Westmead's Sacred Heart Parish Priest Fr Dado Haber MI and Yvette Takchi. Photo: Virginia Knight

By Virginia Knight

For this month’s profile I grabbed my notebook and headed down the road to Westmead to renew my acquaintance with Yvette Takchi, Parish Secretary at Sacred Heart. Quiet and unassuming, Yvette runs the parish office with calm efficiency.

Born in Blouza, North Lebanon, in 1959 to Elias and Nouhad Khoury, Yvette is the second eldest of eight children. The family migrated to Australia when Yvette was seven, settling in the parish of East Granville where she attended Holy Family Primary. Her secondary education was at St John’s Auburn and upon graduating Yvette went on to complete secretarial studies at Granville TAFE. Her first job was as a legal secretary with a firm in Merrylands.

Married for 32 years to Elias, the couple have three children, Barbara, Steven and Matthew, and two granddaughters, Gabriella and Angelina. “I thank God for allowing me to find a balance between being a wife, mother, grandmother, daughter, sister, friend and workmate,” Yvette said. “Life most times is very hectic but with the help of the Holy Spirit I get through each day.”

Yvette has been a parishioner of Sacred Heart since her marriage when she and Elias settled at Westmead and began raising their family. She is an active member of the choir, parish council, finance and liturgy committees; and is a lector and extraordinary minister of communion.

Her journey as parish secretary began she says through ‘divine providence’. Recently unemployed, she came to Mass one morning forgetting it was not celebrated on Mondays in the parish. She ran into a former teacher of her children who offered her the opportunity to work part-time at the school office – starting the next day!

Around the same time Fr Brian Rooney, then Parish Priest, was looking for secretarial assistance and offered Yvette the job. Several parish priests later she is still beavering away in the parish office at Westmead. “I have been on the working team of both the primary school and the parish of Sacred Heart communities for 10 years,” she said. “It is a great connection and I am grateful to be part of this wonderful Sacred Heart family.”

Yvette explains that she found the pace in a parish office more peaceful than her previous occupation in the legal world and that her familiarity with the place and the people made it very easy. “I thanked God that I had left the ‘law of man’ and joined the ‘law of God’,” she said.

Like any job, there is seasonal volume, but Yvette tries to keep the stress down and copes with the challenge through prayer, often slipping into the chapel for spiritual guidance and quiet time when the load gets a bit heavy.

During World Youth Day 2008, office life was very busy with pilgrims staying at the school and the parish: organising supplies, billeting, care and feeding (and even a hospital stay for three pilgrims). At one point she sought solace in the chapel only to fall asleep on the pew!

However, Yvette said the highlight of her life was when Pope Benedict XVI celebrated Holy Mass on her birthday. “I certainly felt moved by the Holy Spirit.”

For Yvette her job is not so much work as ministry and it is very rewarding and satisfactory. She feels privileged to be given the chance to get to know the parishioners and form bonds with them over the years; to be there to offer a listening ear and an open heart. “It feels like my second home.”

Yvette said one of the most difficult things about her job was getting to know the parish priests and working well with them and then having to let go as they move on. “Working with a priest is something very special for me. They become part of my family,” Yvette said.

When the priests from the order of St Camillus (now Ministers of the Infirm) moved into the parish from the Philippines, as a Hospitaller order they relied on Yvette’s administration skills and local knowledge. She recalls Fr Giulio saying in his strong Italian accent: “Yvette, one day I will make you secretary to the Pope.”

Margaret Buttigieg.

Margaret Buttigieg, the Parish Secretary at Sacred Heart, Luddenham-Warragamba, has been quietly and efficiently working away in the parish office for the past 4½ years while juggling her own business and a multitude of volunteer commitments.

An amazing and genuinely caring person, Margaret has weathered a lot of personal tragedy and still remains the smiling and welcoming face of her parish.

