Record
the
HISTORICAL EDITION
02/10/13
In the beginning
Historians recount the remarkable story of how the Catholic Church in Western Australia pulled itself up by the bootstraps in the most isolated city in the world despite internal dissension, erratic personalities and continual problems with poverty and sectarian discrimination...
A photograph taken by AH Stone in 1868 shows five prominent Perth ladies out for a stroll. They are the Governess, Maria Stone, left; Maria’s sister, Miss Helms and friends of the family. The photograph is taken in Victoria Avenue, Perth. In the background are the Bishop’s palace, completed in 1856 on the left, and the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed VIrgin Mary, completed in 1865. Directly in front of the cathedral is the smaller St John’s Church, the first Catholic church in WA. PHOTO: COURTESY OF MRS DOROTHY CROFT
How a Church began in the West
T
his special edition of The Record - a co-presentation between The Record and the Archdiocese of Perth’s Historical Commission - sets out the first 50 years of the Church’s existence in WA. Long in the planning, it’s a remarkable tale, full of disputes, drama and suffering – yet also steady growth. Shouldering the lion’s share of the writing is widely-respected Perth author and biographer Hal Colebatch who follows the trail from the earliest known Catholic presence in WA through to the 1850s, by which time the Church had become an established - and in some cases, a key - feature of the State’s life. Also contributing special insights to this issue are University of Notre Dame Australia Adjunct Research Scholar Odhran O’Brien (Contributing Editor), whose forthcoming biography of early Perth Bishop Martin Griver is due to be published in 2014. Adelaide-based Dominican historian Fr Christopher Dowd OP writes on key Church figures, Bishops Jose Maria Serra OSB and John Brady (pictured at top of page). Fr Dowd’s biography of Archbishop Patrick Clune is also due for publication next year. Meanwhile, Melbourne University’s Dr Catherine Kovesi chronicles the story of one of the critical shaping personalities of the growth of the Church, Mercy Sister Ursula Frayne. Benedictine author Fr David Barry OSB sets out the remarkable story of the first Benedictines who established New Norcia and its mission to the nation’s first inhabitants, while Dr Rob Andrews from UNDA explores the background - the situation of the Church around the world in the 19th century. P ROSENGREN - EDITOR
Earliest traces of Catholicism in Western Australia By Hal Colebatch
W
hen Pope Alexander VI divided the as yet littleknown world between Spain and Portugal in 1493, a year after the modern discovery of America, Western Australia was on the Portuguese side of the line. As a result, it is likely that the first Catholics to visit Western Australia may have been Portuguese sailors, but the Portuguese kept the records of their voyages secret. Perhaps long-forgotten archives in Portugal or its former colonies will one day reveal something beyond speculation. Plainly, however, if they did visit they did not consider the place worth garrisoning. The Dutch who carried out some desultory explorations and several of whose ships were wrecked on the coast were Protestant. Documents discovered in the Vatican archives
have revealed that on 15 July 1681 nine cardinals of the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith appointed a 60-year-old Dominican priest in Manila, Fr Vittorio Riccio, to be in charge of Terra Australis, believed to be a great continent reaching to Antarctica. The visionary Spanish seaman and explorer Captain Quiros also dreamed of discovering a ‘Great South Land of the Holy Spirit’. However, there is no evidence that the Spanish actually reached Australia although their colony in the Philippines was relatively close. The first Catholics to visit Western Australia of whom we know anything certain were French explorers under Francois de St Allouarn, who anchored off Cape Leeuwin on 18 March 1772. On 30 March he landed at Shark Bay, raised the French flag, and claimed the land for the King of France. A sailor died and was buried on shore, presumably with some religious ceremony, although there is no record. In 1792, the ships of the La Perouse expedition, carrying two chaplains, Canon
THROUGH A WOMAN’S EYES...
First missionaries and educators: Mother Ursula Frayne and the Sisters of Mercy recall harsh conditions and erratic personalities of the Church - PAGE 10
Pope Gregory XVI despatches Salvado and Serra for the missions with a benediction. PHOTO: COURTESY BENEDICTINE COMMUNITY OF NEW NORCIA
Ventenat and Dom Pierson OSB, who also served as naturalist and astronomer, anchored at Esperance in December. Dom Pierson fell overboard there and had to be rescued from a shark.
The next French explorer to visit, Nicholas Baudin, in 1801, may have brought along a priest, but this is uncertain as, by that time, the atheist French Revolution had been raging. Chaplains
were carried on French ships which visited later in the post-Napoleonic period. Presumably, services were held when they went on shore. The French government
at one time considered establishing settlements in WA (Rottnest and Garden Island were named the Isles Louis Napoleon on French charts) but finally decided that sharing a land frontier with Britain was not a good idea. Britain emphatically agreed. The British government then decided to establish settlements on the west coast, at Albany in 1826 and at the Swan River in 1829. There were Catholics among the soldiers and settlers, several of whom became prominent in the community. These included Bernard Smith, a brick-maker and builder whose father had come to the colony as a coloursergeant with a detachment of the 21st Fusiliers in 1833. A genial and public-spirited man, he was elected to the first Perth city council. Patrick Marmion owned the Emerald Isle Hotel in Henry Street and started whaling at Marmion Beach, which is named after him. Robert D’Arcy was a school master. Continued on Page 3
THE WAY OF BENEDICT
Salvado, Serra, the remarkable pioneering Benedictine monks and their mission at New Norcia - PAGE 7
THE RECORD HISTORICAL EDITION
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Commission charts time past, present and future
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2 October 2013
BRINGING HISTORY ALIVE Our contributors Fearless Mother Frayne DR CATHERINE KOVESI Catherine Kovesi BA (Hons), PhD, is a Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Melbourne. She has published widely on the history of orders of religious women in Australia and is the author of Ursula Frayne: A Biography (Fremantle, 1996), and of Pitch Your Tents on Distant Shores; A History of the Swan River’s Sisters of the Good Shepherd in Australia, Tennacious woman Aotearoa/New Zealand, and Tahiti (Sydney, of Mercy - Page 10 2006, and revised edn 2010).
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Bickering bishops of WA FR CHRISTOPHER DOWD OP •
CRUISING
•
FLIGHTS
•
TOURS
Fr Christopher Dowd OP, BA (Hons), BTheol, MA, PhD, is the Provincial Historian for the Dominican Province of the Assumption (Australia, NZ, Solomon Island and PNG). He has written a number of books on Australian history, especially Catholic history. With a doctorate from the Australian National University (1996), Bickering Bishops at he has also lectured in Church history at the Melbourne College of Divinity. the Swan River He is currently working on a history of - Pages 8-9 the Dominican friars in Australia and the western Pacific.
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READINGS OF THE WEEK Monday 7th - White OUR LADY OF THE ROSARY (M) 1st Reading: Jon 1:1-2:1,11 Jonah and the whale Responsorial Ps/Jon 2:3-5,8 Psalm: You heard my voice Gospel Lk 10:25-37 Reading: Look after him Tuesday 8th - Green 1st Reading: Jon 3:1-10 God relents Responsorial Ps 129:1-4, Psalm: 7-8 Hear my voice Gospel Lk 10:38-42 Reading: Do you not care? Wednesday 9th - Green ST DENIS, BISHOP, AND HIS COMPANIONS, GR MARTYRS, (O); ST JOHN LEONARDI, PRIEST (O) 1st Reading: Jon 4:1-11 God’s perspec- tive Responsorial Ps 85:3-6, 9-10 Psalm: Have mercy on me Gospel Lk 11:1-4 Reading: Teach us to pray Thursday 10th - Green 1st Reading: Mal 3:13-20 Making allow- ances Responsorial Ps 1
Psalm: Gospel Reading:
Fruit in due season Lk 11:5-13 Do not bother me
Friday 11th - Green 1st Reading: Joel 1:13-15; 2:1-2 The Lord’s day is coming Responsorial Ps 9:2-3,6,16, Psalm: 8-9 The Lord enthroned Gospel Lk 11:15-26 Reading: The finger of God Saturday 12th - Green 1st Reading: Joel 4:12-21 The Lord’s judgement Responsorial Ps 96:1-2, Psalm: 5-12 The Lord is king Gospel Lk 11:27-28 Reading: The word of God Sunday 13th - Green 28TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME 1st Reading: 2 Kings 5:14- 17 The cure of Naaman Responsorial Ps 97:1-4 Psalm: God works wonders 2nd Reading: 2 Tim 2:8-13 God always faithful Gospel Lk 17:11-19 Reading: Ten lepers cured
The Parish. The Nation. The World.
