Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus

An Outpouring of Gratitude

October 8, 2026

We are grateful to Sylvia Falzon, the Chair of the Board at Cabrini Health in Australia, who shares the following note on the occasion of the 10th Anniversary of the Cabrini Outreach- Asylum Seeker and Refugee Health Hub.

Last night we held a celebration to mark the 10th anniversary of this life changing service for many people who come to our shores in search of care, love and support.

The room was full of so many clients, staff, service partners, donors, government dignitaries and board colleagues.

Here is a short video I am sure you will enjoy. We are truly blessed to have so many outstanding people lead this service especially Sharon Sherwood, Professor Suresh Sundram and Tracey Cabrie. ~ Sylvia Falzon, Chair, Cabrini Health, Board of Trustees

To view the tribute video, please click here

Built by Hands and Hearts

September 9, 2026

Five years ago, the Cabrini Women’s Mental Health Service started out as nothing more than an idea.

“An ambitious idea,” Chief of Mental Health and Cabrini Outreach, Sharon Sherwood said. “Some might even have called it a slightly crazy idea – the idea that women deserved a dedicated mental health service designed around their needs, their stories, their strengths, and their recovery.”

That idea grew into something incredible. Since opening its doors in 2021, the service has grown substantially, according to Cabrini Clinical Psychologist, Rivkah
Nathanson.

“Over the past five years, the number of clients we have on the ward continues to grow,” Rivkah said. The 30-bed unit has supported an incredible 1371 women via inpatient admissions over the years.
Cabrini Women’s Mental Health also assisted 36 women last year via generous donors to our Access Fund which ensures women can access specialist care regardless of their financial situation.

But behind every admission and every dollar donated is a woman whose life has been changed. “The impact for clients is really meaningful,” Rivkah said.

The impact the Service has made has been recognised by the healthcare industry, too. The Service was named a finalist in a 2025 industry excellence awards program for its exceptional achievements. “Australia’s First Women’s Mental Health Hospital” was published in the journal Australasian Psychiatry celebrating the efficacy of the model of care and its contribution to the growing evidence base for specialist, gender-sensitive mental health care.

“The breadth and scope of the service that we offer has significantly improved over time,” Rivkah said. “We’re constantly improving based on feedback that we get from clients, and at the moment it’s really a nice holistic, trauma-informed program that incorporates various different therapeutic approaches.”

“The most important thing is that women who are struggling have a place to come and get the help that they need and get back on track to living the life that they want to live, and to feel supported in that.”

Supporting women is the goal Sharon had in mind when the idea was conceived years ago, although she’s quick to point out that the Service’s growth was never the work of one person alone.

Reflecting on this five-year milestone, she says the credit belongs to everyone who has helped to build it. “A service is built by lots of hands and hearts,” Sharon said. “It’s built by nurses, psychiatrists, psychologists, occupational therapists, social workers, exercise physiologists, art therapists, music therapists, pastoral care, administrators, hospitality staff, cleaners, volunteers, lived-experience voices, families and, most importantly, the women we care for.”

New Grads Keep It in the Family

April 30, 2026

The 2026 Cabrini Australia nurses and midwives graduate cohort is the largest in the Program’s history. It also contains more Cabrini DNA than any cohort that’s come before it. Forty-one graduates were blessed before a large crowd of family, friends and colleagues in the Chapel on Monday 27 April, taking the total number of 2026 graduates to 90.

Among Monday’s group were graduate midwife Ashleigh Thomson, daughter of Cabrini Infection Prevention and Control Service Manager Kirsty Thomson, Alana Hadjiloukas, daughter of IT Applications Manager Libby Hadjiloukas, and Joseph Melendres, husband of fellow graduate nurse Andrea Melendres, who started the grad program in February.

Joseph has worked in Medical Imaging at Cabrini Malvern for 12 years, and his wife Andrea has worked here as a PCA and before that in Domestic Services for the past six years, but both had been nurses overseas early in their careers. It’s been a juggle for the new grads, but one they’ve been happy to do.

