For over 50 years Sr Geraldine Mugavin has embraced the teachings of Catherine McAuley, building a sense of community where most needed. A willingness to be open to opportunities has seen her working in ministries from Warrnambool to Darwin, from Primary teaching to teacher education, and outside of the teaching sphere - the pastoral care of prisoners.
In mid-2020 when Geraldine retired from the Emmanuel College Board, we caught up with her to learn about some of the things she has seen and done over her time as a Sister of Mercy.
Geraldine began her teaching career in the State system, initially teaching in Panmure following her training at the Teachers College in Geelong. Geraldine then went on to work at schools in Merino and Winslow. Geraldine was on the verge of taking her next posting in Ararat and planning an overseas trip with fellow teacher and St Ann’s classmate Judy Gourley, when she decided it was time instead to act on a long held thought – joining the Sisters of Mercy.
Being four to five years older than the rest of the girls in the novitiate, who had also had the experience of working in various communities, Geraldine initially felt a bit out of place. “I was out of the arc,” she comments.
Geraldine reflects, “It was pretty rigid. You get up when you’re told, go to bed when you’re told, sit down when you’re told, and work when you’re told. It was what was usual at that time in Religious life. It’s nothing like that now though. Vatican II came along and part of that for religious life was to follow the foundress. Catherine McAuley was a social worker and her sisters were nurses and teachers and they would walk the streets of Dublin. It [the Sisters of Mercy] changed a lot then, people didn’t have to be teachers, and people got into social work, teaching, nursing – we spread our wings a bit ministry-wise.”
It was pretty rigid. You get up when you’re told, go to bed when you’re told, sit down when you’re told, and work when you’re told.
Geraldine went on to teach in schools around Ballarat, before moving further afield to schools in Robinvale, Mortlake and Edenhope. Her next posting took Geraldine far north, where as part of a small group established a new school for the growing population of Darwin. “It was a league of nations. The East Timorese, Vietnamese, some of the Malaysians, some from the Philippines, the Chinese. Just a cross section of society really.”
Geraldine quickly adapted to life in Darwin, so much so, that it wasn’t until returning to Mortlake that she experienced a real culture shock. “I came back to Mortlake and it was just so different. They were all Anglo Saxons, little freckle-faced kids.”
Following her time at the school in Mortlake, Geraldine returned to study, completing a Graduate Diploma in Religious Education at Aquinas, which led to a position in the Religious Education Centre, working alongside Fr John Fitzgerald.
After working for many years in education, Geraldine felt it was time for a change. Not really knowing what form this change would take, her retirement from the Religious Education Centre caught the attention of the Sisters working in justice, who quickly asked, “How would you like to be the prison chaplain at Ararat?”
At first, Geraldine felt very confronted by the prospect. However, following an interview with the head of Catholic prison ministry, she decided to take it on. For the next 12 years Geraline would drive from Ballarat to work with the prisoners at either the Hopkins Correctional Centre in Ararat, or the Langi Kal Kal Prison.
For the first three weeks Geraldine was accompanied by a couple of Sisters experienced in the field of prison ministry. On the first day she went on her own, a million questions swirled around her head. “I got to the gate, this great big steel gate, and the knot. I can’t tell you how big the knot in my stomach was. Will they like me? Will they talk to me? Will I be able to find my way around? Will I be safe? All of those things.”
Again, Geraldine quickly adapted to her new surrounds, finding a routine that worked. “My job was really to visit the Catholics, but that wasn’t to the exclusion of anyone. I would always follow up the new blokes. Just to see how they were, had they been in touch with family, were they settled enough, was there any worries, all that sort of stuff. Just sit down and have a yak to them really.”
“I was someone from outside. I wasn’t a Policeman, or a Judge, or a jury, or a prison officer, I was someone who just took them at face value. I didn’t have to know what they did. If they told me that was fine, but I didn’t need to know.”
Geraldine then returned to her roots, working as a pastoral care worker at St Francis Xavier Primary School in Ballarat. While here, Sister of Mercy and Emmanuel College Governor, Eileen-Ann Daffy invited Geraldine to join the Emmanuel College Board. She was initially reluctant. “Secondary Schools haven’t been my scene at all really,” she comments, feeling that her extensive experience working in Primary Schools didn’t align with what was needed. However, always being the one to step forward when an opportunity arises, Sr Geraldine took on the challenge with no regrets. “I’d say it was a learning experience for me and I would have to say about Emmanuel, I think it’s just amazing. Emmanuel struggled a few years back, when there were 600 hundred kids there, but it’s taken off!” she explains. “I used to look at the youngish women and men around the table at the Board meetings, with their expertise and their professionalism - just amazing!”
Over the course of the ten years Geraldine was on the Board, the College has grown substantially. Many major projects that we now enjoy the result of today were overseen and endorsed in her time. Geraldine highlights the development of the Emmanuel Centre, the introduction of the Instrumental Music Program and the development of Emmanuel’s performing arts centre, The STAGE as some of the most significant of these.
In 2017, Sr Geraldine celebrated 50 years as a Sister of Mercy. Now after her 2020 retirement, we thank her for her service to the Emmanuel College community, and take inspiration from her work guided by Catherine McAuley, and the idea that, “People need help today”.
