Dunedin Farewells Popular Parish Priest

THE MON T HLY MAGAZINE FOR T HE CA T HOLI C S OF T HE DUNE D IN DIO C ESE HE ABLE T MarchT 2009 T Issue No 141 Dunedin farewells popular parish priest Farewell to Fr John Mullin … Bishop Len Boyle incenses Fr John Mullin’s casket at the conclusion of the Requiem Mass at St Patrick’s Basilica, in South Dunedin, on February 18� Fr Mullin’s obituary is on page 13� Clergy appointments In this issue… BISHOP COLIN CAMPBELL has made Pope Benedict’s Lenten message on fasting �� 2 the following clergy appointments: Children pray for victims of Australian bushfires �� 3 Fr Mervyn Hannifin, parish priest, Parish mission in Alexandra �� 5 Ranfurly (for 2009); and Fr Niusila Winton singer’s musical tribute to Pope John Paul II �� 8 Mariano, parish priest, South Dunedin Holy Week and Easter ceremonies timetable ��10-11 (including Broad Bay Mass). Little Sister to be canonised this year ��13 These appointments took effect on Out and About ��16 March 14. The Tablet March 2009 Spiritual value of fasting in Lent emphasised by Pope Benedict IN his message for Lent, Pope Benedict XVI describes the period leading to Easter as one of “more intense spiritual training”, a period during which, he says, the Liturgy sets before us three penitential practices – prayer, almsgiving, fasting – to prepare us to better celebrate Easter and thus experience God’s power. “Lent recalls the 40 days of our Lord’s fasting in the desert, which he undertook before entering into his public ministry. The Scriptures and the entire Christian tradition teach that fasting is a great help to avoid sin and all that leads to it. For this reason, the history of salvation is replete with occasions that invite fasting. In the New Testament, Jesus brings to light the profound motive for fasting, condemning the attitude of the Pharisees, who scrupulously observed the prescriptions of the law, but whose hearts were far from God. True fasting, as the divine Master repeats elsewhere, is rather to do the will of the Heavenly Father.” Pope Benedict points out that the practice of fasting goes back to the first Christian community but that in the modern world, “it seems to have lost something of its spiritual meaning, and has taken on, in a culture characterised by the search for material well-being, a therapeutic value for the care of one’s body”. However, the faithful practice of fasting contributes to conferring unity to the whole person. “At the same time, fasting is an aid to open our eyes to the situation in which so many of our brothers and sisters live. By freely embracing an act of self-denial for the sake of another, we make a statement that our brother or sister in need is not a stranger. “It is precisely to keep alive this welcoming and attentive attitude towards our brothers and sisters that I encourage the parishes and every other community to intensify in Lent the custom of private and communal fasts, joined to the reading of the Word of God, prayer and almsgiving. From the beginning, this has been the hallmark of the Christian community, in which special collections were taken up, the faithful being invited to give to the poor what had been set aside from their fast. “This practice needs to be rediscovered and encouraged again in our day, especially during the liturgical season of Lent,” Pope Benedict says. Mass of the Oils, Diocese of Dunedin The Mass of the Oils will be held on Monday, April 6, at 7pm, in St Mary’s Basilica, Invercargill; Tuesday, April 7, at 7pm, in St John the Baptist Church, Alexandra; and on Wednesday, April 8 at, 7.30pm in St Joseph’s Cathedral, Dunedin. The deadline for the April issue Please phone us on 0800-500-730 is Friday, March 27� All contri- for your Free Consultation butions should be sent to the The Lab – helping you eat, sleep, play and smile editor, Gillian Vine, 26 Franklin St, Dunedin: Radio Otago House, 248 Cumberland Street. Phone 03 477 1422 Invercargill: Cnr Herbert & Windsor Streets. Phone 03 217 1121 Dalmore, Dunedin 9010; phone 021-705-708; Email [email protected] fax 03-474-5758; email tablet@cdd�org�nz� 2 March 2009 The Tablet Easter Vigil climax of RCIA inquiry process THE Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA) is the process through which non-Catholics learn about the Catholic faith. In Dunedin, the RCIA inquiry evenings that were held last year at Mornington will come to a climax at the Easter Vigil with the reception into the Church of two candidates. A major step in this process took place for these people and a third candidate from outside the Mornington group