Local pastor in land down under

Editor's note: Rev. David Noone, pastor of St. Francis de Sales parish in Loudonville, is spending three months at a Catholic parish in New Zealand as part of an exchange program with the pastor there. In a previous issue of The Evangelist, we interviewed that priest, Rev. Brian Winders. Thanks to e-mail, we interviewed Father Noone while he is "down under." The following is a transcript of that electronic exchange.

Q. What is New Zealand like?

Father Noone: New Zealand is 1,400 miles below Australia and 10,000 miles from New York. It is home for approximately 3,500,000 people -- and, during lambing season, some 100,000,000 sheep. It is largely a farming country whose principal exports are, not surprisingly, meat (lamb), wool, wood and dairy.

But, its number-one asset is its natural beauty. I've always been drawn to places of natural beauty but never have I been so surrounded by such an amazing display of it. I am within easy driving distance of the ocean, sandy white beaches, fjords, snow-capped mountains, azure blue lakes, rivers, and lush green grassy fields grazed to a golf course smoothness by those millions of sheep.

Father Noone: The parish at Port Chalmers is much smaller than St. Francis de Sales but very self-sufficient. Daily Mass is offered most days, and there is a single, 9:00 a.m. Mass on Sundays. Anywhere from 6-12 attend the daily Mass and approximately 70 attend on Sundays.

There are only two active parish groups: a Catholic Women's League and a Liturgy Committee. The latter is comprised of four adult and one youth team, each of which takes total responsibility for preparing a Sunday liturgy. The team meets early in the week, reads and reflects on the Scriptures, develops a theme, chooses music, and assigns ministers for the various liturgical roles.

The parishioners' interest in, as well as their sense of responsibility for each Sunday's liturgy, is very unique and remarkable. Over the course of two months, three-quarters of the worshipping community are involved and have some role to play in the Sunday liturgy. The Sunday liturgy is, without doubt, the heartbeat of the parish.

The parish has an elementary school, which 56 students attend. It is staffed by three teachers, one of whom is the principal. The New Zealand government subsidizes Catholic education, a subsidy which pays for all staffing and supplies. I had heard about the school before I came and could not imagine one so small. It is, however, well staffed and supplied, and provides the children who attend with a wonderful social, educational and spiritual environment. It has renewed my faith in the possibilities of Catholic education!

Father Noone: My main ministry is as the Catholic chaplain at the public hospital in Dunedin. Dunedin is the country's fifth largest city (115,000) and home to one of the country's oldest and best universities. The university includes a medical school, so the hospital is a teaching hospital for the university's medical students. My responsibility is to provide pastoral care for the 20 percent of the patients who are Roman Catholic, including a Sunday Mass which approximately 60-70 patients and non-patients attend. Most of my working day is spent at the hospital.

Father Noone: Dr. Peter Norris, a colleague and member of my staff during my years at the University of Notre Dame, and now head of St. Margaret's College, one of several connected to Otago University, first proposed the idea of a pastoral exchange between myself and a priest from the Diocese of Dunedin approximately four years ago.

Initially, because of the time and distance involved, as well as other personal and pastoral commitments, I was not interested. Peter was persistent, however, and eventually the seed he planted seemed to take hold. Excuses and obstacles kept getting removed and eventually, while I felt a great deal of ambiguity about the proposed exchange right up until the day I left home, I felt as if it was something which, for some reason, God wanted me to do and to resist it would be foolhardy.

Father Noone: To help me answer this question, I put it to a small but representative cross-section of parishioners. They indicated that their primary concern is for their children, tomorrow's Church. Roman Catholics represent 16 percent of New

Zealand's total population, only 20 percent of whom actually attend church -- and that number is decreasing slightly each year.

The majority of the country's Roman Catholic children attend Catholic school and yet, according to the Office of Religious Education, only 16 percent of those children attend church. Will there be children to pass the Church on to?

Secondary concerns include graying congregations, an aging and diminishing clergy, the steady decrease in annual Church support revenue and, what seems to be both an overdose of apathy in the pews and a lack of prophetic Church leadership (i.e. no one taking the needed risks, making the hard decisions or giving the clarion call).

I see reasons for hopefulness, however. Despite the country's trend towards secularization, I am constantly encountering people of spiritual depth and substance in patients and staff I meet in the parish and hospital day after day. The local clergy are strongly bonded with one another and their parishioners, and seem rooted in a faith that fosters hope and optimism, and eliminates cynicism and discouragement.

The Catholic schools are in the process of introducing a new faith formation curriculum into the schools. I reviewed it and was given a chance to discuss it with one of the bishops' representatives involved in its preparation. I believe it to be an excellent approach and could be the seeds for the future. The curriculum responds to three questions and concerns:

* What do children need to know to be Catholic?

* What skills do children need to acquire to act Catholic?

* What attitudes do children need to possess to live as Catholics?

With 80 percent of Catholic children in Catholic schools, the Church does have its future in its hands. I believe this curriculum could embrace and ensure that future.

Father Noone: I have been surprised by the friendliness and hospitality of the clergy. The parishioners have been friendly, but that was almost a given. When priests here who have traveled to and ministered in parishes in America tell me about their experiences there, it is apparent that, in general, they experience far less inclusion and hospitality than I have experienced here.

I was surprised that the day I arrived all the ambiguity I felt earlier about this pastoral exchange disappeared, so much so that I can honestly say that there has not been a day I haven't been glad to be here or a day I haven't felt blessed.

I have been surprised by the sheep. They are everywhere and, yes, the lambs are cute! I spent a weekend on a farm during lambing season as 6,000 ewe were giving birth. Quite a sight to see live births all over the hillsides.

I have been surprised by how much I have enjoyed hospital ministry, and by how powerfully the priest and the sacraments continue to convey a sense of the presence of God to the people met in that ministry. I have been surprised by how much I have learned from those I have met and how inspired I have been by the personal spirituality they have shared with me.

I have been surprised by how an invitation I resisted and felt so ambivalent about has so energized and renewed me. I have been surprised, once again, to see clearly how God works in so many lives, including my own.

I have been surprised by how easy it is to be so far away from home and yet feel so near and so in touch (maybe too much so?), thanks to e-mail.

Father Noone: Central heating! Seeing the North Star (it's the Southern Cross down here). Summer -- it was winter here when I arrived in August. Driving on the "right" side of the road.

Everyone back home -- and reading my weekly copy of The Evangelist!

Q. What don't you miss?

Father Noone: Television and shopping malls. It's nice to have a town square and streets with stores. I didn't realize how much more human life used to be without shopping malls.