Our History

Saint John Paul II back in 1987 saw the need for an International Missionary Seminary for his Diocese of Rome. He never imagined that through his leading initiative more than 120 Bishops and Cardinals would have followed his courageous example. The first in Australia was Archbishop Barry James Hickey of Perth who in 1991 took the bold step of requesting such a seminary. Later in 2001 it was George Cardinal Pell of Sydney who also discerned the need and opportunity for forming missionary priests. Today we have Archbishop Anthony Fisher OP who urges us on to collaborate with Christ the Good Shepherd, forming pastors ready to accompany his flock.

Diocesan & Neocatechumenal

Redemptoris Mater Sydney is a Seminary of the Archdiocese of Sydney forming missionary priests ready to serve both locally and universally. It is Archbishop Anthony Fisher OP, as the Archbishop of Sydney who upon their Ordination will become their Local Ordinary and will determine how these future priests will serve the people of Sydney and beyond. The seminarians all have discovered their vocation through their involvement in the Neocatechumenal Way; a Post-Baptismal Catechumenate sponsored by the Church to lead people to an adult faith, and to the discovery of their vocation.

Missionary

The seminarians being formed at Redemptoris Mater all have in their hearts and in “their DNA” a calling from God to be missionary. They themselves have been evangelized by generous missionaries and experienced first hand the good they do. Hence their formation and life style is all projected to prepare them for mission wherever that could take them. To confirm them in this missionary vocation they will pass extended periods of mission as seminarians testing out their missionary call. If they can be happy firstly as missionaries then they also can be happy as missionary priests.

International

The candidates to the priesthood at Redemptoris Mater Seminary come from almost everywhere! Due to the missionary work of many Neocatechumenal Teams now working all over the world, we have seen a resurgence of a multitude of vocations to the priesthood. Hence we have been blessed to able to welcome some of these giving a distinctive international flavour to our seminary. Given that many of these future priests will also themselves be sent abroad and overseas bringing Good News to even the remotest islands around Australia, it is an immense enrichment to have lived for a time with fellow companions from all types of exotic backgrounds!

Community

One important novelty of our formation is that each seminarian comes from a Neocatechumenal community where they have been helped to discover their need for conversion and maturation in faith. This slow and delicate work of the Holy Spirit needs to continue and so each seminarian is also given in Sydney a parish based Neocatechumenal community that will accompany them during their period of seminary formation and indeed for the rest of their lives as missionary priests. Here they are in contact with families, the young and old and local people from all sorts of social backgrounds and come to appreciate the need all have of holy priests.

Initiation to Faith

Education in community life is one of the fundamental tasks of Christian Initiation. Each seminarian has begun his faith journey but his Faith Formation is ongoing. It is vital that their Initiation to Faith continues during their time of seminary formation and alongside their formation to the priesthood. So all of our seminarians follow the Neocatechumenal Way which is an itinerary of post baptismal formation that serves to help people to grow in faith and in appreciation of their baptism, a gift most of us received as babies but have never come to appreciate fully.

Intellectual

The seminarians of Redemptoris Mater Sydney receive their academic formation in the seminary itself, from the Catholic Institute of Sydney and from the University of Notre Dame. It takes the equivalent of 5 years full-time study to meet all the academic requirements for Ordination.

Human

“Grace builds on nature” is the traditional teaching of the Church. Ongoing human formation is therefore an important component of seminary formation. We need to be healthy human beings, able to work and colloborate together as a fine team, each recognizing the gifts and talents of the other.

Pastoral

The Seminary has the responsibility of forming Pastors or Shepherds to care for the Lord’s flock and so obviously an important component of our work is to form our seminarians for future pastoral work. A work that takes us into the parishes and also into the streets as public witnesses.

Work in Sydney

As a seminary of the Archdiocese of Sydney it is only proper that priests formed at Redemptoris Mater will give a time of service to the people of Sydney, working in parishes, schools and hospitals. Generally a priest formed here will be asked to serve within the Archdiocese for a few years before being made available to undertake Missionary Work through the Neocatechumenal Way.

