Distance proves no barrier to keeping faith
After 71 years, the Canossian Sisters will vacate the region after helping set up a successful community
A HIGHLY respected religious order has officially removed its permanent presence from a rural North Queensland community it has faithfully served for more than 70 years.
In a moving mass at the Canossa Chapel in Trebonne, west of Ingham, in Hinchinbrook Shire on Saturday, the Canossian Sisters formally withdrew sisters Angela and Rita, both aged 77.
“Whilst today marks a sad day in needing to leave our permanent presence in Trebonne, we intend to have a Sister going back once or twice a year to spiritually support our lay Colossians who carry on our mission,” delegate leader of the Canossian Sisters of Australia Sr Mel Dwyer said.
“Residents are in their late 60s and upwards and some are in their 90s and were taught by the sisters.”
She said the 79 sisters who had served over 71 years had “done their best to be faithful to the Canossian charism, making Jesus known and loved to the people of the local area”.
“While they are no longer physically present, the spirit and love shown by them lives on in the thousands of lives they touched during their time walking with the people of Trebonne.”
The Canossian Sisters are deeply admired by the Trebonne community they have lived in since 1951.
The sisters set up a school with the first classes held out of a makeshift shed with no roof next to a “snake-infested paddock”, a facility that became the meeting point for the large Italian migrant community. Dances were held there on Saturday nights before it became a Catholic Church on Sundays.
As well as teaching, the sisters met growing aged-care needs in 1966, opening the Canossa Home for the Aged, which was transferred to not-for-profit aged-care provider Ozcare last year.
In honour of the congregation’s foundress, St Magdalene of Canossa, the facility is now known as Magdalene Villa.
Hinchinbrook Mayor Ramon Jayo, whose Basque parents arrived as immigrants in Trebonne, was a born-and-bred “Canossa Kid”.
He thanked the order for teaching him English and helping him assimilate into Australia.
“They came here to assist with religious observance, mainly for the benefit of the Italians in our community whom were finding the institutions of the day as totally foreign and difficult to accept.”
He said life was “different back then”.
“Having recently arrived, money would have been an issue and hardships caused through weather, lack of adequate transport and indeed tyranny of distance over inadequate roads would have caused much isolation and prevented many a local migrant from socialising,” Mr Jayo said.
He said the Canossian Sisters helped migrants break through many of those barriers.
“As mayor, I must thank and congratulate the Canossian Sisters for all that they have done in furtherance of education, Catholic education, aged care and community resilience in our district.”
He said the order functioned “better than any government department I have ever seen”.
“They not only taught and nurtured the foreigners, so to speak, but with their love, interaction and allembracing beliefs, were instrumental in developing communities and associations within communities in this district that still have strong ties and survive to this day.”
The Canossian Sisters leave behind a small but dedicated group of laypeople, the Lay Canossians, who are committed to the spirit of Magdalene of Canossa.
Ozcare chief executive Tony Godfrey said it would continue the sisters’ legacy and philosophy of care to bring “comfort, health and hope to the sick, aged and dispossessed”.