The number of new seminarians in the Parramatta Diocese has swelled this year with the arrival of five aspiring priests from the tiny country of Timor-Leste. Source: Catholic Outlook.
This takes the overall number studying at the Holy Spirit Seminary in Harris Park to 15, the biggest group of seminarians in the diocese in several years.
The five seminarians arrived from Timor-Leste in January and are spending the first few months settling into life in Australia before they get stuck into more intensive study later in the year.
They are the first in what is hoped will be a regular group of young men from Timor-Leste who join the seminary every couple of years.
This arrangement is the work of the seminary rector, Fr Paul Marshall, who has been visiting Timor-Leste for more than 20 years to help deliver water projects in villages there.
It was during a visit in 2024 that he met Cardinal Virgilio Do Carmo da Silva SDB, the Archbishop of Dili, the capital of Timor-Leste, and asked him if he would allow some seminarians to come to Parramatta to study on a regular basis.
When Fr Marshall returned in 2025, Cardinal Virgilio agreed to the request.
“The deal is that the seminarians would give five years ministry here to the Diocese of Parramatta after they’re ordained,” Fr Marshall said.
“Then after five years if they want to stay on here they can, if they want to go back to Timor-Leste they can.”
For a country of about 1.4 million people – about the same number of people live within the Parramatta Diocese – Timor-Leste is one of the most Catholic countries in the world, with more than 500 seminarians, Fr Marshall said.
This includes about 200 in the minor seminary, 80 in the middle seminary and 250 in the major seminary.
The seminarians spent last year learning English, which is their fourth language, behind Tetum, Portuguese and Indonesian.
To date, they’ve had introductory lessons in special religious education, safeguarding and introductory aspects of theology, as well as spending a day in the Blue Mountains.
FULL STORY
New group of seminarians from Timor-Leste set to become the first of many (By Antony Lawes, Catholic Outlook)
