The Hospitaller Order of St. John of God is an Order of the Catholic Church. It draws its inspiration from the life, example and teaching of its founder - St. John of God. The basis of his life, example and teaching was a deep sense of hospitality which opened him to every person he met and moved him to do everything in his power to help them in their needs.
The Order, endeavouring to maintain, deepen and perpetuate this hospitality towards others as an integral part of the life of God's People, carries out a wide range of health and social service activities in 389 centres and services in 46 countries and on every continent. The membership of the Order consists of 1414 Brothers who come from 50 countries. The Co-workers who partner the Brothers in their activities number approximately 40,000.
Strictly speaking, the Order is composed of men who belong to the religious family popularly know as the Brothers of St. John of God. However, the term 'Order' also is taken to indicate the persons and activities of the thousands of Co-workers, men and women, who, throughout the world, provide a wide range of health care and social welfare programmes in centres and services that perpetuate the work for the poor, sick and needy commenced by St. John of God in the first half of the 16th century in Granada and southern Spain.
The fortunes of the religious family - the Brothers - have waxed and waned through the four and a half centuries of its life with periods of great expansion and other periods of retrenchment in the face of adverse social, political and ecclesial circumstances. Like many religious institutes today, the Order could be said to be in a period of 'institutional' waning. However Brothers and Co-workers are also actively developing a 'new hospitality' that responds to the new poor and the new needs of today. It is very evident that more persons are being assisted by the Order throughout the world today than ever before in its history.
PROVINCE
The Order came to Australia from Ireland in 1947. Its first work was a
residential special school in New South Wales for boys with learning difficulties.
Similar schools were established in Victoria and in New Zealand. At the
same time the Order became involved in psychiatric care and treatment
and opened two private psychiatric hospitals in, and near, Sydney. In
New Zealand the Order began with a residential school for boys with learning
difficulties, which was passed to the state national education body in
1984. The Order remained active in New Zealand in a centre for persons
with physical disabilities in the South Island and a home for the aged
in the North Island.
The Order expanded to Papua New Guinea in 1971 while that country was still under Australian administration. For ten years it conducted the Cheshire Home in Port Moresby for the Cheshire Foundation Homes of Papua New Guinea. Today the Order in Papua New Guinea is orientated towards rural health care and most Papua New Guinean members train in that area of health service.