Work around Australia

Redemptoris Mater is being sustained by many benefactors from all over Australia who appreciate the need for missionary priests. It is only proper that priests formed here will therefore also be made available by the Archbishop of Sydney to work in more needy dioceses around Australia. All of Australia needs to be evangelized and re-evangelized and for this we need priests to go everywhere!

Work overseas

Redemptoris Mater is one of the important fruits of the renewal called for by Vatican II which spoke of the need to implement special initiatives that would help the better distribution of priests and also tackle the problem of the serious scarcity of priests in many parts of the world. It is a gift also for the Archdiocese to prepare itself to send missionary priests also out of Australia. In fact it is already not unusual to find seminarians and priests of Redemptoris Mater working in the more remote regions of PNG and beyond!

Our People

In 2022 Redemptoris Mater Sydney has become the home of 12 seminarians and two deacons coming from 9 different countries: Serbia, Colombia, Mexico, Philippines, India, Panama, Costa Rica, Peru and Australia; truly a spectacle to behold!

Our Formators

All of our formators have had an experience of living and working in an environment not their own and so they understand the difficulties of a missionary vocation in formation.

Fr Eric Skruzny

Rector: Born in Melbourne to migrant parents from the Czech Republic. He is a presbyter of the Diocese of Rome currently on loan to the Archdiocese of Sydney.
He trained initially as a Town Planner at the University of Melbourne, before entering the Redemptoris Mater Seminary of Rome.

Fr Marlon Henao Perez

Vice Rector and Dean of Studies: Fr Marlon is originally from Colombia. He was formed at the Redemptoris Mater Seminary of Perth, Western Australia. After working in a Parish, he joined our team and now assists the Rector and guides our seminarians in their Academic and Liturgical Formation.

Fr Gerry Prindiville

Spiritual Director: Fr Gerry is originally from Western Australia. After working in Canberra as a public servant he left his career to be formed at the Redemptoris Mater Seminary of Newark, USA. He has worked as a missionary priest in Newark, the Turks and Caicos Islands and in Sydney.

Fr Moises Tapia Carrasco

Assistant to the Vice Rector and Pastoral Director: Fr Moises is originally from the Dominican Republic. He was formed at the Redemptoris Mater Seminary of Sydney and has worked as an Assistant Priest in the Parish of Our Lady of Fatima in Caringbah.

Our Pastoral Team

In addition to the Full Time Seminary Formators, we have the Itinerant Team of the Neocatechumenal Way of Australia who form part of the Pastoral Team assisting us in the formation and discernment process.

Toto & Rita Piccolo

Itinerants from Rome in Australia since 1977.

Papal Knights of the Order of St Gregory the Great

Fr Tony Trafford

Itinerant Presbyter from the Bristol Diocese, England

Other Staff Members

The Seminary functions thanks to the help of numerous volunteers who dedicate themselves professionally to make sure we operate as we ought.

Martin

Melbourne

Josephine

Melbourne

Peter

Brisbane

Raffaella

Nusco, Italy

Gian Pietro

Manager of works, from Piacenza, Italy

Our Saints

In addition to the saints who give their time helping us here below, we also have those Saints already in heaven forever interceding for us. We would like to acknowledge them too!

St Vincent de Paul, Patron Saint of RMS Sydney

Expert in helping the poor

Bl Pascual Torres Lloret of Valencia, Spain

Family Man, Builder

St Joseph, Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Specialist in material support

St Mary of the Cross MacKillop

Expert advisor on Education

Our Seminarians

All of our seminarians come with an experience of faith formation lived through their parish based Neocatechumenal Community. None of them have chosen to be formed in Sydney, but have been generous in making themselves available to be formed in any one of the 120 International Missionary Seminaries spread over the five continents around the world.