Catholic Outlook Magazine | September Edition | Season of Creation | 2023 Issue

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A cuppa with the priest Fr John McSweeney Parish Priest Sacred Heart Parish Blackheath STORY CHRISTINA GRETTON Many people both inside and outside the Diocese of Parramatta would recognise the name Fr John McSweeney. Over the 40 years since his ordination, he has served as Parish Priest at St Finbar’s Glenbrook, Dean of St Patrick’s Cathedral, Parramatta, and Parish Priest of St John XXIII Glenwood-Stanhope Gardens. Now he is Parish Priest of both Sacred Heart Parish, Blackheath and St Mary of the Cross MacKillop Parish, Upper Blue Mountains. In between parish postings, he spent 20 years in the Australian Navy as a reserve chaplain and the first Australian chaplain in Baghdad at the end of the Second Iraq War in 2003. Having gained his licence in Biblical Studies at the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome and Jerusalem (a challenging course which called on his skills in the eight languages he speaks), Fr John also lectured at the Catholic Institute of Sydney and the Orthodox Seminary for many years. In total, it has added up to an extremely full and varied 40 years. A lifetime that Fr John feels has filled him with a sense of contentment. Contentment and Christian joy more important than happiness “Sometimes contentment is more important than happiness,” reflects Fr John. He goes on to explain, “Contentment is something that links into the whole concept of Christian joy, whereby we can still be joyful, even in the midst of disaster. “Happiness is not a constant, sadness is not a constant. But if you have that contentment and joy, then no matter whether there’s happiness or sadness or everything else in between, there is some type of equilibrium in your life.” “Not your normal Catholic kid” Looking at Fr John’s upbringing in Glenbrook – educated in the state system, and with a family who weren’t practising Catholics – he may not have been the most obvious person to join the seminary when he left school. “I was not your normal Catholic kid,” he says. “I’d never even been to a weekday Mass.” He attended a St Columba’s Seminary open day in Springwood at the invitation of the young seminarian catechists teaching him religion at the time, but, he says, he “hated it”. Later that year, he found himself back at the seminary. “I must have had some sort of religious experience,” he recalls, “because I have no memory of it. But leaving that chapel that day, I was convinced I needed to become a priest. Whatever it was, the conviction still stays with me. “Even when the going has been rough at times over the past 40 years, that conviction has never left me.” The Diocesan Synod a chance to reinvigorate and build community I ask what his hopes are for the Diocesan Synod. “I do think we have a chance to reinvigorate and renew our parishes,” he says. “It must have practical application to the lived life of the people in the pews.” Responsible for six churches, he is building parish councils that can foster the charism of each church community. “Each village (in the Blue Mountains) has a particular approach to things,” he says. “By allowing each church within each village to have its 42
Fr John McSweeney with his dog Spencer at Sacred Heart Church in Blackheath. Image: Diocese of Parramatta. own charism, I hope people will feel attracted to one of the different communities within the two parishes.” It’s a cold and rainy day in Blackheath, but there is busyness around the parish offices with a Catholic Care group meeting, people dropping in, and Fr John’s dog Spencer by his side the whole time. Fr John has started up biblical studies sessions with dozens of attendees, and we discuss the strong faith-based social justice and environmental activities by the parishioners. It seems the Blackheath parish is certainly a central part of the village. Check back on page 10 to read about how Blackheath's community kitchen garden is helping their local village and themselves. Ordination has given so many things Fr John credits the incredible experiences over his life to the priesthood, saying he would never have had the opportunity to do what he has done unless he had been ordained. “The Gospel passage is so true that anyone who ‘gives up father, mother, wife, husband, children, home for My sake and for the Gospel will receive 100 times over in this life and then the next eternal life.’ “No, I haven’t had the ‘normalities’ of life, but I’ve had so many other things. “That’s what I’m grateful for: that gift of realisation that I am in the right place.” 43
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Catholic Outlook Magazine | September Edition | Season of Creation | 2023 Issue

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