when on Sunday Praying for bushfire victims … Pupils and staff of St Joseph’s School, Balclutha, March 1, in St Joseph’s Cathedral chapel, used photos of the Victorian fires to focus on prayers written by senior pupils� A the Rite of Election was celebrated at St Joseph’s mufti day raised $183�70 for bushfire victims� a Mass presided over by Bishop Colin Campbell. With the Hills Suburbs parishes music group providing music Children pray for bushfire victims the small gathering of candidates, THE bushfires in Victoria touched the wide open. I pray that you get heaps of sponsors, catechists, friends and family hearts of all New Zealanders and many wet weather to put out all the fires. took part in a special service which was schools prayed for those who had lost “Here’s a prayer to you and it goes like followed by afternoon tea. their lives, the families of those who this: Dear God, I pray for all people in An RCIA group has also been meeting died and for the destruction of homes, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Please let in Invercargill. farms, livestock and wildlife. it rain heaps over there.” A new season of instructions for On February 20, St Joseph’s School, Jun Usuda also prayed for wet weather, another group of enquirers will begin at Balclutha, was one of 17 South Otago writing: “I hope the rain comes and the end of April. For further information, schools which held mufti days to raise the fire stops and that God helps all contact Kath Kenrick, phone 476-6522, money to help the victims and their the people in hospitals, and that more or Ann Maree Taylor, phone 453-6144, families. people don’t die in the fires.” or speak to your parish priest. At St Joseph’s School, Oamaru, the Reuben Mihaere offered the Lord’s children in Pohutukawa wrote prayers Prayer to comfort people, and after for all those who had suffered. saying her class was praying for Harriet Hanning wrote: “I pray that everyone “during this hard time”, Ceilidh Bishop’s diary you stay safe and that millions of other Brookes wrote that the Hail Mary, said people stay safe, too. I have been every day at St Joseph’s School, was for watching the news and I had my mouth Victorian families and their friends. MARCH 26 – Board of Management meeting Lawrence Peeters 27 – 29 Catholic Women’s League conference, Invercargill 31 – Teachers’ Commissioning Genuine Professional Mass, Alexandra APRIL 3 – 5 Bishop’s Shield competition, Dunedin 6 – Mass of the Oils, 7.00pm For all your real estate needs Invercargill call 021 992 993 anytime 7 – Mass of the Oils, 7.00pm Alexandra 8 – Mass of the Oils, 7.30pm Cathedral, Dunedin MREINZ 18-19 – Cromwell Church centennial celebrations Dunedin Phone 477 6838 [email protected] 3 The Tablet March 2009 Light of the God was our air traffic controller, World Radio plane crash survivor says From 4pm to 5 pm, “THE odds were against us but God was crash, he began praying the Rosary on a every Sunday with us,” said Fred Berretta, a survivor of daily basis and the day before the crash US Airways Flight 1549 that crash landed he had prayed the Chaplet of Divine on 1575 kHz, Toroa Radio in the Hudson River on January15. Mercy. He was flying home to Charlotte, North “I remember reading in that little March Carolina, that day from a business trip in booklet that Jesus said to Sister Faustina 22 – Part II of Bishop Fisher’s talk; New York when the plane struck a flock that the 3pm hour is the hour of mercy, a meditation for the Feast of the of birds, causing both engines to fail. and whatever you ask of the Father in Annunciation; and an overview of “We had a phenomenal flight crew, virtue of my passion during this hour the document Dignatatis Personae but God was our air traffic controller,” Mr will be granted. with Fr Joseph de Noia . Berretta said. “It sort of hit me as we were going into All 155 people aboard the flight the water that it was in the three o’clock 29 – Does the practice of Buddhist survived the emergency landing, hour, so I asked God to be merciful philosophy leads to a deeper watched by thousands of Manhattan to us and I said a few Hail Marys and I Christian spirituality? - a discussion office workers. reconciled myself to the fact that I might by Dr Anthony Clark and Fr Mitch “I believe it was miraculous that all the not live through it,” he said. Pacwa SJ . things came together that allowed us In the aftermath of the crash, Mr April to survive,” said Mr Berretta, himself a Berretta said he had been “giving a lot of 5 – Palms and Passion; reflections pilot.

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