From The Catholic Leader in Australia:
Deacon Clinton McGoldrick became the first Indigenous man ordained in the history of Brisbane archdiocese last Saturday.
He was ordained to the permanent diaconate at St Stephen’s Cathedral with his wife and two sons as well as many friends, fellow deacons and priests supporting him.
He said it was an amazing day and the words of Brisbane Archbishop Mark Coleridge, who ordained him, were “very moving”.
“Not just for me, but for many Indigenous people who were in the congregation,” he said.
In his homily, Archbishop Coleridge said “we are a Church in search of a new engagement with our First Nations people – something we’ve never seen before”.
“Ordaining this man who comes from our first Nations people may very well be part of what God is up to precisely at this vital point,” he said.
“It might just be that through Deacon Clint, Aboriginal man that he is, God might teach the rest of us, the Church and others, what it means to befriend and love the Indigenous peoples, the First Nations of this land.”
Deacon McGoldrick said there was a lot of need for the sacraments in Indigenous communities and wanted his ordination to be a sign of hope.
“(Becoming a deacon) is obviously a very rigorous and lengthy process and there are not too many Indigenous people who can meet the requirements and commit to that process for various reasons,” he said.
“To be somebody who has been able to successfully navigate that program, I want that to be a sign to other people to say, ‘I can do that as well’.
Welcome, brother! Ad multos annos!
