In a letter dated May 3 and addressed to his “dear brothers and sisters in Christ”, Bishop Dooley said that he was looking forward to returning after his time away “with new energy and focus”.

Referring to the two years since his ordination and installation as Bishop of Dunedin, Bishop Dooley wrote that he had “been inspired by all the ways that ministry takes place in Otago and Southland”.

“While there have been many blessings that come with being your bishop, it has been a particularly harrowing and testing time for me personally.”

Bishop Dooley added that: “During my time away, Fr Gerard Aynsley as the vicar-general will look after any responsibilities that would ordinarily be undertaken by the bishop.”

Bishop Dooley asked that people keep him in their prayers, as he would keep people in his.

Also in the letter, Bishop Dooley said it was “very heartening to hear of all the ways that priests and people of our diocese have discovered creative new ways to pray and live our Christian vocation during this time of Covid-19 lock down. For many it has been a time of reflection and an occasion of blessing, while also a challenging time for so many who face much uncertainty.”

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Easter Sunday became a chance to have a double celebration for members of the Polish community in Dunedin, with Mass celebrating the Resurrection of Christ being coupled with a significant birthday for an historic church.

A Mass is celebrated in the Mary Queen of Peace church in Broad Bay down the Otago Peninsula every third Sunday and that coincided with Easter Sunday this year on April 21.

The church at Broad Bay is no ordinary building, since it began life as the Church of St Hyacinth at Waihola to the south of Dunedin. About 40 Polish families arrived in the Allanton/Waihola area from the mid-1870s to work on building the railway line south from Dunedin. By the 1890s, they decided to build their own church and it was officially opened on April 16, 1899.

By 1948, most Polish families had dispersed from the area and, with a limited congregation remaining, the diocese decided to remove the church and transport it to Broad Bay to serve that area’s general congregation. It was also decided to rename it.

When the Polish Heritage of Otago and Southland Charitable Trust was formed following the Otago 150th celebrations in 1998, the significance of the church’s origins was then rediscovered and efforts were made to promote its heritage. The building and a few other related items are the main tangible links with those early Polish settlers who came to New Zealand from the Kociewie region in North Poland.

So with the 120th birthday happening a few days before the Easter Sunday Mass, it was a chance to celebrate both events in appropriate Polish fashion.

Bishop Michael Dooley celebrated the Mass and it was a special occasion for him too, as he was about to complete
his first year as the Bishop of Dunedin on April 26.

Also attending the celebrations was the honorary Polish consul to the South Island, Winsome Dormer, from Christchurch.

In his homily, Bishop Dooley reportedly spoke about the people who had built the church and how important it had been to them. The church building was a uniting element in their lives.

After Mass, a morning tea was served with Swieconka, which is a Polish tradition where baskets of Easter foods are blessed along with Polish Easter cakes.

Blessings from the bishop were also bestowed on local parishioners Sam and Christine Neil, who were celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary.

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The Vigil for Life Mass was organised through the efforts of two Dunedin Family Life International volunteers — Phillippa O’Neil and Ann-Maree Taylor. Both women
counsel and work with pregnant mothers and provide support before and after the birth.

The special event was to mark the beginning of the Lenten Prayer for Life action, in which people are asked to register online at fli.org.nz/lentenprayerforlife and make a prayer and fasting commitment to seek change in four key areas.

The Mass was celebrated by Bishop Michael Dooley with concelebrants Emeritus Bishop Colin Campbell, Msgr Vincent Walker, Fr Mervyn McGettigan and Fr Mervyn
Hanifin.

In his homily, Bishop Dooley noted that the evening’s Gospel
had a man running in eagerness to ask Jesus a question about how to obtain eternal life. Christ asks him about obeying the commandments, and the man says he has done so, but when it comes to getting rid of the burden of his possessions that is holding him back from a full life, he is unable to do so and walks sadly away.

Bishop Dooley commented that “the key message from Jesus is that he affirms life” and that “he wants people to have a full and free life”.

He went on to observe, “there is an energy that is present in our world and . . . has always been present that is the very opposite of this . . . and it is an energy that is a downward
spiral to death and oblivion”. Its presence could be seen in examples of war, torture, abuse, exploitation, abortion or euthanasia throughout the world.

He noted that, as Catholics, we have wished to express that key message of Christ of affirming “life”, but our message has been undermined by the sexual abuse crisis affecting
the Church. While the Church had been preaching one message, serious wrongdoing had been going on within the institution and attempts to protect the image of the Church
by hiding the wrongdoings have only created further harm.

So the claim of hypocrisy can be justly levelled at the Church. In a reference to a Gospel reading in recent weeks,
Bishop Dooley said that, as a Church, we need to remove the log from our own eye so that we are not blind and
deal honestly with the mistakes of past decades. He considered that it is essential to deal with the issues so that the Church could be credible again so that its message to
the world of affirming life is taken seriously.

At the end of Mass, Mrs Taylor spoke briefly about some of the aspects of the Lenten Prayer for Life initiative, before the invitation was made to the congregation to move through to a dining room for a light supper and the second part of the evening’s programme.

The second part involved the playing of a DVD movie called “un- Planned”. This dealt with the life story of American woman, Abby Johnston, who had two abortions herself
before becoming a director of a large Planned Parenthood abortion centre in the US. The story reveals her road
to Damascus moment and struggle as she rethought her attitudes and recognised that she could no longer support her previous views and decided to switch sides. She is now
a strong pro-life advocate.

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A South Korean, Jaewoo Joseph Lee, was ordained a priest for Dunedin diocese in a joyful ceremony at a Friday evening ordination Mass on November 16, before a large congregation at Immaculate Conception parish in Mosgiel.

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An opportunity to share High Tea with Bishop Michael Dooley proved attractive as about 100 Dunedin faithful gathered recently at a former Sisters of Mercy convent, Marinoto House, in the grounds of Mercy Hospital in Dunedin. echo $variable;

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