The
Catholic Weekly
Online
Sydney
15 February 2004
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Birthday wishes for Aloysius
SA parishes merge
Focus on family
Gregorian Schola offers singers big chants
Gibson’s Passion ‘work of faith’, says cardinal
How to help create a ‘culture of peace’
Pregnant pause: The joy of showing our baby the way
There is a doctor in the house
Wollongong diocese buys site for high school
Boree log bush bash
Work in Catholic education brings honour for four
Bishop launches ‘significant’ new faith courses
$80,000 boost for drug fight
Editorial: Greatest story
Letters: Something special
Conversation: Fr Aiden Kelly, prison chaplain - Helping souls in a captive Congregation
On a walk with God ...
A credible Jesus
A biblical-based Mary
A life of Mercy with music
Care, prayer still very much in order
The Polding legacy
‘Catholic-only’ order denied
US-bound on the pitcher’s mound
A life of Mercy with music
Sr Michael Fitzgerald with author Bryce Courtenay in Parkes on Australia Day last year
By Marilyn Rodrigues
“The Mercies taught me from the beginning of my schooling and I did become very close to them; also their lifestyle attracted me very much,” says Sr Michael Fitzgerald.
“As the years went on, the call to enter religious life got stronger, and I never regretted the path I’ve chosen. It’s been a wonderful, grace-filled life and I’ve enjoyed it. God has been so very good to me.”
The Mercy sister from Parkes was reflecting on her 66 years in religious life this month.
She was born Mary Fitzgerald in Broken Hill, where she lived until she was 12. Then she went to the Mercy sisters’ juniorate in Parkes.
She joined the Mercy sisters in February, 1938, made her profession in 1940 in Broken Hill and began her teaching career in music as Sr Michael, teaching piano, violin, singing, musicianship and theory. She has spent most of her life living and teaching in Parkes.
Sr Michael taught in her own studio in the Parkes convent until the community sold the property and moved into nearby units in a village for the elderly.
She and the eight other sisters in the community are now retired from teaching. One is still employed, as secretary to the Bishop of Wilcannia-Forbes, Bishop Chris Toohey.
“Although we are retired from the active duties that we entered the convent for, we do other ministry,” says Sr Michael, who is 84. “We’re an ageing community so we do what we can within our limits.
“I have a choir. I organise the church music and play for funerals and church services.
“And I have contact with other churches. I join in their activities and services where and when I can. I also visit the sick and the dying.
“It’s a more relaxed lifestyle, compared to before. But it is very fulfilling and rewarding to be able to spend time doing this type of ministry in the latter part of our lives; helping people in need.
“In the country we aren’t faced with the tragedies and traumas people in Sydney have to face; we are shielded a little from things like crime.
“But drought, particularly, has an effect on country people and the economy which brings its own traumas and needs that we try to meet for people in difficult situations.
“We try to help individual people and families in distress in whatever way we can, with housing, food and so on. Also, some sisters volunteer in the St Vincent de Paul centre.”
Sr Michael was made Parkes’ Citizen of the Year, on Australia Day last year, for her contribution to the musical life of Parkes and her ministry to people in the town and surrounding areas over the years.
“I was more than surprised at that,” she says.
Sr Michael has many friends in Parkes and the surrounding area, including in the other faith communities such as the Anglican, Uniting Church, Baptist and Lutheran Churches.
“Ecumenism has always been a special interest of mine,” she says. “Particularly through all of my teaching life I was involved with other Churches, because I had students from them, and I’ve loved it. I have many friends among them.
“I have helped people of other faiths and they have helped me; it’s been a two-way thing.”
Sr Michael believes that mixing with so many people of different faith traditions made it easier for her to adapt to the changes that Vatican II brought to the convent and liturgical life in Parkes.
“In the 60s when our lifestyle and our habits changed and we were given more freedom, those changes had an impact on me, but somehow I’ve been able to accept them without a great deal of trauma,” she says.
“I was quite happy with all the changes over the years in the Church.”
Sr Michael says that the leaders of the other Parkes Churches have been an inspiration to her, as have the parents and friends of the children she has taught.
But she is especially grateful for her Mercy sisters.
“I have loved my life in community. I can honestly say that all the sisters with whom I’ve lived – and I’ve lived with quite a few – in some way have inspired, helped, supported and encouraged me.
“They have all encouraged my faith.”