View another Parish
Show All

THE PARISH OF Warrnambool West & Dennington

Churches

  • St Pius X
    80 Morriss Road, Warrnambool West
  • St John the Baptist
    263 Russell Street, Dennington

Presbytery

 

Postal Address
C/- Post Office
Dennington  VIC  3280
Address
76 Morriss Road
Warrnambool  VIC  3280
Phone (03) 5562 5033
Email: warrnamboolwest@ballarat.catholic.org.au

Parish Office

Mrs Louise Dryburgh is usually available in the parish office from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and from 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays. 

Phone (03) 5562 5033.

Mass Times

Dennington
Wednesday 10.00am

West Warrnambool
Saturday 6.00pm

West Warrnambool
Sunday 10.00am

 

 

Latest Parish Bulletin - 23 Feb 2020 Read More View Archives

Our Parish

St Pius X Parish was established in 1970. Its first Parish Priest was the late Father P.M. Bohan and it was then the only totally urban parish in the Diocese of Ballarat. Previously, the area was part of St Joseph's Parish, Warrnambool, as was St Pius X School which had opened in 1962. 

The neighbouring parish of St John the Baptist at Dennington was also part of the Warrnambool parish until 1965 when the late Father G.G. Payne became its first Parish Priest. (His name is commemorated at Dennington's G.G. Payne Reserve.) The Dennington parish school, now at 263 Russell Street, was established in the 1920s adjacent to the former church in Tylden Street.

The two parishes currently share one priest, but the involvement of an active laity enables them to continue to fulfil the hopes and dreams of their earliest days, as they endeavour to respond creatively to the challenges and opportunities of contemporary society.

  

Personnel

Parish Priest:  Fr Michael Linehan
Catholic Schools

St John's Primary School
Tylden Street
DENNINGTON  VIC  3280

Principal
Kathy Dalton

Phone:  (03) 5562 5362

Email:  principal@sjdennington.catholic.edu.au

Website: www.sjdennington.catholic.edu.au

St Pius X Primary School
32-34 Hoddle Street
WARRNAMBOOL VIC 328

Principal
Joseph Ewing

Phone (03) 5562 2506
Email: principal@spwarrnambool.catholic.edu.au
Website: www.spwarrnambool.catholic.edu.au

Resources

Homilies

7 A  2020

Last week: “You have learnt how it was said...; but I say this to you.” And today the same theme continues’ You have learnt how it was said ‘Eye for eye and tooth for tooth.’ But I say this to you… You have learnt how it was said, “Love your neighbour and hate your enemy.” (Actually it wasn’t) but anyway, I say this to you. And finally, “You must therefore be perfect just as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Phwaah!

For a beginning, though: An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. The Law of Moses limited the extent to which it was OK to take revenge. If a bully knocked your tooth out, the Old Law (as you know) wouldn’t let you pay him back by cutting off his hand. But surprisingly (I think) to us, you were entitled to knock out one of his teeth. If he knocked out one of your teeth, you could knock out one of his.

Jesus, on the other hand, makes no such law. What he wants is not a new law but a new attitude – an attitude of generosity. If anyone slaps your right cheek, offer him the left one too. If anyone orders you to walk a mile, walk two miles. These are not laws – they are challenges – invitations to develop a generous attitude.

I’ve been asked from time to time, “If I go to Mass on Saturday morning, will that do for Sunday?” Well, no, of course not. There’s a rule about it and Saturday morning Mass isn’t Sunday Mass. But don’t let’s get chained to the rules like dogs to a fence post. The answer lies in developing a generous attitude.

Jesus also reminds his hearers that the Old Testament told them You must love your neighbour. He adds some words – “and hate your enemy”. I suppose he was suggesting that people thought that was a reasonable interpretation. But again, rules and regulations are not enough to live by: we don’t need more rules, however helpful they may be. A mature approach demands a generous attitude, not just in favour of our circle of friends, the people we went to school with or colleagues at work: we should treat everyone, even those we may consider our enemies, with respect and even as well as we treat the people we love.

At the end of today’s Gospel, we encounter the line over which many and many a line has been written and many and many a head has been scratched: “You must therefore be perfect just as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

While I was on retreat last week I had lots of time available to consider those words and to follow up what the commentators had to say about them. The one that put it best, I think, was the one who pointed out that what is being asked is that we learn to treat with respect and even-handedness those who are very different from ourselves, just as God himself treats all of us even-handedly, to the extent, as our Gospel reminds us, of causing his sun to rise on bad people as well as good, and his rain to fall on honest and dishonest ones alike.

The same commentator reminded his readers of what St Paul wrote to the Galatians (3,28): “There are no more distinctions between Jew and Greek, slave and free, male and female, but all of you are one in Christ Jesus.”

If you and I tried to believe that and did our best to put it into practice, we’d be a long way along the road, I suspect, to achieving what Jesus asks of us in the Gospel today.

 

                                                                                                                                  

Professional Standards.

Our Parish Safeguarding Officer, overseeng and supporting our commitment to Child Safety, is Mrs Rachel Brown, telephone 0402 009 785.

Click here for the Parish Commitment Statement to Child Safety Policy.

Click here for the Parish Child Safety Policy.

Click here for the Parish Child Safety Code of Conduct.


 

 

Parish News
Parish Map
Church

St Pius X

80 Morriss Road, 80 Morriss Road

St John the Baptist

263 Russell Street, 263 Russell Street

We are the Catholic Church in the Ballarat Diocese
we gather in the name of Jesus from the Murray to the sea
in interwoven faith communities. Spirit filled
we celebrate and share our journey
reaching out to nurture all God's people.

Diocesan Vision Statement 2005

All Enquiries

PO Box 576
Ballarat, Victoria 3353

Phone +61 3 5337 7111

Where to find us

Catholic Diocese of Ballarat
5 Lyons Street South
Ballarat, Victoria 3353