The Catholic Church in Australia
1788 – 1888
The history of the Catholic Church in Australia is a long and interesting story with the Church constantly facing hardship or adversity. Most of the time the Church managed to overcome these difficulties as their continued presence in Australia is testimony to. But how did the Catholic Church in Australia do it? How did they survive those trying times when they were just starting out in Australia? Well to answer this question I will analyse and interpret the information available from that time to provide you with an idea of the difficulties faced by the Catholic Church in Australia from 1788 to 1888.
The first Catholics who lived in Australia arrived with the First Fleet in 1788. They were mostly Irish convicts, but there were a few marines that practiced Catholicism. One-tenth of all convicts that were transported to Australia on the First Fleet were Catholic, and half of those were Irish. By the year 1803, a combined total of 2086 Irish convicts had been transported to Australia, nearly all of whom were Catholic. These Irish convicts are often regarded as the first Catholics to have resided in Australia. However they were not the start of the Catholic Church in Australia as there were still no Catholic priests in Australia.
This situation changed when in 1800 the first two Catholic priests arrived in Australia, both of whom arrived as convicts. They were Frs. O’Neil, Harold and Dixon. Up until this time Mass was celebrated illegally in the colony but in 1803 Governor Macquarie permitted Fr. Dixon to say Mass for the Catholics of Sydney, Liverpool and Parramatta. However this privilege was withdrawn in 1804 after the Castle Hill Uprising and Fr. Dixon was sent back to England. Unperturbed the Catholics that remained in the colony continued to celebrate Mass despite the lack of a priest and the illegality of what they were doing.
In 1817 an “uninvited” priest arrived in Sydney. He was Fr. O’Flynn and for the next 6 months he was constantly forced to hide from the authorities as Governor Macquarie attempted to expel him from the colony. Throughout this time he lived among the Catholics, celebrating all the sacraments, including; Mass, weddings, baptisms and funerals. He was eventually deported back to England in 1818 where he petitioned for Catholic priests to be sent to the colony of New South Wales in order to keep the Catholic faith alive in Australia. Although he only stayed in New South Wales for six months he overcame adversity, helped to keep the Catholic faith alive and paved the way for religious reform in Australia.
Thanks to Fr. O’Flynn, help for the Catholic community in Australia was on its way. As soon as he returned in England he successfully petitioned for Catholic priests to be sent to the colony of New South Wales. In 1820 Frs. John Therry and Philip Connolly arrived in Sydney. They were both Catholic chaplains appointed by the Government in London to provide for the Catholic community in New South Wales. Their arrival in Australia is generally regarded as the formal establishment of the Catholic Church in Australia.
Under the guidance of Frs. Therry and Connolly the Catholic Church in Australia began to grow and become more influential but the colony did not yet have a recognised Catholic bishop. This changed when on 28th February 1942 the Archdiocese of Sydney was created with Archbishop John Bede Polding its residential archbishop. This is considered the official establishment of the Catholic Church in Australia as for the first time Britain recognised the appointment of a Catholic bishop in Australia.
When John Bede Polding (the soon to be archbishop) arrived in Sydney in 1835, St Mary’s Cathedral was only partially constructed due to a lack of funds. He immediately put his efforts into its completion. However the Cathedral was burnt down in 1865 and Polding made enormous efforts to replace it, commencing the present day St Mary’s Cathedral. The completion of this St Mary’s Cathedral meant that for the first time Catholics in Australia finally had their own cathedral where they could practice their faith.
In the early community the establishment of Catholic schools foundered as two had been present in the early years of the nineteenth century but neither of these two schools survived very long. It was not until the arrival of Frs. Therry and Connolly in 1820 that significant progress took place in resulting in ten Catholic schools within the country by 1833. However in the 1850’s campaigns for free secular and compulsory schooling had begun. This resulted in government aid being withdrawn from supporting Catholic schools, which led to the Catholic bishops appealing to religious orders in Ireland and other European countries for assistance. Over the next few years many religious orders responded to the call resulting in many Catholic schools being run by orders such as the Christian Brother, the Marist Brothers, the Sisters of Charity, and the Sisters of St. Joseph.
