The venue was appropriate as Kingi was ordained at this marae by Bishop Snedden.

It was the first time a Maori priest had been ordained on a marae.

Various priests, religious Sisters and Brothers joined Fr Karaitiana and his family for the day. Bishop Peter Cullinane made a special effort to come.

Fr Jack Smith, a Maori priest from Gisborne, was also present. He too had been ordained on the Takitimu Marae.

While there were representatives from the Maori Catholic Colleges, Hato Paora and Hato Hohepa, Kingi said it was more convenient for him to go to the Colleges to celebrate with them there rather than lots of pupils travelling to Wairoa.

Kingi said, "I give thanks to God, to my late parents and all my family and each one present."

Holding a tewhatewha, he said "This is a symbolic weapon which I use to combat evil in myself, in you and in the world. One side captures my Maori cultural life; one side is my spiritual journey".

The marae was graced by photos of various deceased who have been part of Karaitiana's life.

They were surrounded by roses. These came from his garden. This was linked with Kingi's favourite saint, Thérèse of Lisieux who is known as St Theresa of the roses. "I have learnt a simple approach to life from her", he said.

All then went into the whare tupuna for Eucharist.

The Gospel was read by Kingi's Marist community leader, Fr Arthur Toothill.

The liturgy was led by Richard Puanaki and Malissa Paul.

A highlight of the liturgy was Cullinane presenting Kingi with a blessing from Pope Francis.

The hakari was coordinated by two of Kingi's nephews who are training as chefs! The wider whanau rallied around them to help.

After the meal, various speakers covered different periods of Fr Kingi's life.

This included his family and college life, his Marist life and his life of ministry.

Pa Karaitiana was the final speaker. He expressed full gratitude for his 50 years of ministry. He then concluded the celebration with a blessing for each person present.

Source

Supplied: Pa Piripi

They were founded in France by St Marcellin Champagnat in 1817.

Marist brothers accompanied Bishop Pompallier when he began his mission in the South West Pacific in 1838.

In 1876 a community of four Brothers arrived to start the first NZ Marist school in Wellington.

In the following decades Marist primary and secondary schools spread through the length and breadth of New Zealand, as well as in Fiji, Samoa, Tonga and Kiribati.

"Marist spirit multiplied significantly when Brothers and ex-students developed Marist sporting clubs in nearly every city and town so that today the Marist sporting brand has become a prominent nationally recognised feature of nearly every sport in the country, says Brother Richard Dunleavy.

As part of the Jubilee celebration Brothers Osmund, Mark and Alan Henley, John Paul Wilson, Anthony Walker and Peter Thompson came to Verdon College in Invercargill for a jubilee celebration which took place on the weekend.

It is 120 year since the Brothers came to Invercargill. They worked there for 113 years in primary and secondary education.

The last brother to teach in Invercargill was Br Osmund, who retired to Christchurch in 2011 after 10 years at Verdon College.

Verdon College was established in 1982 with the amalgamation of Marist with St Catherine's College, which was a school for girls run by the Dominican Sisters.

Source

• www.verdoncollege.school.nz
• aucklandcatholic.org.nz
• stuff.co.nz
• stuff.co.mz
• Image: stuff.co.nz

Various cultural representations were witnessed by thousands of faithful from the diocese, well-wishers from the region as well as visitors from outside PNG.

The Apostolic Nuncio of Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, Archbishop Kurian Matthew Vayalunkal was the main celebrant and several PNG Bishops and priests concelebrated the Holy Eucharist.

The Nuncio solemnly blessed the diocese and its people and paid special gratitude to missionaries of the past and present for the fruit of their labour visible in Morobe Province.

Bishop Christian Blouin of the Diocese of Lae's also gave thanks to the pioneers of the diocese saying, "four pioneers must be acknowledged at this occasion.

Fr. Anthony Mulderink, one of the four pioneers who was there present to witness the occasion was thanked along with his pioneer-brothers of Mariannhill for their work.

