By Anthony Barich
THE entire St Paul’s Catholic Primary School in Mt Lawley experienced a major catechesis on God’s love and on Catholic devotion to Mary with a trip to Our Lady’s Shrine Church in Bullsbrook on 29 June. More than 200 students, from pre-primary to Year 6, attended Mass and prayed a decade of the Rosary.
The day was planned by Mt Lawley Parish Priest Fr Tim Deeter to celebrate the feast of Sts Peter and Paul (last year the whole school visited the newly completed St Mary’s Cathedral for the occasion).
Students also heard talks and viewed the museum that told the story of sceptical Catholic Bruno Cornacchiola who had a vision of the Virgin of the Revelation at Tre Fontane, Rome on 12 April 1947.
Bruno founded SACRI, an association of Christ’s lay faithful which owns the church and shrine at Bullsbrook that was established and dedicated to ‘Mary, Mother of the Church’ in 1987 by Archbishop William Foley.
St Paul’s Deputy Principal Sandra Peterson told The Record that the SACRI Association members were “extremely welcoming” and had planned the day with Fr Deeter to ensure the students enjoyed themselves while being well catechised.
SACRI Association member Carl Lombardo said the visit of a school to the shrine was a rarity, and encouraged other schools to do so.
Fr Deeter told The Record that a visit like this one was important as it could help give the students and teachers – and also the 50 parents who attended on the day – a “good foundation in their faith.” The visit increased their awareness of various shrines around their own Archdiocese that are “expressions of our faith,” Fr Deeter said, telling how God has intervened in the lives of real people.
Cornacchiola, a baptised Catholic, initially hated the Church after being convinced by a Lutheran man that the Catholic Church was the source of all the world’s evils. He vowed to kill the Pope, even buying a dagger to carry out his intention.
Cornacchiola married a devout Catholic woman, Yolanda, whom he often beat. He demanded that she leave the Church and join his Protestant sect. She agreed to do so only on the condition that he first attend Mass with her on nine consecutive First Fridays. At the conclusion of the nine months, Cornacchiola was still determined on his path, and Yolanda reluctantly joined him.
One day, while he was preparing an anti-Church, anti-Mary speech, Bruno took his children to the Cistercian Abbey grounds at Tre Fontane in Rome. The abbey sold excellent chocolates which Bruno bought for his children. But Tre Fontane is also the place where St Paul was beheaded for the Faith. Bruno sat and wrote notes for his speech while his children played ball. He heard his children cry out that they had lost their ball which had rolled into a cave. Gianfranco, one of the children, ran into the cave; when he didn’t return, Bruno went in after him.
He found Gianfranco kneeling, transfixed by something Bruno could not see. The boy kept repeating, ‘O beautiful lady! O beautiful lady!’ Soon all three of Bruno’s children were kneeling in awe, but Bruno still saw nothing. He cried out, ‘God, help us!’ and then felt two hands that reached out and touched his eyes. He experienced some pain as light filled his eyes, and then he saw before him Our Lady.
Fr Deeter pointed out that this incident is reminiscent of the conversion experience of St Paul, the school’s patron, who was also struck blind by Christ when he was persecuting the Church, just as Bruno was. Both St Paul and Bruno were led ‘out of darkness into light’ – the school motto.
Bruno saw this glorious woman wearing a green mantle over a white dress with a rose sash tied at her waist. He was told that his wife’s persuading him to observe the nine First Fridays had saved him. Then he was told to approach every priest in Rome and ask him for help, until one would reply, ‘Ave, Maria! My son, what can I do for you?” That priest would take him to see the Pope and tell him about his experience.
Bruno faithfully spoke to various priests over the next two years, until one finally gave the response Our Lady had predicted. This priest took Bruno to the Vatican, where Pope Pius XII was praying the Rosary each week with select groups of the faithful in anticipation of his declaration the following year, 1950, of the dogma of Mary’s Assumption into Heaven. Bruno confessed his apostasy from the faith and his intention to murder the Pope, who forgave Bruno and eventually approved the apparitions at Tre Fontane.
Fr Deeter told the students that both Yolanda and Bruno needed great patience, as Bruno was not immediately converted on observing the nine First Fridays. Bruno had to wait two years for Mary’s prediction to be fulfilled.
This teaches an important lesson, Fr Deeter said – that God answers prayers at exactly the right time, the time He knows is best, not when we think it’s the right time. “God loves us, and He wants us to be patient and put our trust in Him,” he told the gathering.
Before praying the first Joyful Mystery of the Rosary, the Annunciation, he also urged the students to pray not for material goods but for something to help them be better boys and girls, and for the parents and teachers to pray for graces in their lives, especially for their marriages and families.
For the past two years, St Paul’s Primary School has prayed the Rosary as a community each day in May and October – the months commonly dedicated to Mary.
They attend Mass every Thursday morning, celebrate the Sacrament of Reconciliation several times a year, and pray the Stations of the Cross during Lent. As a result, the children are very familiar with Catholic liturgy and devotions, and more and more parents are bringing their children to weekend Masses. Half of St Paul’s parishioners are under the age of 18, and more than half the registered parishioners attend Mass every weekend – a very high statistic in modern Australia, Fr Deeter said.