Sectarianism in Australia may be a thing of the past but rifts over religion today show the need to work for peace is ever-present, says author Jeff Kildea. Source: The Catholic Weekly.
The Sydney historian and writer of a new book, Sister Liguori: The Nun Who Divided a Nation, said we are living in times that in some way echo those that saw the disappearance of an Irish Catholic sister spark a crisis that almost brought the country to a standstill.
His book, published by Connor Court, explores the events around Bridget Partridge, whose sudden disappearance from her Wagga convent in 1920 sparked a conflict between Catholic and Protestant leaders that even led to threats of violence in parliament.
The Presentation Sister was “desperately unhappy” with religious life and mistakenly believed her mother superior tried to poison her when she fled her Mount Erin convent in the middle of a winter’s night. She sought refuge with a family belonging to the local Orange Lodge, a Protestant organisation, when sectarian hostilities were already running high.
The bishop declared her a lunatic and had her arrested, and she later sued him for damages in the Supreme Court in a case that provoked anger on both sides of the Protestant and Catholic divide, making headlines worldwide for more than a year.
There were demands for an inquiry into the country’s Catholic convents and a censure motion by the State opposition in relation to the sensational case.
Kildea is a retired barrister, honorary professor in Irish Studies at the University of New South Wales and a parishioner at Our Lady of the Rosary in Kensington.
Sr Liguori is the culmination of 25 years of research. Kildea became determined to set the record straight on Partridge and write the first full-length study of the affair, after a Sydney Morning Herald article last year claimed she had fled the convent because she was pregnant to a priest.
The story involving tensions over religion and ethnicity is “relevant today when the war in Gaza and issues of ethno-religious identity are having an effect on political and social harmony,” Kildea said.
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Sydney historian sets record straight on mystery of Sr Liguori (By Marilyn Rodrigues, The Catholic Weekly)
