The Sisters of the Good Samaritan – affectionately nicknamed the Good Sams – offer a clear model for living out the Jubilee spirit.
Since 1859, the Good Sams have lived among and served the Parramatta and greater western Sydney community, challenged by the Parable of the Good Samaritan, to ‘see’ the neighbour and respond to their needs in a practical and hope-filled way.
“As Benedictines, Good Sams understand that whatever is happening – the good and the bad – is always a word of God, if we can hear,” said Catherine Slattery SGS, one of 10 Good Samaritan Sisters in the Diocese of Parramatta.
“As a community, our primary occupation, our work, our shared commitment, is to be faithful to prayer, to the practice of lectio, which opens our hearts to recognise God’s work in us individually and together.”
Living the Jubilee is about putting the heart at the centre of their lives and, according to Sr Catherine, the ancient Rule of St Benedict “has wonderful application beyond a religious community”.
“The essence of the Rule is summed up in the opening exhortation: ‘Listen!’,” she said.
“As a Benedictine my ‘work’ is the faithful commitment to lectio divina, by which I learn to hear the Word of God spoken to me in the Scriptures, in the other person, in nature, in what is happening around me, and which calls me to respond with inner equilibrium and a spirit of reconciliation,” said Sr Catherine, who has lived a life in the service of Christ as a Sister of the Good Samaritan since 1972.
Much of her ministry has been in Catholic schools, as a teacher and principal. More recently, her focus has been on governance, working with others to establish Good Samaritan Education – a group of committed lay women and men, with a deep knowledge and love of the Benedictine charism, now fully responsible for the governance of 10 Good Samaritan schools previously owned and conducted by the sisters.
“The essence of the Rule [of St Benedict] is summed up in the opening exhortation: ‘Listen!’” Sr Catherine Slattery SGS
In this Catholic Jubilee Year of Hope and renewal she and her sisters, through their commitment to being a community of prayer, as well as by their deeds, demonstrate how to be a pilgrim, not a tourist in this life.
“We are a world in great need of hope,” Sr Catherine said.
“I am ever encouraged by St Benedict’s vision of a community where everyone and everything is inherently valued and has something unique to contribute.
“When we consider the patterns of the last 40 to 50 years, of gradually declining membership across religious congregations in the western world, there can be no doubt that religious life as we currently know it is in transition.”
The Good Sams, like most congregations, “are being called to a period of deep discernment, listening to the whispers of God in our own hearts and keeping our minds and hearts open to the promptings of the Spirit, nudging us towards the new and the as-yet-unknown expressions of our charisms.”
As a community the Good Sams share the gratitude expressed by Pope Francis in his recent Lenten letter: thanks to God’s love in Jesus Christ, we are sustained in their hope that does not disappoint (cf. Rom 5:5).
Sr Catherine Slattery SGS at the Diocesan Jubilee Mass for Consecrated Life, at St Patrick’s Cathedral, Parramatta, in February 2025. Image: Alphonsus Fok/ Diocese of Parramatta
Good Sams being ‘neighbours’ to the earth
Today, there are communities of Good Samaritan Sisters in Australia, Japan, Kiribati, and the Philippines, with the focus of their hope-filled ministries reflecting the particular needs of their local communities. For example:
- In Australia: Biobanking large tracts of land at Wivenhoe, Camden, to counter past misuse of land and promote conditions for the regeneration of soil, flora and fauna; offering crisis accommodation and ongoing support to women and children fleeing family and domestic violence in Melbourne; liturgical formation and teaching English to refugees.
- Japan: Visiting the sick and lonely in Osaka.
- Kiribati: Offering preschool opportunities for children from Abaokoro and nearby villages at The Good Samaritan Early Childhood Centre; working with young people with disabilities; counselling; prison ministry; hospital visitation; lecturing in teacher education.
- The Philippines: Running cooking classes at The Good Samaritan Outreach Centre in the squatters’ area of Bacolod City and building teams of volunteers to provide hundreds of nutritious meals each week.
A long history in western Sydney
The Sisters of the Good Samaritan of the Order of St Benedict were founded in Sydney in 1857 by Archbishop John Bede Polding OSB, to work particularly with the many abandoned women who were unskilled, without support and forced onto the streets to survive.
The early sisters were formed in Benedictine spirituality by Polding and in the ways of religious life by Mother Scholastica Gibbons, an Irish Sister of Charity, and ran an industrial laundry, provided food and shelter and taught the women skills towards future employment. The sisters also ran schools in the colony.
“Parramatta features significantly in our early history,” Sr Catherine said.
“In 1859, three inexperienced and unprepared sisters were sent to assume responsibility for the Roman Catholic Orphan School which accommodated hundreds of children, many of whom were abandoned during the gold rushes. The conditions were appalling – open sewers, overcrowded buildings, rising damp, infestations – but the sisters stayed and eventually thrived in this ministry of service for 27 years.”
Today, there are about 150 Good Samaritan Sisters in the congregation, including 10 in the Diocese of Parramatta: Catherine Slattery, Julie O’Regan, Jacinta Shailer, Veronica McDougall, Elizabeth Murray, Maree Nash, Veronica Griffith, Monica Armstrong, Kawi Arebonto (visiting from Kiribati, where there are seven sisters), and Tokarerei Matiera (a novice from Kiribati who has been living in the Novitiate at Lawson).
“Our call is to pay attention and respond to that timeless question of the Parable: ‘Who is my neighbour?’” Sr Catherine said.
This article was originally published in the 2025 Lent & Easter | Autumn edition of the Catholic Outlook Magazine. You can read the digital version here or pick up a copy in your local parish.
