Since the 1980s, the Jesuit Fathers have been responsible for the care of St Canice’s parish, which is located at Elizabeth Bay in Sydney and includes the Kings Cross area. The present pastor, Fr Stephen Sinn SJ, is the fourth Jesuit to have been parish priest.

Fr Sinn was born and educated in Melbourne and began his training with the Society of Jesus in 1967. He was an early graduate of the combined Jesuit and Uniting Church theological faculty in Ormond College at the University of Melbourne, launched after the Second Vatican Council, and was ordained to the priesthood at Richmond in December 1978. He then taught at St Aloysius’.College in Sydney and for a time was senior chaplain at St Ignatius, Riverview. In 1986 Fr Sinn returned to Melbourne to minister at Corpus Christi, Greenvale, a home for alcoholic men that the Jesuits were then conducting, in place of the sisters of Mother Teresa of Calcutta who were the home’s founders. Fr Sinn came from Greenvale to St Canice’s as assistant priest in 1993 and was appointed its pastor five years later.

Although initially a Jesuit lay-brother worked with the new parish priest as his pastoral assistant, and at the moment several fellow—Jesuits live in the priests’ house and readily help with parish services if they are available when needed, St Canice’s effectively became a one—priest parish with Fr Sinn’ s appointment in 1998 — for the first time in its 110 years history.

Asked to introduce the man who now guides the Catholic community of Kings Cross and neighbouring places, one of his parishioners writes:

I was despairing of ever being able to speak truly of Fr Steve to those who don’t know him when I remembered something from the Gospels: how some disciples of John the Baptist’s once came to Jesus wanting him to tell them who he was. All the Lord did in reply was ask them to see what he was doing: the needy were being cared for and the poor were hearing the good news. The. implication of the advice, I take it, is that when those things are happening one can be sure that God is acting. And that is something far bigger than issues of personality.

St Canice’s in 2002 is a tiny parish numerically. It no longer has its own school and lacks the energies that might come through that. And anyone can see that a fair proportion of those attending the weekend Masses are elderly. At the same time, the demands made of the parish, and naturally of its priest, are heavy. Because of the church’s location lots of visitors come, and the call for special services like baptisms, weddings and funerals is high. The parish even caters regularly for school retreats for young people from outer-suburban and country areas. And then off course, there are the hospitals nearby; flats and retirement homes that house more than a few who are lonely and needy; and above all, the numerous street people who flock to ‘the Cross’ and are mostly desperate and addicted.

If St Canice’s does something to cope with the calls made on it, it is only because its pastor welcomes and is prepared to rely on cooperative support. More than that, he inspires that support because of his own sensitivity to the need around him and, especially I think, because of his determination to put service of the manifestly poor first. The parish has a long history of encouraging lay cooperation and the force of that tradition is still to be felt. But, without a doubt, Fr Steve’s leadership is also a factor in accounting for the way so many facets of the parish’s work are carried on today by volunteers.

St Canice’s Kitchen, which now feeds street people daily, is a good example of this. It is not something Fr Steve, or even his Jesuit predecessors, devised. It has been operating for more than 20 years and has always drawn heavily on support from neighbouring parishes, and indeed people from across the city. However, Fr Steve’s efforts to widen the help offered the homeless, and be supportive of other services doing the same, have set new standards.

Not all parishioners would agree with what is being done in this way. Differences are a fact of life with us, as they are elsewhere. But as I see it, having the poor close to us at St Canice’s helps establish compassion as the rule. In consequence, things tend to be seen in a good perspective. We know that the Word is proclaimed truly in our parish, that the Eucharist is central, and that the unity which matters most comes from our common sharing of Word and Sacrament.