Born in Parramatta in 1962 to Louis and Mary Spiteri, Margaret is the second eldest of six children (four sisters and one brother). Educated in South Blacktown at St Michael’s Primary and Nagle Girls High School, she grew up on a market garden and helped on the farm before and after school and on weekends. After leaving school her first job was as a public servant with the Department of Social Security (now Centrelink).

Margaret married Laurie Buttigieg in 1983 and moved west, settling in the parish of Luddenham-Warragamba where they began operating their own transport business. They have five children: Christopher, Daniel, James, Jessica and Jonathon.

In 2002, Laurie was diagnosed with cancer and died two years later in May 2004. “Rev Paul Marshall and Sr Adele Cotterell-Dormer and the parish community helped me and my family get through this stressful time,” Margaret said.

In 1993, Margaret joined the church cleaning ministry and became an Extraordinary Minister of the Eucharist. She has also been involved in the parish pastoral council and is a member of the children’s liturgy ministry, fundraising and finance committees, and sacramental program team.

She completed a pastoral care course in 2007. “I have made so many friends since being involved in the parish ministries that there are too many to count,” Margaret reflects.

'You feel their grief and you feel their joy'

Margaret’s son Daniel Buttigieg, 23, from Bringelly recently wed Tenille Galea, 21, who grew up in Mulgoa. The couple married in St Charles Boromeo Church, Ryde.

And with no training in this particular post but armed with a calm, organised approach to administration Margaret made the job her own.

“The previous parish secretary had already left so I basically worked off her notes and taught myself along the way,” Margaret said.

For Margaret the biggest reward in working in the parish office is the appreciation she gets from parishioners for all the work she does behind the scenes.

“It is always nice when someone notices what you do and appreciates it,” she said.

Margaret believes that as a parish secretary you become very close to your parishioners. “You feel their grief and you feel their joy,” she said. However, because of this closeness, it can be hard to support parishioners in difficult times, particularly when they are unable to change the situation.

Margaret said it is at these times that she draws on the skills she learnt from her pastoral care course, relates it to her own experiences and prays for the person and their family; and calls on the gift of strength from the Holy Spirit to continue in her role as Parish Secretary.

In 2008, Margaret was accompanied by her daughter and son to the Stations of the Cross at World Youth Day 2008 in Sydney and did the sleep-out at Randwick for the Vigil and Final Mass, experiences she describes as very moving as they were caught up in the incredible atmosphere of the events. “The feeling of being in the presence of the Pope is something I may never feel again and I am grateful that I was able to be a part of it all,” she said.

As a widow raising five children on her own, downtime is at a premium. “There is always something to do, somewhere to go or someone to see, but I love my family and enjoy doing all this for them,” Margaret said.

Trish Kelly.

This month we travel to Glenmore Park to meet Trish Kelly, parish secretary at one of our newest parishes, Padre Pio. The fourth of four secretaries since its early beginnings as the Glenmore Park Community, Trish has seen the parish community work together to build the new church and celebrate its dedication on 14 February this year.

Born to Eddie and Ellen Bennett in Toongabbie, Trish is the youngest of three children (she has one sister and one brother). She was educated at St Anthony’s Primary, Toongabbie, and Our Lady of Mercy College, Parramatta.

Trish completed her School Certificate and then studied shorthand, typing and general office procedures at St Patrick’s Business College in Sydney before securing a job as a legal secretary.

In 1987, she married Peter Kelly in St Anthony’s Church. The couple has been part of Luddenham-Warragamba Parish for 20 years and have three sons: Thomas 19, Mathew 17 and Patrick 14.

Trish has been actively involved in the life of her parish since 1998 when the first of her children commenced his sacramental program. She has been a member of the sacramental team and is on the social/fundraising committee and is a member of the liturgy team.

One Sunday in the parish bulletin, she saw an advertisement for a job she felt was destined to be hers. She applied, was interviewed and offered the job as parish secretary at Glenmore Park Parish in 2006.

