Pope Francis has referred to the church as a family of families but even he would be impressed by St John the Baptist Bonnyrigg, which has a five-generation family attend Mass every Sunday.
Ninety-eight year old Giuseppina (Josephine) Natale, her daughter Angela Di Donato, 75, granddaughter Giovanna Rapisarda, 54, great granddaughter Simone Kristan, 27, and great, great granddaughter Valentina squeeze into a pew at Bonnyrigg’s 10am Mass.
The five-generation strong Catholic family then gets together for lunch at Giovanna’s house.
Enduring “terrible” seasickness, family matriarch Josephine made the month-long journey from Italy on the Sydney in 1961 with her late husband Emidio and their six children.
They were among the two million migrants who came to Australia in the decades following the Second World War.
Her childhood was sadly marred by the war, because she had a brother die when their town was bombed.
She grew into a young woman who attracted “a lot of boys” but decided to elope with husband Emidio.
Her granddaughter Giovanna grew up knowing her Catholic faith was important, but later in life her husband Alf was determined that their children go to Catholic schools.
“That’s when I really got back into my faith because here was my four and-a-half-year-old daughter coming home from school knowing more about it than I did,” Giovanna said.
“I thought, ‘That’s just not right’ and it’s like the light started burning again.
“My husband and I did an Alpha course at St Joseph’s at Moorebank and other little bits here and there and got much deeper into our faith.”
Giovanna’s family is heavily involved in the parish and evangelisation. Great-granddaughter Simone runs a nightly rosary group via Zoom, her sister Nadine is a teacher at the parish school.
Giovanna is herself a catechist who has run prayer and bible study groups, as well as Alpha.
“There are seven of us here on Sundays now, and with a pram, so it’s quite special,” says Giovanna.
“Now it’s amazing that not only do I always put God first but the whole family does as well. But it’s taken years to get to this point.
“I always said to the girls, ‘We need to put God at the centre of our life. It’s not just about going to church on Sunday, it’s also how we try to live our life.’”
While the men in the family are all supportive, Simone says it’s the women who have worked hard to hold the family together and transmit the faith.
“They organise the family events and keep everyone close. Having that same like-mindedness about the faith, I think, keeps us all bonded and together as well,” she said.
Giovanna had high praise for the “joyful” parish priest Fr Dominic Dinh who in turn says the family are a “wonderful” presence at St John the Baptist.
Many young families make the south-west Sydney parish their home, with Roman Catholicism the largest single religion in the Western Sydney local government area at the last Census, making up 22.6 per cent of the population or 588,091 people.
“For me, life centres on the Eucharist, family and marriage,” Giovanna said.
“It is challenging though, and we couldn’t do without the guidance of the church, especially our priests and the religious sisters.”
