INTERNATIONAL PILGRIMS IN BALLARAT On Thursday 10 July our family welcomed two pilgrims from Macau into our home. Catholicism is very much a minority religion in Macau, so it was heartening to hear the girls stories of sharing their faith in their home communities, and anticipation for the World Youth Day event ahead of them. From Macau While our children were initially anxious about having the pilgrims stay, and having to give up their beds for a few days, it didn t take long for them to enjoy the new company and agree that the experience was both a valuable and enriching one. While we only played a small part of hospitality along their pilgrim journey, it was humbling to be part of their faith journey as they went on to Sydney. We certainly were left with the impression that world truly is a global village, and it was great for our family to see the call of faith bring people together from all over the world, and make a few new friends in the process. Despite concerns some may have over the future of our Church, our experience, as with many others, is that the spirit of Jesus is alive and well in the world through the many faith filled youths that we were privileged to meet. Ballarat Welcomed Holland - Paul Jans Just reflecting on the visit by the Dutch pilgrims to Ballarat I would like to express my sincere thanks to all the warm hearted and kind parishioners and all others involved in making their stay in Ballarat a terrific success. Stacey Atkins, Diocesan World Youth Day Coordinator, is by now having a well deserved break after doing what to my mind was an enormous task of organising the whole exercise. Continued.. Stacey welcoming Dutch pilgrims at the Civic Reception.
To the Sisters of Nazareth House, the Colleges, the Parishes and the Schools for the group accommodating of the pilgrims, you all deserve the highest praise. Personally, I enjoyed having a couple of boarders staying over and I especially enjoyed the Civic Welcome at the Mining Exchange, didn t realise I still have a soft spot for colour orange Already, I have received e-mails from Holland expressing their joy about their time in Ballarat and they want to come back. It was heartening to see all the hugs and kisses being exchanged when they boarded the buses at the Cathedral on Sunday night. Herman with Jeroen Goosens at the Civic Reception. Once again, thank you and may God bless all of you. - Cr. Herman Ruyg Irish Pilgrims In Bungaree Recently the Parish of Bungaree hosted 38 pilgrims from Ireland, who were on their way to celebrate WYD08 in Sydney. The pilgrims were from Kilkenney Parish, Diocese of Ossory, Ballina (Killmoremoy) and Belmullet Parishes, Diocese of Killala. Continued..
The pilgrims had arrived in Melbourne first and had a few days enjoying our beautiful capital city. They were then welcomed to our Parish on Wednesday, July 9, 2008 at the Dunnstown Community Centre and we were finally able to meet the people who would be staying in our homes for the next 5 days. We shared meal with our new friends and were honoured to have in attendance our own Bishop, Peter Connors, and the WYD08 Co-ordinator for the Ballarat Diocese, Stacey Atkins. Many thanks to all those who cooked, served and cleaned at Dunnstown on this night. It was a cold and dreary night, but a very warm welcome was given to the pilgrims. Many of them had commented that they had left an Irish summer to come to our colder climate! After a very enjoyable evening we all went home to get to know our new friends and hear of their experiences so far and their expectations of what was to come in Sydney. On Thursday, July 10 our pilgrims attended a presentation on Count O Loughlin, a significant figure in our parish, presented by Michael Taffe. They were then invited to lunch with the Sisters of St John of God, which they thoroughly enjoyed. During the afternoon an Art & Culture Exchange was held at Loreto College, Ballarat in which all pilgrims who were in Ballarat attended. The evening meal was held at Midlands Golf Club and then all pilgrims were bussed to St Patrick s Cathedral, where a Welcoming Mass was celebrated by Bishop Peter Connors. Friday, July 11 was a Social Justice day where all pilgrims participated in various activities around Ballarat. Mass was celebrated at the Telstra Dome in Melbourne on Friday night, and around 40,000 pilgrims from across Victoria were in attendance. On Saturday, July 12 all pilgrims enjoyed a day at Sovereign Hill and had an Aussie experience of a Bush Dance at Damascus College, Mt Clear. On Sunday, July 13 Mass was celebrated at St Michael s Bungaree at 9.30am with our Irish and Canadian pilgrims. Bishop Seamus Freeman from the Diocese of Ossory celebrated Mass and was joined by concelebrants Bishop Peter Connors (Ballarat), Fr Richard Scriven (St John s Parish, Kilkenney Diocese of Ossory,), Fr Muredach Tuffy, Ballina (Killmoremoy) Parish, Diocese of Killala), Fr Francis Judge (Belmullet Parish, Diocese of Killala,) and Fr Mark Condon (St Mary s Cathedral, Kilkenney, Diocese of Ossory). The Altar was very full indeed!