Trish said that the parishioners at Glenmore Park were very welcoming. “When people come to weekday Mass they always make a point of putting their head in the door and saying hello,” she said. “It is like one big family.”

As a volunteer in her own parish Trish has a great appreciation of the importance of volunteers in the life of the parish. “As a volunteer yourself, you know how precious the volunteers are. And you know that a parish cannot function without the assistance of its volunteers. I am very grateful for their help at all times.”

As construction of the new church commenced, Trish said that watching the expressions and the excitement of the parishioners as each new stage or development was completed was priceless.

She has great admiration for the parishioners who under the guidance of the Parish Priest, Rev Kevin Lee, have worked exceptionally hard over the past 17 years to build their church. “I saw their dedication every Saturday afternoon, unpacking the temporary sacred space and returning it to a classroom after the Sunday Masses.”

Trish is passionate about her job and said she is very lucky to have a great support team. “Whenever you ask anyone to do anything they are always obliging and helpful.”

One of the lovely things about working in the parish office is being involved with the young people. Trish enjoys chatting to the bride and groom during marriage preparations, assisting in arranging baptisms and then seeing those families come to playgroup and watching the babies grow.

In her spare time, Trish enjoys going to the gym or the more sedentary creative fun of scrap-booking. She loves catching up with girlfriends over coffee and indulging in some retail therapy. Sounds like a sojourn into warehouse territory is in order on the diocesan shopping trip Trish.

On the Holy Spirit, St Clair parish team are (from left): Fr Brian Fitzpatrick OSA, Fr Baltazar (Jun) Belocura OSA, Fr Jonah Kim OSA, and Kathy Yates.

By Virginia Knight

A country girl at heart who is equally at home in the city, Kathy Yates has been the Parish Secretary at Holy Spirit Parish, St Clair since 2003.

Born in 1958 to Clare and Frank Yates, Kathy is the second eldest of five children (two brothers and two sisters). She grew up in another Holy Spirit Parish, this time at North Ryde.

Kathy attended St Charles’ Primary and then Marist Sisters’ College Woolwich and Chatswood Catholic Girls High for her secondary education. Upon completion of her Higher School Certificate, she went on to study at the Good Samaritan Teachers’ College at Glebe, before reassessing her goals and choosing to work in a different field, settling in retail.

On her career journey, Kathy has worked in many industries, including jobs as a cosmetics consultant and a swimming instructor. Her work choices have always been people centred, offering her opportunities to meet people from a diversity of backgrounds.

Through her experience and further studies, Kathy has developed the communication and listening skills that were to stand her in good stead in a parish office.

When Kathy first arrived, Holy Spirit was undergoing renovations. “There was a film of concrete dust over everything and workmen were popping in and out,” she said.

“There were tarpaulins all over the church, which was gutted, and Mass was being celebrated in the school. It was like a wartime bunker situation and that was the way I began working here!”

Kathy said the parish secretary was like a tube of glue who tries to hold everything together. They are the first point of contact and a shoulder, if not in the physical sense at least over the phone.

“I have sat with people and cried with them over the phone, listened to them share what has happened, or even prayed with them.”

On the flipside there is much joy in the parish, with people wanting to share their good news stories. “There is a sense of journeying with people because you get to share the good and the bad.”

It is this contact with people that Kathy highlights as the best part of working in a parish office, because there is so much life unfolding around her.

However, as Kathy lives in the parish in which she works, sometimes the biggest challenge comes in finding the balance, identifying where the work ends and the parishioner begins. “Being a parish secretary becomes your life.”

She can find herself at celebrations such as the Parish Jubilee and during World Youth Day subconsciously looking about to ensure things are running smoothly and helping out if needed.

During WYD08, Kathy said she had “the time of her eternal life”. The parish adopted an open working policy with everyone working shifts to look after the Italian pilgrims.

“In my own naive way I expected all of them to speak English to some degree. Wrong! It was hilarious. But they were such wonderful people, I cried when they left. It was a brilliant, life-changing experience.”

