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Monte Pio Orphanage

The Bishop Murray Memorial Home at Campbells Hill, near Maitland, was more commonly known as Monte Pio Orphanage. The Home was established on the property of the Catholic Bishop of Maitland 1910 by the Sisters of Mercy. It was for girls aged from birth to sixteen years. From 1942 until 1945 Murray-Dwyer Boys’ Home shared…

St Vincent de Paul Society

The St Vincent de Paul Society is a Catholic religious organisation with a volunteer base who work to assist people in need and counter social injustice. The Society of St Vincent de Paul established its first conference in Australia in Melbourne in 1854. It then established conferences across the country, with one in New South…

Catholic Children’s Homes Enquiry Service

The Catholic Children’s Homes Enquiry Service was set up in 1994 by Centacare Adoptions Agency (which later became CatholicCare Adoption Services) to provide a centralised information, counselling and referral service for those people previously in Homes or looking for relatives who had been in a Catholic Children’s Home. Since the 1800s, the Catholic Church has…

CatholicCare Adoption Services

CatholicCare Adoption Services was created in 2011, replacing Centacare Adoption Services. It was part of CatholicCare Sydney. CatholicCare Adoption Services dealt with Catholic adoptions, both current and past. It was a central repository for all files relating to Catholic adoptions in New South Wales. It also ran the Catholic Children’s Homes Enquiry Service. In 2018,…

Catholic Adoption Agency

The Catholic Adoption Agency was established in 1967 under the auspices of the Society of St Vincent de Paul. It was the adoption agency for the area covered by the Sydney Archdiocese of the Catholic Church. It was founded in response to the 1965 Adoption of Children Act, which regulated adoption and provided for the…

Catholic Family Welfare Bureau (Archdiocese of Sydney)

The Catholic Family Welfare Bureau was established in 1941 by the Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney to provide social welfare services to needy children, families and individuals. It provided marriage counselling, worked with children in orphanages and children’s homes, deserted mothers and provided adoption services. The social work methods used by the Catholic Family Welfare Bureau…

CatholicCare Sydney

CatholicCare Sydney is the welfare agency of the Sydney Archdiocese of the Catholic Church. There are a number of CatholicCare and Centacare offices throughout New South Wales, each of which is aligned with its local Catholic Diocese and forms part of Catholic Social Services Australia. It was formerly called Centacare Catholic Community Services. It provides…

Theresian Holiday Home

The Theresian Holiday Home, also known as Liseux, was opened at Padstow Park in 1938. It was run by the Theresian Club, an organisation of Catholic women closely associated with the Sisters of Charity. The Home provided short holidays in a bushland setting for disadvantaged children from Sydney. Children between the ages of three and…

Good Shepherd Australia New Zealand

Good Shepherd Australia New Zealand was established in 2008 as the formal framework for the mission of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd. In 2014, Good Shepherd Youth & Family Service (Victoria) and Rosemount Good Shepherd Youth and Family Service (based in New South Wales) merged with Good Shepherd Australia New Zealand to become one…

Catholic Women’s Social Guild

Catholic Women’s Social Guild was established in October 1916 in Victoria. One of the aims of the Catholic Women’s Social Guild was to improve the lives of women and children so it established Santa Casa in Queenscliff for children of poor parents in delicate health. The guild fundraised for Santa Casa while the Sisters of…