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. _________________ AustraLasia is an
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Rome.
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Title: australasia 2341
Subject and key words:
Date (year): 2009
ID: 2000-2099|2341