New Norcia’s beginnings FR DAVID BARRY OSB Long-time student of the history of the Church in WA, Mgr Brian O’Loughlin, also Chairman of the Archdiocesan Historical Commission, contemplates the remarkable story of Catholicism in the State as he stands in its first church, St John’s Pro-Cathedral. PHOTO: PETER ROSENGREN
By Matthew Biddle T H E A RC H DIO C E S A N Historical Commission plays an important part in researching and celebrating the history of the Perth Archdiocese, according to its chairman, Monsignor Brian O’Loughlin. Established in 2007 by Archbishop Hickey, Mgr O’Loughlin said the Historical Commission aims “to foster the study and publication of the history of the Archdiocese and to commemorate historical events”. A recent example of the Commission’s desire to commemorate historical events was the reinterment of the remains of Archbishop Clune into the crypt of St Mary’s Cathedral. In 2011, the Commission also helped to celebrate the
centenary of the consecration of Archbishop Clune. Later this year it will commemorate the 100th anniversary of the elevation of the Perth diocese to archdiocesan status.
An example of the Commission at work was the reinterment of Archbishop Clune’s remains to St Mary’s. The Commission arranged for a biography of Archbishop Clune to be researched and written by Fr Christopher Dowd OP. With the biography now complete, it will be launched next year, along with a second work.
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Peter Rosengren
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Contributing Editor Odhran O’Brien
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Fremantle as Mary Ann Friend saw and recorded it in 1830. It seemed like a country fair - but also had its downside. PHOTO: COURTESY UNDA
odhranobrien@outlook.com
Accounts
Mariette Ulrich Fr John Flader Glynnis Grainger
The Record PO Box 3075 Adelaide Terrace PERTH WA 6832 21 Victoria Square, Perth 6000 Tel: (08) 9220 5900 Fax: (08) 9325 4580 Website: www.therecord.com.au The Record is a weekly publication distributed throughout the parishes of the dioceses of Western Australia and by subscription. The Record is printed by Rural Press Printing Mandurah and distributed via Australia Post and CTI Couriers.
of Bishop Matthew Gibney, who was also the founder of The Record, and we would be encouraging that sort of private research.” Mgr O’Loughlin said the Historical Commission consists of several members, including Fr Robert Cross, Mr O’Brien, and Dr Paul Skerritt. Its foundation members, who are now retired, included Fr Patrick Cunningham, Sr Frances Stibi PBVM, Mrs Ruth Marchant James, Dr Shane Burke and Justice Kevin Hammond. The Historical Commission meets quarterly and Mgr O’Loughlin said some “prospective new members have been approached”. A similar commission exists in the Archdiocese of Melbourne.
Rats, flees, sand a lady’s welcome
Find it in The Record
Editor
“The other one is Odhran O’Brien’s research on the life of Bishop Martin Griver, the second bishop of Perth,” Mgr O’Loughlin said. Mr O’Brien received a threeyear research scholarship from the Archdiocese in 2007 to complete the work. Mgr O’Loughlin said the Commission strongly encourages private research into matters of historical significance and relevance to the Archdiocese of Perth. “We have the archives, but the Historical Commission was to take up projects in order that the history of the Archdiocese would be recorded in publications and historical events would be celebrated,” he said. “There is a lay person of the Archdiocese who privately has researched the lives and times
Maranatha Centre for adult faith forMation This term Maranatha is offering courses at Newman Siena Centre at 33 Williamstown Rd, DOUBLEVIEW. Maranatha offers units for adults wishing to deepen their knowledge and understanding of their Catholic Faith and the living of it. Units for Term Four 2013 begin on Tuesday 30th July.
DAYTIME UNITS Tuesdays 8th Oct – 26th Nov, 9.30am – 12.00pm (8 weeks Cost $50.00) Forging an Evolutionary Christianity: God’s Gracious Presence in Creation with John Auer Thursdays 10th Oct – 28th Nov, 9.30am -12.00pm (8 weeks Cost $50.00) Coming to know the Christian God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit with Dr Michelle Jones Thursdays 10th Oct – 28th Nov, 1.00pm – 3.30pm (8 weeks Cost $50.00) In this Year of Faith What is my Faith? What does living my Faith mean? with Sr Philomena Burrell pvbm “Vatican II Celebrating 50 Years” The Second Vatican Council was a time of a grace and renewal for the Catholic Church. Parishes and dioceses all over the world will “celebrate” Vatican II in light of the 50th anniversary of the Council. Archbishop Timothy Costelloe SDB invites and encourages us to attend the following public talk. Talk Four - Encountering Christ: The call of Vatican II Infant Jesus Parish Hall, Morley,7.00pm Tuesday 24th September Presented by Archbishop Timothy Costelloe SDB Please call Morley Parish to register ph: 9276 8500 National eConference: On Friday the 18th October, Maranatha is hosting the National eConference on “The Gospel of St John: The Love of God Made Visible” 9.30am -1.00pm, with keynote speakers Fr Francis Moloney sdb and Dr Dorothy Lee. (9.30am – 1.00pm)
RATS, FLEES, famine and sand: these were just some of the aspects of Fremantle that spoiled Mary Ann Friend’s experience when she visited the Swan River Colony in 1830, according to her researcher, Associate Professor Deborah Gare at The University of Notre Dame Australia’s Fremantle campus. The location of Mary Ann Friend’s diary was, for many years, a mystery. But last November the journal, which includes maps and three of the earliest paintings of Fremantle, was purchased by the State Library of Western Australia at a London auction for nearly $200,000. The acquisition was a significant addition to the historical record of WA’s early colonial period. Assoc Prof Gare, who is currently writing a biography of Mrs Friend, said the journal told stories of women who were present in the fledgling years of the former colony. “Mary Ann’s diary tells of the extraordinary voyages around the world which British women experienced in 1829 and 1830 on their way to the Swan River. Some faced gruelling journeys while heavily pregnant and many were accompanied by young families. Conditions on arrival were harsh,” Assoc Prof Gare said at the time. “But what adventures many
had! Friend’s journal includes stories of an early elopement, pianos left in sand hills, lost cows, missing children, shipwrecks and exotic meals, including her favourite - black swan. On her journey to Fremantle she faced political intrigue and slavery.” Mrs Friend, an accomplished artist and storyteller, made a two-year journey with her husband, Captain Matthew Curling Friend, in 1829, which included a stop in the Swan River colony. The ships they sailed on carried British migrants to Fremantle and Hobart. The diary describes Fremantle as like “a country fair” with colourful tents scattered across the sandy landscape. Mrs Friend’s beautiful and detailed watercolour paintings captured the scene. “Perhaps more than anything, the diary is a love story,” Assoc Prof Gare said. “Mary Ann loved her husband deeply. The prospect of two years apart, while he was at sea, was not something she looked forward to. So she packed her bags and joined him.” Last week, Assoc Prof Gare told The Record that the diary, which has been painstakingly restored by the State Library since it arrived in January this year, will be launched on November 11 at Notre Dame’s Fremantle campus.
The rise of New Norcia and monastic life - Page 7
Fr David Barry OSB, STL, BA (Hons), DipEd, has published a number of articles and book reviews in Tjurunga: An Australasian Benedictine Review. He wrote the entry on New Norcia in the 2009 Historical Encyclopedia of Western Australia, and had his translations of the 9th-century Abbot Smaragdus’ Commentary on the Rule of Saint Benedict and The Crown of Monks published in 2007 and 2013 (Cistercian Studies Series 212 and 245). Fr David’s current research interest is 19th-century New Norcia.
Our first 50 years HAL GP COLEBATCH
History of the Catholic Church in Western Australia - Pages 3-6, 12
Hal GP Colebatch BA, MA, PhD, is a celebrated Australian writer and the son of the late Sir Hal Colebatch. Holding degrees in economics, law and history, including a PhD in political science, Colebatch has contributed widely to Australian and international literature. A celebrated poet, science fiction writer and non-fiction author, he is also a regular contributor to such publications as Quadrant and The Australian.
