Right: Father Matthew, Provincial of The Heralds of The Good News India, Bishop Brian Heenan, Bishop Sarat Chandra Nayak, Bishop of Berhampur and Fr John Grace

Father John Grace and I have just returned from an amazing trip to India. As most would know, we went to meet up with three Religious Congregations, to invite some of their priests to come and minister in our diocese.

It was a remarkable experience to spend some days with the Norbertine Fathers, the Oblates of the Sacred Heart and the Heralds of the Good News. At the same time, it was an eye opening experience to travel through several parts of India and to experience the deep faith of the priests, religious and people of the parishes and dioceses.

There is a great deal of poverty in the places we visited, ordinary people seeking out a living with little resources. Yet, there was no poverty in their faith and in the simple, devotional way they put God absolutely first in their lives. It reminded me of what we had in earlier days in Australia and which has been diminished by our sophisticated and secular society.

The wonderful news is, that probably, later this year and into 2011, we will be gifted by three or four or five priests coming to work among us. They will always remain members of their congregation and if all goes well, after some years, they will be replaced by other priests from their congregation. We have agreed that we would never want them to leave their homeland permanently.

We found that the priests we met were extremely well educated and prepared for ordination. Belonging to Religious Congregations, they began their studies after Year Ten, the year of matriculation, and continued university courses, novitiate in the Congregation, philosophy and theology, for up to twelve years. The priests we met were articulate and prayerful and any who will come, I believe, will be a gift to us all, priests and people alike.

The Catholic/Christian population of India is just two percent (2%), with over eighty percent (80%) being Hindu and thirteen percent (13%) being Muslim. We were overwhelmed by the welcome we received, certainly from our hosts, but generally also from all the people we met.

I am deeply grateful for having had the opportunity to visit India. It is a land of incredible culture and tradition. Beyond that discovery, it has been for me a renewing of my faith for which I thank God.

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The Bishop’s Inservice Days throughout the diocese were blessed by the presence and contribution of Father Laurence Freeman, a Benedictine Monk from England, who shared from his vast experience on prayer and meditation. Again, we owe a tremendous debt to our Catholic Education Office who provided this gift to priests, teachers, leaders, catechists and many parishioners.

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The month of March is now upon us, and we look forward to the foundation of all we believe, the Paschal Mystery of Easter. We will gather our priests for their Pre-Easter Gathering at The Haven from 21st-24th March, culminating for the whole diocese with the Mass of the Holy Oils on Wednesday 24th March. This is The Year of The Priest which will be our theme for the Mass of the Oils.

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Thank you to all who have responded to the Cathedral Restoration Appeal. I can only ask that you consider a yearly contribution, to enable us to complete the restoration which is going very well, though proving very costly.

May the Season of Lent be one of grace and a new coming to life in the person of Jesus.

Yours sincerely,

+ Brian Heenan
Bishop of Rockhampton

Right : Bishop Brian Heenan and Fr John Grace with some children from an orphanage during their recent visit to India