Old Friends and Admirers Gather for the Requiem Mass of Pioneer Catholic Woman Rosemary Goldie
Catholic Communications, Sydney Archdiocese,
5 Mar 2010
Rosemary Goldie with Pope John Paul II and Cardinal Cassidy
Many admirers gather at Randwick today (Friday) to pay tribute to Rosemary Goldie who died last weekend aged 94.
For than 50 years Manly-born Rosemary was one of the leading figures of the Vatican's bureaucracy and the first ever woman to hold a post at the Roman Curia.
Pope Paul VI called her "our collaborator" while Pope John XXIII affectionately dubbed her the "little one" - La Piccanina - in acknowledgement of her small size.
Pope John Paul I loved her energy as did Pope John Paul II, who was a frequent visitor to her office in the Vatican's St Calixtus Palace. When he was in Sydney for World Youth Day in 2008, Pope Benedict XVI took time out to make a special trip to Randwick to see her.
Initially appointed to the Vatican's Permanent Committee for International Congresses of the Lay Apostolate in 1952, Rosemary's work involved preparing for the Second World Congress of the Lay Apostolate which was held in the Rome in 1957. During this time she came into contact with Joseph Cardjin, who was later appointed a Cardinal and with the then Monsignor Giovanni Battista Montini, who several years later became Pope Paul VI.
Her calmness, attention to detail and warmth together with her strong faith and love of God, brought her to the notice of others within the Vatican and in 1959 when Pope John XXIII announced the Second Vatican Council, the Permanent Committee of which she was a member was asked to help with preparations.
Then Rosemary herself was singled out and chosen to act as auditor for the council, an unprecedented move in Church history which had before this time only appointed men.
In 1967, she worked to help organise the third congress of the Lay Apostolate, and when the Permanent Committee was replaced by the newly formed Pontifical Council for the Laity, Rosemary became one of only two undersecretaries and the first woman to be part of the Roman Curia.
"She was very committed to the work of this new organisation and would come in early in the morning and leave late, even though this was not her only work as she also had her home where she always gave her best," says Guzman Carriquiry, the current undersecretary of the Laity Council.
Today, Guzman Carriquiry and others from the Vatican pay tribute to Rosemary and her remarkable life in Zenit, the Rome-based international news agency.
"She was one of the protagonists of the great contemporary historic current of the promotion of the laity in the Church," Guzman Carriquiry told Zenit, adding that throughout his years of working with her, he says "he always appreciated not only her faithful Christian witness but her tireless service to the Roman Curia."
Guzman then qualified his remarks saying: "And when I say tireless, I mean it because truly her whole life was concentrated in a very singular and absorbing way on the work she carried out through the organism of the Holy See."
Although over 75 and officially retired, Rosemary continued to work as the director for some of her students while writing her memoirs, From a Roman Window which was published by HarperCollins in 1998. She then went on edit her mother's autobiography, which was also published and told the extraordinary story of Dulcie Deamer, a 1900s dancer, entertainer and journalist.
Returning to Australia in 2002, Rosemary Goldie spent her final years being cared for by the Sisters of the Poor at Mount St Joseph's Home for the Aged where her mother had also spent her last years.
Cardinal Pell presided at the Requiem Mass at the chapel of the Little Sisters of the Poor at Ranwick with Monsignor William Mullins as chief celebrant. The former official of the Congregation for Catholic Education in Rome and Prelate of Honour to his Holiness, Pope John Paul II, Monsignor Mullins was a longtime friend of Rosemary's and remembers her with great affection. As does journalist, scholar, theologian and one-time Church bureaucrat, Dr Michael Costigan, who was a friend over more than 60 years.
"Although small in stature, Rosemary was a giant in the service of her Church and in her advocacy on behalf of the laity and occupies a place in our nation's Catholic story alongside the likes of Caroline Chisholm and the soon-to-be-canonised, Mary MacKillop."
To read Dr Costigan's heart-felt tribute and his detailed life story of Rosemary Goldie click here
