Legion of Mary

Melbourne Senatus

Prayer with Action

 Pennington South Australia

The Pennington PPC commenced on Saturday morning, 16th April, 2005 at midday with the first meeting of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Praesidium. Sr. Alison was duly appointed. President, Sr. Antoinette Vice-President, Br. Dan Secretary-and Sr. Betty Treasurer. A total of 24 legionaries were in attendance.  

Fr. Monopoli addressed the legionaries and instructed them as to how he wished them to approach the parishioners and a set of enlarged and clearly marked maps of the _area which had been broken into ten different zones was presented to the team by the Adelaide legionaries who had prepared so adequately for the PPC.

 After lunch, nine pairs of Legionaries were sent forth into three different zones with a total of 422 homes visited in a period of less than three hours and 61 Catholic families located.

On return to the Parish Hall, we were treated to the first of a series of delicious and varied taste experiences.

All legionaries were privately billeted and some had to travel up to half an hour to the Centre each day. However, the Adelaide Legionaries were always available for transport and the heavy workload was shared by the same small core group.

Sunday 17th April, commenced with Mass at 9.00 a.m. at which we were all commissioned by Fr. Monopoli.

Following Mass we had our second meeting, followed by lunch and further visitation. Again, a further 445 homes were visited and 77 Catholic families located.

A similar number of legionaries continued to work in the Parish from Monday through to the next Sunday with similar figures being attained, the highest amount being 716 homes visited on Tuesday 19th and 78 Catholic families located.        

Several local Adelaide legionaries came to assist from time to time.

At the end of the first week, six Melbourne legionaries returned home and these were replaced by another three also from Melbourne.

We continued to work through without a break until Monday 25th April, being Anzac Day when we all had a well-earned rest and recreation day by being treated to a tour of the local various tourist spots by our various local drivers and Michael Palma from Melbourne who also had his car with him.

We were back on the road again on Tuesday and continued to work through till Friday lunch time.

By Wednesday, 27th April, the whole area of the Parish had been visited with a total of 5699 homes visited 3241 not home, 1836 not Catholic and '"622 Catholic. We then commenced the arduous task of revisiting those who had not been home the first time. By the end of the PPC approximately half (1500) of these homes had been revisited yielding a further 100 (approx.) Catholic families.

The completion of a most successful PPC was celebrated by a Barbecue tea which was put on by the Parish Council and to which all workers, drivers, helpers, host families, cooks and all those who participated in the PPC.

We were all greatly encouraged by Fr. Monopoli's obvious interest and dedication to his Parish by his willingness to follow-up any urgent needs with home visits before we had even finished our own visitation.

In all, a total of fifteen legionaries from Melbourne and 3 from Perth took part in the visitation together with 9 locals who attended on several days of the two-week period.

My thanks and congratulations to all legionaries who accepted all duties without murmuring and conducted themselves with great diligence, perseverance, charity and joyfulness at all times, despite the constant heat and long hours asked of them.

Also our thanks to all hosting families and all who contributed towards our meals and all travel arrangements, especially our resident Cook and House-mother, Sr. Joan.

Much of the success of this PPC must be attributed to the careful planning and preparation of maps by the Adelaide core group.

Send mail to melbsenatus@legion-mary.org with questions or comments about this web site.