Online Thursday 27 July 4.00 p.m.

Featuring Uncle Ron Briggs, Aunty Violet Sheridan and Esmai Manahan

Catholic Mission shares an exercise to bring us closer to the truth and a picture that is whole. 

Hundreds of people gathered on Wednesday evening to celebrate the Ordination of Bishop John Panamthottathil CMI as the second shepherd of the Syro-Malabar Eparchy of St Thomas the Apostle in Melbourne.

This unique Australian Pilgrimage will take you on a journey to places associated with Mary MacKillop’s life and ministry in Victoria, South Australia and New South Wales. The pilgrimage is operated by The Sisters of Saint Joseph and Mary MacKillop Place. It will be led by by Sr Anne Bond rsj, a Sister from the Sisters of Saint Joseph, and Mr Garry McLean, the inaugural Director of the Mary MacKillop Heritage Centre.

Not many priests can say they’ve concelebrated Mass at a Cathedral while a Mass setting they have composed is debuting. This, however, is the lived experience of Jesuit Fr Christopher Willcock when his composition ‘Mass: Our Common Home’ was recently sung publicly for the first time at Sacred Heart Cathedral.

The new Mass setting was led by Sarah Gould (Cantor), Thomas Heywood (Organist) and members of the Cathedral Choir (directed by Paul Taylor) at the 11.00 a.m. Mass on Sunday 19 February 2023. 

Fr Willcock was commissioned to compose a Mass setting for the the Diocese of Sandhurst and Sacred Heart Cathedral parish by an anonymous supporter. Heeding Pope Francis’ Laudto Si’ call to find ways to creatively give praise and thanks for God’s Creation during the Celebration of the Eucharist, Fr Willcock titled the Mass Setting, ‘Mass: Our Common Home’.  

Fr Willcock wanted to foster congregational participation in the Mass, so he underpinned most of the composition with the melody of a pre-existing composition HYFRYDOL, which is used for texts such as Love pine, All Loves Excelling and Lord, You Give the Great Commission.  Using a melody that already sits in the collective memory of many Church-goers is a clever approach that will hopefully foster more participation in the music of the Mass and more uptake of the Mass setting locally and more broadly around Australia and beyond. (A traditional approach in the history of Church music and western music composition in general).

Fr Willcock was commissioned by an anonymous supporter to compose the Mass setting for the Diocese of Sandhurst and Sacred Heart Cathedral Parish. He has generously agreed for the Mass: Our Common Home Settings to be uploaded to the Diocesan website so that parishes, schools and other communities can freely download and use the score.   

default Download for Mass: Our Common Home (1.15 MB) default  [Setting for Unison voices + Keyboard] (1.15 MB)

  default Download Mass: Our Common Home [Congregational Melody Line for workshop aids]  (850 KB)

 Download for Mass: Our Common Home  (Recordings)

About Fr Chris Willcock

Fr Willcock has an international reputation as an outstanding composer of liturgical music during the post-conciliar era. Born in 1947, he has written several hundred compositions, both for the Church and the concert platform.  Several of his Masses, and collections of psalmody have been published by Oregon Catholic Press.  

Fr Willcock was commissioned to write music for the papal visit of Pope John Paul II (1986), World Youth Day (2008), and has undertaken commissions from local Cathedrals, orchestras, and choral ensembles such as the Tallis Scholars.  He has always been particularly generous in responding to commissions from Dioceses and religious congregations for compositions and arrangements for special occasions.  

In 2022, Christopher Willock was awarded an honorary Doctorate from Australian Catholic University for his services to liturgical music within the Catholic Church.   

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Laudato Si’ Week 2023: 16-24 May

Last week marked the eighth anniversary of Pope Francis’ landmark encyclical “Laudato Si’: On Care for Our Common Home”.

The National Centre for Evangelisation has launched a new website and a companion book to help answer the questions people commonly ask when they are considering becoming Catholic.

Following an announcement on 30 May that Catholic Church Insurance is voluntarily being placed in a run-off situation, we restate our commitment to responding with justice and compassion to victims and survivors of abuse in Catholic settings – as we have sought to do for many years.

Against the backdrop of Reconciliation Week, research released last week by Caritas Australia shows that over two-thirds of Australians believe it is important for the Federal Government to address the legacy of the Stolen Generations. This sentiment is even stronger amongst younger Australians, with 82 percent of 18- 34-year-olds believing that addressing the legacy is important.

On Saturday, 27 May, the City of Greater Bendigo hosted a Climate Summit at Ulumbarra Theatre to launch the draft of the Greater Bendigo 2030 Zero Emissions Roadmap. Representatives of the Catholic Community participated at the event in a strong show of support for action on climate change.