One of the biggest changes she has seen is the growth of email and the internet. “It has become a very big part of how we do what we do now. When I started, the website was not functioning and email was dial-up. If you used dial-up, you couldn’t get faxes and so email was not used very much at all. Now things can come in by email twice and fax three times!”

Kathy has two children, Emma and Ben. Ben and his son Harry (her grandson) live in country NSW. She has strong ties with the land, having spent much of her formative years on holiday in rural Australia with her maternal relations.

In her spare time Kathy trains ‘working’ dogs and competes in sheep dog trials. She travels throughout NSW three or four times per year and has won ribbons and medals.

In the future, Kathy would like to further her professional and personal development and ‘dabble’ in multimedia and learn more about it.

Jean Quinlan, St Thomas Aquinas Parish Secretary, Springwood. Photo: Virginia Knight

After a career spanning several decades and encompassing everything from private enterprise to government departments, schools and parishes in both the Anglican and Catholic Churches, Jean Quinlan joined the parish team at St Thomas Aquinas, Springwood in 2000 as the Parish Secretary.

“I have been thinking that all the things I have done (during my career) have prepared me for this,” Jean said as she reflected on all the work experiences that have helped to develop her skills.

Born in Sydney in 1940 in the middle of WWII, Jean is the second eldest of five girls (and an identical twin). Her parents, Vera and Joseph Dunn, lived in Mascot and the girls attended the local schools, Mascot Central Primary and Gardeners Road High.

Like many girls of her era, Jean had completed a commercial course at school, which included bookkeeping and typing in order to go straight into office employment.

While still at school, Jean was recruited by the ES&A Bank (English, Scottish & Australian Bank) and upon completing her Intermediate certificate the bank put her through business college to learn how to use the accounting machines for data processing.

After two-and-half years with the bank Jean and her twin sister went into nursing at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital for a year. As she was tall, Jean seemed to get all the ‘lifting’ jobs in orthopaedics. And while it wasn’t ultimately her forte, she felt the time was not wasted as it was a great life experience.

It was when she returned to office work that she met Jim Quinlan, who was the accountant, and a work romance flourished. At age 29, Jean married Jim “a staunch Catholic” in his parish church of St Michael’s Hurstville.

Jean left work to have their first child but had intermittent casual work. In 1975, they moved to Narrabri bringing up their family on 28 acres, five miles outside town. “It was like coming home. My grandfather had acreage at Castlereagh and I always felt a country girl at heart.”

Jean was baptised an Anglican and although Jim never requested it, when she was 40 and living in Narrabri, she went through the process and became a Catholic. The couple already had three children: Melinda, Jane and Paul.

It was in 1980 when all the children were at school and Jean was volunteering at both the Catholic school they attended and her Anglican parish that she contracted pneumonia. “I never stopped. I was always on the go in both volunteer and casual work. I had to stop and reassess what I was doing and what were my priorities.”

With the influence of the Holy Spirit, Jean felt drawn to the Catholic Church and began attending Mass with Jim and the children. “It started when I had begun to question the teachings of the Anglican Church while doing Bible study.

“Once I realised the Real Presence was in the Eucharist, it wasn’t such a big thing as the Mass (at the time) was similar to the Anglican Communion Service”.

Jean was confirmed in the Catholic faith and received first Communion in the presence of her mother, children and family.

In 1991, the family returned to Sydney settling in Winmalee. Jean reflects that the best thing about working in a parish, what really sets it apart from her other occupations, is the opportunity of working with the parishioners.

Having lived for almost 20 years in the parish (and worked in the office for 10), Jean has experienced great joy in watching a generation of children grow up, get married and have families, helping them to book weddings and baptisms. So much so, she admits that sometimes she feels like a member of their extended family.

