Sydney
25 August 2002

Home
Archive
Subscribe
Links
Contact

Stem cells: Cancer risk warning

Stem cell debate: the issues

Will John Paul II see Poland again?

Protesters meet on brothel plan

Song offers to ‘carry the flame within’ for John Paul

Here is the news Live on Radio 2

Sisters renew vows after 390 years ...

Canada Bay raises $50,000 for Burmese aid project

Catholic Press – ‘duty to report truth’

Religious reporting ‘important to ABC’

Editorial: The good priest

Letters: Change the words

Conversation: No bullies allowed in his oasis of harmony - Br Nicholas Harsas, primary school principal

Reflections: Priests can be youthful at any age

Would a war against Iraq be just?

‘Lost for words’ in moment with Pope

Toronto and the witness of youth

Battle to help ‘dual diagnosis’ victims

Inspirations: ‘Courage and strength’

Sisters renew vows after 390 years ...

Sr Emily Watts, the ‘Queen Mother’, 70 years professed

Between them, the seven Sisters of St Joseph had notched up nearly four centuries of service. So the renewal of their vows in a jubilee ceremony was an occasion for some celebration.

Family and friends filled Our Lady of Fatima Church in North Goulburn to overflowing for the Thanksgiving Mass.

Archbishop Francis Carroll, the Archbishop of Canberra and Goulburn, was chief celebrant, assisted by local and visiting clergy.

Included in the liturgy was an Episcopal blessing for the seven jubilee celebrants in the renewal of their vows – made 50, 60 and 70 years ago.

The Congregational Leader, Sr Kerrie Cusack, delivered thumbnail sketches of the seven, beginning with longest-serving of them, Sr Emily Watts (70 years professed), lovingly acknowledged as the ‘Queen Mother’. The kaleidoscope of activities in which the sisters were engaged over the years provided no small entertainment for a receptive congregation and served as a good reminder of the great variety of their ministries.

Apart from Sr Emily, the jubilee nuns were Sr M Oliver Casey and Sr M Patrick Bradley (both 60 years professed), and Sr M Patricia Cunningham, Sr Maureen McPhillips, Sr M Gerardine Agnew and Sr Dawn Carey (all 50 years professed).

The Thanksgiving Mass was followed by lunch at St Joseph’s Convent, where the boarding school dining room was more than able to accommodate the seven sisters and 250 other guests. It was an afternoon of happy reminiscence, story-telling, gift sharing and “magnificent cakes”.