Father Bob

What If Day

Doctor Robert Grogan, who has just published a slim volume, “Commodores, Colonials and Councillors”, the story of the street names of South Melbourne, is working on a history, from a lay person’s unique perspective, of the Emerald Hill/South Melbourne Parish.

I’ll leave to him a detailed account of the tour of duty of the Loreto Sisters. After over a century of service to parish and neighbourhood, the disciples of Mary Ward have broken camp, St. Vincent Place, and marched off to the tunes of glory.

Some of them will be at 10am Mass today. This won’t be a “flash” farewell, but it will be authentic and heartfelt.

I’d like to pick up three Loreto threads. They staffed our primary school. This was a working class suburb. Tough therefore. Both tough boys and girls attended Sts. Peter and Paul parish school.

The Loreto Institute, as the sisters collective is called, worked, mainly with upwardly socially mobile families, both here and abroad. They taught our kids to fight above their weight.

1.    To enable this noble cause to continue, our parish plays host to the Melbourne diocese’s only regional primary school. We’ve allowed Galilee school free use of parish property for 12 years, foregoing $2 million commercial rental.

We will allow Galilee the use of another 2 buildings, on the south side of Bank Street, valued at about $7 million.

2.    The Father Bob Maguire Foundation will provide scholarships for a dozen local boys and girls to attend CBC St. Kilda and Presentation College, Windsor. Loreto says “education is the key”.
St. Vincent de Paul says “Money is love”.

3.    Loreto provided, also, pastoral care for needy families.

This parish as Doctor Grogan’s research will prove, is continuing this gospel imperative of (let’s not muck about with fancy language!) feeding, housing and comforting the poor on the very block of land where we pitched our tent in 1854.
Thank you “galloping gals” of the Loreto Institute. We won’t forget you. We’ll have a Loreto Day each year. We’ll name one of our buildings, used by Galilee, by a title of your choice.

Pier Giorgio Frassati is coming to Sydney for World Youth Day. He’s been dead since 1925 but that wouldn’t stop him playing an important role in the Catholic festival (World.smh.com.au – beatified man’s body to tour).

This bloke was dead at 24. He was both intellectual and compassionate. He was our heroic role model then and is presented as such here and now.

Bit like Jane McGrath so recently deceased, Aussie Test player Glenn McGrath’s wife, presented by all the media as a 42 year old heroic role model.

This is a Catholic best practice example – depicting people, not dogmas, as life changing.

Pier will be on display at St. Mary’s, Sydney. Jane will “beatified” in the church, the Garrison at the Rocks, Sydney, where she and Glenn married.

Jane, English Australian, will have an emotional but subdued funeral service.

Pier, from Turin, Italy, may well evoke more demonstrative expressions of devotion. Catholicism is after all, all at once, both
acultural and multicultural.

WYD, according to academic Richard Rymarz, will be a bridge between cultures and generations.

If WYD forms a “human bridge” that allows others an entrée into a faith community, then it has provided a very valuable service, says Richard.

Indeed, WYD press release last Friday said that “Jesus and Mary climb heavenwards on Sydney Harbour Bridge to get a bird’s eye view of the route of the Stations of the Cross Production to be held on Friday 18 July.”

How about WYD morphing into WID (What If Day) and the Sydney gathering becomes a “human bridge” allowing faithful young catholics entrée into secular society where they belong. (question mark here?)

R.J.M.

Trickle Up

My mate, Les Twentyman, has thrown his hat into the by-election ring in Koroit, western suburbs, Victoria.

He’s standing as an independent with preferences already allocated his way by both Labour and Liberal candidates.

He dropped over, a couple of days ago, with campaign manager,  Phil Cleary, well known as Coburg’s ex-coach in the VFA, electrical trades union official and social activist in his own right. He also takes photos for Les’s campaign material.

Les and I stood beside a memorial plaque carrying names of forty under twenty year olds who died in the drug wars of the 80’s. That story would make a stunning TV prequel to “Underbelly”. That story is, also, the line in the sand drawn by Les and I, from which we field questions about our social activism.

