At his first Sunday Mass at St Canice’s today, Fr Dave Braithwaite SJ expresses his thanks and gratitude on being appointed as new parish priest at St Canice’s.
Fr Dave acknowledges that the parish has always had ‘outreach’ at its heart, not only within in St Canice’s Kitchen, but also reaching out to serve people like in our sister parish in Railaco Mission East Timor, and the marginalised friends from David’s Place.
Going back to early times at St Canice’s, Fr Frank Brennan SJ was the Founding Director of UNIYA, the Jesuit Social Justice Centre housed in the building next door to the church. Over more recent years, Jesuit Refugee Service JRS also made their home next to us, with many Jesuits advocating for the rights of migrants and refugees.
Fr Steve Sinn SJ is known to so many of our long-term parishioners as the man who was a champion for people living on the streets (and on the steps of the church!) Fr Dave shares Fr Steve’s ‘Philosophy’ for the parish. “𝓣𝓱𝓮 𝓱𝓮𝓪𝓻𝓽 𝓸𝓯 𝓸𝓾𝓻 𝔀𝓸𝓻𝓴 𝓪𝓽 𝓢𝓽. 𝓒𝓪𝓷𝓲𝓬𝓮’𝓼 𝓲𝓼 𝓽𝓸 𝓻𝓮𝓪𝓬𝓱 𝓸𝓾𝓽 𝓽𝓸 𝓸𝓷𝓮 𝓪𝓷𝓸𝓽𝓱𝓮𝓻 𝔀𝓲𝓽𝓱𝓸𝓾𝓽 𝓳𝓾𝓭𝓰𝓶𝓮𝓷𝓽, 𝔀𝓲𝓽𝓱𝓸𝓾𝓽 𝓬𝓸𝓷𝓭𝓮𝓶𝓷𝓪𝓽𝓲𝓸𝓷. 𝓔𝓿𝓮𝓻𝔂 𝓹𝓮𝓻𝓼𝓸𝓷 𝓲𝓼 𝓸𝓯 𝓪𝓫𝓼𝓸𝓵𝓾𝓽𝓮 𝓿𝓪𝓵𝓾𝓮 𝓪𝓷𝓭 𝓭𝓲𝓰𝓷𝓲𝓽𝔂. 𝓝𝓸𝓽 𝓽𝓸 𝓻𝓮𝓪𝓬𝓱 𝓸𝓾𝓽 𝓽𝓸 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓶𝓸𝓼𝓽 𝓻𝓮𝓳𝓮𝓬𝓽𝓮𝓭, 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓶𝓸𝓼𝓽 𝓭𝓮𝓼𝓹𝓲𝓼𝓮𝓭, 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓶𝓸𝓼𝓽 𝓬𝓸𝓷𝓭𝓮𝓶𝓷𝓮𝓭 𝔀𝓸𝓾𝓵𝓭 𝓼𝓽𝓻𝓲𝓴𝓮 𝓪𝓽 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓱𝓮𝓪𝓻𝓽 𝓸𝓯 𝓸𝓾𝓻 𝓬𝓸𝓶𝓶𝓾𝓷𝓲𝓽𝔂.”
Fr Dave is thankful that with his appointment to be our parish priest, he’s been given the opportunity ‘to ride the wave’ of so many good Jesuits before him.
He comes to St Canice’s with ten years of working with young people in the Cardoner Project near to Sydney University – showing them a way to live their faith through service to others, not only here in Australia but in remote areas of extreme conflict in Southeast Asia.
at Railaco Jesuit Mission in East Timor