A Warm Welcome for La Salettes
in the Diocese of Paramatta, Australia

(An article by Dan McAloon in “Catholic Outlook”, April 2008, a publication of
the Catholic Diocese of Paramatta, reprinted with permission; this is a new diocese,
founded in 1986, situated west and south of Sidney, Australia)

Picture below:
From left: Fr. Jolly Chako,M.S.,
Fr. Mathew Manjaly Antony, M.S. and
Fr. Sunny Micayil Poovathumkudy, M.S.

“We're in the adjustment and adaptation stage of our mission. Each day we learn a little more of the Australian way of doing things and pick up a bit more of the Australian idiom,” said Fr Mathew Manjaly Antony MS, a priest of the Our Lady of La Salette Missionaries.

Fr. Mathew and three other La Salette priests from the order's Indian Province arrived in the Diocese last year at the invitation of Bishop Manning. While establishing a communal house at Werrington, each priest is in ministry in different parishes across the Diocese.

Fr. Porathur Rappai Joy is assistant priest at Holy Family Parish, Mt. Druitt; Fr. Sunny Micayil Poovathumkudy is assistant priest at St. Bernadette's Parish, Castle Hill; and Fr. Jolly Chacko is assistant priest at St Nicholas of Myra Parish, Penrith.

Fr. Mathew is assistant priest at Mary Immaculate Parish, Quakers Hill. Previously, the order's leader for the India region (now a province), Fr. Mathew has also ministered in the U.S., the Philippines and India. He said that despite being in a new culture, for a missionary priest such as himself, “there is always common ground of understanding as Catholics in the Universal Church. We La Salettes are about reconciling people with Christ.”

At Mary Immaculate Parish, Fr. Mathew said he had already forged strong bonds ‘with lots of ‘fair dinkum’ Australian Catholics”, including many from the local Filipino and Maltese communities.

“I lead the novena on Wednesday nights. On Sunday nights after Mass the Couples for Christ group brings together 50 couples in the parish hall. They are a lively group and we have had many good discussions around living our faith to the full.”

Fr. Mathew said he had been inspired to the join the La Salette Missionaries while in India as a 15-year-old seminarian preparing to be a diocesan priest. “My bishop was very understanding of my change of vocation. ‘So long as you remain in the vineyard of the Lord, I will be pleased,’” he said.

The order was founded in 1852 on La Salette Mountain in France on the site of the Marian shrine where six years earlier an apparition of Our Lady as a weeping woman had appeared to two children tending their herds. Ever since that time, the site of Our Lady of La Salette has been a pilgrim destination for those praying for Our Lady's intercession.

The missionary order of religious priests and brothers established at La Salette was approved by Rome in 1890. Its apostolic school had been founded many years earlier and soon facilitated the congregation making foundations in the U.S., Canada, Belgium, Madagascar, Poland and Brazil. Today the order numbers about 1,000 priests and brothers in 11 provinces across 25 countries.

In 2006, the Philippines province reached agreement to send a ministry presence to the Diocese of Armidale, at the invitation of Bishop Luc Mathys. Meanwhile, the newly formed province of India sent Fr. Mathew and his companions to Parramatta.

Reconciliation is the charism of the Missionaries of Our Lady of La Salette. Their symbol is a replica of the distinctive cross described as being worn by the apparition of Our Lady on 19 September 1846. It shows the hammer and pinchers on the arms of the cross.

“The symbolism of the cross”, Fr. Mathew said, “is that by our sins we push the nails into Christ's flesh, but that adherence to the sacraments, and getting away from sinful activities, will remove the nails of sin.”