“Andrea encouraged me to retrain in nursing at the same time that she decided to re-train,” Joseph said. “So, the past couple of years have been very busy for us with us both studying and working and raising our two children.

Monday was a full circle moment for Alana, whose two grandmothers were also nurses. When Libby was pregnant with her, Libby’s Cabrini boss was Viv Niteros, who would later become Alana’s boss when she started work in Cabrini Patient Services five years ago. Despite loving her Cabrini administration role, Alana realised nursing was for her.

“Working in a clerical role here, I’ve had some amazing mentors who’ve given me a huge bible of Cabrini knowledge,” she said. “So rather than choosing somewhere else to do my grad year, I wanted it to be Cabrini because I really feel like Cabrini is home.”

“Cabrini sold itself,” Ashleigh said. “I hadn’t really considered Cabrini, but Mum spoke so highly about it, about the culture and how welcoming everyone is, and so I came to the open day and that completely changed my perspective on what I wanted.

“And now I’m here, Mum was right and my first impression was right. We’ve felt very nurtured and the graduate program team has really emphasized that Cabrini wants to invest in us – that we’re Cabrini’s future.”

Kindred Souls

April 22, 2026

In the mid-afternoon of Tuesday 14 April, a call came to me from Cabrini Malvern Reception. A lady named Elizabeth was asking to see me.

To my delight and surprise, it was Elizabeth Barmann from Mother Cabrini Shrine in Denver, Colorado. Elizabeth and her husband Terry were here visiting their daughter who lives locally in Malvern. What a long way from home!

Elizabeth is the Liturgist and Music Director at the Shrine. So, I immediately rang our own Cabrini Liturgist and Cabrini Choir Director, Mission Integration Lead, Leesa Horrigan to join us for coffee. What a great connection for each of us to have on the other side of the world.

A visit to our Chapel meant that we could have a beautiful snap taken by a colleague.
And all too soon our wonderful conversation about Mother Cabrini, her spirituality and the beautiful legacy we carry in our different ministries was over.

Holy Days and a Joyful Easter

April 9, 2026

Cabrini Health, Australia
Holy Thursday

Each year, [on Holy Thursday] we have a Ritual of Washing at Cabrini. It is a mark of thanksgiving for each person in our community and the service they carry out daily in the healing ministry of Jesus.

We invite everyone to come forward and allow their hands to be washed by a senior colleague and dried tenderly by another. I’m incredibly humbled and moved by it each year – as are the people who attend.

Although it’s almost 50 years old, we still use the beautiful Servant Song to frame the liturgy. ~ submitted by Margaret Stewart, Group Director, Identity and Mission, Cabrini Health

Will you let me be your servant?
Let me be as Christ to you
Pray that I might have the grace
To let you be my servant too.

St. Frances Xavier Cabrini Shrine, New York City
Good Friday

On Good Friday, St. Frances Cabrini Shrine held stations of the cross especially tailored to children.

The gentle, Montessori-style devotion included stories at each station, kid-appropriate questions, a prayer, and an activity or hands-on item. When Jesus fell the first time, each child received a BandAid.

After learning about Simon of Cyrene, the kids traced their own hands to remind them they could be helpers, too.

Veronica wiped Jesus’ face, so the children got to tenderly wipe the face of a bust of Jesus.

It was an enthusiastic crowd, and a beautiful way to introduce kids to this important part of salvation history. ~ submitted by Julia Attaway, Executive Director, St. F.X. Cabrini Shrine, NYC

Mother Cabrini Shrine, Golden, Colorado
The Triduum and Easter Sunday

Holy Week and Easter was a grace-filled and joyful time at Mother Cabrini Shrine in Golden, Colorado, as we welcomed many pilgrims, visitors, and friends to celebrate these sacred days.

