Volume 35 No. 1 | Autumn 2025 8 Society Matters 2004 he did a tour of the Holy places of India and in 2008 opened the Janssen Spirituality and Interfaith Dialogue Centre for the AUS Province, in Boronia. After retiring in 2010 and returning home to Brisbane, Fr Frank helped out in the former SVD parish in Hamilton and giving spiritual direction. He later moved to Marsfield, where he lived in retirement before recently entering residential aged care. One of the many reasons the Province gives thanks for Fr Frank’s 75 years as a Divine Word Missionary is that he was the Provincial who signed off on the very first edition of Society Matters magazine in Spring, 1990 and he has been a great reader and supporter of it over the years. Fr Frank Gerry SVD celebrates 75 years in religious vows Fr Frank Gerry SVD marked a rare milestone recently when he celebrated 75 years in religious vows. Now living in residential aged care, Fr Frank made a visit back to the SVD’s Marsfield community to celebrate the special occasion with his confreres. He also celebrated his 94th birthday with confreres during the same week. Rector of the Marsfield Community, Fr Janusz Skotniczny SVD, said the celebrations were small but meaningful, with Fr Frank enjoying returning to the familiar surroundings of the SVD’s Sydney community. Fr Frank was born and bred in Brisbane and became entranced as a teenager by the story of the Dorish Maru, the ship on which more than 100 SVD missionaries, Holy Spirit Sisters and civilians were taken prisoner by the Japanese during WWII and then shot at by American air forces. “All through my young years I had an interest in the Missions. There was something enchanting and inviting about the mission fields,” Fr Frank said in a 2016 interview to mark his 65th anniversary in vows. Responding to his missionary call, the young Frank joined the SVD in 1948 and in 1951, he left Brisbane to undertake formation and theological study in the United States. Following his final vows and ordination, Fr Frank was appointed to the AUS Province as Vocations Director, and then Novice Master. In 1979 he undertook a Research Fellowship at Yale Divinity School, spending a year working with the renowned spiritual writer Henri Nouwen. He was then assigned to the Philippines, where he became Assistant Novice Master to 90 students at the Divine Word Seminary in Tagaytay. In 1986 he returned to Sydney and was elected Provincial. Following his time as Provincial, Fr Frank was appointed Rector of Dorish Maru College in Box Hill, Melbourne and became a facilitator of the Siloam Program at the Heart of Life Centre. In 1999 he spent two months at an Interreligious Dialogue Centre in Japan and went to India with the Christian Meditation Community for a three-day conversation with the Dalai Lama and some of his Tibetan followers. In www.divineword.org.au A Newsletter of the Divine Word Missionaries Inc - Australia Province Donations to the SVD AUS Province Overseas Aid Fund can be made online at www.divineword.org.au or by mailing to Divine Word Missionary Appeal Office, Locked Bag 3, Epping NSW, 1710, Australia. +61 2 9868 9015 @svdaus Society Matters Supporting the SVD If you wish to support the missionary work of the Society of the Divine Word, we would welcome your donations. Simply scan the QR code below and it will take you directly to our secure online donations page. Or, visit divineword.org.au and select ‘Support Us’ at the top of the page, followed by ‘Make a Donation’. Donations to the SVD AUS Province Overseas Aid Fund can also be made by mailing to the address at the bottom of this page. SCAN TO DONATE
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