A beautiful surprise awaited Fr Francois d’Assise Andrianihantana SVD when he finally returned to his home in Madagascar to celebrate his post-ordination Thanksgiving Mass – nine months after he was ordained a priest in Melbourne and three years since he last saw his family.

The COVID pandemic had prevented Fr Francois from returning home earlier, but when he arrived back in his home village, those difficulties melted away as he was met by all the children of his village, singing a special song, composed by his mother.

The Season of Creation – the annual Christian celebration of listening and responding together to the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor – is drawing to a close and once again, it has been an important reminder of how faith communities can respond together to the climate crisis.

The Season of Creation began on September 1, the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, and ends on October 4, the Feast of St Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of ecology.

For those, like me, who have ever played the game “Pokemon Go”, you might be able to relate with me. As far as I understand the game, you capture as many Pokemon monsters as you can.

Just a few days before the recent national Homelessness Week (August 1-7), staff in the St Stephen’s Cathedral precinct in Brisbane’s CBD were invited to a meeting to learn more about those sleeping rough outside their offices, writes Bishop Tim Norton SVD in The Catholic Leader.

We weren’t sure how many staff would attend so it was a pleasant surprise to see about 100 employees come in during their lunch break to hear from homelessness outreach specialists.

This past weekend, the Catholic Church in Australia marked Social Justice Sunday, and this year, the bishops chose to focus on the pressing issue of domestic and family violence.

We only to have to watch the news to know what a big problem this is in our community. And sadly, too many Australians, mostly women and children, have first-hand knowledge of the trauma of violence.

In 2018, I attended the episcopal ordination of Bishop Ewald Sedu, in Maumere. Maumere is a very Catholic town, on the very Catholic island of Flores, in very Christian eastern Indonesia.

How many of us, especially the younger generation, have thousands of Facebook friends but have never met them in person? I am sure one of them.

I have to admit that for quite some time I have not read many SVD publications. I feel I don’t find anything new. The familiar messages of multi/intercultural, international, dialogue(s), mission, ‘world is our parish’, ‘unity in diversity’… all sound too familiar from the novitiate days and almost slogan-like. It’s the same message, just under different packaging. Social justice and climate change! Oh yeah, great! Who would not stand up for such lofty ideas in this age of the globalisation, unless one is a bigot.

Like doubting Thomas, instead of taking ideas for granted, we must keep asking questions and re-examine what is passed on to us. Renew and revive!

The Janssen Spirituality Centre in Boronia, Victoria, was host recently to a series of five workshops on interculturality, attended by both interested lay people and religious, including SVD students from Dorish Maru College.

The workshops were presented by Sr Cathy Solano RSM, who has a background in education and spent several years working in Africa. She also has a Master’s in Intercultural Studies from Catholic Theological Union, Chicago.

A contractor needed one more man to chop down trees for export. One day, two men appeared willing to do the job but only one could be employed so what the contractor did was to put the two men to a test, they were to chop down as many trees as they could in an eight-hour shift and the man who chopped down more trees got the job.