You may have noticed my use of the term “social activism”. It seems to me to be a non-threatening way of keeping alive a wider public debate on the Plight of the Poor and the Young.

As a Catholic priest I can read and preach Jesus of Nazareth’s consistent theme of “take care of the poor and the young first, then go worship” weekly, sometimes daily, to a captive catholic audience.

That would be unfair and, in my experience, counter productive, when trying to catch the attention and enlist the co-operation of socially well-intended secular  aussies.

Les does it his way and I my way, and hopefully, you, your way. This is the “trickle up” way of getting a community to look after itself.

There’s a guru of this approach, apparently, Saul Alinsky (Chicago, 1909-1972). Google him. Barack Obama is a disciple of his.

Les and I haven’t heard of him. But we agree with “”trickle up”.

I sat next to a priest mate at a meeting last week. WYD was the topic of discussion, as it is at most Aussie Catholic meetings these days.

You don’t have to wait for the Pope at Randwick to feel the excitement of WYD “said he”. The excitement’s already all around us. “The genie’s out of the bottle.”

And, so it came to pass. Gonzo Catholicism has hit the ground running.

The Aussie bishops have issued a nationwide invitation to members of the catholic family who, for one reason or another, have left home.

“We’re sorry if the family has offended you. Come home.” Another mate of mine – a pinko leftist this time says maybe it’s the bishops and senior church officers who need to “come home” to the church!

The invitation appears in the national print media. It reads well. A touch of paternalism, but not enough to put you off. Let’s all go home, so long as we don’t cop it when we do.

Music will do what it always does. At WYD it’s going to speak to the heart. Paulini and Guy and the rapping Franciscan and the NSW supreme court judge’s music for the Pope’s half a million gathering – the kids’ much loved “wow” factor will kick in for sure.

With a bit of amazing grace or good luck or whatever this WYD and it’s regional little league DID ’08 may put a bit of colour in the pale cheeks of Aussie catholics and their fellow travellers.

So said ex-federal minister Tony Abbot in a weekend “glossy” expressing hope that B16 will bring his unique message that “out of little things, big things grow”, so long as that big thing is all inclusive respect.

R.J.M.

Street Report #22

Tonight I took the food out to St. Kilda as usual and gave it all out.  There were about eleven hungry people just waiting in the foyer of the Gatwick.  All the food from Xavier college and the five loaves of made up sandwiches were scooped up and I went and purchased $20 of chips from across the road and gave that out as well.

Whilst out the front of the Gatwick Tim and his girlfriend approached me to see if I could pay for three scripts for him as he needed antibiotics and painkillers. He was having teeth problems and his dentist had given him a script for the pain. Tim is at present residing in his car as he had gotten into a fight at the Gatwick over $10 and he said it was not worth his health and state of mind to stay there any longer. His partner is nine weeks pregnant and is staying in a hostel at present till the both of them get transitional housing which hopefully will be soon.

Earlier on in the day Sara requested if we could help her relocate her belongings to her new residence in Preston.  There was too much for us to take as it would not all fit on our Ute and I gave her $50 towards a removalist who said he could do it for $79.  I will pay him tomorrow directly as I made arrangements to meet him on the steps of the Magistrates Court.

On Saturday I dropped off a big bag of clothes for a child called Beth, who is 3 years old, in Armadale (transitional flat she shares with her father).  Beth to my surprise opened the bag and saw a jacket in it and quickly put it on and wouldn’t take it off.  She was delighted to have a warm jacket I assumed and her father said she really needed one for this winter.  The look on Beth's face was touching as I have never seen a child actually “fall in love” and not surrender a piece of clothing the way she did.  I also purchased a $50 Coles card for Rob and his daughter as they needed nappies, and a few food essentials.

At 1pm I visited Dan at the Prahran Mission.  He needed a food voucher and I said on Wednesday I would get him a $30 Coles voucher.  I gave him $15 and he told me it was hard to get any support where he was now living in Eltham and hence his trips to Prahran for assistance.

Also Wendy called needing some legal advice regarding her non attendance at the Office of Corrections. I advised her as best as I could.

