Social Justice and the Environment – Page 3 – Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish Sunbury

October 3, 2014October 3, 2014

PARISH MEETING NIGHT

Next gathering of parish groups is on Wednesday 8 October at 7.30pm in St Anne’s School.

August 1, 2014August 29, 2014

REPORT ON A VISIT TO THE HIV/AIDS SUPPORT TEAM IN JAKARTA

REPORT ON A VISIT TO THE HIV/AIDS SUPPORT TEAM AT THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY IN JAKARTA FRANK & JOY O’CONNOR REPRESENTING THE PARISH OVERSEAS HUMANITARIAN SUPPORT GROUP.

“On 18th June we initially met Professor Irwanto (the Project Director) and his support staff (including volunteers) who provide care for the families of children living with HIV/AIDS in the city’s slums. Professor Irwanto and the carers wanted us to pass on their sincere thanks to the parishioners of OLMC for the generous donations that have helped provide nutrition and medication to the children.
With the Support Team we then visited four families with HIV/AIDS children, all of them living in the very poorest parts of Jakarta.
The first was a boy of about 6 years who not only was HIV-infected but also had serious eye problems so that he could barely see. He also had other obvious physical problems. His mother who had AIDS, sat on the concrete floor with the boy on her lap, in a single room about 3m x 3m which they occupied. This was located near the end of a series of narrow alley-ways off a crowded street full of cars, motorbikes, pushbikes and people. Despite her dire circumstances the young mother could smile and showed much affection to her seriously ill child. The three case workers enquired as to how the boy and mother were managing and to check that he was being given the ART (Antiretroviral) medication essential for those infected with HIV.
Early in the afternoon we visited a small HIV+ boy in a community hospital. He had been admitted a few weeks earlier with severe malnutrition and after a touch & go struggle for survival he was starting to improve. A young uncle was staying at the small hospital to help look after the boy who was very listless during our visit but we did manage to coax a “high-five “from him when leaving. The concern for this child was to ensure he received adequate nutrition after leaving the hospital and this is where Professor Irwanto’ s support team play their role.
Our next visit was to an extremely poor area to see a woman living in a tiny room with a 5 year old HIV+ daughter. Several of us sat on the floor but others could only stand at the doorway. The woman also had an older boy who was HIV negative but had intellectual problems. Her other daughter aged about 17 had the most beautiful little baby who was sleeping on the bare floor. The temperature was in the 30’s, humidity extremely high and ventilation virtually non –existent!
The last visit of the day was to another HIV+ young child living with mother or grandmother in a tiny, tiny room so much so that only two of our visiting group could squeeze in to sit with her on the floor and chat and check on the welfare of the child & family. Most people living in these tiny dwellings simply roll out a thin mattress on the floor to sleep on at night. From previous visits the Support Team understood this family actually slept in the space above the dwelling ceiling which obviously was sagging down severely but which the landlord refused to have repaired.”
The Parish will continue to support this critical humanitarian initiative and will keep you informed of how your generous donations are being used to directly support the children. We thank Frank and Joy for taking the time to meet with Professor Irwanto and his team during their stay in Indonesia, a visit they funded themselves.

July 18, 2014August 21, 2014

PARISH MEETING NIGHT

On Wednesday 16 July, we celebrated the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, our patron, in two appropriate ways: with a school and parish Mass at 12.30pm at OLMC and with a parish meeting at St Anne’s Primary School at 7.30pm. The old OLMC church was packed with school children and parishioners joyfully celebrating the feast of Mary our Mother and patron of our parish. I would like to say more about this Mass and the reverent way our children entered heart and soul in this liturgical celebration, but the purpose of this article is to report on the event that took place in the evening of that same day.
Led nobly by our parish team – Lyn Plummer, Richard Hallett, Sr Jose and Joanne Spiteri – sixty parishioners representing various active groups in our parish attended our inaugural Parish Meeting Night. I went partly as a participant and partly as an observer and reporter. I came away from the meeting heartened and impressed by these people who go the extra mile to give life to our parish.
For the record these were the names of the groups represented at our meeting: Baptism Preparation Team, Knights of the Southern Cross, Liturgy Planning Group, Overseas Humanitarian Project, Maintenance, Marriage Encounter, Neighbourhood Development, RCIA, School Advisory Committee OLMC & St Anne’s, Small Christian Communities, St Vincent de Paul and Youth Group.
Sixty people represented YOU, our brothers and sisters in Christ, you who share with us the Eucharist that binds us together in communion with Christ Jesus. Ours is not a perfect parish – no parish can boast that it is – but there is much to like about our parish and much to be thankful for as we celebrate this weekend the feast of Our Lady of Mt Carmel and look forward to the feast of St Anne and St Joachim. May God continue to bless our parish.

Fr Bert Fulbrook sdb