The Superior General, Fr Domenico Soliman, made a pastoral visit to the community of Sydney, Australia, from 22 April to 1 May.
It was his first visit to Australia and gave him the opportunity to see our Pauline reality first-hand and to observe Australian society with its very multicultural character, especially the vast migration from Asia that has occurred over the past 30 years.
While in Sydney he met with Archbishop Anthony Fisher OP. It was a cordial meeting in which the archbishop expressed his appreciation for the presence of the Society of St Paul in his Archdiocese and Fr Domenico outlined steps being taken to ensure the institute’s continued presence here. Afterwards, Fr Domenico was able to visit the book centre of the Daughters of St Paul in the centre of Sydney.
Most importantly Fr Domenico’s visit gave him the opportunity to meet the members in Australia, both individually and together, to review the situation of the house of Sydney, and to consider the best ways forward.
He was also able to highlight the principal theme of the XI General Chapter that, in a time of epochal change, we Pauline “editors” are called to commit ourselves to be artisans of communion to prophetically proclaim the joy of the Gospel, a theme taken up in his most recent annual letter.
Fr Domenico also had the opportunity to visit Melbourne and celebrate Mass with the Pauline Family there, including Br Joseph Barbieri, now in his ninetieth year.
Later he visited Brisbane where the Society of St Paul operates a book centre beside the Cathedral. He was able to meet with the staff and later had a personal meeting with Archbishop Mark Coleridge. As with Archbishop Fisher earlier, it was an opportunity to present Archbishop Coleridge, a noted biblical scholar, with a copy of the Arabic Bible recently published by SOBICAIN. Both Archbishops expressed their appreciation for this initiative.
Fr Domenico travelled to Australia with the Superior General of the Daughters of St Paul, Sr Anna Caiazza. In both Sydney and Melbourne, Fr Domenico and Sr Anna hosted gatherings with the Pauline Family in which they were able to share on matters of significance for the whole Pauline Family. Both meetings were expressions of the Pauline Family’s commitment to communion and synodality, among ourselves and with the whole church and society. They were much appreciated by all who attended.