On Friday in the morning I picked up food from Knosh and distributed it to people in St Kilda and at Luna Park.  Whilst at the park adjacent to Luna Park Zac asked me for a lift home as he felt he had too much to drink, it was raining and he did not want to get into any trouble as could be the case if he kept drinking there with his “mates”. Took him home and then resumed giving out food. 

At 12pm attended Domain St where a refined lady, Mem, gave me a TV, a stand, and a video recorder/player to give out to someone who needed it more than she did. Picked it up and gave it to a family at Park Towers.

Attended Court earlier in on the day and a client of our food bus came up to me and asked for help as they had no lawyer and did not want a legal aid lawyer.  Assisted Kelly with a lawyer and left her in his good hands as I had to assist Rebecca with her matter (she got an adjournment till next month).  Also assisted Paula whose matter will be going to trial it appears. She also was happy with the lawyer that I had found for her.

Yours helpingly,

Henri

Winter Warmer campaign - $5,000 raised so far!

A successful auction by Century 21 (see earlier blog post for more details on this fundraiser). The property sold for $500,000 - $30,000 above reserve.

About 80 people attended and $5,000 was raised for the Father  Bob Maguire Foundation

Where were you?

Trying to keep up with WYD proceedings, I was delighted to receive an unsolicited email from people identifying themselves as Olive Wood Market.

The CEO of the group says he’s leader, also, of a religious singing and dancing crew, Al Raja, who’ll perform in Sydney in July.

Should I have been suspicious already? Why? It all seemed admirable. The Olive Wood Market offered online sales of many devotional objects e.g. rosary beads with bits of Holy Land soil impregnated. Jerusalem Christians make them.

Proceeds from the sales go to support beleaguered Holy Land Christians. So claims the online blurb. So far, so good.

But alas, no sign started flashing “Go Back. Wrong Way”, as I clicked on the box
labelled “Rosary and the Real”!

What followed was a long diatribe against the “false Catholic church of John Paul 2 and Benedict 16”. It included, even, a hip segment called “Heresy of the Week”.

How, said I to myself, can a WYD website include the ranting and raving of cyberterrorists? Settle down, I answered myself, it’s the nature of the internet, silly.

The young, wired, generation attending WYD will sort out the weeds from the e-wheat, I reassured myself.

My alert doesn’t amount to a “holywatergate” but just an advisory from a sympathetic observer.

Maybe WYD organisers got Google to sponsor the blurb from Olive Wood. It’s Google’s name on the site.

When you go as big as WYD – half a million at Mass with the Pope – you need to make strategic alliances.

You can’t give to God, so this formula demands, without giving to Caesar. Enter Telstra. “Simply purchase one of the products below and activate your Telstra SIM by 16 July 2008 and you’ll be automatically entered into the draw to win 1 of 10 double VIP invitations to the WYD 08 Final Mass! Click here”. My advice – don’t mass out.

And for another thing. Should the Pope apologise in Sydney, for sexual abuse perpetrated by Catholic officials over 150 years? Let me reprint a piece between a bloke, Ron, who is writing a book about the South Church. Quote!

“I see a figure today in the press,” says Bob, “which I am contesting in my Blog page – ‘tens of thousands of cases of clerical abuse.’ Now that’s popped up this morning – will the Pope come to Randwick and say, ‘I’m sorry on behalf of the Roman Catholic Global Church . . .’ ” Father Bob says in his high-faluting voice. “I am saying, ‘would our Melbourne headquarters mind checking this number – tens of thousands . . . ”
“That’s an astounding figure.”
“It’s gross!” exclaims Bob.
“Does he mean just for Australia?”
“Yeah, he means just for bloody Australia! What does he mean by it? I’m asking our officers in charge, as in fact, with Abu Ghraib in Iraq, if some of the soldiers in the ranks committed atrocities, then the easiest thing to do by high command is to put the heat on the soles of their feet, court-martial them, execute them, do whatever they do – but the high command itself will not answer questions as to how this came about. The Roman clergy is the same. They put the heat to the feet of Father Bloggs, lock him up in prison, strip him of his uniform, ridicule and humiliate him . . . ” Father Bob runs out of ideas for punishment. “Do whatever,” he says lamely, but then comes up with more, “Flog and hang Father Bloggs!”

