Mother-General Visits Convent In City

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31256, 31 December 1966, Page 12

Mother-General Visits Convent In City

The mother-general of the Order of Jesus and Mary (Mother Maria del Rosario) who, with her companion, Mother Fidelis, has been visiting her congregation’s convent in Christchurch, is continuously on the move. Since being elected mother general she has travelled from her Rome headquarters to Ireland, France, Pakistan, Germany, Canada, Spain, and the United States. After she leaves New Zealand she will call at Sydney, Canberra, Bombay, and Delhi on the way home to Rome, where she will preside at the first meeting of the International Union of Superiors-General. “Never befpre has such a meeting taken place,” Mother Maria del Rosario said. “It is as Pope Paul said, the first flowering of the Vatican Council as far as the religious orders are concerned.”

The meeting will discuss common problems, and a closer liaison between orders will be established.

On their way to New Zealand the mother-general and Mother Fidelis visited the order’s school in Pakistan, where none of the children taught is Christian.

At present only one primary school—at Bryndwr—is run by the order in this country. A second will be established at Wainui-o-mata, just outside Wellington, in the New Year. A feature of the Christchurch school is that most of the teachers are graduates.