Sisters Change To Meet Times

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31657, 18 April 1968, Page 2

Sisters Change To Meet Times

Help for people by counselling in the fields of school, marriage and family is one of the changed ways in which the Sisters of the Good Shepherd are meeting the needs of the times.

The sisters, well known in Christchurch for many years at the former institution for girls, Mount Magdala, Halswell, next week will celebrate the centenary of the death of their founder.

In education in Ceylon (the college of which she was head wu. attended by the former Prime Minister, Mrs Sirimavo Bandaranaike, later by her two daughters) has qualifications in psychology and counselling. Sister Judith completed courses at Auckland University. Every sister must be qualified in some area. A person could not teach well unless he had a good knowledge of the human person, and qualification was necessary so that help was not given in a haphazard way The centenary of the order’! founder, a Frenchwoman, Rose Pelletier, wno established houses of refuge for girls in France, and an order whose work spread throughout the world, will be marked by a concelebrated Mass In the Church of St Matthew, Bryndwr, on Tuesday, April 23. The Catholic Bishop of Christchurch, the Moat Rev. B. P. Ashby, will preside.

For more than 80 years, members of the Roman Catholic order of sisters have worked in Canterbury, helping emotionally disturbed girls. The first nuns to arrive in Christchurch came from Melbourne, and established the m - selves at Mount Magdala. Times were hard then and a commercial laundry was established to give some financial security and also to provide active employment for the girls. Today such an institution is unsuited to needs—more creative work is needed tor disturbed youngsters and the demands of the laundry tend to create tensions.

with problems. Help was also given schools in techniques of counselling so that there was a greater awareness of the needs of the whole person. Mother Canice said the sisters’ work could be summed up by saying that they tried to stem human wastage, and prepare those who needed help to be good citizens. “Our work for them is really our love for them; we recognise them as our own,” she added. She said she also visited the prisons and endeavoured to get in touch with families and friends to make rehabilitation easier. The sisters’ work requires each to be qualified. Mother Canice, with her experience

The sisters have disposed of their property and have moved to the city. Ther headquarters are in Papanui, where they have moved into a large house in Hawthorne Street. There are seven sisters tn the community—one Irish, three Australian, one American and two New Zealanders. Two, the superior. Mother Canice, and Sister Judith, are working with Catholic Social Services in Christchurch. Some of the aims of the Order were explained by Mother Canice, who for many years was a missionary and head of a college in Colombo, Ceylon. All planning was related to the effectiveness of the help to be given those who needed it, she said. The order hoped to work towards the cottage system, where girls could be accommodated in smaller hostels, with someone representing the mother in a, “home situation." “We also hope to do more preventive work,” she said. “It is not so easy to help when someone has made a false step, but it is better to prevent the step if possible."

Studies were also made of family difficulties. In cases where a family was failing, it was not just a case of the person who faced the greatest problem being involved. There was also the question of the awareness of each member of the family to the problem person. “There should be Christian growth in the family, and we try to help families with an awareness of their responsibilities towards others in the family,” Mother Canice said. Referring to problems in marriage, she said some people married with little realisation of each other’s character, and later tried to reform one another. In some cases to avoid family break-up the mother could be helped by spending a period in a hostel with the sisters, where she could be givan qualified help. The husband could also be given help by counselling. Most of the work of the sisters was concerned with adolescents, and this involved visiting schools and working with them to counsel girls