He also thanked the people of PNG for their good will; friends of the diocese overseas, for being helpful to the diocese and all people who have contributed in making the Diocese of Lae become what it is to this day.

The existence of the Catholic Church in Morobe Province goes back to the time of the gold rush in Wau and Bulolo in 1927.

However, the existence of the Diocese of Lae began with the mandate of Pope John XXIII on 18 June 1959 when the newly erected Vicariate of Lae was entrusted to the Congregation of the Missionaries of Mariannhill (CMM).

The number of diocesan inhabitants was about 187,000. Of these, approximately 1,750 were Catholics.

Source

• radiovaticana.va
• Image: radiovaticana.va

Mother Rosemae Pender, FSE, had a heart attack during the Mass in Connecticut.

She was the Mother Foundress of the Franciscan Sisters of the Eucharist.

Mother Rosemae had received the renewal of her vows during the jubilee Mass.

Continue reading

In a homily at a Mass at St Peter's Square on Sunday for the Jubilee of the Sick and Disabled, the Pope called for mutual solidarity and acceptance.

Francis criticised the modern "objections" raised "to a life characterised by serious physical limitations".

"It is thought that sick or disabled persons cannot be happy, since they cannot live the lifestyle held up by the culture of pleasure and entertainment," the Pope said.

"In an age when care for one's body has become an obsession and a big business, anything imperfect has to be hidden away, since it threatens the happiness and serenity of the privileged few and endangers the dominant model," Francis continued.

"Such persons should best be kept apart, in some ‘enclosure' - even a gilded one - or in ‘islands' of pietism or social welfare, so that they do not hold back the pace of a false well-being," the Pope added.

"In some cases, we are even told that it is better to eliminate them as soon as possible, because they become an unacceptable economic burden in time of crisis."

Francis said that when people shut their eyes in the face of sickness and disability, they fail to understand the real meaning of life which "has to do with accepting suffering and limitation".

"The world does not become better because only apparently ‘perfect' people live there - I say ‘perfect' rather than ‘false' - but when human solidarity, mutual acceptance and respect increase."

"The happiness that everyone desires," the Pope added, can only be "attained only if we are capable of loving".

"It is always a matter of love; there is no other path."

The Jubilee for the Sick and Persons with Disabilities, which ran from June 10-12, was part of the Year of Mercy.

For the first time in a papal Mass in St Peter's Square, on Sunday the Gospel was dramatised by a group of intellectually disabled persons.

This was so the text could be understood by pilgrims with mental disabilities, the Vatican announced.

At the Mass, people with disabilities did various liturgical roles.

Sources

• Vatican Radio
• Catholic News Agency
• Aleteia
• Image: Daily Mail

In a series of reflections for priests who had come to Rome as part of the Year of Mercy celebrations, the Pope said: "Mercy gets its hands dirty."

Francis said he had heard many clergy say "very clerical" things in describing people's situations to others.

Examples of such comments are "I have found this case", as if to indicate: "I won't touch it, I won't dirty my hands. I'll make a 'clean' pastoral work."

"Mercy touches, it gets involved, it gets caught up with others, it gets personal," Francis told the priests.

"It does not approach 'cases' but persons and their pain."

"Mercy exceeds justice; it brings knowledge and compassion; it leads to involvement," the Pontiff continued.

"By the dignity it brings, mercy raises up the one over whom another has stooped to bring help. The one who shows mercy and the one to whom mercy is shown become equals."

The Pontiff was speaking on Thursday in three separate reflections to priests gathered in retreat at three different Rome basilicas - St John Lateran, St Mary Major, and St Paul's Outside the Walls.

During his reflections, Francs reminded priests it is "important to forgive completely, so that others can look to the future without wasting time on self-recrimination and self-pity over their past mistakes".

"Mercy is always tinged with hope. Mercy is the mother of hope."

