This thesis responds to the current climate of inquiry and complaint around past practice in the work of religious, charitable and service based organisations. It does not attempt to deal with issues of abuse or of illegal or unlawful practice but rather proposes an alternative approach to inquiry into past practice. In focussing on the learnings for one organisation whose practice was under inquiry the study presents a response that is life giving, growth promoting and the first step to healing and reconciliation. In June 1998 the Honourable Faye Lo Po’, MP instructed that the Standing Committee on Social Issues inquire into Adoption Practices in NSW 1950 -1998 (the Inquiry). The Sisters of St Joseph, a religious Congregation in NSW chose to participate in the Inquiry. They had been entrusted with the care of single pregnant women since 1937 at St Margaret’s Hospital in Sydney and St Anthony’s Home in Croydon. Recommendation 17 of Releasing the Past, the final report of the Inquiry suggests that an apology from organisations involved in adoption services be forthcoming. This recommendation proved to be the catalyst for this study. No real apology exists without reconciliation. Reconciliation is possible only when both sides of the story are told and understood. This thesis seeks to understand not just both sides of the story but the changes and the learnings that have taken place in the provision of care to single mothers over the eventful fifty years embraced by the Inquiry. Using the metaphor of voice as discourse, dialogue and response the study examines the discourses that informed attitudes to the single mother in the fifty years leading up to the Inquiry; listens to the events of the Inquiry and identifies the research question which focuses on inquiry into past practice and the consequent understanding of organisational and individual learnings. The evolutionary nature of organisational learning provides a framework for understanding the learnings that have taken place. Using case study methodology the study situates the ministry in the changing social, religious and professional culture of the time. It examines the evidence of the mothers who told their stories to the Inquiry and sets up a dialogue between this evidence and the recollections of the Sisters involved in the ministry. While the discourses and the voices of the mothers have been explored in other publications the author was unable to access any other studies that examined issues through the eyes of those who were deemed to have been perpetrators of the actions under inquiry. It is hoped that the study may serve as the first step towards understanding the stories of both groups of women – for this is the first step towards reconciliation. It is further hoped that it provides a model of learning that enables organisations to understand and appreciate the richness of their learning history – especially when the catalyst for that understanding is complaint and inquiry.

Thesis (D. Min..)--Catholic Theological Union at Chicago, 2008. / Abstract and vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 151-157).

Thesis (M.T.S.)--Catholic Theological Union, 1986. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 69-71).

This thesis reports on and analyses the first fifty years, 1887-1937, of the Sisters of Saint Joseph’s ministry in Tasmania. The design of the study is qualitative in nature, employing ethnographic techniques with a thematic approach to the narrative. Through a multifaceted approach the main figures of the Josephite story of the first fifty years are examined. The thesis attempts to redress the imbalance of the representation of women in Australian history and the Catholic Church in particular. The thesis is that as a uniquely Australian congregation the Tasmanian Sisters of St Joseph were focused on the preservation of the original spirit and tradition articulated at their foundation rather than on the development of a unique Tasmanian identity. The thesis argues that it was the formative period that impacted on their future development and the emerging myths contributed to their search for identity. Isolated from their foundations through separation and misunderstanding, they sought security and authenticity through their conservation of the original Rule. The intervention of cofounder Father Tenison Woods in the early months of their foundation served to consolidate a distinctive loyalty to him to the exclusion of Mary MacKillop. Coupled with the influence of Woods were the Irish and intercolonial influences of significant Sisters from other foundations which militated against the emergence of a distinctive Tasmanian leadership. As a Diocesan Congregation the Tasmanian Josephites achieved status as authentic religious within Tasmania and yet were constrained by their Diocesan character. The study identifies the factors that contributed to their development as a teaching Congregation through the impact of the Teacher and Schools’ Registration Act 1906, influence of government regulations on the Woods-MacKillop style of education, and the commitment of the Church to provide Catholic education in the remote areas of Tasmania. The thesis identifies two major formative periods as occurring at the instigation of Archbishops Delany and Simonds at both the foundation and then more significantly after the consolidation phase at the end of the period under examination.

Thesis (D. Min..)--Catholic Theological Union at Chicago, 2008. / Abstract and vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 151-157).

Thesis (D. Min..)--Catholic Theological Union at Chicago, 2008. / Abstract and vita. Description based on Microfiche version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 151-157).