Fr Adi Indra’s childhood love of Lego came in handy on 16 March, when he assembled the visiting Jubilee Migrant Cross at St Brendan’s, Shepparton, with a helping hand from Santhosh and Tresy Jose, who had transported the Cross all the way from their parish, St Thomas Syro Malabar in Dandenong South.
The next day, on the Feast of St Patrick, Fr Ronaldo Masilang RCJ, Administrator of Shepparton, celebrated a special Mass with the Cross at the heart of the procession, and worshippers prayed for migrants. The Cross then made a surprise visit to St Mel’s, Shepparton South, where it was admired by parishioners at the Sunday Masses.
On 24 March, the Chancery’s Leslie Cooper and Michael Cooper collected the Cross from St Mel’s, Shepparton South, delivering it to St Kilian’s, Bendigo, where they were met by Fr Junray Rayna, Parish Administrator.
A Translation
An Indonesian-born priest assembles a migrant Jubilee Cross, delivered by Indian migrants, carried in a procession at the Feast Day Mass of an Irish saint, celebrated by a Filipino-born priest from an order founded by Italians.
The Cross then visits one of the Diocese’s most culturally diverse parishes, established to serve the growing number of Italians migrating to the area in the 1950s, originally served by an Irish Priest.
The Cross was then transported by an American migrant and her Australian husband to a parish originally formed by a German-born priest to serve the Irish migrants flocking to the goldfields. The parish is now administered by a Filipino-born priest with the assistance of a Maltese-born priest (both of whom are now Australian citizens).
A true tour of Australia’s migrant tapestry, and a joyful reminder of the many threads that make up the Church here in Sandhurst.