2341 Australia Day honours
austraLasia #2341

Salesian honoured in Australia Day Honours List

SYDNEY: 27th January 2009 -- Fr John Briffa SDB has been awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia in the Australia Day Awards announced yesterday.  Fr Briffa SDB OAM, as he now is, was recognised 'for service to the community through contributions to the establishment and support of educational and aged care facilities, and to the Catholic Church'.  For those who know the Salesian presence at Engadine, south of the Sydney city business district (well south!), Fr Briffa, during his long tenure as parish priest, had constructed not only John Paul II Village, a residential area for the aged, but more importantly, a community of people around it, drawing especially from the extensive Salesian parish it lies within, to make JPII Village one of the most outstanding centres of its kind in the country.  It is this effort that the OAM recognises.
    Fr Briffa is the fourth Salesian to receive one or other level of the Order of Australia in recent years, and the third living member (The other two being Fr Frank Moloney AM and Fr Chris Riley OAM). He is the second member of the Salesian community in Engadine to have received the award, the other now deceased, Brother James Hamilton OAM.
    The Order of Australia is the pre-eminent way that Australians recognise the achievements and service of their fellow citizens. The nominations come directly from the community. A 19 member Council for the Order of Australia then considers the nominations and, independent of government, makes their recommendations directly to the Governor General who represents the Queen.
    John Paul II Village is a 163 bed aged care facility with low, medium and high care facilities.
   

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Title: australasia 2341
Subject and key words:
Date (year): 2009
ID: 2000-2099|2341