From the 3rd till 20th of March we welcomed two members of our General Council from Rome Fr Raul Gomez SDS (vice-general) and Fr Thomas Malal (general consultor). They came to Australia for their formal visitation to see and understand how we are implementing our Salvatorian mission and charism in this Southern Land.

In conclusion of their time in Australia Fr Raul wrote:

I felt very much at home since the culture, the landscape and the weather is very much like the Western US. When I landed I felt like we were in the San Diego area! Even in the Sydney area it was warm although it looked more like suburban New Jersey in terms of hills and vegetation. They were ending summer & starting autumn.

We began our travel flying on Emirates Airlines from Rome to Dubai (5 hours) and then on to Perth (10 hours). We arrived at Perth on 3 March and joined our confreres on their retreat in Safty Bay where we began the visitation.

The distances are long so we spent hours in the car driving from Perth to Geraldton (5 hours) & onto Carnarvon (4 more hours). These areas have vegetation and soil like in Arizona. There's not much in between the far-flung towns. It is also very hot. Unfortunately our car met a kangaroo up close and personal on the way to Geraldton (poor thing).

We flew back to Perth from Carnarvon on a 1 1/2 hour flight and went straight away to a nature preserve where we saw native animals and got to pet some. My favorite was the koala but the kangaroos were extremely tame.

We visited some members in the Perth area before driving 12 hours to Esperance on the southern coast of the continent. Along the way we stopped and visited Fr. Ziggy in Merredin & Fr. Adam in Bruce Rock. Esperance is beautiful & is a very popular vacation spot. Here Fr. Marian has ministered for 12 years.

On our return to Perth we continued visiting some of the members as well as with Lay Salvatorians and the local bishop. We had a final dinner with the members in WA on Monday, 16 March and then took a 5 hour flight to Sydney on Qantas Airlines.

In the Sydney area we visited our three parishes in the Diocese of Broken Bay (suburbs of Sydney) as well as met with the local bishop and Salvatorian Collaborators.

We left Australia on Friday, 20 March flying from Sydney to Dubai on Emirates (14 hours) and then Dubai to Rome (5 hours). From the time I got up on Friday morning in Sydney and went to bed on Friday evening in Rome I had been up for 29 hours! Yes -- a 29 hour day!

Nonetheless, I'm very grateful for the trip and to my confreres and their apostolic spirit often working alone in the parishes, in school chaplaincies, and other ministries but making a great impact all the same through the grace of the Divine Savior.