Missionary of Mercy visiting parishes in Hamilton diocese

Fr Richard Shortall SJ was one of 1000 Missionaries of Mercy — priests sent out by Pope Francis during the Jubilee Year of Mercy in 2015-2016 to be God’s presence of love and forgiveness to those in need.

Fr Shortall visited parishes with a church but no priest in the Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle in Australia.

In Aotearoa New Zealand, Fr Shortall has been providing spiritual direction in Hamilton and Rotorua, as well as weekday and weekend retreats, according to the New Zealand Catholic Directory 2024. He provided lockdown conversations online or by phone in 2020 during Covid-19 restrictions.

A proposal was made at the Hamilton Diocese priests’ gathering last October that Fr Shortall make himself available throughout the diocese to “be a presence” of mercy and hope in parishes. “This was met with unanimous support,” the Catholic Diocese of Hamilton website stated.

Parishes have been grouped into clusters to be visited by Fr Shortall. The first visit was to the Hamilton cluster area on February 18-20.

On the first day, people were invited to visit the Cathedral of the Blessed Virgin Mary to speak with Fr Shortall about their spiritual journey.

The Hamilton and Tauranga clusters, because of their size, have been allocated two sets of dates.

In 2018, Fr Shortall spoke to a gathering of missionaries in Rome about his experience as a Missionary of Mercy in Maitland-Newcastle.

He spoke about the “daily experience of sitting in the church, what Pope Francis calls ‘the apostolate of the ear’, [which] was a profound, humbling and privileged one”.

“Whenever I arrived in a community, I promised parishioners that I would sit in the church ready to listen with a merciful gaze, open arms and a welcoming non-judgemental heart to any story of pain, sorrow, disappointment or heaviness of spirit which they brought to me,” Fr Shortall said.

“My hope was that, in such a conversation, they would experience something of God’s closeness to them and God’s forgiving acceptance of them.”

Fr Shortall added that, sometimes, “as many as eight people would sit with me during the day. After such full days of listening to such stories of pain, sorrow and deep hurt, I often found it difficult to sleep at night”.

FULL STORY

Jubilee 2025 — Catholic Diocese of Hamilton (Catholic Diocese of Hamilton)

Fr Richard Shortall SJ addresses Missionaries of Mercy in Rome – Jesuits Australia (Jesuits Australia)

Priest provides opportunity to ‘tell your story’ – NZ Catholic Newspaper (NZ Catholic)