The annual Parish Italian Dinner, which was held on the 12th of August was once again another major success.

Music from a live band serenaded guests while they enjoyed their 4 course meal and danced the night away.

Congratulations to the Italian Dinner organisers, the Parish Social Com-mittee, and the Parish School’s Parents & Friends Committee for making the night a suc-cess.

Funds raised went to the Parish School.

More photos of the night can be seen on page 6.

BRAVO! Italiano Pasto Festivo

Special dates of interest: ⇒ October 21st - Parish Youth Mass at

6:30pm ⇒ November 12th - Parish Kids Club after

10:30am Mass at the Parish hall

PPC Member Profile - Eliana Innace 2

PPC Member Profile - June Millan 2

Message From Monsignor 3

Youth News 4

Cain and Abel’s Wives 5

Moments When I am Most Aware of God 5

Italian Dinner Photos 6

Inside this issue:

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Volume 7, Issue 4

September 2006

The parish RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults) team recently pre-sented some past cate-chumens with a newly de-signed “Adult” Baptismal Certificate. These certifi-cates were designed by Frank Fahy and pre-sented on the night by Monsignor Swann. More pictures on page 3.

For Adults Only

PPC Member Profile - June Millan

Favourite Place in South Australia: Haven’t been to many places in S.A (I think I’ve travelled Italy more than my own state) but I love Silver Sands at Aldinga during summer. (any beach for that matter)

An unusual place you have at-tended Mass: Well not unusual but an experience for me is in San Leucio Del Sannio (Mum and Dad’s town), inter-esting attending Mass on Sunday when all the young people actually go, but hang outside for a social gathering and walk in for communion only!

Some thoughts on future direction of Tranmere Parish: Would be great to see some young leaders come through from the colleges around our Parish but we seem to be struggling on the Youth involvement. I would like to see more unity amongst the individual groups in our Parish. I’d also like to see ways we can develop our skills in welcoming new people to our Parish. There are a lot of people who attend our Masses who I’m sure who would love to be involved but the big question always is how do we ap-proach people to come forward. So far, I think socially the Parish has im-proved over the years.

veil with a cross embroided on it these days). I do remember it being such a big event like around 60 kids and the Mass going for nearly 2 hours but then the highlight must have been my party that mum and dad had. I think there would have been at least 100 people invited and anyone seeing my video of

the day would have a great laugh!

Most recent book read: A Thousand Days in Ven-ice by Marlena de Blasi (self-punishment, now all I want to do is go back to Venice!)

Favourite movie and song: Walk in the Clouds (starring Keanu Reeves) just a beautiful feel good movie.

I belong to You by Eros Ramazzotti (Italian artist) performed with Anastacia

Hobbies/Interests: Cooking; Enjoy being with my friends, enjoying a nice meal and of course a few wines! Trav-elling (very limited now that I’m build-ing my house)

Name: Eliana Iannace

Where you were born/grew up: Ade-laide – always lived in Tranmere

Early School Memories: St. Joseph’s Tranmere, segregation of the boys yard and the girls yard (how times have changed!)

Earliest memories of the Church: I always remember there being so many people going to Tranmere and there was also a great community feeling, the Feast of St. Joseph was a big event my family got involved in, the parish bbq’s were always well at-tended (and I won the hoola hoop competition back in Fr Winter days (now that’s showing my age!!)

Memories of first Communion: Well coming from an Italian Catholic family, didn’t I look like spic and span that day (how many girls do you see wearing a

Name: June Millan

Where you were born/grew up: I lived at Seaton until I was 20 years of age.

Early School Memories: I attended Our Lady Queen of Peace School at Albert Park where I was taught by the Mercy Nuns. I attended Mercedes College for my upper primary and high school, also taught by the Mercy Nuns. One of my memories of school was when our Parish Church, situated in the school grounds had a fire which damaged part of the altar and the sacristy area. The upper primary children emp-tied bins and carried water to help extinguish the fire. Once the damage was assessed we learnt the fire had burnt the majority of a wall but left a picture of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour totally intact. This

made a very big impression on us all.

Earliest memories of the Church: Our church in my growing up years was a Nissan hut. I remember many processions where girls from the school would have the opportunity to

wear their first commun-ion frocks and spread rose petals before the procession of the statue of Our Lady.

