By Anthony Barich
THE 50th anniversary of Holy Spirit parish and school in City Beach on Pentecost was cause for reflection on the mission of the Church to convert the world.
That City Beach parish has only had two parish priests in 50 years is a testimony to founding priest Fr Tom Phelan’s commitment and spiritual life, Archbishop Barry Hickey said on the occasion.
Priests are critical as examples of how to follow Christ and icons of Christ Himself as spiritual leaders and chief formators of a parish, the Archbishop said, celebrating Mass for the parish and school’s 50th anniversary on Pentecost, 12 June, with current parish priest Fr Don Kettle and Dominican Fr Anthony Van Dyke.
The name of the parish – Holy Spirit – was apt for the Pentecost feast, when the Holy Spirit descended on Jesus’ disciples 40 days after He ascended into heaven, promising he would send the Paraclete – also the name of City Beach’s parish bulletin.
The Archbishop also used the occasion to speak about the mission of the Church – the theme of his Pentecost Pastoral Letter and his 7 June Bishops Speaking Out address at the University of Notre Dame Australia in Fremantle.
Without the Holy Spirit, he said, it would have been impossible for the Apostles to fulfill the mission Jesus gave them – to proclaim the Gospel to the ends of the earth.
Every Catholic has that mandate from their Baptism where they receive the Holy Spirit; and again in its fullness in Confirmation. An increasingly secular world needs Catholics to fulfill this mission today, he said.
“There has been an abandonment by many nations of Christianity as their driving force due to the rise in secularism, which seeks to extinguish the Church and its influence in the world,” he said.
“They all fail, but they do enormous damage along the way, turning people in the wrong direction, against the Church and the teachings of Jesus, and has them chasing personal fulfilment rather than holiness. The Church must address the signs of the times and speak the voice of Jesus in a way people will listen.”
Many in the Church, too, have drifted away into secular society and have adopted secular values, he said, abandoning prayer and the sacraments that will help them reach their true fulfilment.
This, too, must be addressed by the Church, which must not be content to have a ‘ghetto’ mentality that only sees Catholics talk about the faith among themselves and not reach out to the wider world and those who have strayed from the Faith, he said.
“We must draw them back into full worshipping membership of the Church. We do this by living good lives that is catching,” he said.
The sinfulness of the Church in its members will always need to be dealt with, as temptation is still there despite the positive influence of Baptism, he said.
“But the Sacrament of Penance is there to draw people back to lives of holiness, which is essential if we are to have any credibility to preach the Gospel message by our lives,” he said.
The Archbishop said that Jesus has called every Catholic to evangelise, and reminded them that as “a consecrated nation” they are not “a series of individuals” but “a leaven to show the light of Christ” as a Church community.
“The Holy Spirit will animate us as we take the Gospel to the world,” he said.
This is also Pope Benedict XVI’s message to Europe, Archbishop Hickey said. Similarly, Catholics in Australia need to re-animate their own country and culture with enthusiasm, with the Good News, “because it is good news”.
Archbishop Hickey remembered taking part in the opening celebrations of Holy Spirit parish and church, he said, and that the surrounding area was a housing precinct for the Empire Games village, with “sand as far as the eye could see”.
The parish buildings were considered modern and ahead of their time when first opened, he noted, and thanked God for the local community’s faith and fidelity to God.
The Archbishop also unveiled and blessed a plaque in honour of Fr Phelan who died in 2007, the year Fr Kettle took over.
Holy Spirit Catholic Primary School opened in February 1965 with 33 Year 1 and 2 students enrolled.
The school was run by Dominican nuns, with Sr Mary Dominica as the foundation pricipal. Today, the school has an enrolment of 233 children from pre-kindergarten to Year 6.