The
Catholic Weekly
Online
Sydney
19 October 2003
Home
Archive
Subscribe
Links
Contact
Peace
in our hands
Jubilee
week for Pope
Special
guests at Mother Teresa’s beatification
School
insurance hike
Honoured
by university
It’s
truly feminine and truly beautiful
Spiritually
renewed by Lourdes
$1.75m
for Caritas
Catholic
Women’s Network
Board
short bonanza for Vinnies
Advice
to lectors, acolytes
Much
deeper reality
Editorial:
Time for tribute
Letters:
Barrel of a gun
Conversation:
Terry Hanley, lay missionary who has spent nearly 15 years in the field - Happy
to ‘spend rest of my life in Africa’
What
is peace like?
Religion
test upsurge
Malouf
on campus
Ministry
of Jesus to the sick and dying
‘Father,
this is your life’
‘Priest
in residence’ honoured
Bushland
setting for Thurgoona church
Full-on
disciple of Jesus
Active
practice of faith
Requiem
Mass for ‘Bacon Priest’
‘Father, this is your life’
‘Eugene Harley, this is your life,’ says TV host Mike Munro.
“Fr Eugene, this is your life.” Mike Munro, host of the TV show This is your life, was a surprise guest at celebrations to mark the golden jubilee of the ordination of Mons Eugene Harley, parish priest of Mosman and Neutral Bay.
More than 800 people had gathered in the grounds of Sacred Heart primary school, Mosman, for the jubilee Mass, which was concelebrated by Mons Eugene Harley and 18 other priests.
Guests included the Governor, Prof Marie Bashir, and her husband, Sir Nicholas Shehadie, Fr Eugene’s sister, Sr Bridget Harley, a Daughter of Charity who has worked in Ethiopia for more than 35 years, and cousins Eddie and Angela Manderson, who had flown from Scotland for the occasion.
The liturgy began with a procession in which Mons Eugene’s family and friends carried symbols of his life as a priest, including a chalice given to him by his family at his ordination and his Army cap and medals.
Mike Munro, a former student at Sacred Heart appeared with his famous red book to host The Fr Eugene Story.
He said that Fr Eugene had been born in Lithgow and was still young when his mother died. He was raised by his father and older sisters.
Eugene was a seminarian at Springwood and Manly. His eagerness to become active in local ministry led him to decline a scholarship to further his studies in Rome.
After ordination in 1953 and service in parishes in Glebe and Cronulla, Fr Eugene was appointed an army chaplain and accompanied troops in Malaya, Borneo and Vietnam. He was to become Principal Catholic Chaplain to the Army before retiring from the Army in 1985.
He returned to ministry in the archdiocese, enthusiastically embracing the role of parish priest of Sacred Heart Mosman which, in 2002, extended to responsibility for St Joseph’s, Neutral Bay.
He has been one of the foremost exponents of collaborative ministry in the archdiocese, building up a large team of dedicated lay people to spread the good news by word and works throughout the local area.
Mons Eugene is retiring at the end of the year. But his retirement will get off to a flying start. The parish’s present to him for his jubilee is an around-the-world air ticket.
To mark Fr Eugene’s golden jubilee, the children of the parish school recorded their thoughts about him: “Fr Eugene is one of the nicest priests I’ve ever met ... Fr Eugene will not let you down.”