Memories of first Com-munion: My memories of my first communion are very clear as I was sick with a virus at the time. On the day, I was taken into the church to receive communion and then taken home to bed imme-diately after. I felt very

special because the Nuns visited me at home that afternoon.

Most recent book read: Under the Tuscan Sun

Favourite movie and song: Favourite song – ‘I dreamed a dream’ sung by Michael Ball. I rarely go to the movies but I enjoy musicals. My favourite musical is ‘Les Miserables’

Hobbies/Interests: Cake Decorating, Travel, Painting in Watercolour

Favourite Place in South Australia: Athelstone – where I live – the number of beautiful walks along Linear Park and the hills face are a constant joy.

An unusual place you have at-tended Mass: The Vatican

Some thoughts on future direction of Tranmere Parish: With the dwin-dling number of Priests in the Archdio-cese, I believe that all the Parishes in our Deanery will have to work more closely together to carry out pastoral care tasks in a more cooperative and united manner. I see the lay members of the community undertaking more of the tasks that are currently carried out by the Priests.

Page 2

PPC Member Profile - Eliana Iannace

TRANMERE TIMES

VOLUME 7, ISSUE 4

We have recently had a “Vocations Awareness Week” during which time we were asked to reflect on our own vocation in life – whatever it might be. I wonder how many of us really did that!

In all parts of the developed world I think we all know there is currently a serious shortage of priests and reli-gious. Priests are not only fewer in numbers but we are getting older. This message we hear over and over again. But recently I have been think-ing about the effect this has on anyone who might be vaguely think-ing of a vocation. Who’d want to join a sinking ship? Who wants to take up a vocation that seems to be growing more difficult all the time, where more and more de-mands are being made, and you’d be dealing with more and more “unsatisfied customers”?

So I’ve been thinking if that’s the im-age that portrayed no wonder there are so few vocations!

At the present time I am involved in planning a National Convention of Priests here in Adelaide in October – we have one every second year and it

is twelve years since the last one in Adelaide. The aim of this year’s Con-vention is to look at the image priests have of themselves and their priest-hood, to highlight the positive experi-ences we all have as priests and to develop “feel good” attitude among priests. When we get together and fo-cus too much on the problems facing the church and the priesthood today, it is so easy to come away feeling dis-heartened and depressed. It is well known that the morale among priests in many parts of Australia is pretty low

at present – often due to the way some priests have been treated by their “superiors”.

At the same time there are lots of good things happen-ing in our church and in the lives of our priests. Earlier this year, as a lead up to the Convention, we held a “trial

workshop” involving a few priests from Adelaide and other places. We adop ted a p rocess ca l led “Appreciative Inquiry” which aims to highlight the positive experiences one has and to develop the principles and attitudes that help towards that posi-tive experience. The response of some of the participants was ex-

tremely encouraging and we hope the coming Convention will be blessed with a similar response. So I ask you all to pray for the success of this Con-vention in late October.

The life of a priest is certainly not a boring one. As I have said a number of times recently, looking back over my years in the priesthood, I don’t know of any other walk of life that could have brought me the diversity of activities and the same level of fulfilment that I have experienced. I have never seen myself as a highly talented or intellec-tual person, but I have been prepared to “have a go” at lots of different things, with varying degrees of suc-cess – and that has made life very in-teresting and challenging but also very rewarding.

So rather than being overawed by the notion of priesthood we should look upon it as an opportunity to have a vast experience in a great diversity of endeavours, knowing that we are not alone, that the Lord is with us in that calling to what can be a truly reward-ing life. We should encourage our young people to think about it seri-ously.

