Mother Benedict Seymour.
On 8 April, we commemorate the 90th anniversary of when Papal Approbation was granted for the Sisters of St Joseph of Goulburn.
A proclamation from the Vatican in July 1917 profoundly impacted the lives of the Sisters of St Joseph of the Goulburn Congregation. On 28 July that year, Pope Benedict XV proclaimed the establishment in New South Wales of the new Diocese of Wagga Wagga, separating it from the Diocese of Goulburn.
The new diocese effectively began to function on 14 March 1918 with the appointment of its first bishop, Father Joseph Wilfred Dwyer, Australian-born and at the time, the parish priest of Temora. The new bishop did not have to start with virtually nothing as William Lanigan had done in Goulburn over fifty years earlier. Fifteen parishes were already established while the area was part of the Goulburn Diocese. Churches, schools, convents and presbyteries had been built, and, at the time of its inception, twenty-two priests transferred from the Goulburn Diocese to serve in the new diocese where the Sisters of St Joseph had convents and schools in Tumbarumba, Narrandera, Holbrook, Coolamon and Leeton.
With the establishment of the new diocese, the Goulburn Congregation, a diocesan institute, was in a somewhat anomalous situation. Their Diocesan Rule, in paragraph 5 of Chapter VIII—The Foundation of Convents—stated:
If a foundation is made in another Diocese, such Foundation shall be entirely independent of the diocese it has left, and under the authority of the Bishop of the diocese in which the foundation is made.
At the time, the Sisters living in the five Josephite convents situated in the new diocese, with the agreement of Bishops John Barry of Goulburn and Joseph Dwyer of Wagga Wagga, remained part of the Sisters of St Joseph of Goulburn and under the authority of the Bishop of Goulburn. Neither the Bishops nor the Sisters, given the diocesan status of the Institute, saw this as an ideal or a permanent arrangement. There was always the possibility that at some future time bishops might see the situation differently and separation into two diocesan institutes could occur.
The unity of the Institute grew to be a cause of great anxiety to the Sister Guardian at the time, Mother Benedict Seymour. The Sisters described their conundrum thus:
Realising… a separation of their houses would possibly come, and being desirous of consolidation rather than of division, the Sisters with the approval of their Bishops, decided to make an effort that all branch houses in both dioceses, and any foundation made in any diocese whatsoever, should remain under the government of the Mother House at North Goulburn, and dependent on the novitiate attached for renewal and training of their subjects. With agreement among the Sisters and at the request of their Lordships, the Superiors sought the advice of His Eminence Cardinal Cerretti in the matter.
The Role of Cardinal Bonaventure Cerretti
Archbishop Cerretti had been appointed Apostolic Delegate for Australia, Oceania and New Zealand by Pope Benedict XV in April 1914. He is known, in his travels around the various dioceses of New South Wales, to have taken an interest in the diocesan institutes of the Sisters of St Joseph and, according to the mind of Rome, encouraged consideration of some form of amalgamation among them.
His last act as Apostolic Delegate a few days before his recall to Rome in May 1917 was to recommend to the Holy See the creation of the Diocese of Wagga Wagga. He would have dealt with all the issues surrounding the establishment of the new diocese and would have known well the situation regarding the Josephite convents in Tumbarumba, Narrandera, Holbrook Coolamon and Leeton.
In October 1928 when he was in Australia as the Pope’s representative at the International Eucharistic Congress, he visited the Sacred Heart Convent North Goulburn for a meeting of critical importance with Mother Benedict and her Council as they prepared to petition the Holy See for approbation.
The necessary documents were prepared and sent to Rome in April 1932. Cardinal Cerretti undertook to represent the affairs of the Institute in Rome while the application was being considered. This was the state of affairs when on 8 May 1933, Cardinal Cerretti died.
The cause of the Goulburn application was taken up by the Cardinal’s friend Monsignor Augusto Fidericchi who had the Constitutions revised in accordance with the 1917 Code of Canon Law.
The leaders of the other diocesan Institutes were interested to learn of the events taking place within the Goulburn Congregation. On 3 August 1934, Mother Benedict wrote to Mother Xavier of Whanganui regarding the progress of the application and giving her the reasons the Goulburn Sisters had sought such approval.