Francis also said that "we can find the definitive icon of the vessel of mercy in the wounds of the risen Lord".

Explaining that Jesus kept the wounds of his crucifixion after his Resurrection, and that he may even have them in Heaven now, Francis said: "Those wounds remind us that the traces of our sins, forgiven by God, never completely heal or disappear; they remain as scars."

"God's mercy is in those scars," said Francis.

"In the scars of the risen Christ, the marks of the wounds in his hands and feet but also in his pierced heart, we find the true meaning of sin and grace."

Sources

• National Catholic Reporter
• Image: Crux

The Pope administered the sacrament of Reconciliation to 16 teenage boys and girls.

It was part of a three-day Jubilee for Teens, for young people aged between 13 and 16, which is an initiative of the Holy Year of Mercy.

The 16 teenage boys and girls whose confessions the Pope heard had been chosen at random from the throngs of banner-waving, rucksack-carrying young people present.

Francis was joined by 150 priests in hearing the confessions in front of St Peter's Basilica.

In a message published earlier this year in preparation for the Jubilee for Teens, Pope Francis wrote: "Don't just prepare your rucksacks and your banners - but your hearts and minds as well."

At a Mass at Sunday, Pope Francis told 90,000 young people that, because of their friendship with Christ, they are never alone.

"Even if you disappoint him and walk away from him, Jesus continues to want the best for you and to remain close to you; he believes in you even more than you believe in yourself."

"The biggest threat to growing up well comes from thinking that no one cares about us, from feeling that we are all alone," the Pope said.

"The Lord, on the other hand, is always with you and he is happy to be with you."

Moreover, Jesus calls young people to follow him, just as he did the first disciples, the Pope added.

"Jesus is waiting patiently for you. He awaits your response. He is waiting for you to say 'yes'."

Pope Francis told the young people: "Your happiness has no price".

"It cannot be bought: it is not an app that you can download on your phones nor will the latest update bring you freedom and grandeur in love."

"That is because love is a free gift which calls for an open heart," he said.

"It is a noble responsibility which is life-long; it is a daily task for those who can achieve great dreams!"

Sources

• Vatican Radio
• Catholic News Agency
• Image: Vatican Radio

Francis told hundreds of priests who are to serve as "Missionaries of Mercy" during the jubilee year that holiness of life is the principle of renewal and reform in the Church.

"Holiness is nourished by love and knows how to bring upon itself the weight of those who are weaker," he said.

"A missionary of mercy takes the sinner on his shoulders, and consoles him or her with the power of compassion."

Altogether, 1142 clerics from six continents will serve as missionaries of mercy.

The priests received their mandate on Ash Wednesday at St Peter's Basilica.

They are to hear confessions during the year and will be granted "the authority to pardon even those sins reserved to the Holy See."

This latter faculty is limited to the following sins

1. "Profaning the Eucharistic species by taking them away or keeping them for a sacrilegious purpose;"
2. "Use of physical force against the Roman Pontiff;"
3. "Absolution of an accomplice in a sin against the Sixth Commandment of the Decalogue;"
4. "A direct violation against the sacramental seal by a confessor."

In his address to the missionaries on the day before Ash Wednesday, Pope Francis reflected on the shame people sometimes feel in coming to Confession.

"Do not forget," the Pope exhorted the priests, "before us there is not sin, but the penitent sinner - a person that feels the desire to be accepted and pardoned."

". . .[W]e are not called to judge, with a sense of superiority, as if we were immune from sin," said Francis.

"On the contrary, we are called to act like Shem and Japheth, the sons of Noah, who took a robe over their father to hide his shame."

Sources

• National Catholic Reporter
• Vatican Radio
• Image: Consolidated Communications

In a Mass at St Peter's Square on December 8, Francis said the holy year is a gift of grace.

"How much wrong we do to God and his grace when we affirm that sins are punished by his judgment before putting first that they are forgiven by his mercy!" the Pope exhorted.

