At the Parliament

Mass At St Patrick's Cathedral (L to R: Archbishop Denis Hart, Deacon Nick Pearce, Cardinal McCarrick, Fr Laurence Cortez, Bishop Brian Finnigan

Dear Readers,

You can imagine why you haven’t heard a lot from me in recent days – the Parliament of the World’s Religions has hit town. I might get a chance to do a little blogging on this on Monday at some time, but it has all been “go-go-go” since it started. The pity of it all is, that with so much to organise, I have only been able to attend one session (with Gary Bouma and Hass Dellal on “Freedom of Religion and Belief: the Project of the Australian Humn Rights Commission”) aside from the opening ceremony on Thursday night (which in itself was a brilliant experience) at which Archbishop Hart gave a blessing as representative of the Christian world.

Archbishop Hart listens to the Royal Melbourne Philharmonic Orchestra and combined choir of the Royal Melbourne Philharmonic and the Melbourne University Choral Society on stage after blessing the Parliament

We had a well attended Catholic Mass at the Convention Centre on Friday morning celebrated by Bishops Prowse and Putney, and have just completed a great Mass in the Cathedral with Cardinal McCarrick as chief celebrant, Archbishop Hart, Bishops Putney and Finnigan, and a whole bunch of other visiting priests for the Parliament. Our ambassador to the Holy See was present, as was Sir James and Lady Gobbo, and a goodly number of other guests and participants in the Parliament. I should add that our friend, newly ordained Deacon Nick Pearce, served at the altar. See above.

Archbishop Hart, Lady Gobbo, Ambassador Fischer, Cardinal McCarrick, Sir James Gobbo

I hope to get down to the Parliament for another session this afternoon – probably for the session “Our Interreligious Future” with Cardinal McCarrick, Rabbi David Rosen, and others. Then my family and I are heading off to a 50th birthday party for our good friend, Fr Greg Pritchard. So, a very full day!