And so it began
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On June 3, Good Samaritan Sister BERNADETTE McDONNELL spoke in support of the Good Samaritan housing ministry at a fundraiser attended by Brisbane’s Lady Mayoress Lisa Newman. 

Sister Bernadette took the opportunity to outline some of the history of the congregation’s social outreach as an engaging lead-up to speaking about the Good Samaritan Transitional Housing Project, a work of the Good Samaritan Foundation.

This month, The Good Oil presents a slightly edited version of that history. In August, it will present details of the project.



The question may be posed, "What drives someone to start up a congregation of religious women?"

Let’s take a look at the Founder of the Good Sams, John Bede Polding, the first Archbishop of Sydney.

Polding was born in 1794 in Liverpool, in England, and used to go to the wharves and watch the convicts being herded on to boats for Botany Bay. From those days, he held a deep compassion for convicts.

Polding became a Benedictine monk at Downside Abbey, near Bath, and on more than one occasion he said that he’d like to become the Bishop of Botany Bay.

To my way of thinking, Polding’s most outstanding quality was his compassion.

On his arrival in Sydney in 1836, in addition to his compassion for convicts, Polding was appalled and deeply saddened by the treatment of destitute women and children and also by the injustice handed out to Aboriginal people.

Extracts from his writings from towards the end of the 1830s give an idea of the dire situation in Sydney at the time and of Polding’s outrage: 

…the women are too generally the helpless victims of the most hateful system of slavery the world ever beheld… Their reform is almost hopeless… a system could not possibly be devised more directly adverse to moral reformation… a life of outrage has been commenced and continued in this country under the impression that there was no hope; this impression has been the cause of much crime… (but) supplied with the means of religious consolation, administered by properly qualified pastors … very many will be reclaimed.

By the end of 1840, NSW ceased to be a penal colony and life in Sydney had generally improved.  England and Ireland were in the grip of a recession and word went around that opportunities for work were available in NSW. 

… I want you to imagine for a short while that you are a young hopeful immigrant woman who in the late 1840s or 1850s is one of hundreds of women just arrived in Sydney from England or Ireland, having left the depressed state of those countries for far away Australia.

As you set foot on Australian soil, imagine that, first of all, you will find work, a place to live, adequate food and clothing and even a husband.

Before long the reality sets in that you can’t find a job, it becomes harder and harder to find a secure place to live and you find yourself making unfortunate choices like marrying an unsuitable partner, reducing yourself to prostitution and theft for money to buy food for yourself and, perhaps, unplanned children.

You are destitute and living on the streets of Sydney

Entering into this scene in 1848 is an unlikely advocate on your behalf – a brave young prostitute who approaches Fr Farrelly, of the Haymarket parish in the inner city. This woman pours out her soul to Fr Farrelly and begs help not only for herself but also for women like her.

The parish priest hears her plea and takes your cause to Catholic Church authorities who, to give them credit, have been trying, without success, to secure a grant to help set up a refuge for women.

A woman of means, Mrs Blake, agrees to rent and personally manage a house in Campbell Street as a place of temporary shelter for women and especially prostitutes wanting to break with their way of life.

This becomes a cooperative venture: volunteer laity care for the lodgers while three Sisters of Charity who have been working in Parramatta, offer their services and do the begging for the refuge. They also supervise projects and give religious instruction.

The refuge, ‘The House of the Good Shepherd’, is soon filled to capacity with women trying to reclaim their lives and learn skills such as running of laundry and needlework. They are helped to secure a job and find suitable accommodation in a safe environment.

The sudden death of two of the three Sisters at the House of the Good Shepherd prompts Bishop Polding to activate his long held plan to set up a new congregation of sisters to help in the pastoral care of the people of Sydney, especially women and children in need.

Five dedicated women, who are well known to Polding, come forward and receive the religious habit on February 2, 1857.

Their first ministry is to work in the House of the Good Shepherd, caring for needy women and children.

With the help of the wonderful Sister Scholastica, a Sister of Charity, still working at the refuge, these Good Sams inject vital energy into the House of the Good Shepherd.

You can rest content now that your needs are met. You leave the refuge and live happily ever after.

As overcrowding at the House of the Good Shepherd increased, Polding succeeded, at last, in obtaining the use of the empty dilapidated Old Debtors Prison in Pitt Street , which became the new House of the Good Shepherd.

Such was the need for more accommodation that in early 1860 it became necessary to build new living quarters for the women and children, a laundry, school rooms and a chapel on the site of what is now Sydney’s Central Railway station.

From these humble beginnings, the Good Sams achieved amazing results under the wise and practical guidance of Polding and Mother Scholastica.

Membership in the congregation increased.

Women were rehabilitated and married or found suitable employment upon which to build a future or were released into the security of friends. Still more and more women presented themselves at the House of the Good Shepherd.

This led the Sisters to take the bold step to move the refuge out of the city to a restful spot on the Cooks River – St Magdalene’s Retreat, where a large accommodation area was set up along with a modern laundry to support the ministry there.

 

The House of the Good Shepherd, Pitt St, Sydney
(1857 – 1901) cared for 6000 women and children

St Magdalene’s Retreat, Tempe
(1887 – 1983) cared for 5000 women/girls

Buckingham Street Refuge, City 
(1903 – 1946) cared for 1650 women

And this was only the beginning.  More next month.