By Susan Smith RNDM. Published by Congregation of Our Lady of the Missions. Reviewed by Bishop Peter Cullinane

The needs of the Church in Aotearoa-NZ today are a far cry from the French Catholicism of the middle of the 19th century when Euphrasie Barbier founded the Sisters of the Missions. The social, economic and political environments in which they work are also very different, and so, too, the post-Vatican II church in Aotearoa-NZ and the South Pacific. Susan’s account of how making these transitions affected her Religious Order is also, implicitly, the story of generous, self-sacrificing women, to whom many of us are indebted.

Susan’s personal experience as a Mission Sister is a detailed and honest sharing, interpolated throughout the historical narrative. But this is more than a well-informed, inspiring and at times humorous narrative. “It seems religious life is dying” — and she wants to know why. She puts the question bluntly in the Introduction, which incentivises the reader from the outset. Her answers to the question are insightful, modestly expressed, not always definitive.

Her research makes important reading for those of us who are asking similar questions about numerical decline on the wider church landscape — and why it is that some Catholics want to return to forms of religiosity, and dualism, and patriarchal governance, that belonged to the times and culture of Euphrasie Barbier.

There is further relevance to the wider church in her reminder of “how important it is for those who work outside their country of origin to understand … the culture and language of those among whom they are living and working.” This kind of formation has been a traditional requirement for missionaries leaving New Zealand; it is no less important for those involved in reverse mission.

Tui Motu Magazine. Issue 293 June 2024: 25