Skip to content
The Catholic Leader
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute
No Result
View All Result
The Catholic Leader
No Result
View All Result
Home News

Thanks, Minister

byStaff writers
8 July 2015 - Updated on 1 April 2021
Reading Time: 3 mins read
AA

Community support: Fr Dave Lancini and Kirwan’s Catholic community gather around Maria Sevilla and her son Tyrone after Mass last Sunday.

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
Community support: Fr Dave Lancini and Kirwan’s Catholic community gather around Maria Sevilla and her son Tyrone after Mass last Sunday.
Community effort: Fr Dave Lancini (front left) stands beside Maria Sevilla and her son Tyrone with some of the parishioners who supported the Sevilla’s in their battle to be permitted to remain in Australia and to get on with their lives in Townsville. Photo: Neil Helmore

By Paul Dobbyn

THREE Townsville Catholics in a battle with the Immigration Department to stay in Australia are smiling with relief ­– and fellow parishioners are offering prayers of thanks – following ministerial intervention to stop their deportations.

Townsville Hospital nurse Maria Sevilla and her 10-year-old son Tyrone celebrated becoming permanent residents of Australia at a morning tea after Mass at the Good Shepherd community centre last Sunday (July 5).

Afghani Patrick Wilson can also finally smile again after nine months in detention.

He’s just learnt that Federal Immigration Minister Peter Dutton will intervene in his case and allow him to lodge an application for a Temporary Protection Visa (TPV).

A regular Sunday Mass attendee at St Francis Xavier Church, Railway Estate, Mr Wilson had become a successful local businessman since arriving in Townsville in early 2013.

The 31-year-old asylum seeker was detained at Wickham Point detention centre, near Darwin, in September last year after a trip to Cairns.

He was attending what he thought was a regular Department of Immigration and Citizenship meeting with departmental officers about his bridging visa when he was detained.

Townsville’s Sacred Heart Cathedral parish manager Steve Sutton, who was particularly involved in Mr Wilson’s case, said there was an atmosphere of joy across the community at the news of the Government’s change of heart.

“These decisions speak volumes for Christian solidarity and the power of prayer,” Mr Sutton said.

Related Stories

Q&A – Who is the little-known patron saint of the Swiss Guard?

Abdallah family deliver powerful Vatican speech

Look to the future, not the past, pope tells families

Ms Sevilla and her son were on the verge of being sent back to the Philippines, their home country, after her skilled visa application was rejected on the grounds her autistic son would be a burden to taxpayers.

Among many supporting Ms Sevilla’s bid was Fr Dave Lancini, parish priest of the Ministerial Region of Good Shepherd in Kirwan and the Upper Ross areas of Townsville.

He encouraged parishioners to support Ms Sevilla by sending letters to politicians. A 4000-page petition was presented to Mr Dutton’s Brisbane office in April asking for him to intervene.

In late May, Mr Dutton decided to overturn the deportation order and said the mother and her son could apply for permanent residency.

Ms Sevilla last week thanked all who had encouraged her during the five-year ordeal.

“We are so lucky that we have a lot of people supporting us like the nurses’ union, my church, my colleagues and family,” she said.

“I would like to thank each and every one of them.”

Mr Wilson, who became a Catholic in 2013, changed his Afghani name last September to reflect his respect for his main mentors through the RCIA program, Adelaide Archbishop Philip Wilson and Christian Brother Patrick Cronin.

Mr Sutton said the fear at the time of Mr Wilson’s detainment was that he would be deported back to Afghanistan.

“This would have been a certain death sentence,” he said. “First of all there was the issue of Patrick becoming a Christian.

“The death penalty applies for apostasy (conversion from Islam) in Afghanistan.

“Patrick is also a member of the Hazara minority group who have been persecuted over many years. He had already experienced the horror of his father being murdered by the Taliban.”

Concern over his predicament led to a groundswell of support from Catholic agencies including Caritas and the Edmund Rice Centre and various Christian denominations. Townsville Knights of the Southern Cross also got behind a campaign which sent a petition to the Immigration Minister. The campaign spread across Australian parishes.

Mr Sutton said the Minister’s decision on Mr Wilson had taken everyone by surprise “but is immensely welcome”.

“There is a great sense of justice in Minister Dutton’s decision to allow Patrick to make an application for a visa,” he said. “It means we are no longer jailing an innocent refugee. The Minister is to be congratulated and applauded.”

A Department of Immigration and Border Protection spokesperson confirmed Minister Dutton “had exercised his power to lift the 46A(2) bar under the Migration Act for the client, allowing him to lodge a valid Temporary Protection Visa (TPV)”.

 

ShareTweet
Previous Post

Pope Francis boosting morale

Next Post

Assembly celebrates Indigenous faith

Staff writers

Related Posts

Q&A – Who is the little-known patron saint of the Swiss Guard?
QLD

Q&A – Who is the little-known patron saint of the Swiss Guard?

27 June 2022
Abdallah family deliver powerful Vatican speech
Family

Abdallah family deliver powerful Vatican speech

27 June 2022
Look to the future, not the past, pope tells families
News

Look to the future, not the past, pope tells families

27 June 2022
Next Post
Assembly attendees: Murri Ministry members (from left) Ravina Waldren, David Miller, Bernadette Jeffrey and Josephite Sister Kay McPadden were among Brisbane representatives at the NATSICC Assembly.

Assembly celebrates Indigenous faith

Faithful servants: Archbishop Mark Coleridge with Fr Paul Eloagu (left) and Fr Odinaka Nwadike after their ordination at St Stephen’s Cathedral on June 29. Photo: Alan Edgecomb

Ordained to be part of 'God’s solution’

Holy Spirit takes care of early ‘wobbly knees’

Popular News

  • Abdallah family deliver powerful Vatican speech

    Abdallah family deliver powerful Vatican speech

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Celebration marks Sister Angela Mary’s 75 years’ service to Mater and Queensland

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Three Queensland deacons preparing for priestly ordinations in the next week

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Confraternity Carnival ready for a full return in Mackay next week

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • US states start banning abortion following historic Supreme Court ruling

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
Search our job finder
No Result
View All Result

Latest News

Q&A – Who is the little-known patron saint of the Swiss Guard?
QLD

Q&A – Who is the little-known patron saint of the Swiss Guard?

by Guest Contributor
27 June 2022
0

Question – In paragraph 226 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church there is a prayer attributed...

Abdallah family deliver powerful Vatican speech

Abdallah family deliver powerful Vatican speech

27 June 2022
Look to the future, not the past, pope tells families

Look to the future, not the past, pope tells families

27 June 2022
US states start banning abortion following historic Supreme Court ruling

US states start banning abortion following historic Supreme Court ruling

27 June 2022

Why you should go on a pilgrimage — more than once

25 June 2022

Never miss a story. Sign up to the Weekly Round-Up
eNewsletter now to receive headlines directly in your email.

Sign up to eNews
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Contact
  • Contribute
  • Jobs
  • Subscribe

The Catholic Leader is an Australian award-winning Catholic newspaper that has been published by the Archdiocese of Brisbane since 1929. Our journalism seeks to provide a full, accurate and balanced Catholic perspective of local, national and international news while upholding the dignity of the human person.

Copyright © All Rights Reserved The Catholic Leader
Accessibility Information | Privacy Policy | Archdiocese of Brisbane

The Catholic Leader acknowledges Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the First Peoples of this country and especially acknowledge the traditional owners on whose lands we live and work throughout the Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute

Copyright © All Rights Reserved The Catholic Leader

0
    0
    Your Cart
    Your cart is emptyChoose another Subscription
    Continue Shopping