John F Swann

Page 3

Message From Monsignor

For Adults Only

“The life of a priest is cer-tainly not a boring one”

The Youth Team this year has again continued with organising the monthly Youth Mass, alternating between the 6:30pm mass on a Saturday night, and the 10:30 am Mass on Sunday morn-ings. So far, the Masses have been a success and a great way of involving the younger people from our parish and school community. We would like to take the opportunity to thank all those involved in our Masses, especially Meg Burford and the students who come to help us from the St Joseph's Parish School. We encourage any other young people who are interested in participating in the Masses, to come forward as your help and support would be greatly ap-preciated and it’s a great way to get more involved in our parish community and feel welcomed amongst other young people. The area that we are striving to im-prove and seek more involvement is in the music. What makes our Masses special and rewarding is the music we sing and play at our youth/family masses. We have some great musi-cians amongst our Parish, namely Bonnie Yim and Ferry Ruskim on key-board, Ben Clohesy on clarinet, Tom and David Moran, flute and Cello, Daniel, Mark Covino and Georgina Callaghan on guitar/bass, and An-tonella Catania, Kate, Sophia and Luisa Covino who are singers. BUT, we need more people involved, given people’s commitments we can’t al-ways rely on the same people so if you have that hidden musical talent please come forward and showcase it to our Parish community. We also would like to encourage younger people to become Eucharistic Ministers & Proclaimers of the Word. This is a great way again of getting involved in the parish and living out our Faith. There are many areas you can get involved in, remember the masses are as interesting as we make them, the more young people involved the more we make ourselves belong to our Community. If you are interested, or know of any-one who is interested in participating in any way at the Youth Masses, please contact any of the youth reps listed below.

Luisa Covino, Mark Covino, Eliana Iannace, Antonella Catania or Shauna Hoogland

Page 4

Youth News

TRANMERE TIMES

VOLUME 7, ISSUE 4

The question is often asked, if Adam and Eve were the only ones on earth and they had Cain and Abel. Where did Cain and Abel’s wives come from?

What many people do not realise is that Adam and Eve had other sons and daughters (Genesis 5:4). Adam lived for eight hundred years after the birth of Seth and he fathered many sons and daughters.

According to the Jewish historian Josephus, “The number of Adam’s children was thirty three sons and twenty three daughters.” There is scriptural support from Genesis 5:4.

In those days, humans lived to be very old. Most lived between 500 to 1000 years old. Adam himself lived to be 930 (Genesis 5:3). So there was rather a lot of time for Adam and Eve to – “be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth and subdue it (Genesis 1:28)”. It was not until sometime after the time of Noah that human beings’ lifespan were restricted to 120 years.

So there was quite a lot of time for Adam and Eve to have many children and for these children to in turn marry and have children. Since there were no other races on earth, God permit-ted intermarriage. In fact, God did not forbid marriage between close rela-

tives until Leviticus 18-20. This was probably because there were no ge-netic risks, because Adam and Eve (as perfect, pre-fallen human beings) did not have bad genes. In our times, the mating of close siblings is illegal in most societies because of the high risk of genetic diseases in the off-spring.

Rabbi Shraga Simmons from Jerusa-lem (the source is Rasgi – Genesis 4:1) in relation to Cain and Abel’s wives says the Talmud tells us that Cain and Abel were both born with twin sisters, who married the other brother.

Brian Carter

not feed herself. My sister and brothers take it in turns to feed her at meal times. Sometimes I have to coax her to eat just as she did with me when I was little. Our roles are now reversed. Now I can attend to her small needs and wants, ad-just her pillow and bed to make her more comfortable. I feel privileged to do so. Sometimes when she is very lucid, she prays out aloud, asking St Joseph and St An-thony to stay close to her. At times she calls to her mother - "Mamma, Mamma, where are you? When are you coming to take me to where you are? Please come and get me Mamma. I am wait-ing Mamma".

Opposite Mum is Sister Eve-lyn's room. Whilst I am com-forting my Mother I can hear Sister praying - "God, God, God - come and take me. Come and take me from this earth. I have done every-thing that you have asked me to do. I am ready God. So please come and take me ... ".

To be able to hear such sentiments expressed by these inspirational peo-ple is indeed a gift and a blessing.

At times I also hear expressions of fear, pain and even anger.

My very first recollection of life was when I was about 20 months old. My father was already in Australia prepar-ing the way for us to follow. My sister Carmella, just born, used to sleep snugly wrapped in the crook of my Mother's arm. I slept in the same bed at her back. I remember clearly hop-ping into that cold bed, using Mum's back to keep warm. She was my first hot water bottle. I remember how she used to feed me, coaxing me to eat with a napkin tied around my neck and when I was ill, she would lay me down on a flat, wide bench near the fire and give me comfort.

