As we approach the Jubilee Year in 2025, Pope Francis calls us to be pilgrims of hope, carrying the light of Christ on our journeys so that it might illuminate the places and situations we encounter along the way.
Melbourne's Syro-Malabar community knows well what it means to be pilgrims of hope, having boldly set out for distant shores, bringing their faith and traditions with them to light the way. On Saturday, they came together to celebrate a dream come true as their new mother church, the St Alphonsa Syro-Malabar Catholic Cathedral in Epping, was consecrated.
On Sunday, the feast of Christ the King, people from across the Archdiocese gathered to celebrate at St Patrick’s Cathedral as the Year of Prayer draws to a close, the Jubilee Year fast approaches, and the countdown to next year’s Australian Catholic Youth Festival begins.
We hear how a youthful kayaking trip with Cardinal Karol Wojtyla—the future St John Paul II—encouraged Fr Tadeusz Rostworowski SJ to pursue his vocation as a Jesuit missionary and priest, an adventure that would lead him from communist Poland via Rome to Romania and eventually to a new home in Melbourne.
And to launch our new ‘Pilgrims of hope’ series, we share the remarkable story of Gabrielle Mahony, who travelled to Rwanda as a young aid worker just months after the 1994 genocide, a challenging journey that would shape her, and her faith, profoundly. Thirty years later, in the wake of a terminal cancer diagnosis, she returns to the place that taught her so much about the power of hope.
