Dr Peter Steane, Chair of Trustees at Catholic Healthcare spoke at our 25th Anniversary celebration a few years ago, paying tribute to our proud heritage and history, and honouring those who have shaped us as an organisation. We revisit our origins with this tribute article below.
Our mission to promote life in all its fullness
It's not a coincidence or a happy stroke of luck that today our CEO is a woman and that half the members of our Leadership Team are women, or that women are valued across our workforce
In fact, it’s only because of the hard work and compassion of women, that Catholic Healthcare came into being at all, and it’s a role that is often not sufficiently recognised.
The story has its origins at the very beginning of nursing.
In the 1850s four Sisters of Mercy, founded by Catherine McAuley, travelled from Dublin to help Florence Nightingale treat the wounded in the Crimean War. It was an event that marked the beginning of caring as a recognised occupation, as well as the leading role of women in providing health and healing in the burgeoning professional healthcare system.
Similarly, it was the Sisters of Charity that first brought pastoral care to the new colony in Sydney. In 1839, Mary Aikenhead founded the Sisters of Charity. They were innovators in every sense, helping female convicts in Parramatta, visiting hospitals and orphanages and setting up a school.
In modern times the Sisters established ministries for the marginalised and vulnerable in inner Sydney; helping those living with HIV, mental illness, drug addiction and poverty.
Perhaps most famously, they also supported the establishment of Australia’s first medically supervised injecting room in Kings Cross in 2001. It was highly controversial but, also very much needed, to meet the health needs of the community and save lives.
Above: Bodington Hospital sign
In 1994, Catholic Healthcare was founded to respond to the changing needs in aged and community services. Our founding congregations witnessed and served at the veritable front line, always open to new ways, new methods and innovative responses to real pastoral needs.
And five of those founding congregations were religious women.
It is in pastoral innovation that is both pragmatic and gospel-based, that still influences us in Catholic Healthcare today. It has become part of our story and part of who we are.
Like a parent instilling values into the next generation, we have been stamped with a corporate DNA that defines who we are and what we do. What it gives to us is the ability to face the future with clear confidence and purpose.
It was the consistent actions of our founders that bestow the clear unequivocal theme captured in our mission to promote life in all its fullness. These are the words of Jesus spoken in the Gospel of John (10:10) and remains our ‘true north’ in our metaphorical compass for our future.
It is a wonderful foundation to be reminded of, and it explains so much about why Catholic Healthcare still extols the values of compassion, respect, honesty, hospitality and excellence.
The men and women – but mainly women – who gifted us with the continuation of their ministries, were clearly focused on the gospel. But their mission is now our mission. The Catholic Healthcare story exhibits the values framed by our foundation and the gospel.
For more information call us on 1800 225 474 or visit