Sr Patricia Pak Poy: teacher, anti-landmine campaigner and Sister of Mercy. PHOTO: The Southern Cross.
Adelaide Archbishop Patrick O'Regan offered his prayers and sympathies to the Sisters of Mercy following the recent death of the renowned anti-landmine campaigner, Sr Patricia Pak Poy RSM, reports The Southern Cross.
“Sr Patricia was an amazing Sister of Mercy,” he said, “holding many leadership roles, including congregational leader and principal of St Aloysius College.”
The 90-year-old Sr Patricia was also executive director of the Conference of Sisters of Mercy of Australia for three years and is perhaps best known for her work in helping Australia to secure an international protocol outlawing landmines. Patricia stood alongside Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer in 1997 when he signed the treaty prohibiting the use and stockpiling of landmines.
She received an Order of Australia Medal (OAM) in 1998 ‘for service to the community particularly as national coordinator of the Australian network of the international campaign to ban landmines since its inception in 1993’.
Sr Patricia will be remembered for her commitment to mercy and justice within the Sisters of Mercy and was an inspiration to so many people within and beyond the Church said Archbishop O’Regan.
“She was a beautiful, energetic and creative persistent, gospel lady. A giant in every way except size,” said a Mercy Sister in Cambodia who works with victims of landmines.
Patricia Pak Poy, who had five siblings, moved from Darwin to Adelaide where her family ran a grocer’s shop on Magill Rd and was enrolled at St Aloysius College (SAC) as a seven-year-old in 1942. She completed her schooling at the college before graduating from Adelaide University with a Bachelor of Arts in 1955.
In 1957 she entered the Sisters of Mercy and was admitted to Final Profession in 1962. She taught at SAC until 1969 before studying in the United States for a year and on her return to Adelaide took over as principal of SAC, a role she held until 1976. She was affectionately known as ‘triple P’ by many girls she guided in her time as principal
Sister Patricia’s Funeral Mass was celebrated on Friday March 6 at the Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Church in Henley Beach, Adelaide.
This article by Richard Evans was published in The Southern Cross, the publication of the Archdiocese of Adelaide.