Building Bridges not Walls

In St Peter's Piazza at present is this stunning bronze recalling the plight of refugees and people trafficking around the world and down through the ages...

There are some who are saying this shouldn't be in the square, but there is a carpenter, a mother and a new born baby there!

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At St Paul's outside the Walls there is another sculpture by the same artist.

Take up my cross and yours, the cross of love, and follow me

Saint Nicetius (Nicetus, Nicet or Nizier) (513 – April 2, 573) was Archbishop of Lyon, then Lugdunum, France, during the 6th century. He served from 552 or 553 and St Nizier's church is named for him.

The first religious building on the site of the present church was perhaps a Roman temple of Attis, whose worship was probably the cause of the Christian persecution in Lyon from 177. There have been churches there ever since. The church suffered damage caused by several bands of Huguenot, which plundered the bishops of Lyon's tombs, then those of the French Revolution. After the French Revolution, the church served as flour warehouse.

And once this church in Lyon has significance for us in New Zealand.

Blessed Frederic Ozanam, founder of the St Vincent de Paul Society was married in the Church of Nizier

Pauline Jaricot was a pioneer of organized missionary co-operation. With the women employees in the silk factory run by her sister and brother-in-law, she resolved to help the missions with prayers and a small weekly contribution of one penny a week from each person involved. The seed grew and other groups joined to help all missions. This eventually led to the founding of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith in 1822, dedicated to helping missionary efforts worldwide.

And most significant for us in New Zealand, St Nizier was the parish church of Suzanne Aubert

A feature of the church I really loved was the contemporary stations of the cross... I've added some questions that have come to mind as I reflected on them... 

Who do I stand in judgment of?

Who I load to burdens on to?

Who do I beat up?

Am I a face of mercy and love?

Who I help and who do I hinder?

Am I a true icon Christ?

Who do I want to hold down and not change my view on them?

Do I appreciate the help and support of others?

Who am I indifferent to?

Who do I strip away by my comments?

Are there groups I belong to the crucify others behind the scenes

Am I moved by the suffering or others or have I become a spectator?

Do I ever give up on anyone?

How do I surround others in love?

How has Christ triumphed in me over my faults and failings?

St Nizier, pray for us

Blessed Frederic Ozanam, pray for us

All holy men and women, pray for us

Whakapapa of Faith

When Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God took flesh among us he announced he had come to bring good news to the poor.

There was a man named John who heard Jesus and became his disciple. As an apostle he too became a bearer of the Gospel.

There was a man named Polycarp who heard John and he became a disciple of Jesus Christ. As Bishop of Smyrna, in modern day Turkey, he became a bearer of the Gospel.

There was a man named Ireneaus who heard Polycarp and he became a disciple of Jesus Christ. As Bishop of Lyon, in modern day France, he became a bearer of the Gospel and was martyred in the year 202.

1600 years after Irenaeus was martyred, in 1802, a child was born, Jean-Baptiste Pompallier. and he too became a disciple of Jesus. He was ordained a priest in 1829 at the Cathedral of St John the Baptist and St Stephen in Lyon and was ordained bishop in 1836 in Rome and became a bearer of the Gospel as the first Bishop for Western Oceania and New Zealand.

We are the fruits of this whakapapa of faith.

The Cathedral of Sts John the Baptist and Stephen, Lyon

St Stephen

St John the Baptist

The cathedral also has the Lyon Astronomical Clock from the 14th century.

The remains of the previous Cathedral built in 450.

St John the Baptist, pray for us

St John the Evangelist, pray for us

St Stephen, pray for us

St Polycarp, pray for us

St Irenaeus, pray for us

All holy men and women, pray for us

Our Mother Church

Fourvière Hill, overlooking Lyon, was originally the location of the old Roman Forum where some of the first Christians were martyred. 

Martyrs in the year 177

As early as 1168, a Christian chapel was built on the hill, which had already become a Marian shrine. 

The the shrine of Our Lady of Fourvière is significant for us in New Zealand. On 23rd July 1816 the twelve Marist aspirants, priests and seminarians, climbed the hill to They placed their promise to found the Society of Mary under the corporal on the altar while Jean-Claude Courveille celebrated Mass. After communion they read out their declaration promising to devote themselves and all that they ad to the foundation of the Society of Mary.

Fourvière Pledge

All for the greater glory of God and the greater honour of Mary, Mother of the Lord Jesus.

We the undersigned, striving to work together for the greater glory of God and the honour of Mary, Mother of the Lord Jesus, assert and declare our sincere intention and firm will of consecrating ourselves at the first opportunity to founding the pious congregation of Mary-ists. That is why by the present act and our signatures, in so far as we can, we irrevocably dedicate ourselves and all our goods to the Society of the blessed Virgin.

We do this not childishly or lightly or for some human motive or the hope of material benefit, but seriously, maturely, having taken advice, having weighed everything before God, solely for the greater Glory of God and the honour of Mary, Mother of the Lord Jesus.

We pledge ourselves to accept all sufferings, trials, inconveniences, and if needs be, torture, because we can do all things in Christ Jesus who strengthens us and to whom we hereby promise fidelity in the bosom of our holy mother the Roman Catholic Church, cleaving with all our strength to its supreme head the Roman Pontiff and to our most reverend bishop, the ordinary, that we may be good ministers of Jesus Christ, nourished by the words of faith and by the wholesome teaching which by his grace we have received.


We trust that under the reign of our most Christian kind, the friend of peace and religion, this institute will shortly come to light and we solemnly promise that we shall spend ourselves and all we have in saving souls in every way under the very august name of the Virgin Mary and with her help. And may the holy and immaculate conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary be praised. Amen

On the left of the chancel is a plaque commemorating this event, and on the opposite side of the plaque commemorating the Marist Brothers (FMS). In the years which followed, many Marists came to the shrine and on 29th August 1833 a Mass was celebrated there before the departure of Fathers Colin, Chanel and Bourdin for Rome.

In October 1836 before the departure of the first missionaries for Oceania, Bishop Pompallier had a novena of Masses offered here, and on the final day Fr Peter Chanel SM, hung a heart containing the names of the missionaries around the neck of the Infant Jesus, giving birth to the legend that Mary had given her mantle to the future martyr.

The church also features plaques commemorating the founding of many missionary orders from the Lyon area including from the Diocese of Hamilton, the Marist brothers and fathers, the Mission sisters and New Zealand's own Sisters of Compassion founded by Servant of God Suzanne Aubert. Men and women of faith who brought the Catholic faith to New Zealand

During the Franco-Prussian War (1870–1), Prussian forces, having taken Paris, were progressing south towards Lyon. Their halt and retreat were, once again, attributed by the Church to the intercession of the Virgin Mary. As an act of thanksgiving the current Basilica of Our Lady of Fourvière was built and dedicated in 1896.

Our Lady of Fourvière, pray for us

St Peter Chanel, pray for us

All holy men and women, pray for us