"It is truly so," he said.

"We have to put mercy before judgment, and in every case God's judgment will always be in the light of his mercy.

"Let us abandon all fear and dread, for these do not befit men and women who are loved," said Francis.

Saying that Christ is the door "through which we come to [God]", the Pope pushed through the Holy Door at St Peter's Basilica.

Retired Pope Benedict XVI was the second person to follow Francis through the door.

Francis has asked that dioceses throughout the world open their own holy door at a cathedral or other church in the holy year.

By making a pilgrimage to a holy door in a jubilee year, an indulgence can be gained, as long as other conditions are fulfilled.

An indulgence is a remission of the temporal punishment due to sin, whose guilt has already been forgiven.

At the St Peter's celebration on December 8, tribute was also paid to the Second Vatican Council, which officially closed its work on December 8, 1965.

The eucharistic celebration on Tuesday was opened with readings of excerpts from the Council's four constitutions and its documents on ecumenism and religious liberty.

In his homily, Francis noted the council was "a true encounter between the Church and the men and women of our time".

"An encounter marked by the force of the Spirit, who pushed the Church to emerge from the shoals which for many years had kept her closed in herself, to set out once again, with enthusiasm, on her missionary journey," he continued.

"It was the resumption of a journey of going to meet every person where they live: in their cities, in their homes, in their workplaces," he said.

Sources

• National Catholic Reporter
• Full text of Pope Francis's homily at the inauguration of the Holy Year
• Vatican City
• Catechism of the Catholic Church
• Image: Irish Times

In an interview with the magazine Credere, the Pope explained his decision to call a Jubilee Year of Mercy.

The Jubilee Year might help the faithful to recognise "the maternal dimension of God", the Pope observed.

He explained that he was speaking of "the tenderness, typical of a mother, God's tenderness that comes from his innate paternity. God is both father and mother".

At the conclusion of the interview, Pope Francis disclosed that he plans to make a number of public gestures to underline the theme of the Jubilee.

He said that "one Friday each month I will make a different gesture".

He did not discuss what those gestures might be.

Continue reading

The retired pontiff accepted the invitation of Francis to attend the opening.

Benedict will not take part in the whole official inauguration of the Jubilee of Mercy.

But he will be present in the basilica atrium for the rite of opening, following the Eucharistic celebration.

The opening of the Holy Door is intended to symbolically illustrate the idea that the Church's faithful are offered an "extraordinary path" toward salvation during the time of jubilee.

Continue reading

The 32-metre spruce tree from Bavaria was erected on November 18 in St Peter's Square.

It will be unveiled on December 8, a date when world attention will be on Rome at the start of the jubilee.

The tree's lights will be illuminated on December 18.

Continue reading

The initiative to help people who face having their utilities cut off was launched by Italy's bishops as part of the Jubilee tradition of forgiving debts.

"We are starting a project for the jubilee that sees mercy as debt relief," said Fr Paolo Gentili, director of the Italian bishops' conference's office for the pastoral care of the family.

Fr Gentili said his office was concerned about the growing number of Italian families who find it hard to make ends meet due to the economic crisis over the last few years.

He said daily expenses were a struggle, with families making every effort to pay the necessary bills to live, but still facing problems.

"The last bill becomes excruciating, a tear that turns into a river," Fr Gentili said.

He added that he was trying to get in touch with various companies that handle everyday utilities.

Fr Gentili said the Church has "always given, but is now called to give something even more concrete, to forgive debts, to give oxygen to the families".

He added that the initiative will start off with Rome, because of the Jubilee.

But the Italian bishops' conference will look at other large cities to see if the same scheme can be introduced elsewhere.

The Year of Mercy runs from December 8 to November 20, 2016.

