✝️Faith and Mission

National Homelessness Week – Vinnies Winter Sleepout

Australia is facing a perfect storm of factors driving increased homelessness, with rents skyrocketing, a tight rental market making it much harder to find an affordable home, and the continuing scourge of domestic and family violence driving victim survivors into homelessness.

The plight of the poor is all of our responsibility. This week is an opportunity to recall that responding to the needs of our neighbours—especially people without basic necessities like stable housing—is a central part of our Catholic faith. Pope Francis said in one of his Lenten messages that giving to the needy must be a priority—and challenged those who make excuses against giving money to people on the streets.

“People who worry about how the money might be spent should ask themselves what guilty pleasures they are secretly spending money on”, Pope Francis said. There are many excuses to justify why one does not lend a hand when asked by a person begging on the street, he said. Giving something to someone in need "is always right," the Pope said, adding that it should be done with respect and compassion because "tossing money and not looking in [their] eyes is not a Christian way of behaving", he said.

Do we know our homeless people? Yes, we do. At our College, we are in a privileged position to support the homeless in our community. Currently, we are financially supporting The Shopfront, St Pat’s Community Centre, Vinnies and Rosies in Queensland. Give up your time and energy to support our annual can drive (winter appeal), sleepout and Christmas appeal. Get involved in our De Mazenod Vinnies many fund-raising efforts. Volunteer to help out at the Cathedral Outreach on Wednesday afternoons. The opportunities are there to support the poor in a variety of practical ways.

On a very cold Thursday evening, 80 members of the Mazenod community, including staff, gathered at St Brigid’s College for our annual winter Sleepout. The primary focus of the event was to raise awareness and compassion for those who are homeless through the experience of sleeping out on a winter night with only a cup of warm soup and a roll for dinner, and then having to face a day at school.

Our second focus was to raise funds for the homeless. St Patricks in Fremantle and The Shopfront in Bentley run centres to provide meals for the homeless and are in desperate need of funding in order to continue these vital charities. We were very successful in achieving both of our focuses for the Sleepout this year. Thank you to St Brigid’s for hosting the evening, the 9 Mazenod staff members who gave up their evening to support the boys and the boys themselves for their zealous engagement with the night’s programme and their wonderful fundraising efforts. Hopefully, we will have a final tally that we can release soon.

Term 3 Chapel Flower Roster

Upcoming Faith and Mission Events

20 August 2024

Gavin Feast Day – Mass and lunchtime celebration.

Mazenod College Boarding House Maintenance

On Friday 2 August a group of 2 staff and 4 students from Mazenod College travelled down to the Boarding House campsite on the Bibbulmun Track to carry out regular maintenance. It was also an opportunity to camp out and enjoy the bush. As always, we were privileged to find ourselves in such a magnificent part of the Bibbulmun Track. 

Friday afternoon was spent clearing the track to the south of the hut. It was apparent that there had been very strong winds recently, as there were several trees that had dropped limbs along the track that needed to be cleared. After a bit of sweat and teamwork, the group managed to clear the track. Saturday morning was spent tidying up the hut and the campsite before we headed back to school.

Overall, it was a very successful maintenance trip. Both staff and students are looking forward to returning to the Boarding House campsite soon.

Damian Wallis

Director of Faith and Mission