The 19th-century Church DR ROBERT ANDREWS
Global Church of Perth’s early years: at war with modernity - Page 9
Robert Andrews BA (Hons), PhD has taught Church History and Theology at the University of Notre Dame Australia, Fremantle. His research interests focus on aspects related to Anglicanism and Catholicism in the 18th and 19th centuries. He has published recently on the Mariology of John Henry Newman in Compass and the Downside Review.
The golden age of Griver ODHRAN O’BRIEN
Church finds its feet throught the sanctity of Griver - Page 11
Odhran O’Brien BA, MA, currently works as a Heritage Advisor for the Town of Claremont. He is also an Adjunct Research Scholar at the University of Notre Dame Australia where he is preparing a biography on Bishop Martin Griver, second Catholic bishop of Perth, for release through St Pauls Publications in Sydney during February 2014. He holds a Master of Arts degree in Western Australian history, has published and lectured in the early history of the Catholic Church in Western Australia and is currently pursuing a PhD on the relationship between the Catholic Church and colonial government in Western Australia during 1845 to 1890.
Acknowledgements A number of individuals and organisations assisted in the preparation of this special historical edition of The Record. We would like to acknowledge and thank all these persons for their generous help: Sr Frances Stibi PBVM Retired Archdiocesan Archivist Mrs Stefania Di Maria Archdiocesan Archivist Mr Peter Hocking Archivist, Benedictine Community of New Norcia Ms Jessie Llewellyn Assistant Archivist, Institute of Sisters of Mercy of Australia and Papua New Guinea
To Register or for more information, contact the Maranatha office Phone: 08 9241 5221 Fax: 08 9241 5225 Email: maranatha@ceo.wa.edu.au Or check our website: www.maranathacentre.org.au Associate Professor Deborah Gare researching Mary Ann Friend.
UNDA
Mrs Dorothy Croft The Stone Photographic Collection Staff of the State Library of Western Australia Staff of the State Art Gallery of Western Australia For editorial advice Mr John Windship Mrs Cheryl Greaves
therecord.com.au 2 October 2013
THE RECORD HISTORICAL EDITION
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Despite early doubts, a promising start Bishop John Brady and the establishment of the Church in WA
the Swan River on Friday, 9 January. A crowd waited to greet them at the Perth jetty and they received a cheer. They landed, formed a procession, and moved off up the sandy main street in the direction of the unfinished church, singing litanies. As the party had arrived sooner than expected there was no accommodation arranged for the sisters. However, a Mrs Crisp, a Methodist who ran a boarding house, gave them lodgings, and was ever afterwards a friend to them. The first cathedral, St John the Evangelist, had its inaugural High Mass on Sunday, 11 January. The church reflected Bishop Brady’s value of austerity as well as the poverty of the colony. Apparently there was a long, low lean-to building attached to the north wall. On the south side there was a small windowless room for a priest’s lodging. Bishop Brady lived there for several months. The Mercy Sisters, themselves by no means living in luxury, were touched by the privations endured by the bishop. He moved for a time to a larger room but gave this up for use as a schoolroom. He then
By Hal Colebatch THE ESTABLISHMENT of the Catholic Church in Western Australia was met by a series of hardships. These were due not principally to sectarianism but to the remoteness and isolation of the colony, and were compounded by unrealistic administration. In New South Wales, there had been many Irish Catholic convicts, many of whom, upon obtaining freedom, made important contributions to the colony’s life and some of whom became wealthy and successful. There were also many Irish Catholics among the soldiers of the relatively large garrison. When Catholic priests arrived in New South Wales, they found quite a large Catholic congregation awaiting them. By the 1840s, there was a fairly large settled area and infrastructure. None of this was the case on the western side of the continent. We know from the census of 1848 that at that time there were 1,148 people in Perth, with 126 Catholics. The total number of Catholics in the whole colony was 337. Further, the Church in its earliest days in WA was in the care of a man who, though undoubtedly of deep devotion, was by all accounts not the man for the particular demands of this job. Fr John Brady was an heroic but tragic figure. John Brady was born in County Cavan, Ireland around 1800 and, while it is believed he studied for the priesthood in France, this is not proven. After ordination he had volunteered for missionary work. He is said to have won golden opinions from clergy and people for his priestly character and self-sacrificing devotion. In New South Wales, he was dean of Windsor and his parish included Penrith and all branches of the Hawkesbury from Windsor to Broken Bay. His charges were mainly Irish convicts assigned to the landholders, and he rode hundreds of miles a month to serve them. He was instrumental in establishing the convicts’ right to freedom of worship. A judge, Justice Filhole, recorded in 1836: “He is the true type of Catholic Priest, perfectly unselfish. He gave everything he had to relieve the poor and to educate the children of the parish.” In 1839, Dr William Ullathorne OSB had written: “Father John Brady is a man I revere as a Saint …” In the same year, Archbishop Polding had written of him as “labouring with the zeal of an Apostle in his immense district”. With a Belgian priest,
In the rainy season, he slept on a sofa under an umbrella. To many, it seemed bizarre. The first days. George Nash - An extensive view of Perth, Western Australia with a group of natives in the foreground c1846, watercolour and pencil. Purchased with funds from the Geoffrey William Robinson Bequest, 1992. PHOTO: STATE ART COLLECTION, ART GALLERY OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA.
Fr John Joostens, and a catechist, Patrick O’Reilly, he arrived in Albany on 4 November 1843. He continued by sea to Fremantle in December. The Swan River Colony was in a bad way at this time. Its population numbered about 4,000.
Brady told Rome there were two million Aboriginal people in WA awaiting evangelisation. There was almost no labour to work the land, and many of the settlers did not have farming skills. The few Catholics in the Perth area were mostly of the poorer class. Governor John Hutt received Fr Brady with cordiality, and assigned him some land on which to build a church. Non-Catholics were generous in supporting the venture, including financially. The building was begun on the Feast of St John the Evangelist, 27 December 1843.