“What I’m asking of the bosses is, ‘Where were you? because this all happened on your watch’ They’ll say, ‘Don’t talk to us like that. How could we possibly know what was going on?’ My answer to that would be, ‘Well, you are supposed to be an organization as well as a movement. That’s what you pride yourselves on, with Roman diocese  and headquarters, let alone little parish headquarters – but you’ve got a diocese and headquarters that is supposed to be responsible for two hundred and fifty clergymen. If you don’t know what is going on, you should stop being an organization and become something else!”

“You’ve got them flat footed,” I declare.

“I haven’t though. They’ll wriggle out just the same as the high command wriggled out of Abu Ghraib. No one at the Pentagon was sacked because of Abu Ghraib – only little Miss Whatshername who was running around taking photos of naked men.

“I’ve got nothing against the bosses. I’m simply saying that as in all authoritarian models when things go well they accept the honour and the glory. When things go badly they say we don’t know anything about it. You can’t have it both ways. If your Archbishop stands up and says, ‘Excuse me. That happened on my watch and I accept responsibility. Goodbye and good luck,’ then . . . he would then be portrayed as an honourable man by even worldly standards.”

R.J.M.

List your property in June or July and support the FBMF

CENTURY 21 Wilson Pride (St Kilda) is joining forces with the Father Bob Maguire Foundation (FBMF) to raise much needed funds for the homeless and less privileged the best way they know how – selling homes.

If your property is listed with CENTURY 21 Wilson Pride (St Kilda), throughout the months of June and July 2008, CENTURY 21 Wilson Pride (St Kilda) will donate 50 percent of our selling fees to the Father Bob Maguire Foundation. This event is a first for the Victorian market and what is set to be a significant fundraising event for the Father Bob Maguire Foundation. Keep an eye out for the support of your favourite local celebrity, with famous “pencillers” keeping track of bids at our auctions throughout the campaign.

One such example is Melbourne Vixen Renee Hellernan, pictured here with Father Bob and Adam Guest of Century 21.

















How Can I Identify The Properties?
To ensure you know what properties are being sold by CENTURY 21 Wilson Pride (St Kilda), with 50 percent of our selling fees being donated to the Father Bob Maguire Foundation, a specially branded signboard, featuring the Father Bob Maguire Foundation logo and information on the fundraising activity will be placed in front of the properties and promoted in Open Magazine, CENTURY 21’s Victorian property magazine.


If you’re thinking of selling your home and would like your property to be involved in this fundraising event, contact your local experts at CENTURY 21 Wilson Pride (St Kilda) for your free market appraisal.
www.century21.com.au/stkilda
Wilson Pride
CENTURY 21 Wilson Pride (St Kilda)
21 Irwell St, (Corner Carlisle St)
St Kilda VIC 3182
Smart move.
Call CENTURY 21 Wilson Pride (St Kilda) on 03 9525 4166

Download the poster from:
http://fatherbob.thepodcastnetwork.com/audio/A3poster_final.pdf

Download the flyer from:

http://fatherbob.thepodcastnetwork.com/audio/A4final.pdf

Street Report #21 - Not DARFUR, silly, just our own little darfur!

Comrade Bob,

Last night was a huge night for the Foundation.  We had a lot of food to distribute and by 8:35pm it was all gone. There were a lot of people at the bus including three families with children.  One of the couples that
came was David and his partner (and her children). We have not seen David for two years to date. He stated that he had accommodation for a year and then when he lost that (lease expired) he started to reside in his car
again and he met up with his new female friend and they have of late been sleeping in his car. She was asked to leave her mother's home as her mother could not cope with her five and seven year old children. We sent them to La Porchetta for a decent family meal, not so much for the grown ups but for the kids to have a nice night out for a change. Did so with the other two couples as well.

Assisted Evan and his daughter by obtaining for them a weekly rail pass and some clothes that I had.  Also we gave out clothes to the other kids that I had on the ute with me.

