The Sisters of the Good Samaritan will be forging a new partnership early next year when educator and experienced lay missionary Brenda Keenan becomes the first person to take up a two-year placement with the Sisters in Kiribati. Brenda, who is currently serving as Director of Catholic Education in the Port Pirie Diocese, has a Read more
Posts Tagged ‘Good Samaritan Sisters’
Good Samaritan Early Childhood Centre in Kiribati host Australian delegation
Thursday, August 17th, 2017
A parliamentary delegation from Australia recently visited the Good Samaritan Early Childhood Centre in Abaokoro, North Tarawa, and met with staff, children and families. Established by the Good Samaritan Sisters in 2009, the Centre provides pre-school learning opportunities for children aged three to five years. Senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells, Minister for International Development and the Pacific, Read more
Teachers from Australia enriched by Kiribati outreach experience
Friday, September 23rd, 2016
A group of 12 teachers from the Port Pirie Diocese in South Australia have recently returned from a 12-day outreach experience in Kiribati. Known as the “Kiribati Commitment”, the programme aims to provide young teachers in the Port Pirie Diocese with an opportunity to live and work alongside the Good Samaritan Sisters in Kiribati and Read more
Good Samaritan Sisters celebrate 25 years in Kiribati
Friday, June 24th, 2016
The Sisters of the Good Samaritan marked 25 years of presence and ministry in Kiribati recently, with a Mass and traditional community celebration, a Botaki, at South Tarawa. The Mass of Thanksgiving was celebrated by Bishop Paul Mea MSC, the same bishop who originally invited the Good Samaritan Sisters to take up ministry in Kiribati Read more
A Japanese Sister’s experience of war
Tuesday, August 25th, 2015
The seventieth anniversary of the end of World War II is a good reason to tell my dreadful experience of war – and in the end – how it led me to the Good Samaritan Sisters. On December 8, 1941, Japan attacked Pearl Harbour. This brought Japan into World War II. At that time I Read more
Two Kiribati women join Good Samaritans
Friday, June 19th, 2015
Two Kiribati women, Tuata Terawete and Juniko Toaua, were professed as Sisters of the Good Samaritan of the Order of St Benedict during a ceremony earlier this month. The Rite of First Profession took place during Eucharist at St Thomas Aquinas Church in Springwood, NSW, Australia. Both women were born and raised in the Republic Read more
Signs of hope in the Church and world
Tuesday, June 24th, 2014
What are the signs of hope in the Church and the world? My initial reaction to that question was somewhat confronting. Besides the “Francis factor”, I saw very few signs of hope in the Church. This response was probably strongly influenced by the heart-rending stories of pain, suffering and broken trust that have been told Read more
Asylum seekers – “just like God visited this town”
Friday, February 21st, 2014
Over the past three-and-a-half years, the outback mining town of Leonora in Western Australia has been a temporary home for asylum seekers. Last month however, the Federal Government announced that Leonora’s detention centre – along with three other centres on Australia’s mainland – would close by the end of February. For Good Samaritan Sister, Annette Dever, a Read more
Kiribati priest changes sides on climate change debate
Tuesday, April 16th, 2013
Father Martin is the parish priest on the Island of Abaiang, which is about two hours by boat from Tarawa, in Kiribati. Of the island’s population of about 5,000, some 4,000 are Catholics. Described as, “an intense man who wears thick black glasses,” he was until recently a climate-sceptic and feared that the message of activists Read more
Water engineer Nun helps out in Kiribati
Friday, August 19th, 2011
There aren’t too many nuns who are also water engineers. Marella Rebgetz, is a water engineer nun. She has a degree in water management. She is employed by the government of Kiribati to help address that country’s critical water needs caused by the rising sea level and the increasing salination of drinking water. One of the Read more