Institute of the Sisters of Mercy of Australia

If we are to contribute that service of mercy which the newness of the gospel demands for our world we must constantly search out the meaning of God’s choice of the poor.’ (Constitutions 1.06)

About Us

The Institute of Sisters of Mercy of Australia was founded in 1981.  Member congregations are Sisters of Mercy of Adelaide, Ballarat East, Bathurst, Brisbane, Cairns, Goulburn, Grafton, Gunnedah, Melbourne, North Sydney, Parramatta, Perth, Rockhampton, Singleton, Townsville, West Perth, Wilcannia-Forbes, with an autonomous region in Papua New Guinea and a foundation in Pakistan.

The Sisters of Mercy have been in Australia since 1846 when Ursula Frayne and her companions arrived in Perth.  Today the Institute numbers 1560 members.  

These women serve throughout Australia, Papua New Guinea and Pakistan. Australian Mercy Sisters can be found also in Cambodia, East Timor, Sudan, Kenya, Ireland, England, Scotland, USA, West Papua and Peru

At their most recent Institute Chapter (2004) the sisters “acknowledged the challenge to ‘embrace the other’ and to ‘welcome difference’ and the imperative for the Institute

• to continue to support wholeheartedly Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples in their struggle for

       justice;

• to strengthen the commitment to asylum seekers and refugees by supporting them and advocating for policies which are compassionate and just.”

(5th Institute Chapter, 2004)

National Vision

Our gift as Sisters of Mercy is to know God's loving kindness and to share it with others. Our name reminds us that God can be mercy for others through us only when we open ourselves to receive mercy... Our charism comes to us through our foundress, Catherine McAuley. Catherine and her first companions felt themselves called to a new way of practising mercy.