Blessing on St Barbara’s Day

Fr Mick Mac Andrew, Fr Adrian Chan, Antonio Betti Project Director

Two Cooma priests have blessed workers and the tunnel boring machine at the site of the first tunnel for the massive Snowy 2.0 scheme.

Fr Mick MacAndrew and Fr Adrian Chan were invited by Future Generation, the project’s main contractor, to conduct the blessing on 4 December. This is the feast day of St Barbara, who since the seventh century has been venerated as the patron saint of tunnellers and miners.

Fr Mick told workers they were part of a much larger endeavour to care for our common home. The Snowy project will provide electricity to 500,000 NSW homes through renewable sources, mainly water from Lake Eucumbene.

He paid tribute to workers who will be part of the five-to-six year project, telling them that Pope Francis, in his Encyclical Laudato Si – Care for our Common Home, would be very proud of their efforts.

The blessing was organised by Craig Deetlefs, Future Generation’s Local Area Content Advisor.