Fr Brady visited Rome the following year and asked that a new diocese be created for WA, with a bishop resident in Perth. He said there were 5,000 Europeans in WA and gave an estimate – impressive but wildly inflated – of two million Aboriginal people (this figure had, according to some sources, been given to him by Governor Hutt). Authorities in Rome apparently accepted an estimate of 3,000 or more Catholics in WA, although the true number was only a tiny fraction of this. Plainly, Brady saw missions to the Aboriginal people, whom he believed to be present in great numbers, as of the highest importance. Thus, in addition to the task of establishing the Church in what was little more than a wilderness, he set out to bridge a cultural gap. In any event, Rome agreed that a new diocese was to be established. Brady, who was perhaps aware of his own unsuitability for the position, nominated Dr Ullathorne to be the new bishop but Ullathorne declined, and Brady himself was appointed, Ullathorne having recommended him
as a very good missionary priest. Though Brady was a man of extremely simple life and a fine missionary, he was quite unsuited to the difficult administrative and financial tasks that would inevitably confront him in such a position. Indeed, it was suggested by one observer, the Catholic Colonial Secretary Richard Madden (later knighted), who saw a great deal of Brady and who admired him in many ways, that the extreme austerity of the life he lived was such that “The belief seems to have grown in him that all other persons in religion about him or connected with the mission (however differently physically constituted) could have no other desire and were capable of living as he did”. “This was a great mistake, and it led to all the difficulties that took place.” Archbishop Polding in Sydney, who had come to know Brady well, but who had not been consulted on his appointment, and whose diocese had previously covered the whole continent, was disturbed when he heard the news of Brady’s appointment. He had doubts about
The episcopal arms of John Brady. The Latin motto translates as: ‘Virtue conquers danger.’ PHOTO: ARCHIDIOCESE OF PERTH
Brady’s capacity and prudence. He had, he believed, zeal but no discretion. Nevertheless, he told Rome he would give Brady all the aid and welcome possible. While in Rome, Brady set about recruiting new clergy for WA. These included two Benedictines who had fled religious persecution in Spain: Jose Maria Serra and Rosendo Salvado, who would prove to be among the influential figures of the Church in WA. Others recruited were an Italian priest, Fr Angelo Confalonieri, and a layman, Nicola Caporelli, who bore the title ‘Count of the Papal
States’. Bishop Brady then travelled to France where he obtained six more recruits – three priests, two lay brothers of the Missionary Society of the Holy Heart of Mary and a Benedictine novice from Solesmes. In England, he recruited a subdeacon, Denis Tootle, from the Benedictines at Downside. All the recruits would prove to be long-standing friends to the Australian mission. From Ireland, he recruited another priest, Peter Powell, eight student catechists, six Sisters of Mercy and one postulant – 28 in all. With hindsight, Bishop Brady would have done bet-
ter to settle for a smaller party, which the tiny Catholic population of Perth and such outlying settlements as there were could have supported more easily. They had come to serve a people who largely did not exist, and in numbers that might be expected to unnerve some of the Protestants – as well as the few Catholics who would have to support them. Only a small number of the priests of the party could speak English, but Brady apparently did not consider this a problem because he saw the greatest thrust of the Church’s work to be among the Aboriginal people. It did, however, make interaction with the white settlers upon whom they depended more difficult. The fact that Latin was the common language of the Mass was important but not enough to overcome this problem. Bishop Brady’s party sailed for Fremantle from England in the vessel Elizabeth, and arrived in Gage Roads on Wednesday, 7 January 1846, landing the next day. Though Fremantle looked bleak and depressing in the January sun, the party had a pleasant trip up
moved into the belfry, a little wooden building, though its scanty boards allowed free access to the weather on all sides. He slept in an armchair. During the rainy season he moved to another box-like room where he slept on a sofa under an umbrella. The rest of the colony would doubtless have been ready enough to criticise a Catholic bishop who lived in wanton luxury, but these extremes must have seemed bizarre to many. With the arrival of Bishop Brady’s party, it might be said that the Catholic Church had established a considerable institutional presence in the tiny colony, but it was one which was unbalanced. Sadly, one of the missionaries from Amiens, Fr Maurice Bouchet, died on 24 January, aged 24. He was buried close to the little church. While the general population of Perth seemed friendly, there was also apparently a good deal of anti-Catholic feeling in the Irish Protestant upper circles of the colony. This cannot have made the beleaguered Bishop Brady’s task any easier. Brady made drastic mistakes, but he did somehow lay the foundations. He was probably meant by nature to be a missionary, but he was no administrator.
Laity, not clerics, began the story Continued from Page 1 Thomas Little, later to become prominent in church circles, arrived in the colony in 1838 and established a prosperous farm at Leschenault Inlet near Bunbury. Laurence Mooney arrived as a soldier in 1833. He ended up in Albany where he underwent great spiritual loneliness due to the lack of a priest. Cardinal Patrick Moran, who wrote the History of the Catholic Church in Australasia, recorded how on Sundays he had climbed to the summit of Mount Clarence alone to recite the Rosary and pray. For a long time the only priests the tiny settlement of Albany saw were those who came with occasional visiting ships. The first settlements in Western Australia were actually under the bishop of Mauritius. The Catholic Church in Western Australia was first ruled by Benedictines when, in 1834, Rome detached Australia from Mauritius
and created the new vicariate apostolic of New South Wales, based in Sydney and headed by the Downside monk, Dom John Bede Polding. In December 1841, Robert D’Arcy sent a letter
Mr Mooney would climb Mt Clarence near Albany to pray the Rosary to the authorities in Sydney asking for spiritual aid for the colony. As a result, Fr John Brady was appointed vicar general of the Swan River Colony by Archbishop Polding in 1843, and consecrated first bishop of Perth in the College of Propaganda, Rome, on 18 May 1845. Laurence Mooney arrived as a soldier in 1833 and ended up in Albany. Spiritually lonely, he would climb Mt Clarence to pray the Rosary. Bishop John Brady, right, arrived ten years later. PHOTO: PETER ROSENGREN
Just over the Causeway on Shepperton Road, Victoria Park. 9415 0000 D/L 6061
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THE RECORD HISTORICAL EDITION
Lack of planning a sign of trouble The first Catholic missionary party faced huge problems in the Swan River Colony, not the least of which was the temperamental personality of Bishop Brady. Among other problems: great poverty and lack of resources to support clergy and religious, and poorly planned missions far away...
therecord.com.au
2 October 2013
Geraldton register may set national trend By Matthew Biddle
Fremantle as the first migrants saw it. The normal experience for colonists coming to Western Australia from Great Britain was a long, arduous and often dangerous journey of up to five months. Painting by Edmund Henderson, Fremantle Harbour 1862, watercolour, gouache and pencil. Below, a description by Mother Ursula Frayne of the first Catholic Church in WA, St John’s. PHOTOS: STATE ART COLLECTION, ART GALLERY OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA,
By Hal Colebatch THREE MISSIONS were sent out into the wilderness by Bishop Brady following a ceremony at St John’s Cathedral on 1 February 1846. (For a description of the building in which this took place see shaded box at right). The bishop gave each party his solemn benediction. None knew precisely what dangers they would face, and many of the congregation apparently wept aloud. A group of missionaries was sent to the remote location of Port Essington, near Darwin, to establish the first Aboriginal mission. However, they met with disaster. Fr Confalonieri and two catechists, James Fagan and Nicholas Hogan, were on their way there in the schooner Heroine when it was wrecked in the Endeavour Straits. All aboard
were drowned except Confalonieri and the captain. These two were rescued by the vessel Enchantress and eventually landed at Port Essington. The Protestant military commandant, John McArthur, helped the priest establish him-
I am sure of it from bitter experience, if Brady gets the money I will get nothing... self at Smith’s Point, near modern Darwin. Confalonieri compiled a vocabulary of local Aboriginal dialects, and appealed to Propaganda Fide in Rome for funds, but requested that they be sent to him direct, and not through Bishop Brady,
of whose administrative abilities he had conceived a low opinion (Brady had sent the party off without any money, even to pay for their passages, or any regular means of support and supply). “Otherwise, and I am sure of it from bitter experience,” Confalonieri wrote, “if this money reaches the hands of Bishop Brady, first, although intended for my mission, either I will acquire nothing, or of the three thousand francs, I should be lucky to receive three hundred.” Unfortunately, Confalonieri’s mission was cut short as he died of influenza in June 1848. Commandant McArthur wrote to Archbishop Polding in Sydney that: “His remains were accompanied to the tomb by the officers and military with all the respect that was due to a man so highly esteemed”.
Bishop Brady’s party had arrived in Perth in the evening of 8 January 1846 after a boat trip up the Swan River from Fremantle. Mother Ursula Frayne recorded her impressions of Perth’s first Catholic church when she saw it in the light of the following day:
“T
he church … what was it like? Imagine a room about 30 feet long by 15 feet high and 12 feet high; a shingle roof, through which the sun, moon and stars could be distinctly seen; a few planks laid loosely on the ground did duty as flooring; door spaces, but no doors; window spaces, but no windows; an old wooden counter, the gift of a retired shopkeeper, served for an altar. A faded green tablecloth, with yellow corners, did duty as an antependium, and a strip of calico, unhemmed, was the only altar-cloth. Such was the church and its furniture, yet, poor as it was, it bore testimony to the undying faith of the Irish Catholics, for it was the offering of a few Catholics. Some gave their time and labour, others gave materials, while a few gave their mite in cash. Such poor persons deserve much praise for their joint exertions. They did what they could, and that is all God expects from His creatures, and perhaps this poor building was as acceptable to Him as the most sumptuous Churches in countries where the wealth of the inhabitants can well afford a great outlay for the service of Him to all is due … There it stood, the church, the only spot in that vast country which the almighty Giver of all had reserved for Himself.”
