
“Your group, together with other migrant groups, migrant organisations, have contributed a lot to the life of our archdiocese,” Bishop Nelson said.
Bishop Nelson arrived in Perth from the Philippines in 2003. Since his Episcopal Ordination in April, he has visited parishes and migrant groups across Perth, thanking people for their prayers and support.
“We come to this land not only to look for greener pasture, or to live good lives, or to enrich ourselves, but also and above all, to become missionaries of our faith,” he said.
Bishop Nelson spoke of living the Gospel through family life and the parishes to which people belong.
Their presence, he said, helped keep the wider Church alive.
Bishop Nelson acknowledged “God’s presence that guided you throughout the journey for 17 years”, inviting members to give thanks for the community’s history and to reflect on what had flourished.
More than 30 Tamil-speaking parishioners attended the community’s first Mass at St Jude’s Church, Langford, on 25 October 2009.
Parishioners sought the opportunity to pray and worship in their mother tongue.
The celebration followed discussions with then Parish Priest Fr Terry Raj and Notre Dame University Chaplain Fr John Sebastian.
Archbishop Barry Hickey gave his consent for monthly Masses in Tamil.
The community’s December 2018 report records the participation of Catholics from India, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Malaysia and Myanmar, with worshippers travelling from across Perth and Bunbury.
A small choir with keyboard and violin accompaniment grew under Fr Sebastian’s guidance, bringing adults and children into the liturgy.
Tamil community members performed the Aarathi Adoration ritual at St Jude’s Golden Jubilee Mass on Sunday 28 October 2018.
The community moved its Tamil Masses to Willetton in 2020.
Its September 2025 proposal to the Archdiocese recorded between 80 and 100 families participating regularly. Members also belong to their local parishes.
Volunteers organise the Masses with support from Tamil-speaking priests and religious sisters. The community gathers at 5pm on the third Sunday of each month, except December, at St John and Paul Church, Willetton Parish.
During October, families welcome a statue of Mary into their homes for prayer, usually the Rosary.
The community’s annual programme also includes Lenten retreats, an outdoor Way of the Cross and a Tamil Bible quiz for children and adults.
The Tamil Catholic heritage consists of the Roman rite as well as the Syro-Malankara and Syro-Malabar rites. The latter two fall under the Syriac liturgical tradition, which traces its lineage to St Thomas the Apostle.
The community’s witness within the broader Perth Catholic population represents the ‘Catholicity’ of the Church in Western Australia, something which Bishop Nelson commended the community for upholding.
Bishop Nelson also acknowledged the value of gathering around a shared language, culture and traditions.
However, he cautioned against keeping to familiar circles, drawing on his own experience with Filipino communities.
He urged members to reach beyond ethnic and racial boundaries and contribute to their parishes and the wider community of faith.
“We are one in responding to this challenge,” he said.
Reflecting on St Paul’s letter to the Philippians, a Gentile community that was also ‘outside’ the central Christian demographic in some way, Bishop Nelson highlighted the apostle’s affection for the community and his prayer that its members would “learn to value the things that really matter”.
Continuing his message of not focusing on particular cultural identities at the expense of the Gospel, the Bishop turned to the broader issue of idolising the particular in the form of money, popularity and other worldly successes at the expense of loving God.
The anniversary provided an opportunity to consider their priorities as individuals, members of the Tamil community and of the universal Church.
The bishop concluded with the hopeful message that Christ’s primary concern is for His people: a message that reminded recipients that identity as children of God should come first.
“This encourages us to bring our own needs to Jesus, whatever they are, knowing that He cares for us,” he said.
“Let us continue in this journey, as I said, and continue to provide that good example to others as members of this community.”