Sources

• Catholic Herald
• Image: abcawesomepix.com

The last Pope to open the (cemented shut) Holy Door of St. Peter's Basilica for an universal Extraordinary Jubilee was the future saint, John Paul II, in 1983: he promulgated the Jubilee to celebrate the 1950 years since the Redemption carried out by Christ through his Death and Resurrection in the year 33.

The word "Jubilee" comes from the Hebrew "Yobel" meaning "billy goat", in reference to the ram's horn used in religious celebrations. The Jubilee is the year of the remission of sins and of suffering from sin, of reconciliation, of conversion and of sacramental penance.

365 days of solidarity, hope, justice and commitment to serving God in the spirit of joy and peace with everyone.

Above all, however, the Jubilee Year is the year of Christ, the giver of life and of grace to humanity.

It is called "Holy Year" because it is celebrated with sacred rites and also because its mission is the holiness of human life.

The universal Jubilee can be: Ordinary, if it falls after a set period of years (generally 50 or 25 years); extraordinary if it is declared as a celebration of an event of outstanding importance; particular if it is limited to the inhabitants of a particular city, province or area.

Its origins date back to the Old Testament as the official website of the Holy See explains: "The Law of Moses prescribed a special year for the Jewish people: "You shall hallow the fiftieth year and proclaim the liberty throughout the land, to all its inhabitants; it shall be a jubilee for you when each of you shall return to his property and each of you shall return to his family.

This fiftieth year is to be a jubilee year for you: you will not sow, you will not harvest the un-gathered corn, you will not gather the untrimmed vine. The jubilee is to be a holy thing to you, you will eat what comes from the fields."(The Book of Leviticus 25, 10-14).

The trumpet with which this particular year was announced was a goat's horn called Yobel in Hebrew, and the origin of the word jubilee. The celebration of this year also included the restitution of land to the original owners, the remission of debts, the liberation of slaves and the land was left fallow." Continue reading

Sources

• Vassallomalta
• Image: i-Italy

The "extraordinary Holy Year" will take place from December 8, 2015, the feast of the Immaculate Conception, to November 20, 2016, the Feast of Christ the King.

Announcing the closing date, the Pope added a new term to the title of Christ celebrated that day, also calling Jesus "the living face of the mercy of the Father".

Jubilee years come with the offer of an indulgence to pilgrims and start with the opening of the "Holy Door" of St Peter's Basilica, which is normally closed.

Ordinary jubilee years take place every 25 years while an extraordinary one can be announced to mark a particular event.

The last ordinary jubilee year was in 2000 and the previous extraordinary one was in 1983, to celebrate 1950 years since the death and Resurrection of Jesus.

The Jubilee Year of Mercy will take place on the fiftieth anniversary of the closing of the Second Vatican Council in 1965.

The year is seen as continuing the work of the council.

The Pope announced the jubilee year during a Lenten penitential service on March 13, which was the second anniversary of his election as Pontiff.

He said the whole Church "will find in this jubilee the joy to rediscover and render fruitful the mercy of God, with which we are all called to give consolation to every man and woman of our time".

The Pope also said he wants the Church to live the upcoming holy year "in the light" of Jesus' words in the Gospel of Luke: "Be merciful, just as your father is merciful."

Francis has made mercy a central theme of his papacy.

His 2013 apostolic exhortation Evangelii Gaudium mentions "mercy" 32 times.

Last year's extraordinary synod on the family is known to have discussed how the Church might use its teachings on mercy to address sometimes difficult contemporary family situations, such as divorce and remarriage and same-sex unions.

Mercy is expected to be a theme in the synod on the family in October.

Sources

• The Tablet
• National Catholic Reporter
• Image: Catholic Sun

Archbishop of Agana, Anthony Sablan Apuron, last month proclaimed a Jubilee Year for the Archdiocese to celebrate the 50th anniversary of its establishment on October 14, 1965, as a suffragan of the Archdiocese of San Francisco, California.

