This month’s glimpse into the ISMAPNG archives is one of reflection in a time of global pandemic as we consider the early roles and achievements of the Sisters of Mercy Townsville in health care in North Queensland.   A community in which this universal charity reigns is capable of surmounting all difficulties. Catherine McAuley  

  Business as usual is no longer. After lockdown Mercy Connect is opening again.   This year, Mercy Connect Perth began the year like any other. Supporting 22 schools located mostly in Perth’s north-eastern and south-eastern suburbs. 62 volunteers were gearing up again to walk back through school gates to mentor refugee and asylum seeker

  On the 23rd of March, as the COVID-19 restrictions started across Australia, Seville Mercy Conference Centre in Cairns closed its doors to wait out the pandemic.  After 126 days, they are now open again as a COVID-safe business and are back offering the famous ‘extravagant hospitality’ and manager Rod Cole-Clarke couldn’t be happier.  

  Mercy Connect has been successful in receiving financial support from Rotary Club of Albury Foundation Grant for the Mercy Meals Program.   Mercy Connect encountered concerns around the knowledge of healthy meals, the cost of those meals and social isolation for people with disability within the local community. Due to these concerns, Mercy Connect

  The news that Teddy Sheean has been posthumously awarded Australia’s top military honour has been celebrated at his former school, St Patrick’s Latrobe, where has was taught by the Sisters of Mercy in the 1930s.   Students, staff and local Sisters have celebrated last month’s announcement  that the Queen had approved a recommendation that

  On August 2nd, a crisp, sunny day in Adelaide, we gathered in the Cunningham Memorial Chapel to remember two of our Argentinian Founding Mothers, close to the anniversaries of their deaths.   This was planned as part of our 140th Anniversary Celebrations in 2020. One of the Sisters we remembered was Mother Cecilia Cunningham,

  The blessing and opening of a new community centre at Bethany Mercy Health and Aged Care in Rockhampton has been held. The new centre has been named in honour of the late Patricia Hayes RSM.   Just five short years ago in 2015, Mercy Aged Care Services celebrated 75 years of providing Aged Care

  Mercy Place East Melbourne’s lifestyle team has not let visitor restrictions get in the way of residents having a good time at the aged care home.   Residents, their loved ones and their Sisters of Mercy friends from Mercy Place Apartments Parkville worked around the restrictions, joining together virtually for a group sing-along last

  Stephen Cornelissen, Group Chief Executive Officer of Mercy Health has reflected on the heartbreaking battle against COVID-19. A few people singing under their breath, a couple who are wildly and happily out of key and one or two trilling perfectly in tune: these are the glorious melodies of an ageing community choir lost in

  Staff of Mercy Health have expressed their appreciation at the ‘snazzy’ face masks made for them by Sisters of Mercy. Staff are also grateful to the Tzu Chi Foundation who have contributed to the mask effort.     For Victorians, 2020 has been a year like no other with the coronavirus pandemic causing the tragic

  Kate Mannes RSM works as a Pastoral Care practitioner at the VMCH Residential Care facility in Bundoora, Victoria. Kate is one of the many heroes working in aged care, during what is an extraordinarily difficult time.    While COVID has obviously impacted on the Bundoora residential aged care facility, Kate says that thankfully there

  Sr Elizabeth Young, who is currently working in the Wilcannia-Forbes Diocese, first met Alex (not his real name) through her pastoral work at Curtin Detention Centre in 2012.   Of Singhalese ethnicity and Catholic religion, he fled his country in fear for his life in the midst of bloodshed during the height of the