Mum is now nearly 96 and lives at Tappeiner Court Nursing Home, run by the Sisters of St Joseph. Deciding on Tappeiner Court for Mum's care was a good choice. It has a marvel-lous atmosphere of peace, love and comfort. The Nurses and Carers are very loving and gentle to the point where some go beyond the call of duty. Mum loves Tappeiner Court. She calls it home and enjoys being called 'Darling', being hugged and kissed by the staff. She looks forward to the af-ternoon concerts and always applauds vigorously. In the evenings Mum awaits Sister Joan and Poppy's - her little dog - visit; they say a little prayer together and Sister Joan kisses Mum goodnight. I doubt if there is a better Nursing Home in Adelaide.

Every night I arrive to see Mum at 4.30pm. Most times recently she can-

When my turn comes I hope I am able to say, "God I am ready - come and take me to be with you"

Joseph Garreffa

Joe wrote this article months before his mamma passed away peacefully on 26 August. Our deepest sympathy and love to the Garreffa family. Ed.

Page 5

Cain and Abel’s Wives

Moments When I Am Most Aware of God

Page 6

BRAVO! Italiano Pasto Festivo

TRANMERE TIMES

VOLUME 7, ISSUE 4 Page 7

The Vincentian Mission: ♦ To deepen the faith of its members ♦ To help people in need through personal contact ♦ To strive for a more just and compassionate society

Report for 2005/2006

Membership: The membership of the Tranmere Conference of the St Vincent De Paul Society has remained steady at six. We would love to increase our membership to at least eight members. What we do: Like most SVDP Conferences the Tranmere Conference’s main activities are: ♦ Home Visitation to Support People

in Need ♦ International Partnership Programs ♦ Catholic Literature Home visitation: Members of the Society reach out to the poor and marginalised by personal contact through home visitation. People in need contact the St Vincent De Paul head office and the details of the request are passed on to the local Conference to follow up. Home visitation can be very challenging, but also very effective, because we can communicate more positively with people in their homes. Members of the Tranmere Conference visit people in the Tranmere Parish region and also in the Kent Town region. It is always recommended that we make visits in pairs, but this is not always possible when our membership is at a minimum level. Home visitation is our main activity and 141 visits were made in the year. The most common support provided is food. We provide vouchers and supply food that we have received from donors. We had 19 requests for clothing. We provide vouchers for clothing from the Norwood and Firle Vinnies Family Centres. We received 15 requests for furniture & household goods. These are delivered from the SVDP stores, if available. 13 requests were made for help with the payment of utility accounts, medical expenses, etc. A small number of people seek a listening ear or a bit of help in the house; requiring no material support at all. The cost of providing assistance in

our parish region and Kent Town has amounted to $9,709.

Assistance Requested Food 95%

Clothing 14%

Household Goods 11%

Utilities Payment Support 9%

International Partnerships: SVDP is an international organisation of lay people, active in at least 130 countries with more than 950,000 members. The Society in various regions has a network of cooperation and Australia is networked with the Asia Pacific region. We are active in 3 main areas:- ♦ The Twinning Program. We have 3 Twinning Partners in southern India. We correspond with them 3 or 4 times per year and we support their work with a twinning grant of $240 per year each. ♦ Self-Help Projects. We have supported projects in India to help provide cows and goats to poor families, so that they can supplement their income. ♦ Assist-A-Student Program. This is a very popular program that has great impact on young people in our neighbouring countries. Sponsoring the education of students results in the breaking of the poverty trap, especially in rural villages where employment opportunities are restricted. Australia provided over 3,000 such scholarships in 2005. Our Tranmere community has provided outstanding support for this program during the last few years and ‘compete’ with Norwood parish for the top donor title in SA. Catholic Literature: The SVDP Christmas Cards continue to be very popular and have a strong focus on the real meaning of Christmas. We also make available in the literature display in the church various excellent publications from the Australian Catholic Social Justice Council. ‘Thank You’ Many Times: Once again we must acknowledge the wonderful support of so many

parishioners. Without you we can do little. ♦ We thank the private donors and

the regular donors to the Poor Box, who so often save the day when our funds are low.

♦ We thank all those people who support the Vinnies Centres at Norwood and Firle; the people who volunteer to help in the Franklin Street office; the people who help with the collecting and delivering of furniture, etc.

