Former Congregational Leader Sister Patty Fawkner SGS and esteemed educator over many decades Sister Mary McDonald SGS have been recognised for their contributions to Good Samaritan Education by being made Patrons of the ecclesial community.
By Debra Vermeer
Good Samaritan Education (GSE) was established in 2011 to be a new governance structure for the 10 Good Samaritan Colleges in five dioceses across three states. The Chair of the GSE Governing Council, Moira Najdecki, said the induction of Patrons sought to recognise those who had played significant roles in the journey.
“GSE was established in 2011, and we had some fantastic people involved when we started and, of course, along the way since,” Moira said.
“We wanted to honour some of them in this way, by making them Patrons, so that we can maintain that connection and sense of them still being involved in the life of GSE.”
Moira said Patty was presented with her silver pin signifying her role as Patron at a GSE Assembly in Sydney recently, while Mary received her pin at a special lunch in Brisbane.
“Mary played a really important role in those early days, especially in the process of all the colleges becoming incorporated bodies and she’s been a part of the Lourdes Hill College community and governance forever. She also wrote the story of GSE in her book Journey to Good Samaritan Education, so we wanted to honour that,” she said.
“Patty followed Sister Clare Condon, who is also one of our Patrons, as Congregational Leader and made a great contribution in a variety of ways over the years. Patty has always been a great supporter of GSE, and we wanted to continue that very warm relationship by naming her as Patron.”
Moira said GSE was committed to embracing the legacy it inherited from the Good Samaritan Sisters as well as to its ongoing relationship with the Sisters and the nurturing and flourishing of the Good Samaritan charism in GSE schools.
Sister Patty Fawkner SGS receives her Patron’s pin from Moira Najdecki (right). Image: Good Samaritan Education.
Patty said she was honoured to have been made a Patron of GSE.
“I’ve stood on the shoulders of those who’ve gone before me,” she said. “My predecessors, including Clare Condon, my immediate predecessor as Congregational Leader, were really the ones who did an extraordinary amount of preliminary work to establish Good Samaritan Education.
“But there were still some issues to be addressed during my time and I did meet regularly with GSE to work through these matters.
“I’ve always enjoyed my association with GSE. They’ve done great work in picking up and living out the charism of the Sisters of the Good Samaritan as well as bringing their own experience and reality and professionalism and creating a new charism for themselves, and I have admired how they have worked.”
Patty said that in Australia, canonical entities known as Public Juridic Persons (PJPs), such as Good Samaritan Education, were forging a new path in governance while valuing the legacy they have inherited.
“PJPs like Good Samaritan Education are building on the wisdom of St Benedict, the wisdom of communal discernment and they have, in my opinion, played an integral part in preparing the Church’s living out of Pope Francis’ vision of synodality,” she said.
“I have always found GSE to be a fine, committed group of people and I’m very fond of them, so it’s lovely to continue to be involved with them through this patronage.”
Moira Najdecki with Sister Mary McDonald SGS (right). Image: Good Samaritan Education.
Mary said she too was greatly honoured to have been named a Patron of GSE. “I was very moved and very appreciative,” she said.
Her association with GSE goes back long before its inception to when Sister Mary Ronayne SGS was Congregational Leader and asked Mary, who was then Director of Catholic Education in the Diocese of Townsville, to work with the Lourdes Hill College community towards transitioning the College from a work of the Sisters to an incorporated company.
As all 10 of the Good Samaritan Schools became incorporated, Mary was at various times appointed a Member of the Company at St Scholastica’s in Glebe, Lourdes Hill in Hawthorne and St Patrick’s in Campbelltown where she chaired the Board for some time.
Mary also worked on the team that later came up with the current model of governance for GSE schools as Public Juridic Persons.
“It was a new and different way forward,” she said. “We were seen to be different, giving lay people responsibility for governance without having a veto over them.
“That went back to the strong conviction of Mother Mary Ronayne who said we can’t talk about the grace of baptism if we don’t give people the freedom and responsibility to live it out.”
Mary later gathered the story of the beginnings of GSE into a widely acclaimed book, Journey to Good Samaritan Education.
She said being named a Patron of GSE was very meaningful. “It was an honour that I accepted with great gratitude,” she said.
“All the people that I have been associated with at GSE over the years have enriched my life immensely, so I am very pleased to be able to maintain that association as a Patron.”
