Inspired by Sisters of Mercy founder Catherine McAuley, who was called to minister to those in need, Sr Kate Conley OAM has spent much of her life working with women living on the edge of society reports The Southern Cross.

Ask any of her fellow Mercy Sisters and they will tell you that Kate has many wonderful qualities. She’s a great storyteller, has a good sense of humour, a fun-loving personality, is a mover and shaker, a woman of deep faith and someone who has never been afraid to reach out to those in need. And above all, she is a friend.

*Sr Kate Conley RSM, who was recently awarded an OAM in the Queen’s Birthday honours list. PHOTO: THe Southern Cross.*

Her willingness to extend the hand of unconditional friendship to women prisoners was just one of the many reasons Sr Kate was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in the Queen’s Birthday honours last month.

For the 85-year-old South Australian, who is currently ‘restoring’ her health with a stay at the new Carmelite home at Myrtle Bank in Adelaide, receiving the honour has been a humbling experience.

“I must admit I got a great surprise when I found out I had been nominated,” she said, adding that the OAM was really recognition for the work of all Sisters of Mercy.

“What has made my work worthwhile is that I did it from the heart and from my Mercy life, with the backing of the Sisters.

“I am very proud of the Sisters I have lived and worked with, their friendship, their faith and often their own courage in tackling new places and new things that need to be done.”

Kate’s journey began in Snowtown, where she was one of a loving family. She attended the local area school and in the second year of high school she was sent to board at St Aloysius College, where the influence of the Mercy Sisters began to resonate with her.

While a calling to religious life was on her radar, Kate fulfilled her mother’s wish and completed a teaching degree before making a decision to join the Order.

Dressed in the “long black habit and lacy curly bonnet” of postulants at the time, she began her teaching career at St Aloysius and six years later was professed a Sister.

Teaching appointments followed at Parkside, then Albert Park, where she served as principal. Kate then headed Mercy schools in Millicent, Mt Gambier and Elizabeth, before being granted a sabbatical.

It was this time spent in the Philippines that became a formative point in her life.

“I went to the Philippines because I heard from a Jesuit priest that there was a group of Sisters from different orders who joined together for two years to work among the really poor… and I mean the poor were really poor,” she says.

“I slept on floors and they showed me how to work in the sugar cane fields and then in the fishing villages, where we slept on little mattresses and were up early to visit the different families, often praying with the people.

“I remember going in the morning to someone’s hut and they had a little lantern and I still remember reading the gospel, ‘you are the light of the world’.

“I learnt a lot and the experience changed me. I thought if there was any way I can work with people who are needy in the community, I will.”

After returning to Adelaide, Kate was preparing for another principal’s appointment when she received a visit from a Josephite Sister asking her to consider taking over her role as the Catholic chaplain at the Adelaide Women’s Prison.

Kate had found her niche, and for 15 years she supported and walked alongside women considered outcasts.

“I never asked them what they had done, I just came in as a friend and they knew I would listen to them and sometimes we would have a little prayer service.

“I am proud of the friendships I was able to develop with people living on the edge. I always think of them as human first and that’s very important to me in my work because it means you can come into their lives as they wish. I also valued connections with staff and other chaplains there.”

Together with a social worker at the prison Kate helped establish Taryn House, a halfway house for women being released.

In addition to her Queen’s honour, perhaps one of the greatest acknowledgements of Kate’s willingness to meet people ‘where they are at’ is that some of the women she once supported in prison still write to her. It was an ex-prisoner who initially nominated her for an OAM.

“I am still in touch with quite a few of the women,” she said. “I guess I am a good listener… and they saw me as their friend.”

This is an abridged version of a feature story by Lindy McNamara, published in The Southern Cross. Read the full story here.