Sydney
27 April 2003
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Tears as Canadians part with the World Youth Day cross
3 million live in poverty: Vinnies
At lunch with theWiggles
Two Australians in planning for Cologne youth day
Prelates and priests bid Fr Les farewell
Govt urged to act on reconciliation
Warsaw Ghetto uprising will underscore Holocaust service
Govt can’t put failed asylum seekers away
Why John looked ‘to join Catholic faith’
Women’s groups and religious join forces in peace move
Project Rachel - healing retreat or ‘just someone to talk to’
Editorial: Vanishing dream
Letters: Pack your bags
Conversation: Allan McFadden, actor, musician, composer, teacher - ‘Cheap guitar’ led to a life of theatre, music
Voice of Youth: Tolerant? Why not try forgiveness?
Book honours ‘sons’ of Pius X
Fr Michael’s life of friendship, respect
LaSalle College to open its doors to girls
Relationships at heart of religion and humanity, graduates told
‘Space for prayer’ in the heart of the city
Why John looked ‘to join Catholic faith’
John, Sheriden, Kerry and Sandra at St Mary’s Cathedral
By Marilyn Rodrigues
“There was a real stigma about Cath olicism in the press” because of the
sex abuse scandal when John Nair, 28, began the Rite of Christian Initiation
of Adults program of weekly meetings in Horsley Park parish last year.
“Why would we,” he asks, “members of other Christian Churches, or non-baptised, be looking to join the Catholic faith?
“People will write what they want you to believe, but it is up to us to try to make an informed decision about these things.
“With all the Catholics I knew, I had never had that type of experience, or heard of it.”
John, one of two adults baptised during the Easter Vigil in Our Lady of Victories Church in Horsley Park, shared his experience of RCIA and his growth in faith with parishioners. And he added a plea - extend a hand of friendship to strangers and smile at each other at the sign of peace during Mass.
John, the son of a Christian father and Hindu mother, attended Xavier College in Perth. He believed in God, and later, when he was living in Sydney, would visit St Mary’s Cathedral to pray at difficult times in his life.
But he did not think seriously about being baptised in the Catholic faith until he became engaged to his wife Shashi, a Catholic who had converted in her teens.
“We more consciously thought about how to raise our children if we started a family, and what kind of family we wanted to be,” he said.
“I remember days when I came to church because it was an obligation, times when I was feeling little self-worth because of hardships, and I really did not want to bring my burdens, my shame or myself here,” he said.
“So much has changed.
“When I come to church on Sundays I do bring my burdens here to be dealt with.
“I want to be a good husband, a good son, a good friend and, when I leave here now, I believe that I am on the right path to do that.
And the Eucharist always seems to have a special significance to me.”
John and Shashi felt blessed to have the chance to share their life stories with others seeking rites of Christian initiation and their respective spouses - Sheriden Barone, a candidate (already baptised), and her husband, Gede; candidate Kerry Vella and her husband, Emanuel; and catechumen (unbaptised) Sandra Herc and her husband, John.
John says the beauty of becoming Catholic through the program was that by Easter he felt he was an important part of the parish community.
The converts were guided by the parish pastoral team: Frs Jude and Mario Zammit, Sr Margaret Valentine and Br Joe Bufalo, “an inspiration in the way they work and witness, instilling life and hope in our community”, says John.