Herewith a bit of a report on the last three months or so. In mid-October, Br Ian Cribb joins myself and a Josephite Sister on a five-day visit to homesteads in the Far North, going by four-seater plane to thirteen destinations, spending a half day in each and staying overnight with the families or in the Shearers’ Quarters. People come in from outlying Stations and we meet them and say Mass in some of the homesteads. The Josephite is roving Pastoral Associate, and Ian will reflect on what we might do in the way of the Exercises for such remote people. Our pilot is a farmer, not a Catholic, who has a property out of Carrieton in the north, and who offers this time for the bishop each year.
The names of the destinations are evocative of the Outback – Mintibie, Coober Pedy, Arkaroola, Oodnadatta, Marree, Mungerannie, Birdsville, Innamincka. Birdsville is just outside the diocese, but when Bill Morris, Bishop of Toowoomba, comes that far down, he also visits Innaminka (Pirie diocese) and when the Bishop of Pirie goes as far north as Innaminka, he visits Birdsville. Very relaxed arrangement – no worries re police checks etc!
For the rest, it is a matter of getting around over big distances. I have just clocked up 15000kms in just under four months, but have not yet got to the northernmost point at Uluru nor the westernmost just beyond Ceduna (though the diocesan boundary goes to the border). The people make an occasion of the visit, so lots of shaking of hands after the Mass and confirmations, and then suppers or luncheons abounding in cream.
I am very grateful for the support of the brethren, from the frequent hospitality of the South Australian communities (Fr Celso Romanin brought the whole Norwood parish team to Pirie one day for lunch), to the offer from Jesuit Theological College for two or four scholastics to come and help out in parishes for a couple of weeks after Christmas, to Fr Brendan Byrne and Fr Richard Leonard, who will be taking part in an in-service programme I am arranging for the Pirie priests to commemorate the Year for the Priest (YFP), to the frequent assistance given by the Sevenhill community. We are pushing the YFP a lot in the diocese – special prayers each Sunday, parish retreats, priestly in-service, prayer cards for students and families, weekly Exposition in each parish for the needs of the diocese, which clearly include vocations, as we have no seminarians (yet). There is such a need to support these priests in their isolated locales. Our priests are heroic in their commitment and are wonderful men, revered by the people, but age and health are energy and money matters of the diocese are issues that can wake up a bishop in the night. Therapy for the occasional addiction problem can be so contentious, and can be in price beyond our means. We are not free from scandals from the past; a former Vincentian who worked in the diocese 24 years ago has been extradited from Indonesia for abuse issues and has pleaded guilty to several of the charges, and I am dealing with some of the victims. Re personnel, I have written to a number of Religious Congregations here and overseas, seeking possible recruits. All the male religious have withdrawn from the diocese; I am the only male religious here. The Sisters, as they become frail, are also being withdrawn to the city, where they can be cared for, so fresh blood is needed.
I am investigating how we might appoint a Business Manager for the diocese, within our means. I am looking for someone to be a Vicar or spokesperson on issues affecting aboriginal people in the diocese (apart from health, educational and social issues, the north-west traditional communities are growing in size as people move away from the Intervention impact in the Northern Territory), a vicar or spokesperson to comment on issues arising out of the three major prisons in the diocese, and a vicar for religious, to care for the isolated Sisters. I attended the recent NATSICC conference in Brisbane, where Fr Mauri Heading was also present, to get some idea of the national Catholic scene and persons involved in indigenous ministry.
There are two Bishops Commissions of which I am a member. This month I attended the Sydney meeting of the Bishops Commission for Justice and Development; members are the bishops of Hobart, Broome, Darwin, Pirie and Julian Porteous. Its areas of responsibility are the Catholic Social Justice Commission, Catholic Earthcare Australia, and Caritas Australia. Jack de Groot, former SJ, is the Executive Officer and he and Archbishop Doyle were swimming at a beach in Samoa that two days later was devastated by the tsunami; they were there conferencing about how Caritas might respond to a natural disaster, and two days later … As chairman of the Bishops Commission for Education, I received an invitation recently to join a couple from the NCEC executive to have dinner with Julia Gillard (Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Education) to discuss educational issues. I can’t go because of the station-hopping mentioned above. I am much sadder to miss Fr Wieslaw Slowik’s jubilee party, because of the same hopping.
The size of the diocese, dotted with small communities, keeps amazing me. Extraordinary features abound, flora and fauna. For example, the Government has just given an estimate that there are one million (!) wild camels in the State. There is a plan for private enterprise to establish a plant at Port Pirie to "process" up to one hundred thousand of these camels a year, mainly for pet food!!
My admiration for Fr Alois Kranewitter, our pioneer Jesuit, grows each day as I drive around, me in the comfort of a Holden Captiva and he on a horse bought with the butter Brothers Schreiner and Sadler made and hawked through the countryside. What company we keep in this Society!
Bishop O’Kelly was appointed Bishop of Port Pirie 15 April 2009 and ordained bishop on 14 September 2009.