On the feast of her Queenship the Blessed Virgin Mary has been crowned the “lighthouse to all the suburb” of Greenacre in Sydney’s West.
The parish of St John Vianney and St Thomas More unveiled their new statue on 22 August in front of more than 400 parishioners at the church on Tempe Street.
Together parishioners and their families, along with teachers of the neighbouring St John Vianney Schooll, led the rosary in front of the lit statue before joining in solemn Mass to celebrate Mary’s feast.
The project not only brought together electricians, builders and other Catholic witness from St John Vianney and neighbouring parishes, but also led different faiths to honour the heavenly mother.
“One man who came to help is actually Muslim, he did the rendering of the structure for free,” said member of the parish’s financial committee Charbel Haddad, who helped orchestrate the project.
“People are finding ways to get involved in the church with their talents, which is exactly the purpose our charism’s serve.”
The new statue stands three metres tall on a structure resembling Our Lady’s church in Harissa, Lebanon, where many of the church’s parishioner’s roots go back to.
“The minute you say, ‘Our Lady,’ people just want to help, everybody loves her.”
Between diocesan approval, council licences and construction certificates, the project has taken close to a year to complete.
Parish priest Fr Pasquale Pizzoferro said the timing was “perfect” on a night for the community to honour Mary’s Queenship.
“She stands as a sign, like a lighthouse to all the suburb of Greenacre calling her community back to her,” he said.
Fr Pasquale hopes the reinvigorated faith around the parish and the power of Mary may spark new efforts of evangelisation in the parish, like weekly or monthly rosary groups at the foot of the statue.
“Mary I know will always present here in this parish, and so I hope now will be very much present in the life of every priest and parishioner that comes by our gates and into our church.”
Fr Pasquale also told The Catholic Weekly the project has sparked his interest to facilitate even bigger projects of evangelisation moving forward.
“It might be time to try and organise a pilgrimage next year from our parish to Fatima, Lourdes to see these places and increase Our Lady’s veneration and her place in our community’s hearts.”