The Catholic Weekly 28 June 2020

catholicweekly.com.au 10 NEWS 28, June, 2020 NEW Ph: 4620 8822 or 9708 6972 www.KenneallysFunerals.com.au ‘ Servicing greater Sydney and the Macarthur area’ Why choose Kenneally’s  Servicing the Catholic Community  Family owned and operated  After funeral bereavement support available  Tailored options for your personal finances  Affordable pre-paid and pre-arranged funerals Prompt and Personalised Care Tributes roll for Senator AUSTRALIAN POLITICAL leaders are paying tribute to the late Senator John Madigan who represented the Democratic Labor Party in Federal Parlia- ment from 2010-2014. A devout Catholic and arguably the most significant figure in 21st Centu- ry DLP history, Madigan died peacefully in Ballarat at the age of 53 on 16 June after a losing a battle with cancer. Former Prime Minister Tony Abbott told The Catholic Week- ly that former DLP Senator John Madigan’s faith inspired his own during their time together in Parliament. “John never knew this, but he restoredmy practice of grace beforemeals,” Mr Abbott said. “I had invited him to dinner ¾ ¾ David Ryan in the Opposition Leader’s suite with like-minded members of my team. The meal had just arrived when it suddenly occurred to me that it would be his prac- tice to start with a blessing. So that’s what I did. “I’m not sure whether it impressed him but it certainly impressed itself onme and henceforth I never hosted a dinner inmy office without ask- ing for the Lord’s blessing. “He was a very decent man with an old-fashioned sense of courtesy and respect for others. My thoughts and prayers are with his family at this sad time.” A Ballarat local who was a blacksmith and boilermaker by trade, Madigan advocat- ed strongly for working-class Australians and farmers. “His time in federal parliament was marked by his deep concern for the plight of Australian farm- ers, particularly over the ero- sion of their water entitlement, and over the loss of Australian manufacturing industries,” said friend and current President of the National Civic Council Pat- rick Byrne who met Madigan during their time in NCC youth in the 1980s. “He was highly respected by all who knew him and his pass- ing is a great loss to Australia,” he said. PROMINENT AUSTRALIAN Catholics have paid tribute to the remarkable Chinese-born English woman Audrey Don- nithorne who became a world expert for the Church on Chi- na and devoted the bulk of her life and career to visiting and studying it. Ms Donnithorne passed away in Hong Kong from pneumonia in mid-June at the age of 95. Aid to the Church in Need Chair Terry Tobin QC told The Catholic Weekly Ms Donnith- orne kept her Australian con- nections after retiring from ANU and moving to Hong Kong. “What may have been her last trip into her home prov- ince of Sichuan was with a group from ACN in Sydney – Father Paul Stenhouse MSC who died in November, Phil- lip Collignon, and a French director,” he said. “As always she was bring- ing material assistance to the bishops forced to work in the shadows. One had told her that compelled her to send his seminarians away from their home diocese, which he ran, to the Patriotic Church sem- inary, as they would “come back atheists”. “When she could no longer visit China after 1997 she continued her work from Hong Kong among her China Watcher colleagues, Father Lazlo Ladany SJ and many others, who proved that the Church needs academic mas- tery of the intricacies of Chi- na, and practical wisdomwith it, hard to acquire in distant Rome. “She joins a great roll call of those bringing the Word to that great culture, begin- She was little known, but those who knew her were in awe of her talents and gifts ¾ ¾ Peter Rosengren Catholics recall unique scholar of China Audrey Donnithorne in Australia when she worked for two decades in Canberra. ning with Matteo Ricci SJ, and stretching God willing into the far future. Retired Bishop Peter El- liott of Melbourne told The Catholic Weekly that when- ever he was in Hong Kong he would visit the legendary China academic to hear grass roots news about the suffering Church in China. “Two victims of persecu- tion, John and Mary Wong, came to live in her apartment on Bonham Road, until they died. Engaged to marry, their plans were disrupted by the Communist take over in Octo- ber 1949,” he said. “For years they were separated in dif- ferent concentration camps having been arrested, guilty of the crime of being members of that dangerous subversive organisation, the Legion of Mary! “When finally they were released, they married, but they were too old to have chil- dren. The Communists stole a family from them. Audrey organised a speaking tour of Australia for them, and I recall them giving witness to Christ and His Church at a national conference of the John XXIII Fellowship. “I have vivid memories of trying to catch up with a vigor- ous Audrey as we jumped on and off crowded buses in the New Territories, on the way to dine in a very noisy six-storey yum cha restaurant,” he told the paper. “She was resplendent in a Burberry overcoat and sensi- ble shoes, a blend of Margaret Rutherford and Miss Mar- ple, but she was much more, a strong Christian person, the unique Audrey. She car- ried the years better than her friend from Oxford days, Mar- garet Thatcher, whose decline was a deep sorrow for Audrey. Legendary Australian pub- lic servant and diplomat Sir Peter Lawler and his wife were among her close friends and range of stellar contacts. “Sir Peter and Lady Lawler were close friends,” Bishop El- liott said. “As the Canberra fire head- ed for their house, they bun- dled her into their car before she had even unpacked for a visit. They just made it, look- ing back as the house blazed. But Audrey just kept calm and carried on.  “Rest in peace dear cou- rageous soul … and pray for China.” Ms Donnithorne was awarded the papal medal Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice (for the Church and the Pontiff) by Pope St John Paul II for her lifelong service to the Catholic Church in China. Studying at Oxford in her youth she became a close personal friend of future Brit- ish Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Born in Sichuan Province in 1925 to Anglican mission- aries, Ms Donnithorne en- tered the Catholic Church in her twenties. She lived and worked in Canberra for two decades before retiring to Hong Kong in the 1980s. She joins a great roll call of those bringing theWord to that great culture, beginning with Matteo Ricci SJ, and stretching God willing into the far future.” Terry Tobin QC In brief Digital giving for ACT IT’S OUT with the col- lection plate and in with electronic tap-and-go do- nations as the Canber- ra-Goulburn Archdio- cese moved last weekend to what it describes as a simpler form of collect- ing money during parish masses. Direct debit using a smartphone app called Qkr is now the main way parishioners will be able to donate to Church person- nel such as clergy and for the upkeep and ministries of parish life. The ACT Government banned collection plates as part of its social distanc- ing measures and Canber- ra-Goulburn vicar-general Fr Tony Percy said it made sense to implement the rule across the Archdio- cese. “We have complied with COVID-19 health regulations from the be- ginning and that means collection plates can no longer be used,” Fr Tony said. “It does usher in a new era of giving. The reality is also that so many people don’t carry cash anymore. We needed to provide al- ternative ways of giving and are trialling new sys- tems.” Fr Tony said the new options would be simpler for parishioners and par- ish staff. “Cash can be a night- mare,” Fr Tony said. “At every step along the way, from the collecting and counting to the transport- ing and banking, cash cre- ates problems. If you can do things without cash it is much safer and cleaner.” Collection points will still allow for cash or planned giving envelopes. ¾ ¾ David Ryan