“ELEVEN CHILDREN, BUT NO SAINTS AMONG THEM” by Felicity de Fombelle
Don’t call the Crimmins family model Catholics – that’s definitely not the label they want. They may have 11 children, and be open to more. And yes, they do go to Mass, say prayers at mealtimes and the kids know the Rosary. But, for one thing, the children don’t have saints names. Consider the list: Brittany, 22, Paige, 21, Fenelle, 20, Cooper, 18, Paris, 15, Spencer, 12, Lincoln, 10, Scarlett, 8, Flinders, 5, Autumn, 3 and Hewson, 18 months. “People do expect us to have a bunch of ‘Peter, Paul and Mary’s’,” Dad Xavier, 43, said. “But my wife Christine liked different names. “I’d hate us to be put up as model Catholics. We’re just a typical Australian family, albeit a big one. We have kids who play up and get into trouble. And both of us have our failings. You wouldn’t necessarily know we’re Catholic, apart from our size, which does shock people. They usually ask me how many wives I have! There is always a lot of praise for my wife and rightly so.
really connected when I returned.” Xavier was 21 when he married. Christine, who is now 42, was 19. “We just knew it was right,” he says. As for 11 children, well, Xavier says that just happened. “There’d be lots of kids running around and Christine would find out she was pregnant again and we’d sometimes think, oh dear,” he explains. “But faith teaches us that God gives us what we can handle, although we have questioned that at times!” Xavier and Christine grew up in big families. Xavier has eight siblings, and was raised by his mother. Christine has four.
Early on in their marriage, Xavier worked in hospitality, but the family is now financially comfortable with Xavier being the head of a not-for-profit organisation that helps disadvantaged people find employment. Xavier praises his “extraordinary” wife for her “24/7 effort” to raise their children and says their faith has certainly kept them going. “It’s often what gets you through,” he says. “I sometimes think, if you don’t believe in God, life must be really tough. We’ve always gone to Mass, we say grace before meals and pray for others. Being Catholic is just a part of who we are.”
“But God is definitely part of our family; part of the family mess as well.
Daughter Paige’s wedding to John last year. They now have a son.
“There can be a view that if you’re a Catholic, everything is perfect and you are holier than thou. Catholics are just trying to do their best in the world like everyone else. But that doesn’t make us any better. In fact, we think the opposite sometimes. Your faith makes you all too aware of your failings!”
“I grew up surrounded by big Catholic families,” Xavier explains. “There were 10 boys next door and the average family had eight. One had 17 kids. It must have been contagious, or there was just lots of competition. As a child it was wonderful, having so many kids around.”
The story of Xavier and Christine dates to when they were teenagers in Wagga Wagga. Xavier saw Christine on a bus one day “and I just knew she was the one”. “One day she happened to be at our place with my brother and his friends and I pretended I was fixing my motorbike so I could hang around,” Xavier explains. “I went to Sydney for a while and we
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As a married couple, Xavier and Christine decided that money would not rule their lives. “We did not want money, or the lack of it, to influence how many children we had,” he says. “You often hear people say they can’t afford more kids, but we just thought we’d be looked after. We’ve had our struggles, but we’ve got by”.
The family lived in Batemans Bay for 20 years but recently moved to Razorback, near Camden, to be closer to Xavier’s work. “Christine’s grandmother once said, ‘You might feel troubled by it now but you will never regret it in later years’, and we believe that,” Xavier states. “Christine never expected to be a mother of 11 children but she sees it as her ministry. “Now our two older girls are just one hour away which means they can babysit. In fact, recently, the two girls were rostered on and Christine and I went away for a weekend. Christine said we shouldn’t do it too often because we might never return!”