IT MAKES SENSE TO ME
By Larry Peterson
By Larry Peterson
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| Caroline Chisholm public domain |
Women settlers in Australia faced a life of prostitution, but Venerable Caroline was able to save many of them.
She was called “the Savior of Living Cargoes”
Caroline Chisholm was born in Northampton, England, in
1808. She was the daughter of William Jones, a wealthy farmer, who had been
married four times. Three of his wives had died in childbirth, and Caroline’s
mom was his fourth. She had seven children and Caroline would be the last. Her
dad died when she was only six and he left the family some money and several properties
to divide among the twelve surviving children. A prime lesson Caroline and her
siblings learned from their father was to be generous and caring to those in
need.
By the time Caroline was seven, she was displaying a pronounced
interest in immigration. She had listened to the stories shared among the older
people that frequented her home. These folks included farmers, writers, religious and
political leaders. She invented her own
immigration game using a washbasin as the ocean and boats made from pea-shells.
She saved her money and purchased small dolls and would place them in the
“boats” and send them “across the sea” to their new homes. This early interest
in immigration would never leave her. It would only translate into a lifelong endeavor
of caring and helping poor immigrants.
When Caroline was 22 years-old Captain Archibald
Chisholm proposed marriage to her. Captain Chisholm was thirteen years older
than Caroline and a devout Roman Catholic. Raised Protestant during an era when
Catholicism was viewed with enormous suspicion and distrust, Caroline faced a
hard choice. She did want to marry him,
but she had a significant concern, and it was not his Catholicism. Caroline
insisted that she must always have the freedom to persevere in any
philanthropic cause she chose. Archibald Chisholm readily agreed.
Caroline and Archibald were married on December 27, 1830.
Deeply in love, Caroline soon converted to Roman Catholicism. Some suggested
this was done for convenience. On the contrary, she embraced Catholicism and
came to love her faith deeply. As one of her biographers wrote, “she was a MOST
devout Catholic.”
Britain had established a penal
colony in Australia in the latter part of the 18th
century. Here they would send convicted criminals. Later on, they would begin
sending people from England known as “free
settlers.” Many of these were
single women who would arrive with little or no money. They also has no friends, family, or jobs and, desperate to
survive, would turn to prostitution. The “welcoming” they were receiving at
their “new homeland” was deplorable.
In 1838, Captain Chisholm was granted a transfer to
Australia because of health problems. At the time, it was thought that the
climate was better there. When they arrived and Caroline saw the wretched
circumstances and conditions that greeted the poor migrant women who were there
and still coming, she was appalled. She knew she had to help them. Her life’s
work could not have been more clear.
Caroline was 30 years old and immediately began planning
a course of action, developing job schemes, and lobbying the authorities for
better working conditions. She started a group that set out to establish a woman's
shelter for migrants. In 1841, she had established the Female Emigrant’s Home
in Sydney. Besides providing shelter, it also assisted unemployed young women in
finding work not only in the city but even out in rural areas where work was
more plentiful.
Deeply sympathetic to young women who were alone,
Caroline wrote letter after letter seeking jobs for the girls and found many,
especially as domestic servants. She would often accompany them to the far off
places to make sure they were a safe haven for them. As time passed by, Caroline
began housing men and then families. In her first seven years in Australia, she
helped more than 11,000 immigrants.
Caroline Chisholm’s compassion, faith, and untiring
devotion to the poor and lonely in a new country left an indelible mark on not
only Australia and Great Britain but on the entire world. She is held in such
high esteem that her picture is on Australia’s original $5 banknote. She was
also awarded posthumously, the Order of Australia.
Caroline passed away on March 25, 1877. She was 68
years old. Her cause for sainthood has been put forward by the Archdiocese of
Melbourne. The first Australian saint, Mary MacKillop, was canonized by Pope
Benedict XVI in 2010. It is expected that Caroline Chisholm will be the second
saint canonized from “down under.”
copyright ©Larry Peterson 2020
