Dominican Vocations

	DOMINICAN VOCATIONS PROVINCE OF THE ASSUMPTION

Site map	News and events	10 June 2005
Home News -------------------------- Welcome Benedict XVI Master -------------------------- History Introduction St Dominic's gift Australia --------------------------- Order Discernment Formation Dominican habit Novitiate Studentate --------------------------- Life Introduction Four pillars Apostolate --------------------------- People Dominican saints Our brethren --------------------------- Resources Lectio Divina Links Prayer Reading --------------------------- Site dedication	- 10 Jun 2005 Golden Jubilee of Priestly Ordination of Fr Hilary Martin, O.P. Returning to Australia for the second semester of 2005, Fr Hilary Martin, O.P. celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of his priestly ordination with the brethren at St Dominic's Priory, East Camberwell. Fr Hilary was born in Montclair NJ, USA and was ordained at St Mary's Cathedral, San Francisco on 10 June, 1955. He undertook his studies for the priesthood in the US Western Province before he was sent to Oxford for higher studies. Fr Hilary shares his academic year between Oakland and Melbourne. Here in Australia, Fr Hilary is a member of the faculty at Yarra Theological Union and Catholic Theological College in the Departments of Church History and Philosophy. His courses on various themes of the Summa Theologiae of St Thomas Aquinas (including virtue, anthropology and natural law) are among the array of courses our local Dominican students undertake. Fr Hilary also assists with the celebration of the Sacraments in St Dominic's Parish, East Camberwell and is a regular member of the Men's Ambulation Society. Ad multos annos, Fr Hilary! What follows is an excerpt from "Priests reflect on years of ministry" in The Catholic Voice, June 20, 2005 which featured Fr Hilary among the California Jubilarians. Present ministry: Professor Emeritus, Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology and Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley CA; Visiting Professor, Yarra Theological Union and Catholic Theological College, Melbourne. Past service: Acting Dean, Graduate Theological Union; Professor, St Albert's Priory, Oakland CA; Regent (Director) of Studies, US Western Province; Priest in Residence, St Mary Magdalen's Parish, Berkeley; Scholar among Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory. "My profession of solemn vows and ordination completed a phase of my life and opened up a door on something else. I was sent to England to complete my studies at Oxford. "I could not fail to notice the rumblings of dissent to the standard Church line, both theological and political. Dissent in the Church was genteelly suppressed - editors too outspoken were removed from their magazines, teachers were sent to obscure priories, books and articles which failed to pass the censors were suppressed, some experimental apostolates closed down. "There was a real fear that communism and anti-religious socialism might succeed in getting control of the weak post-war democracies of western Europe as they had already done in eastern Europe with such devastating effect. "The rumblings of theological unrest in Europe, however, were not much heard as yet in California, but they were not long in coming. Pope John XXIII called a Council. Almost at once, reports about the Council's work generated a sense that this was a key moment in the history of the Christian churches, not only the Roman Catholic Church. "The Graduate Theological Union was formed in 1964 with the Dominican School as the first Catholic school to join. The unifying of the various faculties - without homogenising them - was the work of the 60s and 70s. Throughout all of the activity, it was a joy to have the continuous attention, concern and support of Bishop Cummins (Bishop of Oakland, 1977-2003). "By the 1980s, the GTU had become a great meeting place for scholars and professors from everywhere. It was a kind of pylon anchoring spans to form bridges to other parts of the world. "Beginning in 1982, I began to make a series of trips to Australia's Northern Territory to stay with five Aboriginal communities who live together. Collectively that community became a mentor for me of how to live on the land in a tribal form of life. Although my time there was more missionary, the Catholic community there, with its different cultural ways of doing things even of approaching our religion, was important to me. Even to the point of learning what to pray for, "Now I want to examine the Church's past to find guidelines for its future. It is the generation of the present that must find consensus so the Faith can flourish in all corners of our mixed race and multi-cultured world. The outpouring of celebration at the funeral of Pope John Paul II has shown us all how far we have travelled along that road."