Fr. John Lager, O.F.M., Cap., along with fellow Capuchins and student friars, led the liturgies throughout the Triduum. Holy Thursday began with a Seder Meal for staff and weekly volunteers, followed by the Mass of the Lord’s Supper and the washing of feet. On Good Friday, many pilgrims carried crosses up the road to the Shrine, and the day included reflections on the Seven Last Words, the Liturgy of the Passion. The Easter Vigil and Easter Sunday Masses were beautifully celebrated, with overflowing crowds.

During Lent, our Shrine community continued a long-standing outreach project tradition and prepared and delivered 200 Easter baskets to students at Annunciation Catholic School in Denver, sharing the joy of the Resurrection through this act of generosity.

Cabrini Women’s Mental Health Model: Successful and Reproducible

February 4, 2026

It took three hours for Pat to find the courage to get out of her son’s car on Hopetoun Street and make it through the doors of our Women’s Mental Health Centre late last year.

Crippled with anxiety, her mind racing, and severely sleep deprived, the mum-of-four couldn’t see how we could be of help until one of our psychiatrists sat her down and convinced her that this – Australia’s first women-only mental health hospital – was exactly where she needed to be.

I eventually made it through the doors,” Pat said. “I was very ill, and even though there was nothing appealing to me about the thought of staying in a mental health hospital, I realised it was the right thing to do. I had to hold onto something, so I thought if they’re going to send me to a facility, at least I knew that being in a women’s-only place I would be safe.”

In January, research published in the journal Australasian Psychiatry found that the specialised, trauma-focussed, holistic model of care that Cabrini developed for women’s mental health is not only effective but it can feasibly be reproduced.

“We’ve had a number of other centres from around the world visit our hospital to learn from us and use our model as a template.

“The whole program is built on dealing with and helping people through trauma in a women-only setting… and the biological aspects that are different for women – the hormone-related issues,” Centre founder Professor Jayashri Kulkarni said.

“The idea of women’s mental health needing a separate understanding and attention paid to safety and privacy is catching on.”

Cabrini Chief of Mental Health, Sharon Sherwood, said the published data collected from the hospital’s first three years testifies to the Program’s success.

“Our guiding principle is that women experiencing significant mental illness will have a better response to treatment and better outcomes when they receive treatment in a safe, women-only facility, and that treatments and programs are targeted to meet the needs of women and tailored for their specific illness, with true recognition of violence and trauma in all its forms, and with consideration of the biological factors that affect women’s mental health,” Sharon said.

That 95 per cent of the almost 1000 patients who we surveyed said they felt safe in our hospital’s care, and that 93 per cent of those surveyed said the quality of care was excellent and they would refer someone who needed psychiatric care, shows that this model really does work.”

For Pat, who has experienced multiple traumas throughout her life, her 14-day stay was challenging but life-changing and she’s now “feeling much better at being able to deal with the world”.

“I don’t have the words for what it did, so I’ll just call it an absolute miracle,” Pat said. “From where I was to where I am now, it’s given me back my life in every respect.

“My daughter convinced me to come here by saying that this place would give us a bit of hope that I could be well again, but I think we’ve got a bit more than that. My son Josh said we didn’t just get our mum back; we got a better version of our mum.

Music to Their Ears!

September 3, 2025

The captivating music of Liszt and Debussy has echoed around the corridors of Cabrini Malvern in the past week or so as concert pianist and Cabrini patient Pauline Pidgeon practised for her upcoming recital in the hospital Chapel.

Pauline, an acclaimed pianist who has played with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and is a Conservatorium of Music alumnus, fell and broke her pelvis late last month, but her Cabrini doctors uncovered something far more sinister after a series of scans.

“They found I have stage 2 lung cancer,” the award-winning pianist said. “I’m having radiation treatment and chemotherapy here at Cabrini, but fortunately they’ve found it’s only spread to one lymph node, so that’s good news.

“I guess God wants me to keep playing music and make more people happy.”

It’s hard not to be happy listening to Pauline play the piano and watching her fingers effortlessly glide over the keys.

