The last retreat

The
Catholic Weekly
Online

Sydney
23 November 2003

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The last retreat

The Redemptorist monastery and church of Mt St Alphonsus in the Newcastle suburb of Mayfield ... sadly closed

By Chris Lindsay

The beautiful Redemptorist monastery in, Mayfield, Newcastle ,is closing because of declining numbers - “part of a general trend in the Church”, according to the house’s vicar, Fr Keith Teefey.

“There is a decline in the number of people attending church, and this is an ageing community,” he said. “The building is too big for us.

“Sadly it is part of a trend. The Redemptorists closed the monastery in Brisbane in 1985, and then further houses were closed in Townsville, Yarraville and Penrith. Our largest monastery in Ballarat closed five years ago.”

The Mayfield monastery, the ‘Mother House’ of the Redemptorists, was opened on August 2, 1887. It was their first building in Australia.

The Redemptorists came to Australia in 1882 at the request of Bishop James Murray, the Bishop of Maitland-Newcastle, who had seen their work overseas and saw a need for it here.

“They were here to do missionary work and retreats, not to take care of parishes,” Fr Teefey said.

“There were six of them when they arrived, four priests and two brothers. They were originally based in Singleton, but even then they travelled widely, including to New Zealand.”

The numbers had expanded to 12 by the time the monastery was opened by Cardinal Patrick Francis Moran of Sydney on the centenary of the death of St Alphonsus Liguori, founder of the Redemptorists.

By the golden jubilee in 1937 there were Redemptorist houses in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Ballarat, New Zealand, the Philippines and Singapore for 104 priests and 46 brothers.

Their work in these centres consisted mainly of parish missions and retreats. By 1894, 12 years after the Redemptorists arrived in Singleton, the founding fathers had conducted 706 parish missions through every diocese in Australia from Cooktown to Adelaide and in all parts of New Zealand.

“The first retreat to the priests of the diocese of Maitland was held at the monastery in September 1887,” Fr Teefey said. Lay retreats began there the following year.

“The monastery at first had a chapel in it, but in 1906 a little church was built adjacent to the main building, 25 years after the Redemptorists arrived in Australia.

“By 1940 the requirement for retreats had grown to the extent that a new accommodation centre was built with 30 rooms. Before that retreatants spilled into the attic and all over the place.”

Since November 1948 the perpetual novena in honour of Our Lady of Perpetual Help has been a feature at the monastery church.

“It was an extraordinary event in those days,” said Fr Teefey. “The Mass was still in Latin but the novena was held in English. People said the prayers and wholeheartedly sang the bright songs, long before present day participation was dreamt of.

“The local radio station broadcast it every Saturday all around NSW from the early 1950s to the early 1970s.

“Fortunately the novena is not lost as the local diocese is taking it on, moving it to Newcastle’s Sacred Heart Cathedral on November 22. The patroness of the diocese is Our Lady of Perpetual Help, so it all fits in well.”

Happily, too, the beautiful buildings are not likely to be lost as the Newcastle diocese has acquired them; a Gospel use is assured for their future.

“We need to be out by the end of the year and we are looking for a smaller house,” Fr Teefey said.

“Five of us will stay in Newcastle, and others will go to Perth and Melbourne.

“Some people in the area are very sad about it. The monastery has been a spiritual centre in the Hunter Valley for 116 years. It is a sign of the times. Things change.

“There is a dying and a rising to a new life - that’s our hope as we move on.”