“Marilen” Centre for Unity – Oceania

A snippet of history

By 1982, every continent except ours, had its own mini-city, its own Centre for Unity. So it was in that year that we started to search for the best place for a Centre for Unity for the whole of Oceania.

We narrowed the search area down to a 1.5 hour’s drive radius from Melbourne and all our friends searched high and low for a property that was: beautiful, affordable, close to Melbourne and the airport, easily reached by interstate visitors, where the local council regulations could accommodate development, where there would be space for the Australian and New Zealand (and Islander) soul to sing. In short: location, location, location …

We looked east to Gippsland, south-west to Geelong, north to central Victoria and to the West (the Lion Park!). But no place quite fitted every requirement. Then in March 1986, one of the pioneers of the Focolare, Marilen Holzhauser, died. At a home Mass in the Focolare, offered for her, we asked Marilen to help us find a property. Then, as is often the case, the unexpected happened in an unplanned and almost miraculous way. The December 1986 newsletter tells the story:

‘On the Anzac weekend, we had a New Humanity seminar in Healesville, together with Margaret Linard and Giuseppe Arsì (Scinti),and there we experienced a very great unity. At our Sunday Mass and services, we prayed for a Center for Unity. After Mass, we went to say hello to Fr Gerald Loughnan, then parish priest of Healesville, an old friend whom we hadn’t seen for some time. Father had 100 acres of land in Greendale (in country Victoria), which he had thoughts of subdividing and selling. We felt that Marilen in heaven had listened to our prayers and was pointing the way.

Margaret Linard vividly recalls how it all unfolded: “I said, ‘Father, do you still have that block of land? You don’t want to sell it do you?’ He said, ‘Well, I have the land but I want to retire there.’ After Mass the next day, Father Loughnan came rushing towards us with his vestments flapping in the wind. He hadn’t even bothered to take them off and he said, ‘About that land. I’ve been thinking about it. I think I will sell it. Do you still want to buy it?”

Fr Loughnan decided to keep ten acres for himself and sell us the rest. So how much was asked for the property? Exactly what we had in the bank through the generosity of everyone who shared the search and the dream!

An invitation was sent to all those who had been involved in the search for a property over the previous two or three years to come and see the land. Whoever was sceptical when they heard that the land had no power, no town water, no telephones and so on, were soon won over when they saw the place.

The magic of Marilen was beginning to weave its design.