Letters: Baby blessed

The
Catholic Weekly
Online

Sydney
18 April 2004

Pope still favourite of young Catholics

Church groups unite in call for poverty inquiry

Lisa’s struggle to make ends meet

Sydney education office helps Solomons rebuild

US ‘marriage rescue’ plan

After the pregnant pause: ‘Extra special’ - The most beautiful baby, of course

PM’s award to Fr Chris Riley

Cardinal Pell keynote speaker

Editorial: Duty to the poor

Letters: Baby blessed

Conversation: Lyndon Cox, director of Catholic Youth Services - Drawing the young back to the parish

St Vincent de Paul: How we help our twins

Sybil pushes the boundaries

Peace, love inspire student art

Christians, Muslims, Jews gather in prayer for peace

Jesus is the meaning of life, bishop tells Vietnamese

Salesians fight poverty, hunger in East Timor

Joey’s just pipped

Letters: Baby blessed

Re Pregnant pause.

The experience of sharing the journey of pregnancy with Marilyn Rodrigues has been very delightful and inspiring.

I’ve looked forward to it each week, as it came as a breath of fresh air.

I’m going to miss it from now on.

In today’s society where “marriage is out and living together is in”, it was very refreshing to see such a beautiful couple as Marilyn and Peter with such healthy and spiritual attitudes.

They are a shining example to others.

Their baby is very blessed to be coming into such a welcoming, loving and faith-filled home.

I wish them God’s blessings and lots of happiness in the future as they are a very special Catholic family.

Carole Braddish,
Newcastle, NSW

MARRICKVILLE HISTORY

As a former teacher (1946-1949 and 1972-1977) at St Brigid’s Girls’ School, in Livingstone Rd, Marrickville, I was indeed gratified to read the great news concerning Casimir College (CW 21/3).

Those interested in Australian Church history may, however, be surprised to learn that there was a Cath-olic school in Marrickville since c1887, albeit in a slightly different locality.

In that year, at the invitation of the Passionist priests, then living in Despointes St, Marrickville, some Sisters of the Good Samaritan staffed a school in that street, coming daily from their Pitt St convent.

By 1892 a group of these sisters took up residence near the school in Despointes St. (To omit a good deal of history, it will suffice that it is now the Marrickville Police Station!)

In 1932 the sisters, still living in Despointes St, moved ‘school’ to the splendid new building in Livingstone Rd, occupying the portion assigned them.

Having already successfully sent pupils for the Intermediate Examination in the former school, they continued this practice in the new school. By 1936 they sent pupils for the Leaving Certificate examination, thus enabling them to attend Sydney University. With the advent, however of the complex Wyndham Scheme (c1965), the school’s senior section became a Year 10 school certificate college.

As is well known the pupils from the de la Salle Brothers’ section of the campus and those from the girls’ section were combined, forming Casimir College in 1983.

Readers may be interested to learn from Prof P O’Farrell’s History of the Catholic Church in Australia, 2nd

edition, 1969, that facing p183, there is an illustration of a classroom (c1893) in the Despointes St school.

The novice nearest the camera is Sr Dorothy Hanly, niece of the renowned Fr John Hanly. A gifted artist and teacher, she was influenced by her uncle.

He was chaplain at Rosebank convent and school in Five Dock (1887–1896) and there opened a night school for working boys, helping to improve their prospects during the severe 1890s financial depression.

In a similar way the sisters at Despointes St convent took evening classes to prepare adults for the reception of the sacraments. Some were illiterate, so the sisters taught them to read and write.

As the years passed, more than 30 young women from Marrickville have become Sisters of the Good Samaritan, helping to fulfil one hope of their revered founder, Archbishop JB Polding OSB, who wrote to his cousin, Fr TP Heptonstall OSB, in 1839: “…the object I have most at heart, after the propagation of religion, [is] the diffusion of sound taste, and a love of the fine arts.”

Sr Xavier Compton SGS
Glebe Point, NSW