GERALDTON will soon become the first diocese in Australia to use an accession register to record the details of items of historical significance, thanks largely to the work of Perth’s Fr Robert Cross. With the help of computer programmer Monica Podesta, Fr Cross has developed a database of the diocese’s historical artefacts, similar to those used in Europe. The pair have been working on the project for more than nine months, and the register is expected to be operational in the next few weeks. The project was initiated as part of the diocese’s preparation for the 100th anniversary of the laying of the foundation stone of St Francis Xavier Cathedral in 2016. As part of the milestone celebrations, the diocese is undertaking an array of restorative works on the Cathedral. Fr Cross said it was decided that, before the Heritage Centre is built, an accession register be developed. “By doing this, [the diocese] will be able to identify its significant ecclesiastical cultural heritage with a view to protecting it from issues such as theft or illicit and/or illegal disposal, and hopefully put its heritage to the use the Church envisions in its cultural heritage management documents, namely, as tools of evangelisation,” he said. Fr Cross said it was important to record the details of historical items while those details are available. “All this stuff sits in some person’s mind somewhere, then that person dies, and it disappears,” he said. He also stressed the value of a register in helping both lay and religious in the diocese to know the historical importance of objects that may appear to be “junk”. “What happens in the Church is that [a priest] buys a vestment… and then it gets lost, people don’t know its significance, and they think it is old and tatty so they throw it out,” Fr Cross said. The accession register developed for the Geraldton diocese will include details such as the maker, colour, material, dates, description and associations of all the items displayed in the Heritage Centre. Fr Cross said he hopes dioceses around the country will eventually create accession registers. “Every diocese now in Italy is doing exactly what I’m suggesting we should be doing in Australia, that is, accessioning its heritage,” he said.
Storm clouds begin to brew as ill-planned mission sets out By Hal Colebatch
The Record
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THE MISSION dispatched by Bishop Brady to Albany was less disastrous but still an unhappy tale. The party left Perth on 8 February 1846. It consisted of the two surviving French priests, Fathers Francois Thevaux and Francois Joseph Thierse; two lay brothers: Vincent and Theodore; and Timothy Donovan, an Irish ecclesiastical student. Fr Peter Powell accompanied the group but was then to return to Perth. There was no road, and the journey to Albany overland took 18 days through the bush in the hottest part of summer. Why the party did not wait for a ship and go by sea is unclear. In any case, when they arrived it seemed that to have dispatched so large a part of the diocese’s very scanty human assets on such a venture was ill-conceived. Fr Joostens was already installed at Albany, with the impressive title of ‘Vicar General of the Sound’, which Bishop Brady had apparently omitted to tell them. Further, there were only about 100 Europeans at Albany, and the only Catholics were the Mooney family, plus a lapsed Catholic by the name of Dr Harrison. It was decided that the newlyarrived religious would minister to the Aboriginal peoples, and Fr Joostens would be in charge of the European population. In financial terms, Bishop Brady had given the party £30 for their support, but with the need for accommodation, household utensils and food, this would not last long. As the heat of summer
abated they went in search of Aboriginal people, but found only small groups with whom they had only fleeting contacts. As autumn progressed they went further afield, travelling as far as Kojonup, but found no suitable place to establish themselves. Winter was coming on, and cold would soon replace heat as a serious problem. Bishop Brady nonetheless sent them an indignant letter ordering them to establish themselves at Kojonup or some other place distant from Albany. However, Brady gave them little support. As Fr Thevaux wrote to the Bishop on 7 July 1846: “We
small house which was blessed on Christmas Day 1846. This consisted of a chapel, two small bedrooms, a kitchen and an alcove. A letter from the bishop arrived on 8 January 1847, promising them some money shortly, which enabled them to extend their strained credit at Albany. However, the group was on the brink of starvation, and actually reduced to eating frogs with rice to survive. Apparently Bishop Brady had had an idea the natives would feed them, but in any event hardly any natives had been contacted. The group accused Brady of not supporting them. In letters,
Dispatched with only £30, the missionaries soon found themselves running out of money. Nevertheless, Bishop Brady sent an indignant letter ordering them to establish themselves at Kojonup or some other place... are extremely poor, my Lord, with only scanty provisions and but nine shillings in our purse. Furthermore, we cannot rely on the products of the soil for a long time yet. We must have sufficient money to transfer whatever is necessary to our new site”. Fortuitously, the little group received some unexpected help from the captain and crew of a French whaler which put into Albany, and who gave them money to pay some of their debts and replenish their larder. Eventually, the group settled on Lake Mollyalup, near Mt Barker. They cleared land and built a
the bishop rebuked them and accused them of writing critical letters to friends in Perth, which they denied having done. Fr Thevaux walked to Perth to confront the bishop, leaving on 28 February 1847 in the worst of the summer heat, and arriving in Perth on 14 March. “There followed” says historian Fr Bourke, “several stormy interviews with the Bishop”. Bishop Brady first suspended Fr Thevaux as a priest, reinstated him, then suspended him again. Bishop Brady himself, it should be pointed out, was also petitioning Rome for aid.
Fr Thevaux decided to return to France to report on the situation. He would also conduct his two colleagues to Mauritius, where the congregation had some missions. They were not able to find a ship from Albany to Mauritius for several months. However, this had one providential aspect. Dr Harrison, who fell seriously ill, returned to his religion and, with the aid of the fathers, “received the grace of a happy death”. So ended the first south-west mission to the Aboriginal people. Almost exactly a century and a half later, in 1997, members of the same congregation of priests now known as the Spiritans returned from around the world to retrace the footsteps of their first members in Western Australia and were guided to the site of their primitive camp at Lake Mollyalup through the industry of Bunbury priests Fr Noel Fitzsimons and Fr Bernie Dwyer. The two priests had found an 80-year-old farmer who, as a child, had been shown the site by an Aboriginal person “who carried the memory of the sacred place of the first missionaries,” according to a report in the Record at the time. With only two small mounds of stone remaining, the visitors dug beneath what turned out to be the fireplace of a rudimentary hut and, under about 12 inches of dirt, found in the ashes two pairs of Rosary beads and the remains of cooking pots. Stamped on the reverse side of a metal crucifix attached to the larger set of beads they found the figure of Mary and the words Mere de Dieu Priez Pour Nous – Mother of God, pray for us.
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New Norcia legacy of third - successful - mission By Hal Colebatch THE THIRD missionary attempt also underwent great hardships and almost incredible struggles but, in the event, was much more successful, with the Benedictine Abbey of New Norcia as its monument. While it owed its success primarily to the heroic labours of Dom Rosendo Salvado and those who accompanied him, including in particular his companion pioneer Dom Jose Maria Benito Serra, to some extent it may also be said to be a memorial to Bishop Brady and his missionary vision. This third missionary party consisted initially of Salvado and Serra, a French novice, Leandore Fonteinne, and catechist John Gorman. Captain Scully, a relative of one of the Sisters of Mercy, living near Bolgart, offered to transport their goods free of charge. Salvado had great emotional and spiritual strength but also possessed great physical fortitude. He would think nothing of walking to Toodyay and back, a distance of about 100 miles, carrying a heavy ploughshare on his back. The site where the monks eventually settled was named by them New Norcia, after the birthplace in Italy of St Benedict, the founder of the monastic rule which preserved learning and knowledge throughout the Middle Ages. Perhaps Salvado’s most famous early exploit was the concert he gave in Perth to raise funds. He was known as a highly talented pianist. In Perth, the governor granted him the use of the courthouse, the Anglican minister, the Rev John Wittenoom, sent carpets from St
Salvado’s initial departure from Perth with his missionary entourage:
“T
o avoid the heat of the summer, the journey was to commence after sunset. Their many friends, both Catholic and non-Catholic, came to bid them goodbye, some of them with the melancholy apprehension that this might be a last farewell. In fact for one of the party it was so … They entered the little church, received the Bishop’s blessing, sang the Litany of Loreto and the Salve Regina, the concluding hymn of monastic vespers. They walked out of the church and their well-wishers accompanied them a friendly distance in the bright moonlight. Two drays carried their provisions, a change of clothes, tools and agricultural implements and a portable altar. “The missionaries trudged through the sandy tracks to Guildford and Middle Swan, and climbed slowly up the Darling Range into Toodyay. They came to Bolgart Springs at 10pm on 21 February. Reaching out beyond the limits of settlement, the Benedictines eventually arrived at the locality known to the blacks as Noona-Goonda. They found some water which was neither good nor abundant, but had to suffice. The carters unloaded the wagons and drove slowly away, leaving the party in the wilderness.” - fr df bourke, the history of the church in western australia George’s Church and his sexton arranged the lighting. When Salvado returned to New Norcia from the concert with various stock and goods which he had purchased with the proceeds,
It was pelting midwinter rain and with the tracks often flooded. His food often consisted of grubs, roots, lizards and earthworms. Once when the track was lost the bullocks refused to pull, causing
Once, when the bullocks refused to pull, Salvado addressed them saying “My friends, if you don’t know the way, I don’t either.” there was still no direct route from Perth. He had to take a roundabout journey that involved climbing the Darling Scarp, descending the valley towards Northam, and wading the Avon River.
