Sr Brigid Arthur CSB AO
Two Brigidine Sisters, Brigid Arthur and Angela Ryan, have been named in this year’s Queen's Birthday Honours List.
Sr Brigid was made an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) for distinguished service to social welfare, particularly asylum seekers and refugees, and to Catholic education.
Sr Angela received a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for service to the Catholic Church of Australia.
Sr Angela Ryan CSB OAM
In welcoming the news, the Brigidine Sisters said: “Over many years Brigidine Sisters have had a commitment to supporting with ‘strength and gentleness‘ some of the most vulnerable people in our communities.”
The Age newspaper reported that Sr Brigid’s motivation for her decades of work with refugees and asylum seekers came down to: “A certain stubbornness, probably, that there are a lot of things wrong and while we can do something about them, we shouldn’t give up, we should do it.”
“I think I’m motivated by the fact that no one of us, and no one organisation or government, has the right to set up structures and adopt policies that are really cruel and that often don’t recognise that the people who are being victimised by those structures and policies are quite vulnerable and need to be protected and not punished,” she said.
Among the many Catholics honoured were educator and writer Anna Krohn, Bishop Emeritus Peter Ingham, former Sydney Catholic Schools director Dan White, Brigidine Sisters Brigid Arthur and Angela Ryan, and Sandhurst priest Msgr Francis Marriott.
Read more about the Catholics in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List in The Catholic Weekly and Melbourne Catholic.