Sr M Elizabeth Roberts, Sr Liz, left Morwell on 24 January after twenty-five years of ministry among the Italian parishioners of the Sale Diocese.  Sr Liz will drive back to Brisbane, stopping to visit her family along the way . Sr Liz is hoping to continue her ministry among the Italian families in northern Brisbane.  We know it would have been a very sad parting for Sr Liz who has journeyed with so nmany of the families in the Diocese across a variety of happy and sad events. We wish her safe travels.

Sr Liz first ministered to the Italian community in Silkwood in the late 1960s where she taught at St John’s Primary School. After leaving Silkwood Sr Liz served in the isolated Indigenous community in Dajarra where she developed close relationships with the families in the parish.  Her time there was followed by overseas postings in Italy and Egypt. Sr Liz has proved to be very good at languages with excellent fluency in Italian and Arabic .

The Missionary Franciscan Sisters went to the Sale Diocese in the early 1990s. Sr M Jeanna La Spina and Sr Cecilia Norris also ministered there for some years.  In our nearly thirty years in the Diocese of Sale the Sisters enjoyed the generous support of Bishops Coffey, Prowse, O’Regan, and the newly consecrated Bishop Gregory Bennet.

Unfortunately with the restrictions of the Covid era there was not able to be an appropraite celebration and farewell of Sr Liz, nor acknowledgement of the leavig of the  MFIC Sisters as a group.