Archbishop Anthony proclaimed the Jubilee on Sept. 6 in front of hundreds of catechists, religion teachers and other faithful during the Fourth Catechetical-Liturgical Conference.

The archbishop said in the proclamation that the Jubilee Year will be "a year in which the treasures of the mercy of God will be given us, because he promised: ‘I will give you a new heart'. This year of grace will give us the contact with the Paschal Mystery which sanctifies our lives."

Source

• umatuna.org
• Image: media-cdn.tripadvisor.com

Bishop Peter Brown from American Samoa was the principal celebrant.

Head of State, His Highness Tui Atua Tupua Tamasese Efi addressed the crowd.

"On Tuesday last week when the SMSM committee invited me to say something today, I meditated and prayed for the occasion," he said.

His Highness Tui Atua, who is a Marist Old Boy, said he has been thinking of a theme to speak on but when he attended an event held at Vailima, he then understood its meaning.

"When the choir sang ‘who shall I see' I whisper to myself, that is God speaking...the story of Marist and St. Mary's missionary is a story of glory."

On Wednesday there was a procession from the Marist Primary School to the Government Buildings.

See 62 photos on Facebook

Source

• Samoa Observer

For a few years before the turn of the century, almost every statement by a bishop or other church leader or organization contained some paean to the jubilee.

The pope had called for it, and so all sorts of people either sincerely or for show acted as if the Church were on the verge of a great renewal and the world would enter a new age.

It didn't happen.

The year 2000 came and went and all the hoopla about it faded into oblivion.

It was, however, a lesson in how much certain people in the Church will act on something a pope says, even if they are merely play-acting.

Church of the poor

Now, we have a new pope who is calling for the Church to become more aware of, in service to and guided by the poor.

As in the past, we are already seeing hierarchs and others suddenly "getting religion" and parroting the pope's call for a church of the poor.

It appears that in many cases, their advancement in the Church had not brought them into contact with the biblical emphasis upon the poor that was there all along.

Certainly, a renewed commitment to the Gospel as good news for the poor is something to be applauded and emulated.

But, we must beware of repeating the Jubilee Year phenomenon of going through the mottos and motions without thought or real commitment.

Presumptuous condescension

When I was a boy, my family lived in a slum in New York City.

People from some churches in prosperous towns outside the city decided to do something for the poor neighborhood. So, they came to paint murals on the sides of buildings in order to beautify the area.

I hated them - the people, not the paintings, which I've forgotten.

Even as a boy, I could recognize presumptuous condescension in the attitude that our problems were better understood by outsiders and could be fixed by some basically cost-free gestures on their part without ever meeting, let alone consulting, the residents.

I also knew very well what would have happened if I and some of my friends had dared to go into those people's communities and started painting pictures on the walls of buildings there.

That experience has made me wary of Christians who would use the poor by inflicting their goodness upon them, hoping to nurture self-satisfied good feelings about being "servants of the poor" or "good Christians".

The poor are not projects. They are people.

Their economic and social situations are only parts of their stories, and usually not the most important parts.

But, someone who attempts to deal with their problems rather than with their selves will never learn that.

Like the muralists, they will only antagonize.

In fact, many of the problems that face people who are poor actually have their sources and solutions in the boardrooms of corporations or the offices of governments, and probably those are the chief places to deal with poverty by building unselfish justice and ending favoritism and corruption.

If instead of dealing with poverty, Christians want to deal with people who are poor, they must make the effort to meet with, listen to and share life's joys, frustrations, hopes and pains with them as equals.

Sharing the pain, and the joys

A Trappist monk in Japan once told me that so long as we feel sorry for another, we are not being Christian, for a Christian looks upon others as brothers and sisters and we do not feel sorry for our brothers and sisters.

We share their pain. The same is true of joys.

And sharing runs in two directions. If we go to the poor hoping to merely be hearers and viewers of their pains and joys without being willing to share our own, we are nothing more than voyeurs or tourists.

