The Identitywa community recently came together for Mass celebrated by Fr Nino Vinciguerra on Saturday 10 April for Easter.
Perth Archbishop Timothy Costelloe SDB has encouraged Perth Catholics across the Archdiocese to bravely follow the Lord’s commandments and welcome the gifts of the Holy Spirit during the Mass for the Sixth Sunday of Easter.
All Churches were closed this Easter due to the coronavirus pandemic. Christianity was listed as a non-essential service for believers.
Once again, the great celebrations of our Christian faith have arrived. In this Holy Week, we remember the final days of Jesus’ life, when His love for us is shown in such a powerful and uncompromising way as he is lifted up on the cross.
The Church believes that no-one comes to faith without being called by God – God initiates, God calls and God converts, said Dr Carmel Suart, Director for the Office of Christian Initiation.
In an Easter celebration like no other, Pope Francis prayed that Christ, “who has already defeated death and opened for us the way to eternal salvation”, would “dispel the darkness of our suffering humanity and lead us into the light of his glorious day, a day that knows no end”.
The reality of the COVID–19 crisis crashed home for Perth Catholics at this, the holiest time of the year, with Archbishop Timothy Costelloe SDB and Auxiliary Bishop Donald Sproxton concelebrating the Easter Sunday Mass in front of an empty St Mary’s Cathedral for the first time in living history.
This year’s Holy Thursday Mass, broadcast live from an empty St Mary’s Cathedral on Thursday 9 April, provided Perth Catholics with the opportunity and time, now more than ever, to reflect on the question by Archbishop Timothy Costelloe SDB: “What it is God is asking of us in Australia at this time?”.
Thousands of Perth Catholics have this year honoured the life and death of Jesus Christ on Good Friday by virtually attending the celebration of the Passion of the Lord, streamed live from St Mary’s Cathedral on 10 April.
More than 1,300,000 people across Australia watched the Good Friday and Easter Sunday services broadcast live via the Seven Network, making this the most watched program nationally in their respective timeslots.