d. Other Pastoral & Overseas Ministries

Other Pastoral Ministries

From 1985 our sisters responded to specific pastoral needs outside the field of education. This included parish pastoral ministry, working with the homeless, reaching out and being a presence to people in housing commission estates, being a presence to senior citizens by attending their gatherings and visiting the elderly in retirement homes. Examples include, Marsden, Loganlea, Carinya, Evans Head, Kingscliff and Pottsville. Other sisters worked with the disabled, taught English to migrants and ministered as chaplains to the Italian communities. Some sisters undertook special training to equip them professionally as nurses and counsellors. Sr Sue has worked at the Mater Children’s Hospital for many years while Sr Maureen has counselled in places as far afield as Port Augusta, Emerald and Goondiwindi. It seems that the sisters could be found wherever people were in need and their Franciscan presence was requested. In the Sale diocese of Victoria today, Brisbane-born Sr M. Elizabeth still provides care to the Italian community.

Delamore complex and Convent

Delamore

In 1990 Delamore Retirement Community for aged-care became a new ministry in Kedron. The sisters had purchased Delamore House (White building) for a convent back in 1935. Fifty years later the complex had become too large for the community’s needs and too costly to maintain. A search began for possible ways of utilising the property. Accommodation and care for retired people were identified as emerging needs in the Brisbane Archdiocese. Finally, Delamore Retirement Community became a reality due to much effort by Sr Patricia Treacy and Sr Margaret Rose and today it provides a peaceful setting for retirees. Sisters still use the convent building to the right of the picture, and reside in the two-story block directly behind it besides in some units.

Overseas Ministries

At different times, many Sisters have been involved in our ministries in Italy, England, Ireland, Egypt, USA, PNG, Tchad, Bolivia and Sudan.

Sr Josephine Rush with students at St Clare’s College Heliopolis, Cairor Egypt

These ministries included education, nursing, nurse education, pastoral ministry, internal service and generalate administration. Sister Elaine Morzone, an Australian sister, is the leader of our International Institute of Missionary Franciscan Sisters. The total number of Sisters in the institute has decreased with the largest number still in the USA and there is growth through the novitiates in Peru and Papua New Guinea. Today we are now 37 sisters in Australia and 3 Australian Sisters are in overseas ministries in PNG and Rome.

Sister Patricia Cordwell with Sudanese Nurses at Mother of Mercy Hospital Gidel, Sudan.

Conclusion

Most sisters are currently living in semi-retirement yet still serving in various ways.

Sister Joyce Fenton helps students with their reading

The more active are involved in a diversity of ministries in an effort to respond to current needs of the church and society, according to their personal gifts and talents and in the spirit of Francis, Clare and Elizabeth Hayes.

Sister Joyce Fenton helps students with their reading
Clare, Elizabeth Hayes, Francis

(Acknowledgement: Thanks to Sisters M. Paulette, Josephine and Clara for the initial photographic selections and preparations for a DVD presentation in 2005. Content has been edited and extended by Sisters M. Francine (Pauline) Shaw and Noela Leamy.

Resources include:

Archives of the Australian MFICs.
Elizabeth Hayes, “The Seraphic Order”, Annals of Our Lady of the Angels XIII, xi (1888): 338.
Jim Fitzgerald, ofm, Sowers of the Seed: Irish Franciscan in Victoria during the 19th century (Box Hill,
Victoria: Franciscan private print, 1976) v, & 5a from William Ullathorne, Autobiography of Archbishop
Ullathorne (London, Burns & Oates, d.n.g.) 134 & William Ullathorne, From Cabin Boy to Archbishop:
The Autobiography of Arch-bishop Ullathorne (London, Hollis & Carter, 1943, 103.)
Agnella O’Callaghan, mfic, The Story of the Missionary Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate
Conception in Australia and New Guinea (Brisbane,Qld: MFIC, 1971).

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