The SVD AUS Province is supporting national efforts to raise funds for bushfire relief, with parishes, lay partners and confreres all contributing to the cause.

Provincial, Fr Asaeli Rass SVD, says the parishes in the Province were supporting the St Vincent de Paul Bushfire Relief Appeal through the Australia Day parish collection, as requested by Australia’s bishops and Catholic Religious Australia (CRA), and the Province was also considering any other ways  it might be able to help people get back on their feet.

The small, remote Indigenous community of Santa Teresa in the desert country of the Northern Territory has rallied together to donate food for the New South Wales town of Glen Innes, which was hit hard by the bushfires before Christmas.

Parish Priest of Santa Teresa, Fr Prakash Menezes SVD says the food collection drive was part of the parish’s Advent sacrifice.

New Year greetings to all. It’s not too late to say that is it? Not if it’s still January, surely. Even though the Christmas-New Year break is well behind us and most of us are back in the swing of work and life.

And what a horrendous Summer break it was for so many Australians this year, as the bushfires raged and lives, homes, businesses and animals were lost. Our prayers are with all those who died and with their loved ones.