By Anthony Barich
National Reporter
Three Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate narrowly escaped from having their Munster friary and five-acre property being burned to the ground as fires raged around Wattleup on 1 March.
And while they would be the first to admit they couldn’t prove it, they have no doubt that their prayers to Mary stopped their Munster Friary from going up in flames.
Frs Joseph Michael Mary McShane, Andre Mary Feain and Friar Cyprian Mary Costello looked out their windows at 3.05pm to see the fire across the street racing towards their property.
Authorities believe the fire was deliberately lit. As temperatures soared to 35C and flames surged to an estimated 18 metres in height, police evacuated nearby properties. However the friars didn’t wait to be told to abandon their Our Lady Gate of Heaven Mission in Munster.
“When I first saw the fires my heart sank. I realised very quickly that it was quite serious as it was so close and I knew we’d be in great danger,” Fr Joseph, 46, told The Record.
“The most important thing was that we saved our lives, so I grabbed the Blessed Sacrament, my ordination chalice, a statue of Our Lady of Fatima and some documents and ran.”
Before leaving the three friars put an image of the Divine Mercy on the window facing the fire and a statue of Our Lady that their visiting founder Fr Gabriel Maria Pellettieri blessed last week out on the lawn facing the flames before leaving, and closed all the doors and windows. They also quickly sprinkled holy water around the property and asked the Blessed Virgin to protect the house. The fire, which burned through 31,000ha, crossed the firebreak onto their property, and helicopters dropped water onto it. Three helitacs and 17 fire trucks attended the scene as six nearby sheds burned down and the Western Power sub-station was under threat.
“We were very blessed. We could’ve lost everything,” Fr Joseph said.
“There was also the trust in God. When I saw the fires the thought came into my mind that God gives and He takes away, but in the end all things work to God’s will – even in disasters and tragedy, God brings good, even out of this.”
Fr Joseph, who was ordained in New York in 1996, said it was a new experience for him, having had two stints in WA – one from 1998-2000 and the other from December 2008 to the present.
“It was a new experience for me. I’ve never experienced a bushfire, to see it so close and to see how fast it moved,” he said.
The friars did a procession 3 March around the property asking St Joseph to pray for rain.
“The sad thing is that they’re sure it was arson, they’ve already detected three points where the fire was started,” Fr Joseph said.
“That’s sad, to know that people would put other people or their property in danger. That means we just need to pray for them too.”
Fr Joseph says he has a renewed respect for the “dedicated and heroic” firemen who saved six homes in the area, as those who attended the blaze were volunteers and worked non-stop to contain the fire from 3pm until 9am the next day. Two firefighters were hospitalised with heat exhaustion.
Fr Joseph said that now the surrounding bush has been reduced to ash, fires are not expected to encroach for up to two years.
The friars spent three hours at the police roadblocks before being contacted by their good friend, Aquinas College Religious Education Coordinator Paul Kelly, who lives nearby in Success, and stayed at his house until they were allowed back into their friary at 10pm. On 29 December, 2009, a bushfire near Toodyay friary destroyed up to 40 homes, yet the friary was also untouched and there was no loss of life.
In the spirit of St Maximilian Kolbe, the friars posted a report and footage of the 1 March fires on their website, www.airmaria.com.