Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Housing and Local Government) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Dorothy Seguna and her husband, Reg, live in my electorate of Cook. Their family home was in Burraneer. Due to advanced dementia, for the past 12 months Dorothy has been a resident of the Stella Maris nursing home at Cronulla. Dorothy and her husband have recently become acquainted with a new resident of Stella Maris, Sister Catherine O’Carrigan from the Sisters of Charity. Sister Catherine’s respiratory condition has limited her mobility and necessitated her taking up residence in the nursing home. I am informed that Sister Catherine has actively fulfilled the role of historian with the Sisters of Charity and perpetuated the achievements of the religious order since its arrival in Australia more than 170 years ago. The anniversary of its arrival was just over two months ago, I am told. I want to take the opportunity of recognising that here in this place by referencing the work of Sister Catherine.

The story behind the arrival of the Sisters of Charity in Australia began in 1838 when Bishop Bede Polding made a request to Sister Mary Aitkenhead for a community of sisters to be established in the colony of New South Wales. The five women arrived in Port Jackson on 31 December 1838 after a long sea voyage aboard the ship the Francis Spaight. The five women were Mother Mary John Cahill, Sister Mary de Sales O’Brien, Sister Mary Baptist de Lacy, Sister Mary Xavier Williams and Sister Mary Lawrence Cator.

Their first mission was to bring Christian love into a jail where up to 800 women lived in degradation and misery. Based at the women’s jail at Parramatta, the work of the sisters had an immediate impact. Bishop Polding wrote to their superiors in Ireland that an almost miraculous change had taken place in a jail that had seemed full of hopelessness, misery and despair. The sisters won much support and admiration amongst the Catholic laity. Even the colony’s governor, Sir George Gipps, showed respect to the sisters, sanctioning their work in the colony’s jails, hospitals and schools. He supported their work by assisting them to establish a laundry and sewing rooms that would provide female convicts with an occupation that would lift their self-esteem. Other examples of their work included visiting the sick and the poor, giving religious instruction in Sydney’s growing number of Catholic schools, providing classes in needlework and visits to the Darlinghurst jail and the Sydney infirmary. While there was much enthusiasm for the work of the sisters and recognition towards the pioneer spirit of the order, the early years were beset with many difficulties surrounding their relationship with the broader church hierarchy.

Today, the Sisters of Charity continue their good work across a broad range of ministries, including prisons, hospitals and education. This is regarded to be a reflection of their fourth vow of service to the poor. The order continues to interpret this vow in terms of asking how they can make themselves ‘extensively useful’. A landmark achievement of the Sisters of Charity was building their own hospital, St Vincent’s, which was established in 1857 at Potts Point. St Vincent’s was started as a free hospital for all denominations but especially for the poor. I would like to thank Dorothy Seguna and her husband, Reg, for bringing this important occasion to our attention. The compassion and dedication of the sisters over 170 years deserves recognition.