Both local parishioners and our visitors participated in the Mass and Fr Richard preached and led us in song. We were truly blessed to be able to participate in such a wonderful liturgy with a near to capacity crowd. After Mass we had morning tea in our Parish Centre and again we were able to come together as a Parish and enjoy the company of those old and new. Many of the Irish pilgrims (some a little under the weather) then headed to Melbourne to see an AFL match between Hawthorn and Sydney and witness what one pilgrim described as, our second religion. A very tired and weary group attended a Commissioning Ceremony in St Patrick s Cathedral on Sunday night, celebrated again by Bishop Connors. All pilgrims were officially farewelled from our Diocese to continue their pilgrimage to Sydney. On Monday morning, July 13 we said good-bye to our new friends as they left for their flight to Sydney. There were many hugs, a few tears shed, addresses and email addresses exchanged and lots of photos. The Parish is very grateful to Brendan Spratling and Ray Frawley who did much of the organisation and co-ordination of the Homestay Program. It was a great experience for our Parish and an opportunity to come together as a community to meet one another again some new faces and some who have been around a bit longer! Thanks to the Irish for choosing to come to our lovely Parish and leaving with us a wonderful experience. - Julie Boyd Our Canadian Visitors On the 9 th -14 th July we had two Canadian pilgrims come stay with us. They were two girls called Janique, 21 and Sarah, 18. They were so excited when they arrived here at 1.00 am, they woke me up they were so wrapped to be here. The next day they tried our Vegemite but they both said that it was bad, we laughed. They had brought their own food, such as Cheese Wiz for us to Janique and Sarah with friends
try, it wasn t bad. On the Saturday, Janique and Sarah went to Sovereign Hill and they came home and said they loved it and how amazing it was. That night we decided that we would take them to the Wildlife Park and they started screaming they were that happy. At the Wildlife Park we saw all of the animals, but they liked the koalas and the kangaroos the best. On Monday they had to leave and go see Pope Benedict. They both gave us presents for the family. Some things they gave us were biscuits, maple syrup, tattoos and badges. We also gave them a gift, a kangaroo and a necklace with a koala on it. It was great fun with them. - Ben Collins Experience of the Netherlands As part of World Youth Day 2008 our family had the pleasure of having two young girls from the Netherlands stay with us. The girls came to us feeling very tired after attending the celebrations in Sydney and a 15 hour bus ride to Ballarat. The first night was a challenge as the bus arrived 3 ½ hours late, the girls had no dinner that night or showered for several days so you can imagine how much they appreciated hot water, warm beds and food. Our next challenge was to pronounce their names correctly, Femke and Astrid this was made a little easier as the girls had reasonably good English skills. It was a wonderful experience for our family to exchange cultural differences, we took them to their first AFL football match, had vegemite on toast which they loathed and watched Home & Away on television. The girls thought it strange that our children wore full school uniforms to school, that our backyards were so big and they couldn t believe how much Australians love chocolate. We had a wonderful time hosting the girls and they have emailed us on their return home to say they had a wonderful time in Australia. We also learnt to speak Dutch ok five words; 'Hoi' (Hi) 'Hoe gaat het (How s it going) 'Doei!' (Goodbuy) - Donna Mason