PARENTS of 12, Paul and Fiona Webb have many reasons to be up in the middle of the night, but watching their daughter make her first religious vows has to be among the most precious.
The Catholic couple and nine of their dozen children crowded around a screen at their Toowoomba home at 1am on June 26 to watch first daughter Nancy, now known as Sr Rose Patrick O’Connor, profess her first vows with the Sisters of Life in New York.
The remaining two Webb children were watching from their own homes in Switzerland and Canberra.
Although more than 15,000 kilometres away, the Webb family were no less part of Sr Rose’s celebration.
“I think it was the Bishop who was presiding over the Mass, he gave a mention to us in Toowoomba and gave us a little wave…so we waved back to him,” Mrs Webb said.
“We felt very connected.”
Mr and Mrs Webb said they had applied for a travel exemption to be at their daughter’s first professions but their application was denied.
It was a disappointing outcome, not least because Mr and Mrs Webb could only speak with their daughter two times last year.
“Coming out of that, what we saw come from that by the grace of God was the opportunity to share that story and her commitment to supporting and promoting the sanctity of every individual and all human life,” Mr Webb said.
Sr Rose, 25, was one of five young women who made their first vows in the Sisters of Life, an order founded in 1991 to be mothers to “all those whose lives the world considers useless”.
They are renowned for their ministry to women with unexpected pregnancies, offering free, confidential support in the hope that mothers don’t feel pressured to have an abortion.
Sr Rose was 11 when she met the Sisters of Life at the Sydney World Youth Day, and almost immediately applied to enter their convent.
“This has been on her heart for years,” Mrs Webb said.
“It was all a lot of waiting and waiting.
“But to talk to her now as Sr Rose, you can see that peace, contentment, and joy.”
Reading about Sr Rose’s work with pregnant women in the numerous letters she can send has been a source of spiritual nourishment to her mother.
“When the women know that they are loved by God and that they are special, and when they feel good about themselves, they are capable of caring for the child and bringing the child to life, and doing almost anything – just the importance of loving and caring for each person, and receiving them as a gift,” Mrs Webb said.
Sr Rose’s vocation has also offer her father a new way to gently discuss abortion without the usual hostile responses.
“As a male I can’t talk about that, but when I talk to somebody about what my daughter is doing to help them support those same women, I don’t get the hostile response.”
It took a village to raise this nun
Sr Rose’s profession at Sacred Heart Church, Suffern, New York, a modest brick church close to the order’s motherhouse, bears the same name as the Webb family’s parish, Sacred Heart Church, Toowoomba.
It’s just one of the many villages that helped raise Sr Rose.
“Sr Rose is a product of Sacred Heart parish of the Toowoomba diocese, of this village if you like,” Mr Webb said.
The day after her profession, Toowoomba Bishop Robert McGuckin offered a special Mass for Sr Rose at Sacred Heart Church, Toowoomba, using the same rite, prayers and ordinary of the Mass that was used in Suffern hours earlier.
A video of Sr Rose making her first vows was played after the Bishop’s homily.
Now that she is professed, Sr Rose can speak with her family every second month, and send letters to fill the void.
Sr Rose is Mr and Mrs Webb’s fourth child to enter religious life, having just farewelled their sixth child Isaac to his novice with the Capuchin Franciscan Friars in California.
For Mr Webb, watching his 12 children walk their own path is both scary and exciting.
“Sometimes we see in Scripture that sense of wonder and awe – I get a sense of that every time a child leaves our home, I get a sense of it every time they drive away in a car too,” Mr Webb said.
“How scary it is to let go of that child, and yet to realise unless you let go, they’re not going to blossom and become the person that God made them to be.
“Every individual is a unique thought of God…but they can only blossom if you show them the sunshine or let them out in the sun.”