The formal, total and utter confirmation of the Catholic Church in Australia was when in 1885 the Catholic Church in Rome appointed Patrick Francis Moran as Australia’s first cardinal. This announcement was the culmination of all the work that Catholics had put into building and maintaining their faith while living in Australia. The Catholic Church would not exist in Australia today if not for the tireless efforts that these first Australian Catholics put into maintaining their faith. All Catholics living in Australia today owe a debt to all those brave souls who risked persecution and faced hardships to keep their faith alive.
By John “Jack” Ryan
So we have completed the unit on the Catholic Church in Australia, but what have we learned? Well I think the most important thing that we’ve learned is that the Church needs to adapt to these modern times. The Church is losing young people because these young people see no need to join and actively participate in the Catholic Church. The Church needs to change to even have a chance of surviving the next few decades otherwise it will die out and the Church won’t be able to provide for future generations as it has provided for us. Change needs to occur and it needs to happen soon.
John “Jack” Ryan
To me being a Catholic is an important part of my life every single day. It gives me a reason to get up every morning, it gives me something to believe in when I’m down and it gives me hope when there would not otherwise be hope. It allows me to feel as if I’m a part of something important, something that is bigger than myself. It allows me express myself and it allows me to be able to relate to others in the world or in my community.
To me being a Catholic today means going to a few times a month, it does not mean you have to go to Church every Sunday, but that you attend mass whenever you have the chance. Being a Catholic means taking time every now and again to slow down, relax, and reflect on ourselves and our busy lifestyles in this hectic modern society. Being a Catholic means helping and caring for others in our community or those around the world who need our help. Being a Catholic today means taking time to talk to God. To me being a Catholic today means praying for others or praying for a better world for others.
John “Jack” Ryan
This is my video for the good vs evil task. Also there is not much of it but I apologise beforehand if the gore/violence in this video offends anyone.
An Example of Good In Our World – Medecins Sans Frontieres Works To Save Lives In Haiti
Posted: July 20, 2011 in UncategorizedApocalyptic writing is an odd type of writing as it involves predicting disasters that are yet to occur. The Bible contains many different stories about apocalyptic events but they are most prevalent in the book of Revelations in the old testament. Here are some different media interpretations of apocalyptic writing:
So those are some media interpretations on the book of revelations and the apocalypse. But in my opinion all this talk of the end of the world and the apocalypse is all nonsense. I mean, it has been predicted on dozens of occasions that the world will end but it’s just stayed perfectly the same and just kept on spinning as it always does. That is my perspective on apocalyptic writing but what’s yours? Leave a comment on your opinion of apocalyptic writing.
John “Jack” Ryan
There are many different types of literary forms in the Old Testament and these literary forms can be interpreted in a variety of ways. To make it easier to understand I will list the different types of literary forms below:
Myths – Myths are used to tell a story, entertain us, explain an event in the Church’s history or just to give a moral lesson so that we learn from the mistakes or victories of others.
Historical Stories – Historical stories come in many different forms, these include; genealogies, epics and call stories. Call stories tell us about when a person was called into the service of God, such as when Saul became God’s prophet and was renamed Paul. Epics are often long stories which tell us about how something happened, such as flight of Moses and the Israelites to the land of Israel. Genealogies often tell us about how various different people are descended from others.
Prophecies – Prophecies often tell us about the prophets of God and their journeys preaching the word of God but they also tell us about events that might happen sometime in the future, prophecies may include judgement day/apocalypse or even the ten plagues that God ravaged Egypt with.
Wisdom Literature – Wisdom literature is generally passages that provide us with wisdom and insight into how we can potentially better lives in the eyes of God. A notable example of this is in the Old Testament, the book of Wisdom.
These are just some of the many different types of literary forms in the Old Testament, but there are many more in the Old Testament that I haven’t mentioned here, perhaps you might even go and find some more. I hope that this post has helped you to understand different literary forms in the Old Testament. Thanks for reading.
John “Jack” Ryan
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