NauMai September 2021
Since 2000, the Archdiocese has at various times honoured and acknowledged local people for contributions to many aspects of parish life. In 2010, these awards became known as the ‘Fitzgerald Awards’, after a prominent layman, Dr John Patrick Fitzgerald, who did much for Church in Wellington during the 1840s.
Cardinal John Dew wrote to parish leaders on 28 July, advising he wished to continue the awards’ process ‘as good for our communities to commend some of our often-unsung heroes’.
In consultation by Cardinal John with the Archdiocesan Pastoral Council and Council of Priests the Fitzgerald Awards will be presented by parish leaders at local parishes on International Volunteers Day, Sunday 5 December.
Cardinal John has invited parish leaders and their parishes to nominate parishioners who have ‘faithfully and generously served the Archdiocese Synod ’17 call ‘to go out to the peripheries’, in one or more of these areas: Celebrating God in our Lives; Sharing our Living Faith; Growing in Community; and Working for Justice and Peace.
Parish nominations, with brief citations, are due by Friday 1 October to Christine Walkerdine: c.walkerdine@wn.catholic.org.nz at the Church Mission Office.
The Archdiocese will provide parishes certificates or plaques and a suggested prayer or blessing nearer to the awards in December. For more information, please contact Christine Walkerdine.
Dr John Fitzgerald was born in Dublin and trained in medicine in Scotland and London. He arrived in Wellington on one of the earliest ships, the Oriental, in January 1840 as a consulting surgeon to the New Zealand Company. He soon gathered the little Catholic congregation to pray on Sundays, and became a tireless leader of the lay committee, which successfully ran the parish until the arrival of Fr Jeremiah O’Reily in 1843. Dr Fitzgerald mastered te reo Māori language and he became Medical Superintendent for the new Colonial Hospital in Wellington. He later went to the Cape of South Africa and he eventually died in England.