him to address them as follows: “My friends, if you don’t know the way, I don’t either”. Twice he had to unload the cart when it became bogged. He had to walk the last five miles, carry-
Benedictine monks and Aboriginal children pictured in the early days of the New Norcia mission around 1869. Handwriting on the photograph indicates the monastery at the top right position in the photo, with the community’s church just to its left. PHOTO: COURTESY, NEW NORCIA BENEDICTINE COMMUNITY
ing and leading the various animals. Salvado wrote later of early ploughing: “As I walked up and down the furrow, holding the plough tail in my hands, my bare feet trampled on the sharp roots and stones and, alas, my bleeding feet, besides the
sweat of my brow, watered the soil I was working up.” These were the humble beginnings from which the monastery of New Norcia grew. (For a detailed account of New Norcia, see the article by Fr David Barry OSB in this edition.) The dispersal of the missionar-
Archives preserve rich legacy
ies whom Brady had brought with him from Europe and the establishment of the three Western Australian missions, as described above, left Perth’s first bishop completely depleted physically and emotionally as well as financially. He sent Serra and Salvado
to Europe one after the other to recruit more missionaries. This caused a chain of events which further destabilised the infant Church in Western Australia and a detailed account of this controversial period is provided by Fr Christopher Dowd OP.
Mauritius, the starting point for ecclesial jurisdiction of embryonic Church in Australia
A 19th-century depiction of the first Mass celebrated by the Benedictine missionaries, on top of a cart in the middle of the Western Australian bush. PHOTO: COURTESY BENEDICTINE COMMUNITY OF NEW NORCIA
U Archbishop Timothy Costelloe SDB examines the historic vestments in his Perth office. Made at the Royal Workshop in Spain in the 1830s, the vestments are thought to have been used by Archbishop Costelloe’s predecessor, Bishop Jose Maria Serra OSB, pictured in the painting behind him. Another Archdiocesan treasure is the very first Baptismal Register, top, right. PHOTOS: R HIINI
By Robert Hiini IT WILL likely remain a mystery whether the skilled tailors and embroiderers responsible for a set of vestments brought out of archdiocesan archives last week could have ever imagined they would end up at what was then the very end of the earth. Made at the Royal Workshop in Spain in the 1830s, the opulent set of purple vestments are thought to have been used by the onetime coadjutor bishop of Perth Jose Maria Serra OSB (1852-1962) or his Spanish-compatriot Bishop Rosendo Salvado, the founder of the New Norcia Benedictine
monastery. The set, made largely from Indian silk, includes chasuble, stole, chalice veil, maniples and burse. The set’s chasuble and one of its maniples were conveyed to Cathedral House last Thursday at the instigation of Perth historian Odhran O’Brien. Bishop Serra’s ecclesial successor Archbishop Timothy Costelloe SDB and a small number of archdiocesan staff had a firsthand look at the archival treasure. Archbishop Costelloe said the vestments “remind us of how much we owe to those who have gone before us”.
The archdiocese’s then-archivist Sr Francis Stibi PBVM arranged for the set to be painstakingly conserved by Maria Zappavigna over a two-year period from June 2002 to June 2004, consuming
The vestments might have caused a dispute between the bishops. some 200 hours of work. Mrs Rusty Walkley, an authority on embroidery who has done work for Hampton Court Palace in England, was the advisor for the
project. Bishop Serra was appointed coadjutor bishop and eventually apostolic administrator of Perth by the Holy See after longrunning friction with Perth’s first Bishop John Brady, who eventually left the diocese. Mr O’Brien told The Record his research had revealed Bishop Serra to be a man fond of pomp and ceremony. The vestments were thought to have been the subject of a dispute between Bishop Serra and his administrative successor, the second bishop of Perth Martin Griver, with Serra claiming to have paid for the vestments personally.
With Bishop Serra unable to produce proof of purchase, it was eventually decided that the vestments should remain in Perth. After Bishop Serra’s departure, Bishop Griver decided to sell luxury items acquired by Bishop Serra, including a carriage and jewellery, raising 1500 pounds for the first iteration of St Mary’s Cathedral. Mr O’Brien’s forthcoming book on Bishop Griver, the fruit of six years of scholarship, will be published by St Pauls Publications early next year. Mr O’Brien thanked archdiocesan archivist Stefania Di Maria for facilitating the viewing of the vestments.
ntil 1834, New Holland (Australia) was under the jurisdiction and pastoral care of the vicars apostolic of Mauritius. The vast, newly-discovered continent of Australia could not be effectively administered from Mauritius so, on 12 May 1834, Pope Gregory XVI appointed John Bede Polding OSB as titular bishop of Hiero-Caesarea and vicar apostolic of New Holland and Van Diemen’s Land. His episcopal ordination was on 29 June 1834. He was appointed bishop of Sydney on 5 April 1842 and archbishop of Sydney and metropolitan of the suffragan dioceses of Adelaide and Hobart a few weeks later on 22 April. On 1 September 1843, Fr John Brady was appointed vicar general of Western Australia by Archbishop Polding. Perth became a diocese on 6 May 1845 and was a suffragan diocese of Sydney, then Melbourne on 31 March 1874 and then Adelaide on 10 May 1887. On 28 August 1913, Bishop Patrick Clune was made archbishop of Perth and metropolitan of Geraldton, the abbey nullius of New Norcia and the vicariate of the Kimberley.
Bringing it alive - history online Go to The Record’s website to see these and many more illustrations of rare historical photos of the beginnings of the Church in Western Australia. www.therecord.com.au
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Courage prevails as Perth’s first cathedral is built By Hal Colebatch CONSTRUCTION of Perth’s first cathedral began on 27 December 1843. It was originally a chapel, school house and dwelling. The chapel was designated a cathedral on 6 May 1845, on the elevation of Bishop Brady to the episcopate. By the time Brady returned to the Swan River Colony on 7 January, bringing with him 27 missionaries, Perth’s first cathedral was still in a most primitive condition, without floorboards and the roof open to the sky. It is perhaps not surprising that it was the indomitable Dom Salvado who nailed down the floorboards and fixed sheets of calico to the ceiling to keep out the weather. After two years’ work among Aboriginal people in the Moore River area, Serra returned to Rome in 1848. Later that year, he was sent back to Perth with the title of Coadjutor with right of succession and Administrator Apostolic in temporalibus to help Brady govern the diocese. Shortly after this, Perth’s Catholic population grew considerably as a result of the introduction of convicts, the Enrolled Pensioner Guard, and a number of free Irish immigrants. This meant an increase in Catholic numbers from 337 in 1848 to 2,034 in 1854. Bishop Serra was now in charge and the increased numbers meant an expanded need for churches and schools. An episcopal palace was built in Perth, completed in 1856. According to Sr Frances Stibi’s research, it seems 33 monks worked on the building. In 1859, following a petition to the governor by Bishop Serra, the Victoria Square site was ceded to the Catholic Church, 10 years after Brady had first requested from Governor Charles Fitzgerald land adjoining Church Hill and Lord Street for a new church, school house and clergyman’s residence (the site of the present palace). The bishop wrote: “I have the honour to request the attention of His Excellency the Governor to the necessity that exists of erecting a new church in the city for the members of the Catholic faith, their present place of worship being entirely inadequate for their accommodation, and to express my hope that His Excellency may be pleased to grant a suitable site for the intended church. On looking over the map of the city I find there is a reserve marked Victoria Square at the disposal of the Government which from its situation and proximity to our church property would in every way be acceptable to us; and as the church I intend to erect will be large and expensive it would, I believe, in this position serve to the embellishment of the city”. The land was granted a few months later, the governor signing the grant in the name of Queen Victoria. The grant was received by Fr Martin Griver. In Italy, Bishop Serra set about gathering donations and materials to embellish the interior of the cathedral. The Benedictines at the Monastery of St Paul’s Outside the Walls donated marble for the altar.
