Inspired by the people

07 Jan 2013

By Robert Hiini

Monsignor Michael Keating has spent the past 50 years of his priesthood trying to live out the spirit of the Second Vatican Council.

Mgr Keating, Dean of St Mary’s Cathedral, made the comment at the 11am Mass on December 16 which doubled as a celebration of the 50th anniversary of his ordination as a priest.

The Cathedral was full to overflowing with family, friends, and well wishers including the Monsignor’s sisters, Gabrielle and Pauline, their husbands, eight children and 20 grandchildren.

“The Vatican Council, which I have tried to live these 50 years gave us the wonderful message that we are all the Church and are all called to holiness by our Baptism,” Mgr Keating said during his
homily.

“It taught us that the world is good, that it is right to respect people of different religions and none [and] it gave us the life giving changes to the Liturgy and the format of the Mass.”

Mgr Keating was an official as a Deacon at the Council’s first Session in 1962 and was in Rome for every subsequent session.

“I believe the Council’s spirit will prevail,” he told the congregation. “You can’t put the toothpaste back into the tube.”

The Monsignor gave a vivid picture of the years following his voyage to Italy by boat in 1959.

The then-19 year old had never been overseas when he set out on the three-week journey to Naples.

“Little did I know I was not to return to Australia for seven years, during which time I made only one phone call home,” Mgr Keating said.

“There were no emails and phone calls were very rare. Telegrams normally brought bad news.

“Weekly letters were the way of communication. I still have all my mother’s weekly letters and she kept mine. One day I hope to re-read them all.”

Mgr Keating was 22 years old when he was ordained in 1962; the youngest in his class of 32 students, hailing from every continent.

“I realised that, given equal opportunities, we could all do well. It prepared me for the multi-cultural Australian Church which I love,” Mgr Keating said.

St Mary’s Cathedral, which Mgr Keating has administered as Dean since it re-opened on December 8, 2009, has played a pivotal role in his history.

It was the place where his parents courted and where they married in September, 1936. It was also the church in which his mother’s funeral Mass took place in 1977.

The Cathedral is also the site engraved on the back of the miraculous medal he wore for the occasion; a medal given to him on the day of his ordination.

He was wearing it when a life guard rescued him after getting caught in a rip in Los Angeles in 1965.

“I put that as a general address and here I am 50 years later in St Mary’s Cathedral,” Mgr Keating said.

“As I was drowning I remember thinking, “at least they will know who I am and where I am from”.”

Mgr Keating said his formation owed much to local priests Fr John Wilkinson, one-time Rector of St Charles Seminary, and to Mgr Edmund Sullivan, a man he called his mentor.

He cited Mgr Felice Cenci and Blessed Pope John XXIII as overseas churchmen whom he admired and had tried to imitate.

Mgr Keating shared his assessment of the character of John XXIII whom he met on the morning of his ordination.

“It was his humanity that made him so lovable. When you met him, you were the only person who mattered,” the Monsignor said.

“Very importantly for the Church he called the Second Vatican Council which brought an astonishing and beautiful life giving summer into our lives.”

Mgr Keating has served five Archbishops of Perth, ministering to parishioners in Cottesloe, Northbridge (then West Perth), Mirrabooka, Highgate, Bateman, and currently, St Mary’s Cathedral.

“Whatever I have done for others, I say in all sincerity, I have received much more back,” Mgr Keating said.

“The seminary is a part of a priest’s formation, but the people of the places we serve are such an inspiration and complete our formation. Thank you.”

Mgr Keating thanked his family and friends for all their love and support over many years and bade all present “a wonderful Christmas and a blessed New Year in 2013”.