Truly mutual sharing will lead us all to a new level of communion and allow us all to serve one another.

Once we achieve that level of communion, only then can we know what the real needs and riches of others are.

Only then can we offer to join them in meeting those needs and nurturing those riches, whether material, emotional or spiritual.

We can also welcome their assistance in meeting our own needs and evaluating and using our own riches.

That is the kind of relationship with the poor to which Pope Francis, echoing the prophets and the Gospel, is calling us.

Fr William Grimm is a Maryknoll priest based in Tokyo, and publisher of ucanews.com

Source: ucanews.com

Image: ucanews.com

"Especially in a very secular world, we should always stress what is common in the Christian religion," said Merkel, who is the daughter of a Protestant pastor.

She was speaking during a rare appearance at the annual synod of the Evangelical Church in Germany, where Protestant leaders were working to make the "Luther Jubilee" more ecumenical by involving Catholics as well.

The German Chancellor said she had learned that "even the word 'jubilee' used in connection with the Reformation can give rise to discussions", because Catholics attach a special meaning to "jubilee years" and would prefer the anniversary to be called a commemoration.

In preparation for the celebration, the Evangelical Church — Germany's largest association of Protestant churches — and the Catholic Church have plans to write a book on Christianity together in 2013 and to hold a joint Bible conference in 2015.

The Evangelical Church president, Nikolaus Schneider, told the synod that there may also be a reconciliation service scheduled for 2017 "that recognises before God all the injuries both churches inflicted on each other".

Evangelical Church vice president Thies Gundlach has expressed the hope that, despite their differences, a "wonderful friendship" will develop between Catholics and evangelicals as a result of the anniversary events.

He said the "many ecumenical achievements that render visible the truth and beauty of Christian faith 500 years after the Reformation and 50 years after Vatican II" are grounds for joint celebration. He referred to agreement on the importance of Scripture, baptism and a general acceptance of ecumenism.

Catholic Archbishop Werner Thissen of Hamburg told the synod he hoped for an agreement on how to mark the anniversary.

"Times have changed dramatically since Luther," he said, noting that the Second Vatican Council of 1962-65 had "learned a lot from Martin Luther".

Sources:

Christian Post

Reuters

Image: MSN

Before being appointed as the second bishop of Hamilton, in 1994, Bishop Denis was the bishop of Rarotonga from 1977 to 1983, and bishop of Auckland from 1983 to 1994.

Bishops Charles Drennan, Robin Leamy and Len Boyle were among the concelebrants at the mass in the Cathedral of the Blessed Virgin Mary which was attended by large numbers of family members, friends and priests and deacons from the Hamilton and Auckland dioceses and from as far away as Australia.

Bishop Denis said, "I was humbled and delighted to share the celebration with so many people who've been instrumental in my vocation thus far, in particular my siblings who've supported me from the beginning."

"It was very special to be able to renew the promises I made at my ordination and for these special people in my life to be witnesses to these."

Of the the six children in the Browne family, the oldest child, Mary, married; three, Michael, Denis and Neville, became priests; two, Margaret and Agnes, became Sisters of Mercy.

Bishop Denis said, "I was ordained a priest the same year as the opening of the Second Vatican Council, since that time I've seen and experienced great change in society and in our Church. What has remained constant has been the love and support of parishes I've worked in and places I've travelled."

In his words of congratulations, personal friend and adviser to the bishop, Sir Peter Trapski, conveyed the gratitude of the Hamilton diocese.

"On behalf of the Hamilton diocese I wish to express our gratitude for your care and compassion over the past 17 years you've been among us. The role of bishop is at times a difficult one, particularly in our modern age where respect is not always a given, but you've shown fortitude and dedication to your vocation and the people that you serve and that is felt and sincerely appreciated," said Sir Peter.

Bishop Denis also received a letter of congratulations from the Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI for the double anniversaries.

Source

• NZCBC
• Image: NZCBC