We had again heaps of hot dogs and Alan brought bananas with him which were snapped up. When we used to give out apples there were not many takers as a lot of the people who attend the bus have no teeth and hence cant bite into an apple. The bananas were easier for the people to eat. Gave out one swag.

Lots and lots of coffees were made as we had to buy milk twice more during the night.

A magic night last night, as all the people who attended the bus were in a very calm and peaceful mood.  On a final note, two volunteers did not show up and the rest of us had to work that bit harder.

Yours

Henri

Tribalism

Our man in Darfur, Sudan, John, has sent a brief eye witness account of chaos fanned by tribalism.

“How are we to live together?” This is the overriding concern of modern society – or needs to be globally accepted as such. Some of us have a vocation to keep people of different tribes in touch with each other.

Having achieved that, probably after much personal pain, the next step is to enable those same people to work together to create a “commonwealth” for our shared children.

Good tribalism IN, bad tribalism OUT.

Have a read of John’s birdseye view of what happens when good members of different tribes do nothing to create a “commonwealth” of the Sudan. Then join up with the like minded social activists in your vicinity to stop the local rot.

“Bob has conscripted me, which is fair enough as I owe him a fair bit.
Since Bob was working off memory he threw in places I have not been, that is Angola and Liberia but otherwise since 1994 I have been in the Humanitarian Field or more aptly the Aid Game (a serious Game it is) for about 14 years.

In Sudan my role will be administrative and not at the sharp end where the IDP's (Internally Displaced People) have sought refuge in camps.
As best as I can (forgive me for starting every sentence with I but I'm not that literate) I will pass on impressions and facts as they come to me. All dates and statistics are as the ex treasurer John Howard once said ''a little bit rubbery''

Af ew weeks ago an attempted coup failed in Khartoum or more accurately Omdurman the suburb across the river. That's where old Charles(Chinese) Gordon got killed by the Mahdi back in around 1885, one of the things he tried to stop was slave trading but as that was the Medium of Exchange in Sudan he was not that successful. You can find a statue of him next to the old treasury building in Melbourne. When they built that statue it was probably the last time Victorians thought about Sudan with any sort of interest.

The coup failed, supposedly 200 vehicles crossed the Chad border and dove to Khartoum without not being noticed a modern day WW2 Long Range Desert Group. So about 200 cars soldiers/rebels/kids and nobody notices them. A bit of a leak somewhat worse than a public servant and fuel policies. Except for the death of an undisclosed number of government soldiers and rebels (one estimate about 34 cars were shot up) the effect was that the Government of the day was not infallible and was lying when they said they controlled provinces around Khartoum. Where did the rest of the attacking force go, the government doesn't know that either but it seems they split to all points of the compass without getting caught.

So how do you sneak thru about 1000 miles of government controlled country. And what's this got to do with Humanitarian Aid you may also ask. A rough answer is that nobody/organisation/religion/group is fully in charge or in any state of agreement for any length of time. Tribal connections are strong on both sides of the Chad Sudan border, so connections/networks exist where friendships/bribes/common hatreds exist and things can be done, such as attempting a coup.

To add to the situation South Sudan has been at war for about 25 years up to 2003 when peace talks started to take hold but at Abeyi (a potentially Oil rich area) where the Government troops and ex rebels are in a combined army fighting has broken out with the town burnt to the ground. Yes the majority of homes were grass/thatch huts but if that is that you have got and it turns to ashes, you and your family are going to be distraught, and if one of your family/tribe is killed you are going to be angry. Killing usually leads to revenge and more killing, blaringly obvious but sadly true.

Of course the borders of Eritrea, Ethiopia, Central African Republic, Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo and Kenya (once a light of peace but now under threat of tribe/civil war) all surround Sudan. All of these countries house their own rebels/oppositions/tribes on both sides of the imaginary construct that is a national boundary.
This is not the best ground to start a civil society, in fact every body wants Regime Change and only occasionally does any one film it and put it on TV. No film no event.

Of course Sudan also interferes in other bordering states, a few months back they backed a coup that almost brought down the government in Chad. Chad obviously had decided not to turn the other cheek.

