The Church, too, must be a family, bishops, priests, deacons, religious and laity, supporting each other and sharing with each other the individual gifts given by God.
Pope John Paul II,
Heaton Park, Manchester, 31st May 1982

The Diocese

A remarkable story

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Sister Monica McGee FMSJ gives us the amazing account of her time in a POW camp in Borneo during the war.

The homesick sister

Mother said to me, “Are you not going to look back at your old home?”. I did look back, but said nothing. I was on my way to enter the convent of the Franciscan Missionaries of St Joseph (FMSJ) at Patricroft. The day was 16th March 1926; I was seventeen.

On 4th October 1928 I made my First Profession and in May 1930 I set sail on the P&O Liner ‘Kaylion’ for Sarawak, Borneo. I had no wish to become a missionary, I just wanted to become a nun. When I was given my appointment to Borneo I heard some Sisters say, “she won’t last twelve months.” When the ship left Southampton I felt very homesick. In those days we left our families and home for life.



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