♦ We thank the St Joseph’s Parish School community. They have provided magnificent support for the Christmas Hampers.

♦ We thank the Rostrevor College students. Their support with Charity Collections and Can Drives is a great help.

♦ We thank the Adelaide Action Achievers Club. For many years now it has supported us with Christmas Hampers. These young adults with disabilities show their appreciation of the support they themselves have received by giving generously in return.

♦ We thank parishioners for their tremendous support of the Society’s Assist-A-Student Program.

♦ Finally, last but by no means least, we thank Mgr John for his encouragement and support; and Carol for her help in getting our message into the bulletin at short notice.

THANK YOU ALL SVDP Tranmere Expenditure: $ 9,709 -- 76% Local Assistance

$ 2,369 -- 18% International Aid

$ 385 ----- 3% Education/Promotion

$ 327 ----- <3% Christmas cards & Literature

$ 26 ------ <1% Administration

$12,816 -- 100% TOTAL Expenses

PARISH PERSONNEL

EDITORIAL TEAM

Terence & Grace Yeow, Tom Spinks

♦ Caterina Dal Corobbo of Rostrevor on 13 June

♦ Pasquale Ali of Magill on 14 June

♦ Joan Zagrodzki of St. Morris on 17 June

♦ Giulia Girardi of Magill on 6 August

♦ Veronica (Ronnie) Shevlin of Ken-sington Gardens on 14 August

♦ George Joseph Nak of Kensington Gardens 28 August

♦ Natalia Francesca (Maria) Garreffa of Norton Summit on 26 August

♦ Karoly (Charlie) Matoricz of Magill on 11th September

♦ Mary Migliaccio of Paradise on 12th September

Weddings ♦ Antony Metti and Joanne Robin-

son on 1 July

Personal Notices

A farmer named Muldoon lived alone in the Irish countryside ex-cept for a pet dog he had for a long time.

The dog finally died and Muldoon went to the parish priest saying, “Father, the dog is dead. Could you possibly be saying a Mass for the poor creature?”

Father Patrick told the farmer “No, we can’t have services for an ani-mal in the church, but I’ll tell you what, there is a new denomination down the road apiece, and no tell-ing what they believe in, but maybe they’ll do something for the animal.”

Muldoon said “I’ll go right now. By the way, do you think $50,000 is enough to donate for the service?”

Father Patrick replied “Why didn’t you tell me the dog was Catholic?”

Brian Carter

Service for Your Dog

BAPTISMS We welcome into our Parish faith community the recently baptised: ♦ Rosa Feltrin, daughter of Guido

and Antonietta on 18 June

♦ Neve Sargeant, daughter of Carlton and Katrina on 18 June

♦ Sophie Taylor, daughter of Stuart and Tania on 23 July

♦ Jessica Allen, daughter of Justin and Renee on 23 July

May They Rest in Peace

Our sympathy goes to fami-lies & friends of recently de-ceased parishioners:

Tranmere Times is the bi-monthly parish newsletter of St. Joseph’s Catholic Church Tranmere. This church serves the people

living but not entirely in the Adelaide suburbs of Kensington, Magill, Newton, Norton Summit and Hills, Rostrevor, Rosslyn Park, St. Morris,

Tranmere and Woodforde.

Parish Priest: Mgr. John Swann Pastoral Associate: Mr Frank Fahy

Parish School Principal: Paul Murphy Parish REC: Annka Goioisa

Parish Secretary: Carol Galbraith

St. Joseph’s Church 484 Magill Rd, Kensington Gdns 5068

phone: 8431-6932, fax: 8361-3086 email: stjostrmr@picknowl.com.au

Parish Website

http://homepages.picknowl.com.au/stjostrmr

TRANMERE TIMES

Congratulations to John Muscat for 30 years of dedication to his work at John Galligans Mattress Factory, Magill Road, on 4 October 2006.

Magill Neighbourhood Watch Area 1/12 There will be a 20th Anniversary celebration on Monday 13th November at 7:30pm at the Senior Citizen’s Hall, St. Ber-nards Road, Magill. All are welcome, especially past zone leaders and Police Coordinators. Supper and light entertain-ment supplied.

A Sunday School teacher asked her class how many families say prayers before start-ing their meals? “We don’t have to,” said Tommy, “My mom is a great cook!”