Forgive me for the length of the ramble, I hope it sets the background for the situation in Sudan and Darfur.”

 

R.J.M.

Ninenty Nine Percent

Got an email this week from John, our man in Darfur, Sudan. I say “our man” because he grew up in South Melbourne. Rough and ready too was John. He loved the Army reserve unit and joined at his earliest opportunity.

Over the last few years he’s replaced reserve army service with professional relief work in places such as Angola, Liberia, Kosovo, East Timor and Afghanistan.

He was back in Australia earlier this year, got sick, got well again and signed up for the Sudan.

I’ve tried to get him to contribute to this blog so you could get a closer look at what happens in places most of us can only read about. I’ll try him again. Oh, I left Iraq out of his tour of duty!

I guess you can’t expect too much detail from overseas correspondents. Negative criticism might infotain you and me but it might, also, put the informant’s job at risk if he/she gave an eye witness account of oppressive measures taken by a military junta in country A or repulsive behaviour by UN troops in country B.

And, it’s not only writers from overseas who are at risk, but also, social reporters here in good old Oz. Lots of social workers employed by charities, partly funded by government, have to be extremely selective in what they say publicly. It can be a case of “tell the truth, lose the funding”.

I know there’s legal, contractual issues here. But, say, I’m a social activist working for an ngo without government funding. Then the ngo wins funding. I was an advocate for “excluded” people before funding then was a silent witness because of funding.

Occasionally, a government, commonwealth, state or local, bravely states that funding needn’t silence the recipients. That policy nearly always has to change as analyses from ngos in the field  conflict with government officers’ own reports.

Never forget, comrades, that 99% of us are in “the field”. 1% of us are staff officers.

HQ staff, whether government, church or corporate, has one job – help field workers get the job done. How often, however, does the 1% turn into an elite to be served by the 99%, not vice versa?

In a pluralist society, or a secular humanist democracy or whatever we’re now calling ourselves, public or civil servants have “vocations” not just jobs. This latest (blessed?) stage in the evolution of “how are we to live together” humanity, requires 1% to offer themselves to enable the 99% to get on with living life to the full, not just inhaling and exhaling lives of quiet desperation.

That’s where social reporting comes in. We need to keep an eye out, locally, regionally and globally, and nudge the 1% to earn its money and relative security. All these one percenters are power over others. Even the humblest tram driver has power over others. The 1% needs to know it has been empowered by the 99%, not the owner or the CEO, but “we” the People.

I write this stuff with one eye on civil society and another on “ecclesial” society, i.e. the body corporate known as Church.

Elitism, in the form of clericalism, has been around, within Church, forever. People are the Church 99%. Clerics are the 1%. I’m on infallibly safe ground when I say that the clerical 1% has a vocation, not just a job, to serve the 99% lay people.

I won’t go on about this here. It might bore non-Church readers. However, I do believe that if only the Church 1% would recommit itself to the service of the 99%, then Church could show the way to a secular humanist society like ours.

That’ll require a metamorphosis, a change in structural shape. Australian secular society has its paradigm the Commonwealth – not a republic or monarchy – but, first and foremost, a Commonwealth.

Church in Australia needs to change from the hierarchical “trickle down” shape to the communitarian “trickle up” shape where the 99% empowers the 1%, “under God”, of course. Our man John in Darfur can only dream of such an outcome.

R.J.M.

Maureen Johnston

Maureen Johnston didn’t like the church. She popped up a few years ago to volunteer to feed the local poor both from the parish kitchen and backyard and from a food bus travelling through South/Port Melbourne and St. Kilda. That’s about 10 years ago.

She died last weekend. We’ll send her off from this kitchen and church, Friday 23rd May. I offer, as her epitaph, the submission we made to the Governor General 3 years ago. Maureen missed out then. We gave her a creation of our own “the order of St. Peter and St. Paul” for services to parish and neighbourhood. Lest We Forget.


Dear Excellency,

Maureen Johnston has been a resident of South Melbourne for most of her life.