The view of Victoria Square and the Bishop’s Palace circa 1860. The Bishop’s Palace on the right was completed in 1856 prior to the completion of a new cathedral for Perth. The cathedral at that time was the small church of St John the Evangelist, the second building to the left of the Bishop’s Palace. Below, the completed St Mary’s Cathedral, as seen from Murray Street in the 1870s. PHOTO: COURTESY MRS DOROTHY CROFT
King Francis II of Naples granted 1,000 scudi, and ordered “an iron fence to enclose the whole of the land whereupon the Cathedral is to be built – more than 2,500
will be boxed in a few days and will help you forget all the troubles you have gone through when you see it”. It arrived in July 1862. In 1862, Griver took over as
nial government, arguing that the cathedral would be an ornament to the whole town. He received only £100. In January 1863, Griver con-
The ceremony of laying the foundation stone of the first Catholic cathedral in Perth was reported in the Gazette as follows:
“O
n Sunday the 8th instant, the first stone of a Roman Catholic Cathedral was laid in Victoria Square, by His Lordship the Right Rev. Dr Salvado, in the presence of a large number of citizens who had assembled on the occasion to witness the interesting ceremony. A procession consisting of the children of both schools – bearing banner[s] on which were inscribed appropriate mottoes – the Sisters of Mercy, Members of the Congregation, and Clergy, was formed at the old church, whence they proceeded to the building site, singing hymns of praise and thanksgiving; having arrived on the ground, the Very Rev M. Griver gave a brief account of the ceremony that was about to be performed, after which it was conducted in strict accordance with the Roman Pontifical. The hymn “Veni Creator Spiritus” having been sung by the choir, the Rev. M Griver again addressed the assembly, exhorting them to contribute as liberally as they possibly could to the erection of the new House of the Lord, on the conclusion of which a collection was made and upwards of £10 were contributed. The new church will consist of a nave and two aisles 110 feet long – the former [nave] being 30 and the latter [aisle] being 12 feet wide, with a tower and spire 110 feet high; the style of architecture is gothic, and it is from a design by Mr B. Smith and promises to be a very handsome structure.” feet long – should be made at his expense at the royal iron foundry” (though there is no evidence that the fence ever actually arrived in Perth). Serra wrote from Rome in February 1861 to the anxious Fr Griver: “Courage… the main altar
apostolic administrator. He set about the great task of building a worthy cathedral with zeal and determination. He begged from Catholics and – with the help of one of his senior priests, Matthew Gibney – from Protestants and he begged money from the colo-
vened a meeting of the Catholic community in Perth at which it was decided to commence work on the cathedral immediately because there were now funds in hand. Griver wrote to Salvado at New Norcia asking him to lay the foundation stone (see box above).
Historical items preserved at archives KSC EDUCATION FOUNDATION
SCHOLARSHIPS TO THE UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME AUSTRALIA
The Trustee of the KSC Education Foundation Inc (a project of the Knights of the Southern Cross) takes pleasure in again inviting applications from teachers of Religious Education in Catholic Schools in Western Australia to undertake further study for units in religious education and theology at the University of Notre Dame Australia in 2014. Application forms and further information are available from: The Trustee KSC Education Foundation Inc. PO Box 1048, SOUTH PERTH WA 6951 Telephone (08) 9368 2503 Email: kscwa.office@perthcatholic.org.au Website: www.kscwa.org.au Applications close on 1 November 2013
Catholic Clarity for Complex Times 21 Victoria Square, PERTH 6000 Phone: 9220 5900 Email: bookshop@therecord.com.au
Archdiocesan archivist Stefania Di Maria is in charge of preserving an extensive collection of material that covers the history of the Catholic Church in Western Australia. The archives include 201 linear metres of boxes of documents, Sacramental registers from 1844 until today, original architectural plans, a vast textile collection, newspapers, liturgical books and about 4,000 photographs. The collection is used by clergy and religious, as well as by lay researchers and historians. PHOTO: MATTHEW BIDDLE
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THE RECORD HISTORICAL EDITION
7 Left, a sketch of New Norcia in the 1860s. Below, Dom Salvado shortly after his ordination as bishop in 1848. Bishop Salvado was instrumental in ensuring that funds the community received from European donors was used to buy land, stock and plants for agricultural and pastoral purposes. His hope was that the monastic community could become self-supporting. PHOTOS: COURTESY BENEDICTINE COMMUNITY OF NEW NORCIA
The rise of New Norcia and monastic life The call to missionary life led Spanish monks Dom Serra and Dom Salvado to the far-off land of Western Australia. The pair established the first community of Benedictine monks in New Norcia, but the early decades there were not without their challenges, as Fr David Barry OSB explains. Monastic life in Western Australia 1846-1870 THE FIRST monks to reach Western Australia were, to the best of our knowledge, the Benedictine members of the first missionary party that came with Perth’s first Catholic bishop, John Brady. The party landed in Fremantle on 8 January 1846 after a voyage of almost four months from England via the Cape of Good Hope. The group numbered 28 persons, a number of them priests, men and women religious, and a sizeable group of catechists. Dom Joseph Serra had made monastic profession in his native Spain in 1828 and his confrère, Dom Rosendo Salvado, in 1830. Shortly after Dom Serra was ordained priest in 1835 both of them, like all the monks and most male religious in Spain, were expelled from their monasteries by an anticlerical government. Fr Serra went immediately to continue his monastic life in the monastery of Cava, near Salerno, Italy. Three years later, Dom Salvado followed him, being ordained priest at the nearby town of Nocera early in 1839. They both lived busy and fruitful monastic lives in the Cava monastery until 1844, when they each confided in one another a call to the missionary life. When their offer of service was accepted by the authorities of Propaganda Fide in Rome and, reluctantly, by their abbot, they were assigned to Bishop Brady’s Perth-bound party in 1845. In drawing up his plans for the establishment of missions in his vast but sparsely-populated and largely-unexplored diocese, Brady entrusted the central mission, the third of three, to the Benedictines. The other two missions, neither of which survived for more than two years, were the northern mission located at Port Essington in what is now the Northern Territory, and the southern mission near Albany. The general outline of the story of the establishment of New Norcia is well known and need not be repeated here. What is of interest is the broader monastic life lived in Western Australia during the years in question. Like other members of the still fledgling Swan River Colony, successive groups of monks and aspirants found themselves faced with all the challenges, difficulties and opportunities that the pioneers encountered. Like them, the monks were
adapting to a very different climate where the seasons were back to front, to a land of strange animals, and to uncertainty as to how they would be able to establish and maintain contact with the Aboriginal peoples of New Holland. There were additional difficulties due to their nationality and language. Spain and most things Spanish had been on the outer as far as England was concerned since Philip II and the Spanish Armada of 1588. They belonged to a Church that in England itself was just beginning to enjoy the results of the 1829 Catholic Emancipation Act. In addition to being Roman Catholics, they were monks, or aspirants to become monks, which was still a very suspect occupation in the minds of the predominantly Protestant citizenry of Western Australia. The second missionary party to reach Western Australia came in 1849, this time with the now Bishop Serra. It comprised some monk-priests as well as diocesan priests, several Italian Benedictine brothers and a large number of Spanish tradesmen who came with the desire to become missionary monks. The monks had to find somewhere to live when their plans to take up residence in New Norcia were thwarted by Bishop Brady— now decidedly anti-Benedictine— and his agents in early 1850. Bishop Serra found his band temporary accommodation in Guildford, and from there set out to find a suitable location for a permanent settlement where they could gradually provide themselves with the range and type of buildings normally associated with the European monastic life with which they were familiar. They would need a monastery with an oratory or chapel for liturgical prayer (the Divine Office sung or recited in choir) and personal contemplative prayer to foster the union with God for which monastic life exists, and for the celebration of holy Mass. This initial, temporary, place of prayer would in time be supplemented and to some extent replaced by a proper church. They needed to build places for cooking and eating (kitchen, bakery and refectory), for the various kinds of work required for what it was hoped would become in time a largely self-supporting monastic community (workshops, offices, classrooms for novice formation, storerooms, stables), for read-
Holy Trinity Church in New Norcia, established in 1847, was the home for Western Australia’s Benedictine monks. In 1870, the community numbered 70, its largest number ever. PHOTO: COURTESY BENEDICTINE COMMUNITY OF NEW NORCIA
ing (with a well-stocked library of books suitable to their needs), for extending monastic hospitality to visitors and guests (parlours, guest quarters) and their own living quarters (dormitories and cells, toilet, bathing and washing facilities), and an infirmary in which to care for sick and elderly monks. It is worth pointing out one
