When it comes to celebrating milestones, Balcatta Catholics know how it’s done.
Marking their 50th anniversary with a special Mass, the launch of an anniversary book and dinner at the Sicilian Club, couples and friends danced into the night in celebration of the parish.
Auxiliary Bishop Donald Sproxton joined parish priest Fr Irek Czech SDS and other clergy in celebrating the anniversary Mass.
Having grown up in Bayswater, Bishop Sproxton remembered what the area was like 50 years ago when Balcatta and surrounds were considered the very outskirts of Perth.
Together, parishioners who were willing to put their hand to the till, the Salvatorians who now administer the parish and the Capuchin fathers before them, had put their faith in God to make the parish what it is today, he said.
“Jesus Christ through this church, through the people of this community, is alive,” Bishop Sproxton said.
“He lives through the care you offer and the many ministries that have flourished in this community over the years.”
And when Fr Irek Czech SDS said the people were the real treasure of the parish at a special Mass marking Balcatta’s 50th anniversary on 13 November, it wasn’t a throw away line.
The parish’s third century namesake was martyred when a Roman prefect demanded he surrender the “treasures” of the church.
St Lawrence presented the people he had been ministering to, the poor of Rome, and was martyred for his perceived insolence. Capuchin Father, Paul Bazzoli OFM Cap celebrated the parish’s first Mass on Sunday 19 November, 1961 at St Lawrence Church School.
Crippling parish debt eased in the early 1970s and thought shifted to building a new church – the parish’s current home for worship – which was blessed and opened by Bishop Peter Quinn on 6 July 1975.
The Capuchins left the parish in 1997 and were followed by the Salvatorian fathers
Fr Irek returned to the parish in 2010 after being posted to Chisholm Catholic College as a chaplain in 2005.
Speaking in both English and Italian, Fr Irek thanked the Jubilee Committee and all the parishioners who volunteered photos and stories for the making of their anniversary book.
“May this book remind us about the mysterious presence of God’s providence among us over the past 50 years,” he said.
“May it be a witness for the next generations of our dedication to God and his Church in the parish of St Lawrence.”