Pauline, originally from regional Victoria, began playing piano before the age of three, and was recognised early as having an extraordinary gift.

“When I was growing up, I had no idea that my ability to play was anything special,” Pauline said. “It was a natural gift, but I took it for granted to be honest. I just went up to the piano and played by ear. But by the age of seven, I was playing for the school dances.”

[Years later], she made her debut as a soloist for the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra playing Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 4 in 1966 under the baton of Sir Bernard Heinze, and even accompanied acclaimed Australian ballerina Kathleen Gorham.

Since retiring to Melbourne, Pauline has generously gifted audiences, both large and small, her incredible music, including our Cabrini patients and staff.

“Playing while I’m having my treatment is helping me,” she believes. “And I think people here at Cabrini are also enjoying listening.”

was invited to play by Cabrini’s Manager of Pastoral and Bereavement Service, Michael Taylor.

Pauline, who is still a patient on 5 West, didn’t hesitate to offer her services – until she realised something significant.

“I didn’t have any clothes and would be wearing my spotted dressing gown, so I asked Michael if that would be OK, and that’s when he told me that that our gathering hymn for the Mass was ‘Come as you Are,’” Pauline laughed.

And so, she came as she was. The wonderful Pauline went along to Mass in her spotted dressing gown and accompanied the choir during the very special service.

“It was the least I could do,” Pauline said. “Everyone here at Cabrini has been so wonderful to me – and it also gave me some valuable practice before my recital.”

To read the entire account please click

Cabrini Australia Observes the Feast of the Sacred Heart

July 1, 2025

On June 27, Mass was celebrated in the Chapel of Cabrini Hospital Malvern to mark one of the most significant days on our local calendar, the Feast of the Sacred Heart. The Chapel was filled with representatives of departments and services Cabrini wide who witnessed the moving moment that Sr. Theresa Cervasio MSC, the only MSC Sister in Australia, renewed her religious vows in front of Fr. Tony Kerin, Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Melbourne and Cabrini Board director.

In his Homily, Fr. Tony described Cabrini Health as ‘extensive and profound’. He described how Mother Cabrini’s ‘love of the Sacred Heart sustained her to overcome many obstacles.’ Group Director Identity & Mission, Margaret Stewart, expressed her hope that experiencing today’s Mass would be ‘…a source of strength for us so that we remain a living reflection of the spirit of the Sacred Heart in all we do.’

Occasions such as the Feast Day are made even more special by the involvement of so many staff in the parts of the Mass, the beauty created by the music of the Cabrini choir and the hospitality extended by our food services team.
~ submitted by Margaret Stewart, Group Director, Identity & Mission,

Palliative Care Week at Cabrini Australia

May 15, 2025

This week is National Palliative Care Week, a time to recognise the work of Cabrini’s palliative care teams who bring comfort, peace and healing, and above all compassion.

Here are two wonderful examples of our care:

In our specialist palliative care ward, music and compassion are used every day to support patients and families as they navigate end of life. Wendy Snook, Harp Therapist, is one of 4 South Nurse Unit Manager Nicola Lowrie’s important team members.

“I learned pretty early on when I started playing the harp that there’s something about the sound of the harp that affects our bodies in a positive way for our wellbeing and our healing,” Wendy, a cancer survivor herself, said. “It’s a great privilege to be with patients and families during difficult times.”

Wendy’s presence on the ward is a true gift – one supported by a kind Cabrini
Foundation donor – but she is just one of the many people who contributes to this extraordinary care.

So too is Pastoral Practitioner Alexandra Wilde, who last week gave a patient the “best day” of her life.

“The family of a terminally ill patient requested a living wake for their mother, Evelyn, who was expected to pass away soon,” Alexandra said.

“Within 24 hours, with the support of a number of people from around Cabrini, we were able to get everything organised and had about 40 people turn up to celebrate
Evelyn’s life, which she told me was the best day of her life.

“Evelyn died the next day with her family at her bedside, at peace.”