89. Nimmi Candappa - 20 November 2022

Australian Women Preach

Christ the King - Luke 23: 35-43 - Friend in High Places

Nimmi Candappa comes from a staunch Catholic family, which includes a Carmellite nun and a priest, and sees her Catholic faith as the most important aspect of her identity. Nonetheless, her faith journey includes continual discernment, as she navigates chicanes and obstacles of various types within the Church, that can stifle her experiencing, and passing on to others, the extravagant Love of God.

Born in Sri Lanka, raised in Melbourne, she completed her secondary education with the Presentation Sisters in Windsor, and has Bachelor degrees in Civil Engineering, and Arts. She has a successful career in civil engineering and road safety research, recently completing a PhD on improving the design of wirerope safety barriers on roads.

Through all this, there has been a yearning for God to use her faith in more concrete ways. She has been involved in faith propagation in numerous ways: through Parishes, including developing and running prayer programs; being employed as Charism Coordinator for the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate; being utilised as a Plenary Council member for the Melbourne Archdiocese, and by publishing articles on faith. While she discerned entering a religious order, she found that in most orders for women, verbal or explicit propagation of faith appeared to be secondary to an occupation such as teaching or social work.

She hopes that through WATAC’s collection of reflections by women, women’s gift to reflect, empathise, and provide critical insights into the Gospel, will be highlighted as a rich yet severely untapped resource of the Church.