Sister Rita Grunke OLSH, from Sudan to Hughenden

From the Bishop of Townsville. Timothy Harris

“We welcome Sr Rita Grunke OLSH (on my right) to the Diocese . Sr Rita joins Sr Gerardine Doherty OLSH our Clergy Formation Director and Sr Christine Martin OLSH. Sr Rita has volunteered to be a pastoral presence in Hughenden. The Hughenden Catholic Community in particular is looking forward to having Sr Rita live with them and be there for them. We are delighted to have Sr Rita with us. May the Sacred Heart of Jesus be everywhere loved. +Tim”.

We are posting again this write-up of Rita to remind us of her ministry for so long in Sudan.

By ACI Africa Staff, Rumbek, 24 October, 2023 / 8:45 pm (ACI Africa).

Sr. Rita Grunke, an Australian member of the Congregation of the Daughters of Our Lady of Sacred Heart (OLSH), who is leaving South Sudan for her native country after two decades of service in Africa looks back at her experience in the world’s newest nation with appreciation.

“Rumbek Diocese has offered me the opportunity to be a missionary really into the heart of the communities, women, and family life, and other services to the community,” 82-year-old Sr. Rita has told ACI Africa in an interview, recalling her 19-year apostolate in the South Sudanese Catholic Diocese.

Set to leave South Sudan for Nairobi on Wednesday, October 25 before proceeding to Australia a few days later, Sr. Rita joined members of her Religious Congregation at St. Josephine Bakhita Mapuordit Parish of the Catholic Diocese of Rumbek when she arrived in South Sudan in 2004. She joined late Sr. Mary Batchelor who had arrived in the South Sudanese Catholic mission in 1996. 

Speaking to ACI Africa on Monday, October 23, after her farewell party over the weekend, Sr. Rita recalled her first encounter with “real suffering” when she arrived in Rumbek Diocese that was under the leadership of the late Bishop Caesar Mazzolari. 

“When I first came it was really the plight of the women that touched my heart because it was the first time I saw real suffering among the women,” the OLSH member said, and added, “Polygamy has severe effects on family life and mothers carry the weight of the family; they gather school fees and look after the children.” 

She recalled the initiatives she had with various stakeholders in view of empowering women around St. Josephine Bakhita Mapuordit Parish.

“When I first came, we had groups; we had community meetings with mothers and government representatives,” Sr. Rita recalled, adding, “We tried in those meetings to bring families together in order to support the mothers.”

Over the years, she has facilitated the realization of “simple gardens”, having embarked on farming through irrigation as “the real empowerment”, the Australian Catholic Nun who has been known for facilitating the drilling of boreholes for local communities in Rumbek Diocese told ACI Africa, taking pride in the fact that through the initiative, “many different groups of women have gardens.”

“Women have got greens, tomatoes, pawpaw, and onions,” she further said, and added, “I have worked a lot through agriculture trying to support the mothers to support and look after their children in a healthier lifestyle.”

The OLSH member who said she “arrived in Africa at the end of 2003 and in South Sudan in January 2004” went on to describe her service in the world’s youngest nation as “a beautiful occasion” and the Diocese of Rumbek as “a beautiful place”.

“I have really enjoyed this time in South Sudan,” she reiterated, and added, “It is a kind of mission that I really wanted to come to. I was impressed with the foundation OLSH members laid.”

Sr. Rita continued, “I had followed in the footsteps of the pioneering sisters; they were a source of inspiration and it is my joy to be part of them in the Diocese of Rumbek and in Mapuordit.”

OLSH pioneer members in Rumbek Diocese, she recalled, “talked about the people; they talked about poverty; they talked about so much that really appealed to me and I really wanted to be able to be part of that mission.”

“I’m leaving Mapuordit; I’m going back to Australia because I am already at a certain age and health begins to diminish,” Sr. Rita told ACI Africa during the October 23 interview.

While in Australia, Sr. Rita said she would take up “simple things in a small rural parish.”  “I hope to guide a rural Catholic Parish as a pastoral person, to do catechetics in schools,” the Australian OLSH member said.

And now that is happening in Hughenden.