The Romero Centre (Romero) and the Mater Refugee Complex Care Clinic (MRCCC) are unique Mercy Partners missional pieces because they provide hope and support to vulnerable and oppressed women, children and men who have been pushed to the extreme fringes of society where there is no government funding. The people that Romero and MRCCC serve are often destitute, have no or little income, are traumatised, and often at risk of homelessness after escaping war, torture, violence and/or oppression in their countries of origin.
Romero provides a welcoming sanctuary for people seeking asylum and MRCCC meets their complex health needs. We rightfully celebrate the work of Romero and MRCCC because they represent a living and breathing expression of Catherine McAuley’s charism to serve people who are in the greatest need who are otherwise abandoned and unsupported. This means that the courageous and compassionate impulse of the Mercy Sisters to work on the fringes is alive and well within Mercy Partners to this very day.
Nothing speaks more to that spirit than the collaboration between different parts of Mercy Partners to bring human dignity to people seeking asylum. Being on the extreme fringe, or the ‘tip’ of Mercy means there are no resources for these people other than what can be found at the ‘tip’ or what we can channel to them. It is into that great need that Romero, MRCCC and All Hallows has stepped to form a collaboration based on friendship and a shared Mercy vision. Romero and MRCCC work closely together dividing up the work of meeting survival needs, like food, housing, ESL and complex health needs respectively. But they can’t do this alone. Fortunately, driven by the same Mercy values, All Hallows, and especially the All Hallows students, has formed a long partnership channelling critical resources and donations to ‘the tip’. Including funding, over many years, two Romero ‘people mover’ vans, food donations, ‘welcome starter packs’, quilts and running the Romero Instagram site. Similarly, the Presentation Sisters, with shared social justice values, have supported Romero for many years, by funding Romero’s social inclusion and migration clinic programs. Together this Mercy Partners partnership, involving old and young alike, has literally saved thousands of people seeking asylum from suffering the worst of hunger, homelessness, loneliness, stigmatisation and ill health. Together we can do anything and together we bring hope.
