Appointed this year as Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Melbourne, Fr Tony Kerin approaches his new role with the insight of a seasoned priest and the focus of a footy coach, observing, guiding, and supporting clergy in their vocations and in pursuit of the Archdiocese’s mission.
‘I see my role as sort of like the coach of the team,’ he explains. ‘I’m not in the parishes, but I’m watching the performance of our staff and clergy in parishes and coaching them for better performance and trying to play them in the position that they’re suited to.’ For Fr Tony, this means cultivating people’s strengths, encouraging ongoing growth and making sure they have the support they need to serve Melbourne’s diverse Catholic community.
Born in Caulfield and raised in a family of nine children in Clayton, Fr Tony felt the call to serve the Church at a young age, going straight from school at De La Salle College to the seminary in 1971. He was one of 27 first-year seminarians living at Werribee when he began, back in ‘the days of large classes at the seminary’. When the seminary moved from Werribee to Clayton a couple of years later, he found himself back in his home suburb, attending ‘as a day student’.
Ordained in 1977 at St Patrick’s Cathedral, he began his ministry at Bennetswood Parish, and soon began studying canon law and working part-time at the Marriage Tribunal. When he moved to St Mary’s Parish in Geelong, his work with the Tribunal continued.
In 1986, Fr Tony travelled to Rome to pursue additional studies in canon law, earning both a masters in Church law and a diploma in Latin literature at the Gregorian University. The canon law course was taught and assessed entirely in Latin, he explains, ‘so I figured if I’m going to develop that language, I might as well go all in!’
On his return, he began working full-time with the Tribunal, a role he held for more than a decade. Working with people day after day at the Tribunal gave Fr Tony ‘a sense of what’s really important for many people,’ he says. ‘It also gives you a pastoral sensitivity in the parish.’
Fr Tony’s Tribunal experience was both challenging and formative, providing him with a deep understanding of people’s needs in times of crisis. ‘Everyone who comes to the Tribunal has a major issue … so we’re working with people at a time of trauma,’ he says. In a parish, ‘you’d only get one or two major problems a year,’ but ‘people are only going to the Tribunal because they’ve got a significant relationship issue in their lives.’ This work honed his pastoral skills, helping him understand the importance of being ‘open and connected’ to people.
When he left the Tribunal, Fr Tony returned to parish roles, serving for 11 years at St Martin de Porres at Avondale Heights and then for ten years in Box Hill. Each parish had distinct communities and challenges, giving him a deeper understanding of Melbourne’s cultural and spiritual landscape. At Avondale Heights, with its large Italian community, Fr Tony was able to use the Italian he’d learnt in Rome, ‘often celebrating funerals in Italian, but also doing an Italian Mass each week’. Box Hill, he says, ‘was a very different sort of community, largely Asian and subcontinental’.
In the space of a week, about 520 people had prayed for 80 per cent of the city. It was quite a remarkable achievement. But what was even more remarkable was the response to that prayer.
While at Box Hill, Fr Tony was involved in ecumenical initiatives that originated during the COVID pandemic and led to the formation of Whitehorse Churches Care Limited, an organisation bringing together 28 local churches to serve the surrounding community.
‘During COVID, when you couldn’t do anything except go for a walk, [and] you’re only allowed five people at church … we were really restricted,’ Fr Tony recalls. Along with Trudy Sayers, a pastor from Red Church in Blackburn, Fr Tony helped to coordinate a prayer walk of the City of Whitehorse, where people from local churches, ‘on their two-hour walk would pray for the streets that they walked along’. The result was impressive: ‘In the space of a week, about 520 people had prayed for 80 per cent of the city. It was quite a remarkable achievement. But what was even more remarkable was the response to that prayer. I said to Trudy, “You can’t say that many prayers and nothing happens!”’
One significant development in the wake of all that prayer was the establishment of a community hub at Forest Hill Chase shopping centre. Out of the blue, when the Bank of Melbourne pulled out of its lease, the centre’s management offered the newly vacant space to the local churches, who used it to create a community hub, a place ‘where people who are distressed or lonely … can find someone to sit with them and listen’. Fr Tony points out that ‘only about 40 per cent of people go to shopping centres to shop. Most people go to shopping centres to be with other people because they live alone, or to be warm in winter and cool in summer.’
Ecumenical collaboration, he says, was vital to getting the hub off the ground. ‘No one church on their own would have the volunteers or the staff to be able to do it. But together, we were able to employ a leader to coordinate all the volunteers from the different churches,’ allowing them to make the most of this important, if unexpected, opportunity for mission and service.
Fr Tony brings this same collaborative mindset to his role as Vicar General, recognising the diversity of parishes across the Archdiocese and the need for tailored approaches to community engagement. ‘We have different types of parishes,’ he explains. ‘St Francis [in Box Hill], for instance, serves people stopping in while shopping, whereas parishes near hospitals, like Heidelberg and Clayton, are there to support families visiting loved ones.’
Fr Tony sees his role as being a facilitator of this broad mission, noting that Melbourne’s changing demographics and community structures require different approaches. Looking back on his 46 years of priesthood, he recalls how, in his early days, he could easily meet parishioners by walking the streets, knocking on doors or catching people at home in the afternoons. ‘Nowadays, you can’t do that. You can’t get into high-rise accommodation or apartments,’ he says. Instead, he says, we need to identify ‘other ways of engaging people’ and of creating parish spaces that welcome them into a ‘place of encounter with Christ’.
An important part of this is helping priests and deacons to thrive in their roles. Drawing on his love for sports, he likens his role as Vicar General to that of a coach, especially when clergy face difficulties. ‘Some of them are playing injured,’ he explains. ‘They’ve had experiences or situations that have really tested them.’ Part of his job, he says, is to support and encourage these men, ensuring they don’t feel isolated. ‘If you’ve got a guy who’s struggling, then you’ve got to play people around him who can support and encourage and assist so he’s not out on his own.’
What are we offering … that values [people’s] time, that gives them the opportunity to be in God’s presence and to be with one another in prayer as we celebrate the sacraments? How do we make that sort of connection? This is our challenge.
He knows from his own experience how important it is for clergy to unwind and enjoy activities away from the intensity of parish life. Although he has now ‘retired’ from scuba diving and underwater photography, Fr Tony has treasured memories of diving adventures over the years, from the Coral Sea to Port Phillip Bay. ‘A lot of people just don’t realise how glorious Port Phillip Bay is,’ he says, explaining that the sea life in the bay is ‘so astonishing’ because of how cold and tidal it is. ‘And the colours and variety and diversity are superior, I reckon, to places like the Barrier Reef.’
Fr Tony also enjoys snow skiing—he has been chaplain at Mt Buller’s ecumenical chapel since 1993—and plays golf and guitar to relax.
‘Even playing golf badly is very enjoyable for me,’ he laughs, adding that he enjoys the companionship as much as the game itself. Playing blues and improvising on his Fender Stratocaster at home is also an ongoing source of creativity and joy.
Reflecting on his new role and what lies ahead, Fr Tony says he expected that ‘I would be needing to man the diocesan complaint box … and I haven’t been disappointed.’ Despite the challenges, he sees his work as integral to the broader mission of bringing the Gospel to Melbourne’s varied communities and drawing them deeper into the life of the Church.
‘What do we bring them to?’ he asks. ‘What are we offering … that values their time, that gives them the opportunity to be in God’s presence and to be with one another in prayer as we celebrate the sacraments? How do we make that sort of connection? This is our challenge.’
Banner image: Fr Tony Kerin.
