Archbishop Timothy Costelloe SDB received a jubilant welcome upon his first visit to Holy Cross Parish, Hamilton Hill, on Sunday, April 6.
The south-of-the-river parish is home to an ethnically diverse community, as well as being Perth’s main hub for Portuguese Catholics.
In his homily, Archbishop Costelloe spoke about the importance of being community, as Church, and of Christ being the very centre of every parish community.
“Our church has Jesus absolutely at the heart, at the centre of everything, and that means that everything we do as a church and therefore everything you do here as a parish community needs to makes sure that Jesus is at the heart of everything,” Archbishop Costelloe said.
“How can he be our teacher if we don’t listen to his teachings? How can he be our leader if we don’t follow in his footsteps? If he is not at the heart of everything then it’s just empty words to say we are a community of the disciples of Jesus.”
Archbishop Costelloe reminded parishioners of what Pope Francis said about the Church, last year, during an infamous interview printed in a Jesuit publication.
“Pope Francis said, “I like to think of the Church as a field hospital after a battle. When a wounded soldier is carried to the field hospital you don’t start treating him by checking his blood sugar levels or asking about his cholesterol, you heal his wounds.”
“The Pope went on to say this is the great task of the church, to be a great healer of wounds, and then he goes on to say not just a healer of wounds but a warmer of hearts.”
“Just think what a difference it would make if all of us here this morning permitted ourselves with great seriousness to being even more of who we are already, healers of people’s wounds and warmers of people’s hearts.”
“We all carry wounds and if I carry wounds then I’m pretty sure that everybody else around me carry’s wounds as well.
“Jesus who raised Lazarus from the dead, who gave sight to the man born blind, who healed the paralytic, who reached out to all those who were wounded and gave them the gift of healing is saying to us if you want to be my disciple then keep your eyes open so that you can recognise when people are wounded and do something about it,” the Archbishop said.
Archbishop Costelloe was joined in celebrating the Mass by Fr Nweke, Fr Julian Carasco and Fr Eduardo Luis Nobre, a priest from the Diocese of Setubal, Portugal.
At the conclusion of the Mass, Fr Nweke thanked the Archbishop for his visit before a brief account of the parish’s history was read to enable the Archbishop to know the heritage of the parish.