More than three years after Sr Patricia Fox was forced to leave the Philippines and return to her hometown of Melbourne, Australia, the Our Lady of Sion sister admits she is still adjusting to her new life, reports Global Sisters Report.
She'd been ministering for 28 years among poor agricultural workers across the Philippines, advocating for their rights to land, livelihood, peace, justice and security.
Our Lady of Sion Sr Patricia Fox outside her home in Kew, Melbourne PHOTO: Global Sisters Report/Fiona Basile.
Sr Patricia was arrested at her convent in Quezon City, northeast Manila on April 16, 2018, and held overnight by Bureau of Immigration officials. The administration of President Rodrigo Duterte accused her of taking part in illegal political activities — attending protest rallies and visiting prisoners — and of speaking out against the government.
Following her release, Sr Patricia and her legal team for six months fought the cancellation of her visa and deportation. The legal battle ended abruptly on October 31 at 4pm, when immigration officials told her that she had been ordered to leave the country by November 3 or be deported. The bureau "played dirty," she said, by waiting until the last minute — just before two public holidays — to issue the order. She left under protest. "I had no choice but to leave."
Today, sitting in the comfort of the congregation's home base in Kew, a suburb of Melbourne, Sr Patricia explained that she is still "not settled in Australia”.
“It all happened so quickly, and I wasn't prepared in those last days," said Sr Patricia, now 75. "We'd been fighting the deportation cases for months and months — much longer than we thought possible — and I'd been led to believe that I could stay in the Philippines at least until December when the appeal was being considered."
Consequently, she said, she "flew straight back to Melbourne in shock". She'd spent so many years immersed in the lives and struggles of the urban and rural poor, and had come to deeply love the people she served.
Upon her return, Sr Patricia was welcomed by the congregation's Australian regional director, Sr Mary Barbuto and three other sisters, whom she now lives with.
Sr Patricia Fox joins members of the Philippines Caucus for Peace outside the Anglican St. Paul's Cathedral in Melbourne, marking International Human Rights Day on Dec. 10, 2021. PHOTO: Global Sisters Report/Courtesy of Patricia Fox.
"Naturally, we welcomed Patty back — she's part of us and we've always been a small, close congregation here in Australia. It was a matter of giving Patty time to readjust to life back in Australia and supporting her in that transition,” Sr Mary said.
Having experienced moving out of a ministry she had loved, Sr Mary said she could understand a lot of what Sr Patricia was going through.
To ease the change, Sr Patricia accepted many invitations to speak about her work and experience in the Philippines to local community and Filipino solidarity groups. She also travelled to cities in other states — Sydney, Perth, and Brisbane — giving talks. The experience "was very therapeutic," she said. "All the talking and talking and talking helped."
Now, Sr Patricia remains active in focusing on solidarity work online with those in the Philippines and with like-minded groups in Australia.
She has joined Australian Catholic Religious Against Trafficking in Humans (ACRATH), working for the rights and protection of overseas agricultural workers, a subset of ACRATH's work to eliminate human trafficking across Australia and the Asia-Pacific region. And she is secretary of Pax Christi Victoria, which is part of Pax Christi Australia and International, advocating for peace across the world.
Sr Patricia celebrated the 50-year anniversary of her profession in January. Several friends from the Philippines gathered on Zoom to celebrate the special occasion and there was a small gathering among the sisters for prayer and afternoon tea. On April 2, there was an ecumenical celebration at the Dandenong Regional Uniting Church, in the southeast of Melbourne, in recognition of her golden jubilee and 75th birthday.
She is hopeful that the national elections in the Philippines will see a change in government that will allow her name to be struck off the blacklist so that she can return, or at least visit, sooner than later. If not, in two years she can apply to the courts to have her name struck off the list.
In anticipation, she joked, her "bags are packed".
This is an abridged form of a longer feature article by Fiona Basile, published in Global Sisters Report. Read the full story here.