WelCom August 2024
Sue Seconi
Fr Craig Butler, parish priest for the Catholic Parish of Whanganui – Te Parihi Katoria Ki Whanganui, recently spoke to parishioners at St Mary’s Parish Centre about his experiences in Rome the Synod on Synodality and travels that followed.
Held in Rome from 28 April to 2 May, the international synod event bought together 300 parish priests from 100 countries around the world to engage in roundtable discussions, liturgical celebrations, workshops on pastoral proposals, dialogue with experts and to meet Pope Francis.
The purpose was for the Synod on Synodality process to hear from ‘ordinary’ priests over the five-day gathering of 12 to 14-hour days, about their involvement with synodality in action and other issues facing the Church at the parish level.
Fr Craig’s group included priests from Ukraine, Tanzania, Malta, Korea, Thailand, Philippines, Vietnam, Africa and Taiwan. The shared experiences of walking with people on their life journeys were diverse Fr Craig said.
‘All up, I found it a very humbling experience, meeting with others who share the same joys and sorrows as we do. Most humbling was listening to priests from Ukraine, Iraq and central Africa and about how they suffer from violence,’ Fr Craig said.
The information gathered from the parish priest meeting, has since been processed to be included in the final working document in readiness for the Synod meeting in October this year in Rome.
Before leaving Rome, Fr Craig met a priest from Myanmar who knew Fr Joe Tha Khu very well. Fr Joe had served with Fr Craig in Hawera. For the previous six months, nothing had been heard from Fr Joe and because of the military rule, there were fears for his safety. Fr Craig said it had been with much relief he learnt that Fr Joe is safe and well.
‘This was a miracle,’ he said.
After Rome, it was on to Lourdes for three days for Fr Craig, which included a mini-retreat and bringing parishioners’ prayer petitions for healing. Ireland was next on Fr Craig’s travel agenda where he visited Fr Wally Cook who had served in the Palmerston North Diocese. The Cavern in Liverpool, where the Beatles began their musical career, was the final must-see before his long-haul flight home.
