How Archbishop Denis Hart got where he is today, as told to Debbie Warrier.
Nearly 44 years after priestly ordination, I have never ceased to wonder at the nearness and love of God and what He asks us to do. I am conscious of His protecting and forgiving love, as I have sought to be the instrument of that love, teaching and goodness to people.
I was born in 1941, the eldest of three children of Kevin and Nancy Hart. I was very fortunate to have a family with faith-filled parents who worked hard and loved God. I grew up in the Jesuit parish of Hawthorn and attended Saint John’s Primary School under the Marist Brothers before going on to Xavier College, Kew. It was a parish with a strong spiritual life. I became an altar server at the age of nine and regularly took my turn serving weekday Mass. I came to know the priests and, as a teenager, I could see the influence they had with people, how they cared for their parishioners, and how they were men of prayer leading people to God.
As I grew up, I wanted to do something that really made a difference to people, and because of the example of the Jesuit priests and the strong prayer life of the parish, I felt that it was natural to be a religious person.
Father Bill O’Collins, SJ, whose brother was Bishop James O’Collins of Ballarat, became my parish priest. When I was 13 he asked me to read the story of St John Baptist Vianney by Trochu. I was very impressed and now know he was tactfully sowing the idea of priesthood.
When I turned 14 I felt I would like to start to go to Mass myself every day. My parents encouraged that. Somehow I felt the nearness of the Lord and His love.
As I listened to the Scripture readings, I started to wonder whether there might be an opportunity for me in the priesthood. Because of what I had seen of the work of priests in a parish, I decided I wanted to be a diocesan priest.
When I had finished Year 12 at school, I applied to enter the diocesan seminary and was accepted at Corpus Christi College, Werribee in 1960. I enjoyed the studies and companionship of the seminary. When we went home on holidays we were urged to continue our prayer life and attendance at daily Mass.
This strengthened in me a deep sense of the call to the priesthood as a great grace from God and as a wonderful invitation to care for people. I spent four years at Werribee doing a preparatory year and three years Philosophy and four years at the Theology Seminary at Glen Waverley. I was ordained as a sub-Deacon in 1966, a Deacon in 1967 and a priest in 1967. In 1997, I was consecrated a Bishop and made an auxiliary Bishop to the Archdiocese of Melbourne. In 2001, I was appointed Archbishop of Melbourne.
My parents taught me about the reality and love of God. Through them, I came to see Mary and the saints as friends who helped me along the way.
Through my training as an altar server, I gained great respect for the beauty of the Mass and for the importance of preparing and praying well. The priests in my parish, at Xavier and in the seminary have provided a love of learning, a commitment to truth, a depth of faith and prayer which have stayed with me.
God has enabled priests to become other Christs called to holiness, committed to the teaching of the Magisterium and with a mission to search out and find those who have gone astray, as well as nourishing God’s faithful in His love for them.
I committed myself to the priesthood with confidence and joy. This joy has never been abated or diminished despite the subsequent challenges and sufferings. I remain in deep wonder at the call that God has provided.