News Archive 2007

The following was written by Sr Catherine for Tui Motu.

Earlier this year we celebrated the Centenary of Our Lady’s Home of Compassion in Island Bay, Wellington. While it was heart warming to see the numbers of our friends who came to rejoice with us what gave special joy was the number of men and women who had grown up at the Home and now returned from many places around the country and further afield. Consequently the opening evening held at Government House for the Sisters and the former ‘children ‘ was for many of us the highlight of the weekend- meeting again the people with whom one shared the crucial years of childhood, some of whom have remained as lifelong friends. It was an evening of warmth and laughter, stories from the past and poignant memories. One lady who came was the nearly ninety-year old Dr. Elsie Gibbons who had been the paediatrician at the Home for over thirty years.

It was fitting that the return of the former children to claim the Centenary of their ‘Home ‘ was specially significant, for children were the reason Suzanne Aubert came to Wellington. She had made the journey from Jerusalem on the Wanganui River mainly that the children she and the Sisters were caring for could receive professional medical attention. An increasing number of people were sending her children they were unable to care for themselves and who were frequently malnourished and suffering from childhood ailments. Hence Suzanne Aubert’s dream to build a hospital for children in Wellington which she achieved on the hills of Island Bay in 1907.

Children were also a major reason for taking Suzanne to Rome in 1913 at a time when Church authorities were increasingly wary of Religious Congregations caring for ‘foundlings’ for fear of possible scandal damaging the Church’s reputation - that the public might think that these were the hidden children of priests or nuns. However it is hard for us today to imagine the plight of a young woman with a child outside marriage; if she was unable to work she had no other means of support and few foster homes or institutions were prepared to care for infants.
And so Suzanne was so passionate in her defence of their need she was prepared to journey halfway across the world to Rome by ship at the age of 78. This was to petition the Pope for the Decree of Praise which would give her Papal Approbation for the emerging Congregation and the freedom to continue her Mission.

Suzanne Aubert would have had no trouble with the contentious repeal of Section 59 of the Crimes Act for her strict instructions to us, well ahead of her time, were; “The Sisters shall love the children. They are expressly forbidden to hit them or they will think that the aunties have a very bad temper.” [They called Suzanne ‘grandma’ and the Sisters ‘aunty.’]
Although this didn’t stop her careering after one lad with a slipper when he pulled out a row of precious seedlings of trees she had just planted. And some of us may have fallen similarly on occasion. But the general culture was that any discipline was to be loving. One woman remembered how Suzanne put this into practice. “On being told that I had been naughty, she gently took my best pinny off me and put it on me inside out and I was heartbroken. I have always remembered her gentle ways for she would not allow us to receive corporal punishment,”

Residential care for children ceased in the 1980’s with the facilities being adjusted for a first class Childcare Centre for 45 to 50 children led by a board of dedicated parents. They are alert to Mission and allocate subsidised places for families with special needs - a disabled child, relief for a parent with a difficult pregnancy and are looking to support a childcare centre in a Pacific village.

When the hospital closed in 2002 because of changes in the health sector the Home of Compassion at Island Bay became a’ haven of support’ where we encourage initiatives of parents helping parents. Today we support the Parents’ Centre which helps parents through a number of volunteer run programmes to ensure that birthing and parenting are recognised and valued. We provide space for them to operate as well as for the Mothers Network; where more experienced mothers help new ones and mothers of pre-schoolers.

There is accommodation for small groups or individuals in need of a quiet, stress free break or retreat and a number of health clinics including an ADD/ADHD Assessment and Family Support Centre for families of children with Attention Deficit Disorder where we subsidise the services of the specialist physician.

While the Sisters continue to run several Homes providing rest home and hospital care for the frail and sick elderly and help with pastoral and social needs including prison and hospital chaplaincy the trend now is working more and more in conjunction with other agencies with similar aims and values. For example our purchase of Compassion House provides a central Wellington location with a reasonable rental for several groups, such as Downtown Community Ministry & the Wellington People Centre who work with the homeless, street people and families in great need. We provide podiatry care for a health centre servicing refugees, immigrants, the chronically ill and people requiring mental health care; while with the purchase of pensioner housing in the Hutt Valley we can guarantee affordable rents and enable nursing and pastoral services for the elderly residents who desire it.

Nowhere is this trend towards working together more evident than at the Suzanne Aubert Compassion Centre, commonly known as the Soup Kitchen, in inner Wellington, where the core mission of breakfast and dinner continues six days a week as it has since 1901 with the help of 150 volunteers; a large number of donating partners such as St. Vincent de Paul, the Masons, City New World; the innumerable numbers of donors of smaller amounts of food and the Families, mostly Sri Lankan, who give an entire meal in memory of a deceased loved one. This we believe is a cultural practice.

Prominent among today’s poor are refugees and we work closely with the Refugee agencies in the establishment and follow-up care with new refugee families. During one week I heard both the statement “There’s no poverty in New Zealand” and learnt from Plunket of a young immigrant woman who was so hungry she had ceased being able to feed her baby. While Caritas investigated the human rights of the situation we attended to the immediate food factor

Recently a young couple known to us called in with their four day old baby [our youngest guest ever] wearing the one set of baby clothes they owned. The couple had been homeless but an official from Housing NZ was brilliant in finding a flat and several groups rallied together to settle the family. The Life Thrust Trust which supports new life [an initiative of the inimitable Marilyn Pryor] helped with some finance. Disposable nappies were on special so I bought many packets and with these topping my trolley I ran into a friend as I emerged from the supermarket. “What does this look like?” I enquired. “A proud grandmother “was his reply. They have proved to be a useful excuse for calling in regularly.

Similar groups [both statutory and non-government] pulled together in helping a young African woman with a newly born infant and requiring asylum in NZ while she was with us in community. With no immigrant status she didn’t qualify for the usual social housing. Possibly the most practical help she received was from a local mother of six in our local parish.

There is poverty in New Zealand. And it generally involves families with children. Sometimes the causes are complicated and not easily addressed but we’ve learnt the value of working collaboratively along with sensitivity and the deep respect of human dignity.

Meanwhile the cause for canonisation for Suzanne Aubert moves slowly while incredibly detailed documentation continues to be assembled here in our Archives with the approval of the Postulator and other authorities in Rome. Hopefully one day the Church will formally recognize her holiness. We know she is a Saint.