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AUSTRALIA-MINE May-9-2006 (770 words) With photos. xxxi
During Australian mine drama, town's residents show signs of faith
By Paul Grey
Catholic News Service
PERTH, Australia (CNS) -- Most Sundays, only about 40 regulars attend Mass at St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church in the small Tasmanian mining of town of Beaconsfield, said Franciscan Father Brian Lester.
Most of them would be older people, said Father Lester, who celebrates Mass there twice a month.
But the small numbers do not mean that people in Beaconsfield lack faith, the priest added. World-gripping events in Beaconsfield in late April and early May proved his point.
The Sunday after an April 25 earthquake caused a deep rockfall more than a half-mile beneath the surface at the Beaconsfield gold mine, parishioners attended Mass at St. Francis Xavier with Father Lester as usual.
The rockfall had killed miner and father of four Larry Knight. Knight's two colleagues, Todd Russell and Brant Webb -- both fathers of three children -- were missing, presumed dead.
"We prayed for the miners, but there was not a lot of hope," Father Lester told The Record, Perth archdiocesan newspaper, in a phone interview from Tasmania, the island state south of mainland Australia.
Later that night came the news that Russell and Webb had been located through imaging technology. They were alive and well, but trapped inside a protective miner's cage.
"When the news came through that the two of them had been found alive, people in the town were running around crying: 'It's a miracle!'" Father Lester recalled. "Now, that's a statement of faith."
On May 9, the missing miners finally walked free and removed their identity tags from the wall outside the mine elevator, a standard safety measure when miners finish a shift. Then they started handing out business cards to friends and relatives, thanking them for their support.
On the cards was printed "The Great Escape." It was an apt joke: This miners' tale had gripped Australia more completely than any Hollywood drama has ever done.
For the large media contingent covering the event, images of faith have been prominent in the story.
When the first news of the men's survival was announced, TV camera crews filmed Pentecostal Christians praying joyfully with their arms raised at another local church.
A Uniting Church of Australia bell, which had not been rung since the end of World War II, was repaired in anticipation of a new round of tolling, when the miners were eventually released.
It was rung three times May 9.
That morning, Australian Prime Minister John Howard captured the mood with a press conference at Parliament House in Canberra, where he praised the community spirit in Beaconsfield.
"I want to pay tribute to all the elements of the community, the mayor, the churches, the Australian Workers' Union and all the other people in the community who worked so hard," Howard said. "It was a great cooperative effort."
"The churches of the community gave tremendous comfort and spiritual leadership and a lot of material sustenance," the prime minister added.
Speaking from an Australian Catholic Bishops' meeting in Sydney, Archbishop Adrian Doyle of Hobart said the successful rescue of the last two miners proved that "the prayers of millions of Australians over the past fortnight have been answered."
Archbishop Doyle also paid tribute to the local community and to the support offered by other Australians during the long and difficult effort to rescue the men.
He expressed gratitude to the Catholic community of the area, including Father Lester, and particularly praised the work of a Beaconsfield pastoral associate, Sister Frances McShane, a Sister of Service from Hobart who has lived and worked in Beaconsfield for more than two years.
"I know that Sister Frances, in particular, has been a special comfort to the Knight family during a most difficult time for them and for the friends and colleagues of Larry Knight," Archbishop Doyle said.
Father Lester said that Sister Frances, living up to the name of her order, had virtually worn herself out looking after others during the long wait for the miners' rescue.
"She's not really been looking after herself," he said.
Based at the parish of West Tamar, Father Lester has been celebrating Mass in Beaconsfield for about six months.
"They are tremendous people," Father Lester said of the local parishioners. "They're mostly retired people, but there are a few younger farmers."
He said that the gold mine at the center of attention is a great source of economic support for the town, but some townspeople are concerned that the mine might have to close.
"If you take that out, it will leave quite a hole," Father Lester said.
END
Copyright (c) 2006 Catholic News Service/USCCB. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed.
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