Catholic Diocese of Broome

Some readers would be familiar with the One Mile (Nillir Irbanjin) grotto of our Lady of Loreto installed at that Community during 2008 by Claudio Pioli, (family in Mission in Broome for 8 years). Unfortunately, the statue went missing during 2010. However, this has now turned into a good news story with an international twist! A short time after the statue disappeared, at the request of Mr Raymond Wandi, a resident of the community, I undertook to procure a replacement.

I was sure that through various contacts we would be able to provide another statue for the people of One Mile; however, finding a replacement proved more difficult than at first thought. A few months later during Graduation Day activities on the University’s Broome Campus, I struck up a conversation with Father Mark Poorman, a Holy Cross priest from the University of Notre Dame, Indiana, USA. The conversation turned to One Mile and my dilemma in finding a replacement statue. Father Mark, at first intrigued with the fact that someone had built a grotto in the first place out of sheet metal and a gum stump, was moved to offer to purchase the replacement.

In one brief encounter, he had seen the need for the grotto to exist in One Mile. Secondly, as I found out later, Notre Dame Indiana has a nationally famous grotto to Our Lady of Lourdes. So the link was there! There is a big difference between a daunting rock hewn model of the French grotto to our Lady of Lourdes on the lush wooded lawns of Notre Dame Indiana to a rough bush crafted construction stained with pindan and built by an Italian missionary, but for the people of One Mile, who now have a much valued statue of Our Lady in their grotto, my prayer is that she may offer protection and intercession for them, and from the simplicity of the One Mile grotto may she find a place in our hearts as well.

Photo Caption:
From left, Stephanie, Russell and Raymond with Matthew Hill, the Campus Minister at Notre Dame University Broome, around Our Lady’s statue at One Mile.
Photo: CAS