A Brief History of our Parish Priest Fr Andzrej Madry CR
I was born on May 3, 1970 in Zmigród, a small town in south-western Poland. My parents Zygmunt Madry and Maria née Wójcik had two more daughters: Jolanta my older sister and Kamila my younger sister.
After primary school, I started learning at the Railway Technical School. My dream was to become a train driver.
From the 3rd grade of primary school until the end of secondary school I was an altar server and lector at my home parish.
The year before I finished secondary school (1989) I met the seminarians and priests of the Congregation of the Resurrection for the first time.
In 1990, after finishing secondary school, I decided to join the Congregation of the Resurrection. After a year of novitiate, on 15 September 1991 I made my first religious vows and then I started studying philosophy in Krakow. In 1993 my superiors sent me to Rome for further studies in theology at the Gregorian University. After graduation, in April 1996 in Rome I received the diaconate ordination.
On 5th April 1997 in Bytom (Poland) together with two confreres I was ordained a priest.
The first year of my priesthood I worked in the parish of Saint Casimir in Warsaw. At the same time I taught religion part time in a primary school.
From 1998 to 2001 I lived in the Shrine of Our Lady of Grace at Mentorella and was administrator of the neighbouring parish of St James in Guadagnolo near Rome. At the same time I was doing post-graduate studies in journalism at the Salesian University in Rome.
On January 13, 2002 I left for missionary work in Tanzania, East Africa. After completing a course of Swahili, which is the official language in Tanzania, I became pastor at Butiama in the Diocese of Musoma. I then became parish priest in Buhingo and Kahangala in the Diocese of Mwanza. While I was working in the Diocese of Mwanza, I was also Dean of the Magu Deanery, a member of the Priests' Council and the College of Consultors.
In 2015, for health reasons, I returned to Poland and began my efforts to move to Australia. On 28 November 2016, I begin my pastoral work in Australia as assistance parish priest in Good Shepherd – Mulgrave Parish.
On 1 February 2017, I became the parish priest of St Justin's Wheelers Hill Parish.
The Founding of St Justin's Parish in Father Mike's own words
The Parish of St Justin's was cut-off from Good Shepherd, Mulgrave in 1985 with only a School building on the site. After three years in a rented flat off-site, we built the present Parish Centre/Presbytery in 1988/9, then the Church in 1995.
Both these buildings have been a wonderful expression of the response of the people over the years.
Fr Mick Wheeler , Founding Parish Priest
A Brief History of Fr Michael Wheeler our Founding Parish Priest
Fr Michael (Mick) Wheeler was a former Melbourne YCW fulltime secretary before entering the seminary. After completing his seminary studies Fr Mick was ordained at St Patrick's Cathedral, East Melbourne on 22 May 1971. He then served as Assistant Priest at Belmont (December 1971-March 1972), Collingwood (1972), Jordanville (1975), Manifold (1978) and Newport (1979). In 1981 he was appointed Chaplain to the Repatriation Hospital in Heidelberg.
In 1986 Fr Mick became Parish Priest of the newly established Parish of St Justin, Wheelers Hill. For more than 30 years Fr Mick was the much love Parish Priest who served his community with humility, commitment and a down to earth manner which endeared him to many. Fr Mick retired in 2016 due to ill health. He sadly passed away in Melbourne on Tuesday 11 August, 2020.
Our Patron - St Justin
St. Justin Martyr, (born c. 100, Flavia Neapolis Palestine (now Nablus)—died c. 165, Rome (Italy) ; Feast Day June 1, one of the most important of the Greek philosopher (Apologists) in the early Christian church. His writings represent one of the first positive encounters of Christian revelation with Greek philosophy and laid the basis for a theology of history.
A pagan reared in a Jewish environment, Justin studied Stoic , Platonic and other pagan philosophies and then became a Christian in 132, possibly at Ephesus, near modern Selçuk, Turkey. Soon after 135 he began wandering from place to place, proclaiming his newfound Christian philosophy in the hope of converting educated pagans to it.
He spent a considerable time in Rome. Some years later, after debating with the cynic Crescens, Justin was denounced to the Roman prefect as subversive and condemned to death with six companions. Authentic records of his martyrdom, by beheading, survive.
Justin’s distinctive contribution to Christian theology is his conception of a divine plan in history, a process of salvation structured by God, wherein the various historical epochs have been integrated into an organic unity directed toward a supernatural end; the Old Testament and Greek philosophy met to form the single stream of Christianity.
Justin’s concrete description of the sacramental celebrations of baptism and the Eucharist remain a principal source for the history of the primitive church. Justin serves, moreover, as a crucial witness to the status of the 2nd-century New Testament corpus, mentioning the first three Gospels and quoting and paraphrasing the letters of Paul and Peter; he was the first known writer to quote from the Acts of the Aposles.