CathNews New Zealand

This coming Sunday, 14 June Nga Whaea Atawhai o Aotearoa Sisters of Mercy New Zealand are celebrating 150 years in the Wellington and Palmerston North dioceses. It all began with two professed Sisters and a postulant who came in 1861 from Auckland following a request from Bishop Viard to Bishop Pompallier.

Over the years 510 women have given their lives to God as Mercy Sisters in this area. The Sisters have started 43 schools and staffed many others as well. They have cared for the sick in their homes and in makeshift hospitals during the 1918 Influenza Epidemic as well as in Mater Misericordiae Hospital (later Mercy Hospital) in Palmerston North. Caring for children in need has also been to the fore.

Congregation Leader, Anne Campbell rsm says the event is a chance “to wrap our memory cloak around us, and to slip into the folds of a precious legacy.  This is a time to bow our  heads in gratitude and to raise them to welcome new horizons of Mercy today.”

Celebrations take the form of a celebratory meal on Sunday, a cemeteries’ visit on Monday (weather permitting) and a Thanksgiving Eucharist in Sacred Heart Cathedral, Thorndon at 6.30pm on Tuesday to which all are invited.

Source

• Mercy Focus
• Sister Stephanie Kitching rsm
• Image: Mercy Focus

Additional reading

• The Sisters of Mercy in New Zealand and the Pacific Islands

News category: New Zealand.