STORY: "Single-minded."
By Tracey Edstein.

Single-ness is not new – Jesus was a single man! – but recognition of the vocation of the single life is a relatively recent
phenomenon. Tracey Edstein asked Kathy Gracz of Holy Trinity Parish to reflect on the call to single life.

“Do you miss not having children?”

Questions as personal and intrusive as this are not uncommon for single people, and represent the difficulty some have in understanding a vocation other than marriage, priesthood or religious life.

A genuine commitment to the demands of the sacrament of baptism is integral to Kathy’s mature understanding of a way of life that feels very right for her, and offers immense scope for developing one’s Godgiven gifts. Ironically, as a primary school teacher for some 32 years, Kathy has had more interaction with children than most.Her deep interest in catechesis and sacramental programmes has meant that both school and parish have benefited, and in fact she was the first lay person to be involved in preparing children for reconciliation and First Eucharist in Lambton parish.

While some are puzzled by Kathy’s statement, “I’m very comfortable being single”, ‘singles’ often have an appreciation of other vocations that is not always reciprocated. Each of us is born a single person, and increasingly, the time of single adulthood is longer than it was for previous generations, even for those who embrace marriage, religious life or priesthood. There is something desirable about seeing this period, however short or long, as intrinsically valuable, rather than simply as ‘interim’.

Kathy attended Catholic Teachers College North Sydney and taught at St John’s Lambton, moving to Carlingford for a few years before returning to the diocese. Teaching and interacting with families was very important to her, and her dedication was recognised when she was asked to apply for the position of principal at Eastville. Nine happy, yet demanding, years there followed, at a time when support staff were few and far between.

Since then, Kathy has taught at a number of Newcastle schools and is currently at St Joseph’s Charlestown. “RE is my great love,” and the position of Religious Education Co-ordinator is ideally suited to her. She believes passionately that RE should be central to the curriculum and so its increased profile in recent years is a source of satisfaction.

Kathy’s parents emigrated from Poland in 1949 and sadly, her father died when she was only nineteen. She has an older sister who is intellectually disabled and lives in a group home where she can be cared for adequately. She knows that some assume that she has remained single to be available for her elderly mother and sister, but clearly, a woman of Kathy’s integrity and love would be caring for family – and contributing to the parish and wider communities – under any circumstances, as so many do!

Although he has been dead for many years, Kathy has a strong sense of her father’s commitment to faith and of a desire to live out the baptismal commitment her parents made on her behalf. While she did not, strictly speaking, choose baptism or single life, she in fact, chooses both daily. “I am a strong believer that ‘this is your life – make the most of it!’”

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