Legacy of sacrifice
Opinion
Nine years ago I was fortunate to have the opportunity to interview Sr Maryanne Welsh rsj, then a sprightly 88 year old with a twinkle in her eye and a soft Irish lilt.
She told me how she’d “followed her heart” and left her home in County Kerry in 1947 at the age of 19 and followed her sister to Australia to join the Sisters of St Joseph. She didn’t return home for 24 years and by then her parents were dead.
At Sr Maryanne’s funeral last month, her fellow Sisters acknowledged the great sacrifice made by the 840 courageous young women recruited to Australia and New Zealand by the order (as documented in the book The Letter under the Pillow). The last of the Irish-born Josephite Sisters in SA, Sr Maryanne was a connection to an important part of the story of the Sisters and their founders, St Mary MacKillop and Fr Julian Tenison Woods.
While girls like Maryanne were heading off on a grand adventure, it would have been incredibly difficult for their parents, particularly their mothers.
Imagine saying goodbye to not just one but two daughters, knowing that you will probably never see them again. Sr Maryanne told me her mother “didn’t complain” but added, “I think it would have been very hard, I think it affected her”.
How could it not have.
It made me think about saying goodbye to my own daughter last month after she gave birth to our first grandchild, Lily Marie, in England. There were tears when we said our goodbyes, and a degree of guilt at leaving her in the throes of caring for her first baby without family around. But it will only be five months or so before we see them again. And we have mobile phones, FaceTime and Instagram now, not letters that take months to arrive. How treasured those letters to and from Ireland would have been.
Like the Irish Sisters (and the many men and women from other orders) who left their homeland to follow the call of God, a century or so later our international priests are making huge sacrifices to respond to the need for priests in our parishes and migrant communities. They too leave behind families and friends for long periods with very little knowledge of where they are headed and for how long.
I couldn’t help but feel sorry for our new Sri Lankan chaplain and assistant priest to the Cathedral parish, Fr Vincent Wijesuriya, when I met him on a particularly cold and blustery winter’s day. It was a cruel start for someone coming from a place where the temperature rarely drops below 30 degrees. But with his tales of encounters with elephants, monkeys and wild boars, I soon realised that his positive and cheerful disposition will hold him in good stead as he embarks on his latest adventure.
The four Indian priests who arrived in Adelaide a few months ago spoke to me about the difficulty of leaving behind their families, particularly their ageing parents, but, like Fr Vincent, they were determined to fully embrace their new home. I am sure their parents felt comforted by the thought that their sons were coming to a welcoming community of faith.
One of the great benefits of having these priests in our midst is the opportunity for us to learn more about their own countries and cultures. It was fascinating talking to Fr Vincent about Sri Lanka’s history, religion, politics and the growing Sri Lankan tourism industry, not to mention the elephants.
Just as we are blessed to have the legacy of the Irish Sisters and Brothers who dedicated their lives to educating children and serving the disadvantaged, we are blessed to have our international priests helping us to continue the faith of our forebears.
Jump to next article
