Close to 1,000 people packed out Infant Jesus Church in Morley to see Perth Archbishop Barry Hickey ordain four more priests for the Archdiocese of Perth on Friday night. Ordained were: Andrew Lotton, Jean-Noel Antoine Marie, Jeronimo De Jesus Flamenco and Bonaventure Anny Echeta, The Record reports.
Also present were relatives from three nations across the globe who had come to see their sons and brothers begin lives as priests in one of the most remote nations in the world. Fr Jean-Noel hails from Mauritius, Fr Jeronimo Flamenco from El Salvador and Fr Bonaventure from Nigeria.
While each of these three began seminary studies or discernment of their vocation in other countries, all completed their formation at St Charles Seminary in Guildford.
Also present were family and clergy from Canberra and Sydney who had come to Perth for the ordination of Fr Lotton, a Canberra native. Fr Lotton prepared for priesthood at the Redemptoris Mater seminary in Morley.
Later, a festive atmosphere prevailed as relatives of Fr Echeta who had flown into Perth that evening from the US and Nigeria celebrated in traditional African style with impromptu singing and dancing, both inside and then outside the Church.
The new priests' vocation was awesome, Archbishop Hickey told the packed Church during his homily. They would consecrate themselves in the special ministerial priesthood of Jesus to God and the service of God's people and would walk in the footsteps of Christ as they did.
But their ordinations were not a reward for doing their studies well; they were ordained to serve others, he said. As priests of today they needed to understand the world in which they would be working so that they could bring the Good News of the Gospel to the people of this time, he said. But they needed to preach in such a way that their words were understood by their listeners and were able to unlock hearts.
The Archbishop recalled how he had recently re-read Pope John Paul II's 2003 document Ecclesia in Europa, produced after the Synod of Bishops in Europe. There, the late Pope had spoken of a new culture that had emerged in Christianity's heartland, characterised by agnosticism, indifference to God and relativism in values and morals.
The Pope had called on the whole Church, but especially priests, to understand the new spiritual terrain and culture in which they sought to evangelise.
What had resonated with him, Archbishop Hickey said, were the similarities in Australia: a widespread agnosticism characterised by a lack of interest in pursuing the spiritual dimensions of life, an indifference to God and a high degree of moral relativism up to and including Australian parliaments where serious moral issues were decided by majority vote rather than by reference to the truth about people.
The new priests must understand the language and means of communication of the modern world. Nor would theirs be an easy life; just as the Apostles had done they also would have to go out into the world to preach the Gospel, to be exhausted at the end of each day. Nor could priests relax in an easy parish life where they were treated as if they were on a pedestal; they needed to go out and labour among the people constantly for God.
"They must announce Christ crucified, risen and present now. They must announce that the era of the Holy Spirit has begun - and we are in it now," he said. "They must go out and their works will be fruitful."
He urged the faithful to pray for the new priests. Meanwhile, the leadership of the new priests must be humble and they must have a special love for the poor "so that no one need ever fear a priest," he said.
The Archbishop concluded by thanking God for continuing to send the Church in Perth "labourers in the vineyard of the Gospel."
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