THE new Notre Dame University at Hawkesbury Hospital was the venue when the Way of Mercy cross rolled into town on Friday morning, August 26.
Father Clifford from St Monica’s at Richmond was at the welcoming ceremony for the cross and said the pilgrimage around western Sydney and the mountains was a way of manifesting Pope Francis’s declaration of 2016 as the Year of Mercy.
The aim is to raise the profile of the Catholic church as a church of inclusion which won’t demean or marginalise people on the basis of their sexual orientation, marital status or life circumstances, the Bishop of Parramatta Vincent Long said at the cross’s launch on July 2.
After the ceremony the cross was taken down by four men to continue its journey, going to St Monica’s Primary School in Richmond. It was then going to the church next door. On Saturday it was destined to visit St Gregory’s at Kurrajong.
On Monday it was heading off on the rest of pilgrimage, which will include Greystanes, Baulkham Hills, Glenbrook, Seven Hills, Quakers Hill, Glenmore Park, Plumpton, Penrith, Mulgoa, Springwood and back to Parramatta.
“The cross belongs to the Parish of Richmond and will come to St Monica’s when it has finished its pilgrimage,” Father Clifford said.
It is travelling with two relics – a strand of hair from St Mary of the Cross McKillop and a letter written by Mother Teresa of Kolkata –and a centuries-old Bible.
The welcoming ceremony also included the announcement of a nursing scholarship for an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander offered by St John of God Healthcare NSW.