Sydney
31 August 2003
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‘Good Shepherds’ can almost hear the water
By Marilyn Rodrigues
A group of Good Shepherd seminarians trying to fund a much-needed water purification system in North Vietnam are within sight of their $75,000 target.
Their major fundraising event for the year, a Vietnamese banquet at a Canley Vale restaurant, drew 800 guests and lifted the total to $72,831.
One family at the dinner gave $13,000 the following day.
Members of the Vietnamese Catholic community, their priests and chaplains joined the seminarians and their rector, Bishop-elect Julian Porteous, at the six-course Vietnamese banquet. The current and former Archbishops of Sydney, Dr George Pell and Cardinal Edward Clancy, were special guests.
The dinner raised $20,000 to go towards the building of the water treatment system for the bishop’s residence, seminary and other communities associated with the Vinh Thanh diocese in Vietnam.
The seminarians, members of the seminary’s Mission and Social Justice group, aim to raise the cost of the much-needed facility by the end of the year.
The seminary in Vinh Thanh has 87 students plus a number of priests and teachers.
Its one rainwater tank is inadequate, so students are sometimes forced to drink from a polluted river nearby.
One thousand in total will benefit from the new water treatment system, including residents of the bishop’s house, a convent and an orphanage.
Bishop-elect Porteous says: “It’s been a joy for the seminarians to give assistance to their fellow seminarians.”
Seminarians Liem Duong and Kevin Wagner (pictured at the dinner) have led the seminarian’s fundraising efforts. Kevin says the student-run initiative traditionally focuses its efforts on the raising of funds for foreign projects.