Freedom to follow God's call
Vocations
The Dominican Sisters of North Adelaide had their origins in England but it is four women who emigrated to Australia from Vietnam who are helping to continue to preach the Gospel in today’s world. JENNY BRINKWORTH reports.<br />
The English Congregation of Dominican Sisters was founded in Stone, Staffordshire, by Mother Margaret Hallahan in 1844. From this Congregation a small group of Dominican Sisters arrived in Adelaide from Stone in 1883.
There are still nine Sisters living at North Adelaide where they gather for community prayer, liturgy and communal celebrations. The community includes four Vietnamese Australian Sisters who came to Australia at different times and from different personal circumstances.
The first sister to come to North Adelaide was Sr Thi Manh De Nguyen OP (known as Sr Cecilia).
She joined the Dominican novitiate in Saigon at the age of 16 and after the Communists took over South Vietnam, she was forced to flee Vietnam in a small fishing boat in 1982.
“After two days and nights of battling with the ocean and pirates and continually praying to God and the Virgin Mary to keep us safe, we were rescued by a big merchant ship which took us to Singapore,” Sr Cecilia recalled.
Through the intervention of the late Fr Augustin Duc-Thu Nguyen SJ, former chaplain of the Vietnamese Catholic Community in SA, Sr Cecilia applied for sponsorship to the Dominican Sisters of North Adelaide.
After five months in a refugee camp her application was approved, and she resettled in Adelaide with the Dominican Sisters.
More than 40 years later, Sr Cecilia, 77, is still supporting the Vietnamese Catholic Community at Pooraka, often for seven days a week. Her role involves teaching catechism to children, marriage preparation, sacramental programs and working with faith groups.
Through their connection with Sr Cecilia and the Vietnamese community, the Dominican Sisters over a period of years accommodated about 20 young Vietnamese refugee women at the convent at North Adelaide. Some of these young women attended St Dominic’s Priory College and went on to marry and later send their children to the College.
Dominican Sisters International (DSI) meets every three years in Rome. At one of these meeting the leaders of the Asia-Pacific Region asked how they could support the Dominican congregations in Vietnam.
The Vietnamese leaders requested that the Australian Dominican Congregations help to educate their young sisters. The Dominican – Sisters of North Adelaide responded to their request.
Sr Hieu Tran was one of a group of four Sisters sponsored as international students by the North Adelaide community.
Two other Sisters, having finished their university studies, are currently in a Dominican community in Western Australia. Another Sister, who is the principal of a school for children with a disability in Vietnam, was sponsored for a three-month sabbatical in Adelaide and visited schools in Adelaide, Perth and NSW before returning to Vietnam.
Sr Hieu joined the novitiate in Vietnam when she was 19.
“I had to go to another village about an hour away from my home, it was very hard, I was the youngest in a family of 10 children and no-one could believe that I could do this,” she said, adding that her brother later became a Carmelite priest.
“My family was very involved in the parish community, in the choir and organising faith activities so I had a lot of opportunity to work with Sisters from different congregations.
“I studied the Bible with the Dominican Sisters from the time that I was in Year 7. After Year 12 the Sisters asked me to explore a religious vocation and to ‘come and see’ so I did.”
Professed in 2001, Sr Hieu served as the deputy principal of a kindergarten with 400 children. Under the Communist Government, Catholic Religious orders were restricted to teaching only at the kindergarten level. Outside school hours, Sr Hieu was actively involved in working with youth groups, supporting the Dominican laity and leading parish choirs that sang at Mass each week.
After arriving in Australia Sr Hieu studied English and competed her master’s in teaching. She is currently a teacher and Vietnamese Liaison Officer at St Dominic’s Priory College.
Sr Hieu said that teaching and her religious vocation was “thoroughly rewarding”. Seeing her students “learning and blossoming” especially gave her “joy and happiness”.
Sr Tram, came to Adelaide in 1993 at the age of 17 to join her sister, who sponsored her migration. It was another 15 years before she joined the Dominicans.
“I didn’t have any idea of becoming a Religious Sister,” she said.
“I was studying chemical technology at the University of SA and then employed in the chemical industry. I joined the choir at Pooraka and one day Sr Bay (Nguyen) asked me if I wanted to become a Dominican. I said ‘no’ I’m already 40, and I’m too old to do something like that.”
Sr Bay, who had established a childcare centre at Pooraka, insisted that she “come and see” and after an interview with Sr Shirley, Tram agreed to come to prayer and dinner at the convent each Sunday. One thing led to another and after completing her studies Tram made her final vows.
Sr Tram said it was good to be able to continue what she was already doing and to be with her family while discerning to be a Dominican Sister, rather than having to go into an isolated novitiate community.
Her current ministry is volunteering for St Vincent de Paul Society. This includes attending meetings and home visitations once a week. Sr Tram also tutors senior maths students and supports one of the older Sisters in the community.
Sr Tram said it was the freedom to follow her calling that made being a Religious Sister worthwhile.
“Some friends at Vinnies could not be so fully involved because, as they said: ‘I need to look after the house, the dog, my husband and children’, so I think that as a religious Sister, I have much more freedom and time to share God’s love,”
Sr Bay’s journey to North Adelaide was different again.
She was a member of the Rosary Congregation in Vietnam and arrived in Australia in the early 2000s to be with her family who, as refugees from Vietnam, had settled in Adelaide.
The Rosary Sisters did not have a community in Australia but Bay was determined to remain a Religious Sister and after exploring was finally accepted into the Congregation of the Dominican Sisters at North Adelaide. Sr Bay said after exploring a few religious Congregations, she eventually found a home for her religious vocation with the Dominican Sisters of North Adelaide.
Sr Shirley Macklin OP
Community leader Sr Shirley Macklin said the Dominican Community at North Adelaide was an intercultural community which brought with it challenges but also “many blessings”.
“The community also reflects the wider cultural community of Australia,” she said.