We are going along quietly and hoping from time to time for news from Rome in regard to our Constitutions and our security against further division. Had Cardinal Cerretti lived (R.I.P.!) we certainly would have information ere this, but even though his friend Monsignor Fidericchi carried on for us, the powerful interested influence of the Cardinal is missing. We are praying and trusting. Rome moves slowly. Monsignor had our Constitutions translated into Latin and printed and presented to the S. Congregation for Religious. He wrote me that they were being examined, but warned me that it is a long, slow procedure. Be assured Mother, the day we get a decision or any word from Rome, I will let you know. I thought our move (which really we were forced to make on account of the Goulburn diocese having been divided) may help any other of the ‘Diocesans’ that may care to strike out. Both our Bishops—Goulburn and Wagga—gave their letters of recommendation, and these were sent to Rome. Without letters from the bishops of the dioceses nothing can be done… Our request is that our Houses in Goulburn and Wagga will not be divided but remain all subject to Goulburn and be supplied from Goulburn novitiate. The idea of any more ‘Diocesans’ seems out of the question. In fact, to centralise is the thing. However, we can be certain that Rome will centralise, or favour it, rather than divide.
On 8 April 1935, His Holiness Pope Pius XI approved the request of the Sisters of St Joseph of Goulburn for papal approbation and confirmed, for a period of seven years, the Constitutions of the Institute. A letter from Monsignor Fidericchi, dated 27 May 1935 informed the sisters that ‘not only have the Constitutions been approved, but also your Institute, so that it is now a Papal one’.
Mother Benedict let the Sister Guardians of the other Diocesan Institutes know that papal approbation had been approved. Mother Xavier of Whanganui wrote with congratulations and Mother Benedict replied:
Many thanks for your dear welcome letter. I read and felt your delight over one ‘Diocesan’ band having the Approval of Rome. Thanks God! [sic] Surely each now will try and get same as we have. Yes, for seven years at first. That is the procedure. Cardinal Cerretti (R.I.P.!) told me that. Then application is made for Final. The seven years really try out Constitutions, and if change is desired, can be asked for. I do hope other moves may be made now.
So now all the Diocesans quite know what we did, and what our effort gained. D.G.! And they know that we made the move, not to strike out for ourselves, but on account of our situation, with Houses in the Wagga Diocese it was imperative that we try and secure those Houses and prevent further division. Of course, having the dear Cardinal’s help and interest was invaluable in the matter. He did so wish all the ‘Blacks’ to unite.
After seven years, on 6 April 1942, application was made by Mother Benedict and her Council for definitive approbation of the Constitutions. This was forwarded by the Apostolic Delegation to the Sacred Congregation of Religious on 16 June 1942, after which nothing further was heard.
Sisters of the time recollected:
There seems to have been some misunderstanding amongst the Sisters about Approbation. Those who had done the early work in the matter were all dead; some senior Sisters declared that the Final Approval had been given and the Sisters rested secure in this belief for some years. However, a later intensive search by the Mother M Vianney, and her Councillors revealed that there was no document either at the Delegation, or in the Archives of the Institute or those of the Archdiocese to prove that it had ever been finally given.
Upon enquiry in October 1953, information supplied by the Apostolic Delegation stated that ‘there is no record of a reply having been received from the Holy See, but at that time communications were in a hazardous condition because of the war’. The Sisters, as directed by the Apostolic Delegate in June 1942 when he informed them that their application for final approbation had been forwarded to Rome, continued ‘to follow the Constitutions as approved on 8 April 1935 until further approval from the Holy See is communicated’.
When clarification was sought from Rome regarding how the situation could be rectified, the Sisters learnt that they would have to resubmit their application for final approbation. In 1961, another application for definitive approbation was made. The Ordinaries of the four dioceses in which the sisters were then situated – Archbishops Eris O’Brien of Canberra and Goulburn and Norman Gilroy of Sydney, and Bishops Francis Henschke of Wagga Wagga, and Thomas McCabe of Wollongong—were prompt in supplying letters of generous recommendation. All the necessary documents were compiled and sent to the Holy See.
On 25 September 1963, the Constitutions were given definitive approbation, and approved by the recently elected Pope Paul VI, twenty-eight years after approbation was first granted on 8 April 1935 – ninety years ago.
Laraine Crowe rsj