Recently, Jean celebrated her 70th birthday and it is a testimony to how important she is in the lives of those at Springwood that when the office staff gave her a surprise morning tea, many of the parishioners turned up to help her celebrate. “It was such a surprise. I had no idea. It was just wonderful to feel so appreciated and loved.”

This month, Jean starts 17 weeks’ holidays and long service. So how does ‘the hub of the parish’ (as she describes the role of parish secretary) intend to fill her time during such a lengthy absence?

She will spend six weeks travelling around Europe, including attending the Oberammergau Passion Play in Germany. On her return she and her twin sister, Joyce, will bushwalk to Wilsons Promontory, the southern-most point of mainland Australia.

For the rest of the time she plans to join the local bushwalking club and catch up on her knitting and sewing.

I admit to feeling exhausted just hearing her talk about it! What was that about never stopping Jean?

 

Frances Gallagher, Parish Manager at St Bernadette’s, Castle Hill.

By Virginia Knight

Frances was born in Lithgow to Frank and Marie Hanrahan and has three brothers and one sister. The family moved to Cabramatta and she attended school at Sacred Heart Primary before moving on to St Mary’s at Liverpool for her high school education.

Upon graduating, Frances’ first job was with the bank of NSW (now Westpac) where she worked until leaving to start a family. She has four children (Mark, Jackie, Cathy and Sean). Mark now lives in Ireland, which makes seeing her grandchildren extremely difficult. “It’s a sad fact that Fr John met my granddaughter before I did,” Frances said.

It was not until her daughter Cathy had started school that Frances would return to the workforce when a job opportunity came out of the blue.

“A friend phoned to ask if I was interested in taking over her job as Cathedral secretary to Fr Brian Larkey. The hours were 9am to noon, Monday to Friday, which were ideal for a mum with three school-aged children.

“I was given job training for two mornings, which included a crash course in how to use a computer, and then left to my own devices!”

Frances is still working in parish offices in a career that has included 12 years at St Patrick’s Cathedral, seven years at Our Lady of Lourdes, Seven Hills and the last two years at Castle Hill.

The greatest change she has seen over the past 21 years has been keeping abreast of the great leaps forward in technology. When Frances first started work in a parish they did not even use overhead projectors – now there is multimedia everywhere. To use a photocopier she had to go next door to the Centacare office.

She has had to master new programs, new equipment, learning most of it on the job, generally only with basic or no training and sometimes without even a manual.

“I was around in the days before TV,” she muses, “and now I am updating websites and dealing in multimedia.”

'The cog that keeps the parish moving'

Determined to get to the nitty gritty of what it is like to work on the front line, I ask Frances to tell me what it is like to be a parish secretary; what she does, what are the highlights and the challenges.

“At the Cathedral I covered almost everything: reception, hall bookings, finance, wedding and sacrament bookings and preparation, catering and hospitality, and organised maintenance. At Seven Hills I did all of that and in my spare time took care of the gardening!” she said.

“The parish secretary is the cog that keeps the parish moving. They are the first person you see when you come through the door so it is very important to be welcoming.”

Frances said the best thing about the job was the people. She has been blessed to develop enduring friendships with her co-workers, likening the parish office experience to working with a team in almost a family atmosphere.

The parish secretary is often a counsellor and a confidante, sharing the joys and the sorrows of parishioners. “It is very important to be discreet and respect those confidences,” Frances said.

Finally, I asked Frances to share her most challenging moment. Without pause for reflection she says: “Relocating more than 100 engaged couples when St Patrick’s Cathedral burnt down. I had to find churches for all of them, with some weddings taking place in a matter of days and weeks, but we did it.”

However, she goes on to add that the loss of the Cathedral itself was not one of her saddest moments. “A church is just a building. It is the people who stay with you and affect you as you get caught up in their lives.”

In her downtime, Frances can be found plunging into home renovation, a necessary but often enjoyable past-time, which sees her plastering and painting with great skill and energy.

And occasionally, when the calendars are in alignment, she likes to catch up with friends over lunch (or at least coffee).