CONRAD WILLIAM REIS PRIEST 26-2-1914 to 29-9-2006 Fr Conrad Reis, a remarkable and much-admired Catholic priest who was mentioned in dispatches for his unarmed pastoral work with front-line troops in New Guinea in World War II, and then played a key role in Australia�s post-war immigration boom, has died peacefully, aged 92 years. Fr Reis was one of three children to a prosperous Albury family - his great grandparents were of German ancestry and pioneers in the district. His father, Charles, was a merchant who built his fortune from shipping produce and transferring goods between the different rail gauges of New South Wales and Victoria that overlapped in his siding. Fr Reis began schooling in Albury before completing his education at Xavier College in Kew, and then Corpus Christi seminary and was ordained a priest in 1939. In 1941 he was appointed to serve as a military chaplain in New Guinea with the 29/46 Battalion. As an unarmed chaplain accompanying his unit to the Japanese front each day, nothing prepared him for the brutal slaughter of young men. In damp, mosquito infested jungles and in sight of enemy snipers and in range of mortar shells, he comforted each soldier where he fell and gave dignity to their violent death, and later comfort to families left behind. He held mass for soldiers of all denominations wherever a safe clearing could be found; he built two jungle chapels using captured Japanese labour. While supervising the Japanese prisoners, Father Reis had a conversion experience - he moved from hatred of the enemy for their brutality, to tolerance and then came to treat them as equals. He was given the nickname �Digger Reis�, and for his courage, dedication and pastoral support he was mentioned in dispatches. The life-long bond he formed with the soldiers of his unit and their families, was celebrated in an annual Mass he said for nearly 60 years after the war. When Father Reis returned to civilian church life, he was appointed Director of Catholic Immigration. With his vision of post-war Australia as a place of equity and freedom, he became a valued colleague of Arthur Calwell, the federal minister for Immigration. However his views did not always find favour and in 1953 he was transferred to the Sacred Heart parish in St Albans, where he helped thousands of refugees establish a new life. He put into practice his strongly held beliefs about a new, more tolerant and multicultural Australia for the thousands of displaced people still arriving from war-torn Europe. Over the next twenty years, Fr Reis carved an active and inclusive parish out of the dusty roads and temporary housing that was St Albans at that time, creating a church from the labour of New Australian volunteers. His first Mass involved eight languages � and was said before the church even had a floor or walls. As his parishioners were drawn from more than 30 different ethnic backgrounds and language groups, he worked tirelessly as a diplomat to bring together in one community peoples that had been warring in their own homelands a few years earlier. One of his first initiatives was to build a school, which had 180 enrolments when it opened in 1954. Within three years enrolments had grown to 860 children and continued to rise to nearly 1200 children by 1962. No sooner had Fr Reis finished one school expansion he had to start the next, so rapid was the growth from the influx of migrants. Fr Reis systematically visited each family when they arrived in the parish and returned again year after year to ensure their wellbeing. After two decades at St Albans, Fr Reis was assigned in 1973 to the parish of St Columba�s in Elwood. This was a period following Vatican II, and he moved quickly to turn a musty old church into a vibrant place of worship accessible to the whole community. He removed the marble altar, its rotunda and the brass railings. He painted the inside dome bright red. He changed the Mass from Latin to English. And he engaged young musicians to help bring the Mass to life and to reach out to a new generation of Catholics. Within a short time, the St Columba�s Mass drew crowds in excess of its capacity. His straightforward interpretation of the Gospel and style of direct sermons touched the lives of many and sparked renewed interest and following in the teachings of Christ. Fr Reis retired from parish life in 1978. Over the next decade he delivered meals on wheels to people in the Frankston area. As his eyesight faded, he tried to continue his community work, but his health progressively deteriorated and he was forced to retire permanently. Fr Reis leaves behind a legacy of decency, tolerance, compassion and justice. |
| Obituary
The Age, Melbourne 10 October 2006 On the front-line in battles of a different kind |
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