A single mother and grandmother, Maureen has 4 children and several grandchildren, and for the last 6 years has been the primary carer for her grandson who is now 16 years old.

Maureen, a pensioner and active participant in the South Melbourne community began her voluntary work in 1990, alongside Outreach worker Henry Nissen OAM, on the food bus preparing and handing out sandwiches, offering hot coffee, aid etc., and generally supported the many who were often desperate for help and who welcomed seeing a friendly face. The food bus travelled the Port Melbourne, St. Kilda, Flinders Street Station areas.

In 1994 Maureen volunteered her services four days a week at the Parish House of Hospitality in South Melbourne.

The Parish Open House is a local non-profit South Melbourne organization offering assistance to underprivileged residents in need of help. The volunteers and workers at Open House work tirelessly with individuals and many families in need. They provide food parcels daily, offer advice on where to find help on housing, clothing, travel tickets and general welfare needs. Perhaps most importantly, the courtyard at Sts Peter and Paul’s Parish provides a safe environment for individuals who need to socialise and interact with others over a cup of coffee.

The success of The Parish Open House relies solely on the people involved in providing a safe and friendly environment for patrons. Maureen has been instrumental in helping Open House reach its goals. Maureen’s volunteering began with the collection of food from Food Bank. Unpacking and handing out food provided Maureen the opportunity to provide moral support for the people in the South Melbourne area who were lonely and often destitute.

Maureen’s experiences at The Parish Open House helped her identify three years ago, that there were many more people in need of a regular cooked meal as well as the opportunity for companionship, friendship and developing self esteem by interaction with others. Solely, she embarked on the service of providing evening meals on Monday, Tuesday and breakfast on Wednesday, insisting they would be free to anyone in need.

Supported with the encouragement from Fr Bob Maguire AM RFD, Parish Priest of Sts Peter and Paul’s, South Melbourne, Maureen took it upon herself to introduce and run this highly successful program. Shortly after its introduction, numbers at Maureen’s meal program rapidly reached between 60 and 80 patrons daily. The success of this project relies entirely on Maureen’s confidence, unselfish dedication and genuine care for the South Melbourne marginalised.

Not only Maureen provide patrons with food and an opportunity to interact with others, she also encourages them to participate in the preparation, cooking and cleaning up, enhancing their self esteem and providing them with a sense of purpose, belonging and pride.

A pensioner and suffering with osteoarthritis, a hernia and emphysema, Maureen does not drive, but walks to Coles every day to purchase supplies for the next meal, relying on the aid of her shopping trolley as she is severely stooped. While Maureen has significant health issues, she is unfailingly reliable and will only miss hosting a meal if she is very sick. She is the only person who provides meals on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and is very committed to her responsibility for people who have come to rely on these mealtimes.

The main source of demand began with food parcel handouts. Due to the success of Maureen’s meals, this demand has significantly decreased. The healthy meals sustain patrons and offer social interaction with others who are in a situation similar to their own, helping them realise they are not isolated. Maureen understood from experience that there were many lonely people living in South Melbourne, surviving on welfare. They would eat alone in their own home, having no contact or interaction with others. Unselfishly, she decided to make a change to their lives, and succeeded tremendously, admirably and without ever looking for or expecting recognition.

While selflessly ignoring her own health issues and always thinking and looking for the next project she can to undertake to improve peoples’ lives, Maureen is a familiar South Melbourne local and countless have benefited from her advice, friendship and kindness.

We nominate Maureen Johnston for an Order of Australia award for the wonderful work she continues to do and the impact she has made on this local community. Her loyalty, commitment and dedication to the marginalised group in South Melbourne is amazing and inspiring. Struggling in her own right, Maureen assists her daughter, who is on a disability pension and unable to look after herself or her son. Maureen is solely raising her 16 year old grandson and she still has time for her enormous and ongoing commitment to others in need. She has the admiration of all who know her.

Maureen has never been nominated for an award and has never been acknowledged for her dedication to community work. I believe she is very deserving of formal recognition as she stands out as a person with a passion for helping people get their lives back in order with encouragement and without judgement.


Bob Maguire on behalf of Parishioners