We are excited to invite you to a special event this Halloween! Instead of the usual costumes, we encourage families and children to come dressed as their favourite saints. Let’s make Halloween night a celebration of faith, joy, and inspiration, honouring those who have shown us the way to live lives of love, courage, and kindness.

Join us for a fun evening of treats, and an opportunity for everyone to share stories of the saints they admire. This is a wonderful chance for our children to learn about these incredible role models and for us to come together as a community.

Date: November 1st Friday 7 pm start followed by Mass.

Please bring your costumes, enthusiasm, and any story or symbol that highlights the life of your chosen saint! We can’t wait to see the creativity and learn from the wonderful saints each family represents.

The Damascus Martyrs were canonised last Sunday at the Vatican, are depicted in an official portrait that honours both the eight Franciscan martyrs of the Custody of the Holy Land and three Maronite lay brothers. This work was created by Andrea Pucci.

The Blessed Massabki brothers had a close relationship with the religious community. Francisco served as the convent’s procurator, Mooti was an educator at the boys’ school, and Rafael was always available to help with any needs.

Blessed Manuel Ruiz, the superior of the convent, is portrayed wearing a red stole and holding a pyx containing Holy Communion, which is the focal point of the composition. According to accounts of their martyrdom, the group gathered in the church on the night of July 9, 1860, to pray, confess, and receive communion, drawing strength from the Eucharist. When their assassins broke into the convent, Father Manuel Ruiz rushed to the Tabernacle to consume the remaining Eucharistic hosts. He was martyred for his faith at the foot of the altar.

Blessed Carmelo Bolta, the community’s vicar, stands to the right of Blessed Manuel Ruiz, displaying the Jerusalem cross, a symbol of the Custody of the Holy Land. Blessed Pedro Soler, one of the youngest brothers of the community, is shown kneeling.

On the left side of the composition are the three holy Massabki brothers. Francisco holds the shield of the Maronite Catholic Patriarchate, Blessed Mooti holds a palm, symbolizing martyrdom, and Blessed Rafael, the youngest, is depicted with his hands crossed, symbolizing his love for prayer.

Surrounding the main figures are the other Franciscan martyrs. Each has been depicted with a close resemblance to their actual features or to images of them created after their beatification in 1926. Their names are written in Latin, corresponding to each figure, adding both decoration and a liturgical feel, almost like a litany.

The background of the composition is sky-colored, while the lower part, based on 19th-century photographs, shows Damascus, the city of their martyrdom, which the holy martyrs now protect.

Damascus martyrs, Pray for us.

Once considered revolutionary, Gustavo Gutierrez’s ideas of empathy and advocacy for the poor have become central to Catholic social teaching. Gutierrez, a Peruvian priest and scholar known as the father of Latin American Liberation Theology—a movement born from solidarity with the poor and marginalized—passed away on Tuesday in Lima, Peru.

Born on June 8, 1928, in the Montserrat Barrio of Lima, Gutierrez was of Hispanic and Quechua Indian descent. As a child, he suffered from polio, spending much of his adolescence bedridden. This early experience with disability led him to pursue medicine, graduating from Peru’s National University in 1950. However, he eventually chose the priesthood instead.

Gutierrez studied philosophy, psychology, and theology at universities in Belgium, France, and Italy, earning a master’s degree in Europe. Upon his return to the slums of Lima in the late 1950s, he realized that the dominant theology from the northern hemisphere did not address the realities of Latin America.

“The history of humanity is written with ‘white hands’ from the perspective of the powerful,” Gutierrez observed, echoing the thoughts of his fellow Peruvian, José María Arguedas, and Brazilian priest Henrique Pereira Neto. In his groundbreaking book A Theology of Liberation, Gutierrez wrote: “Those who have lost their history have a different perspective.” He argued that liberation theology, and the stories of “those without history,” must begin with the questions asked by the world’s poor and oppressed.

Gutierrez emphasized that theology must arise from the experiences of the marginalized, not imposed by academic institutions or the Church from the outside. This approach became the hallmark of liberation theology, with Gutierrez’s commitment to the poor and oppressed at its center.

In his 1971 book A Theology of Liberation (first translated into English in 1973), Gutierrez affirmed that the God of the Jewish-Christian tradition is especially committed to the poor. His work anticipated movements in the United States advocating for basic human rights, such as housing and healthcare, and continues to influence teachings in seminaries and universities today.

Gutierrez argued that the salvation of the poor is not only to be realized in the afterlife but also within human history. To truly know God, he insisted, people must work to eradicate poverty and injustice in the here and now. “The Church should focus on life in this world, not just the next,” he wrote. For Gutierrez, poverty was not something to be idealized, but rather recognized as an evil to be fought and eradicated.

“We love God by loving our neighbor,” Gutierrez asserted. “Only then will God be with us.” Like Jesus, who lived among the outcasts, Gutierrez spent most of his life in Lima’s Rimac Barrio, serving as a parish priest and director of the Bartolomé de las Casas Institute, ministering to the poor.

His work gained immediate influence among priests and ordinary people fighting against oppressive economic and political systems. His theology inspired many across Asia and Africa, though it also faced opposition. Critics from capitalist countries accused Gutierrez of using Marxist social analysis to expose unjust political systems, many of which were supported by first-world powers. Feminist scholars also critiqued his work for not explicitly addressing the sexual abuse of poor women in Latin America.

Despite the popularity of liberation theology following the Second Vatican Council, Gutierrez’s ideas were subject to scrutiny from the Vatican for their perceived deviation from Catholic conservatism. Yet, his collaboration with Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador, who was assassinated in 1980 for speaking out against social injustice, and his contribution to the 1979 Latin American Episcopal Council in Puebla, Mexico, were foundational to the movement.

Ironically, despite his significant contributions, Gutierrez did not receive his doctorate in theology from the Catholic University of Lyon until 1985—more than 15 years after the publication of A Theology of Liberation. Pope Francis, the first Latin American pope, invited Gutierrez to the Vatican in 2013 and expressed support for his theology.

Though Gutierrez has passed away, his legacy as a prophet of the poor endures. His theology, which sides with the marginalized, will continue to challenge and inspire future generations.

We are publishing the Winter Shelter report for the year 2024.

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84 Austin Road, Seaford, Vic, 3198| Suburbs of Seaford, Frankston North, Carrum Downs, Skye and Sandhurst| ☏(03) 9401 6398 ©St Annes Church|
St. Anne’s parish respectfully acknowledges the Bunurong people, who are the traditional custodians od the Boom Wurrung land on which we worship. We acknowledge and pay respect to the Elders past, present and future.
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