An unusually good night for the Church

By Peter Rosengren
It was a sweltering hot evening inside St Mary’s Cathedral last Friday as Archbishop Barry Hickey ordained five more men to the priesthood for the Archdiocese of Perth, but the excitement was palpable.

No-one cared a bit about the heat.
The fact that five Perth parishes, each of which had been home to one of the five deacons about to be ordained that evening, turned out in an impressive display of communion and solidarity meant that a Cathedral which normally holds about 1,000 people at capacity was packed to standing-room only, inside and out.
From the very young to the very old, probably more than 1,300 people were present. From one end of the Cathedral to the other, ladies’ fans fluttered continuously throughout the evening in a seemingly futile effort to dispel the heat as hundreds lined the walls and spilled outside while people craned their necks trying to catch a glimpse and hear the proceedings.
The heat made it difficult for everyone but the fact that the air-conditioning didn’t seem to be working, or perhaps was simply overwhelmed, didn’t really matter in the end. By the time it was all over late into the evening, there was a clear feeling everywhere that it had been an unusually good night for the Church.
Last Friday’s ordinations were also an unexpected reminder of the diversity of the Church; of the five new priests, one was ‘Australian,’ Daniel Boyd who grew up in Bassendean parish, while the others, as is so often the case in recent years, hailed from overseas.
As a Deacon, Quynh Huy Nhat Do from Vietnam was incardinated for the Perth Archdiocese in January this year. Meanwhile, Anibal Leite da Cunha moved to Perth to continue his formation and journey to the priesthood after seven years’ study in the seminary in East Timor. Cyprian Shikokoti came from Kenya to Perth in 2006 to study at St Charles’ Seminary at the invitation of Archbishop Hickey while Emmanuel Valentine Dimobi from Nigeria came first to Geraldton in 2005 but later to Perth in August 2007 to continue his formation as well.
The national diversity of deacons, families, relatives and friends, not to mention the parishes, primed Archbishop Hickey’s humorous observation that the evening’s ceremony seemed a little like being at the United Nations.
While the Vietnamese women wore traditional, elegant attire, it was the African ladies who stood out in their beautiful and graceful traditional costumes, brightly coloured, often wearing head-dresses that looked like giant bon-bons.
The sense of celebration spilled over during Mass after the sign of peace; newly ordained Fathers Cyprian and Emmanuel embraced their fellow priests starting with the growing number of Africans, jubilant that their long preparations for priesthood had ended as a new life had begun.
African members of the congregation also gave voice to their happiness at seeing their brothers ordained as the women spontaneously lifted their ululating voices in a traditional form of celebration.
Throughout the evening the Director of the Liturgy, Sr Kerry Willison, was kept busy shepherding and moving from one point to the other inside the Cathedral, coordinating actions via radio headset and looking occasionally more like an air traffic controller in the process. She had a big job on her hands. At one point she was forced to come forward and pointedly shoo photographers away from beside the sanctuary as over-enthusiastic relatives, all videoing the event on mobile phones or ultra-small video cameras, blocked the procession of other relatives and friends bearing the vestments of priesthood for the waiting new priests.
It was a great night for the priesthood as well; while 96 priests turned up at the beginning of the evening to welcome their new brothers, 101 processed out of St Mary’s which, under Archbishop Hickey’s tenure, has turned into something of a factory for producing priests in Australia.
The ordinations brought the number carried out by the Archbishop during his tenure in Perth to 95, a number unequalled by any Archdiocese or Bishop in Australia.
In fact, it is likely that the total number of ordinations in Perth since the Archbishop took up his position has equalled or surpassed the total for the rest of Australia.
Add to that the fact that while many Archdioceses and dioceses across the country struggle to ordain more than one priest every several – or more – years, Perth has two fully functioning seminaries and it becomes clear that Perth is the success story of the priesthood and seminary life in Australia.
Religious also turned out in force to welcome the new priests and pray for them; everywhere in the Cathedral the distinctive habits of men and women members of Religious Orders or institutes could be seen sitting alongside a remarkable variety of age and ethnic origin of the congregation.
One difference on the night was the traditional kissing of hands of the newly ordained. In ceremonies of past years, Archbishop Hickey has kissed the hands of the newly ordained in the Cathedral sacristy after the ceremonies and out of sight of the congregation.
In a departure from his normal practice, he knelt in front of the altar as each new priest came forward to give the Archbishop his blessing, after which the Archbishop kissed the hands newly consecrated for celebrating the Eucharist and dispensing the Sacraments as a sign of reverence for the priesthood’s unique character. It looked as though he wasn’t expecting it but each new priest grasped the Archbishop’s hands and returned the gesture in a clear expression of gratitude for his support and acceptance of their own vocations. Friday night was full of unscripted moments like that; such as the hi-fives that Deacon Emmanuel gave to his brother priests or the emotional hug that Fr Cyprian gave to each of his beloved family present in the front row.
Afterwards, the Africans gathered to sing and dance outside the Cathedral. Those who have not seen the traditional African-style celebrations before might have wondered for a second or two what was going on but everyone loved and supported the clear joy on display.
This was part of what made Friday pretty good goods for all who were present. It was a great night for the priesthood, a great night for the people and a very good night for the Catholic Church in Perth.