vides the needed support in personnel and finances until the new monastery can reasonably look forward to having a reliable supply of vocations and is able to take on full responsibility for its own financial needs in terms of both capital and recurring costs. That was not the case with New Norcia. Two monks sent as apos-
needed funds from year to year was the Society for the Propagation of the Faith, established in Lyon in 1822 by Pauline Jaricot for collecting and distributing funds to needy Catholic missions around the world. From early in New Norcia’s existence, Salvado in particular took steps to ensure that some
The monks were adapting to a very different climate where the seasons were back to front, to a land of strange animals, and to uncertainty as to how they would be able to establish and maintain contact with the Aboriginal peoples of New Holland. And they were monks, or aspirants to become monks, which was still a very suspect occupation to some minds. unusual characteristic of the New Norcia monastery, where most of the monastic life we are considering was actually lived between 1846 and 1870. The usual procedure for founding a monastery is that an already existing monastery sends a group of founding monks to the agreed location, with the approval of the local diocesan bishop, and pro-
tolic missionaries needed some form of monastery to serve as a base for their missionary work among the Aboriginal people. New Norcia owes its early existence mainly to the generosity of Catholics in Spain, France, Italy and Sicily, some of them well-todo, many of very humble means even bordering on poverty. An important source of urgently-
of the funds received from European donors would be used to procure land, stock and plants for agricultural and pastoral purposes in the hope of ensuring that the mission-monastery could become a self-supporting enterprise, able to pursue its purpose without excessive fear of becoming financially unviable. The 1850s were uncertain
years for most West Australian monks and aspirants. Different perceptions of the primary purpose of their coming to and being in Western Australia emerged between Bishop Serra and his confrère, Bishop Salvado. Divisions arose between them that inevitably influenced the monks under their care. Bishop Serra was intent on establishing a monastery in Perth called New Subiaco. As administrator of the diocese of Perth, he could then call on monk-priests to attend to the pastoral needs of a growing Catholic population, as well as having in the Benedictine Brothers a ready supply of tradesmen for his building projects. Dom Salvado was intent on keeping to their original missionary purpose, with their monastery building complex continuing to be erected at New Norcia. However, he was kept in Perth by Bishop Serra who found himself embroiled in disputes with the Sisters of Mercy and unable to retain the services and loyalty of some of the veteran Spanish monks who had come with him in 1849 or with Dom Salvado when he finally returned from Europe in 1853. Charge and counter-charge passed between Rome and Perth, not with the speed of faxes or emails, but with the leisurely pace of the sailing ships and coaches of the era. It was not until 1859 that the authorities in Rome were sufficiently impressed by Salvado’s insistence (he had finally been allowed to return to New Norcia in 1857) that the mission of New Norcia was separated from the diocese of Perth and the monks stationed at New Norcia and New Subiaco were given a choice of continuing in one or other monastery. The great majority opted for New Norcia, where the monastic community increased considerably more or less overnight, while the relatively few who chose New Subiaco accepted after a few years that their future did not lie there but in New Norcia. Given the composition of the Catholic community in Western Australia at the time, Bishop Salvado could not foresee a steady flow of local vocations to the monastic life, and he still had a number of matters to clarify regarding the status of the mission and Monastery of New Norcia. He set out for Europe again in 1864, by which time he had been keeping a daily diary of events
relating to New Norcia for several years, a practice he maintained up to a fortnight before his death on 29 December 1900. During his absence, the prior, Fr Venancio Garrido, oversaw the continuing development of the Mission, and the final incorporation into the New Norcia community of the last monks to leave New Subiaco, keeping Salvado informed by means of regular and lengthy letters. Due to yet another revolution in Spain in 1868, which thwarted the completion of his already flourishing plans to establish a novitiate in Spain to ensure a regular supply of missionary monks for New Norcia, Salvado arrived back in Australia in 1869 with more than 30 postulants, most of whom, after their year’s novitiate in New Norcia, made their monastic profession there in 1870, bringing the number in the monastic community to 70, the highest number it has ever achieved. Salvado had returned to Rome later in 1869 to take part in the First Vatican Council, and received Pope Pius IX’s permission to leave before its conclusion when he learnt of a serious illness that had beset Fr Garrido, who died while Salvado was on the high seas. We could conclude with this summary comment on the monastic life these men lived. It was in its main lines in continuity with 1,400 years of monastic living according to the Rule of St Benedict – an ordered life of liturgical and personal prayer, holy reading and work in varying proportions according to the seasons, the talents and skills of individual monks, and the particular needs of the monastic community and the surrounding ecclesial and civil society. Their work involved domestic, agricultural, trade and pastoral work, and it was punctuated with fresh calls on their Christian faith, patience, hope and love and on their resilience as one difficulty and problem was overcome, only inevitably to be replaced by another. At the end of his long life, Bishop Salvado could write more than once to correspondents, “We seem to be still just beginning. There is so much that needs doing”. For him, it was always, “God alone, and keep going”. He kept reminding himself and others that nothing worthwhile for God’s kingdom is accomplished in life without “patience, perseverance and prudence”—his oftrepeated “three Ps”, which were always based on a fourth, prayer.
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THE RECORD HISTORICAL EDITION
therecord.com.au 2 October 2013
therecord.com.au
2 October 2013
BICKERING BISHOPS AT THE SWAN RIVER In the middle of the 19th century, the Roman Catholic community of Perth erupted in bitter and violent division as two zealous but ultimately flawed bishops fought it out for control of the diocese. It was a battle fought not only in the congregation but in the colony’s fledgling courts and eventually on its streets as instructions from Rome - each time, nine months in the coming - were mischievously ignored or only selectively received. How had Bishop Brady’s optimistic if impractical vision for a mission in Western Australia gone so badly awry, and who was to blame? Historian and Adelaide-based Dominican Father, Dr Christopher Dowd OP, explains.
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The Church in the 19th century: at war with modernity While the fledgling Catholic community in Western Australia was struggling with its own problems, the papacy of Pius IX - the longest in Church history - was getting to grips with revolutionary terror and the rise of modern philosophy and theology, writes historian Dr Robert Andrews.
Pope Pius IX, known popularly as Pio Nono, was paradoxically known for his hardline theology and personal warmth.
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onflict is a major factor in human relationships and a driving force behind the course of history. It is prominent in the early history of Western Australian Catholicism. Catholics were present, as far as we can tell, from the very start of the Swan River Colony, founded in 1829. They were left to their own more or less harmonious devices until 1843 when, at their own repeated insistence, the archbishop of Sydney, John Bede Polding, who was responsible for the ecclesiastical government of the entire continent of Australia and its adjacent islands, despatched their first priest. This was the Irishman Fr John Brady, who was to provide pastoral care for the far distant Catholic community in the west. Hardly had Fr Brady arrived and taken a quick look around when he left again and travelled to Rome where he persuaded the authorities in May 1845 to establish a new ecclesiastical jurisdiction, the diocese of Perth. Brady was appointed as the first bishop. He promptly set off on an extended recruiting and fundraising campaign around Europe. Among the missionary group he assembled was a Spanish Benedictine monk, Jose Maria Serra, who, together with companions having been expelled from Spain by an anti-clerical government in the 1830s, had taken refuge in a monastery near Naples. The relationship between Brady and Serra now moves into the foreground of Western Australian Catholic history, a relationship dominated by bitter controversy and sometimes violent disagreement. Very soon after the return of Bishop Brady with his missionary team, the affairs of the Catholic Church in Western Australia took a sudden and serious turn for the worse. His report to Rome on the circumstances of the new mission territory had been wildly exaggerated to the point of fantasy. Consequently, he recruited a grossly inflated workforce which the miniscule Catholic community was unable to support. Every part of his hopelessly-ambitious scheme, ranging from Albany in the south to Port Essington (near modern Darwin) in the north, failed except for New Norcia where Serra’s Benedictines founded a monastery and managed to hang on. Brady resorted to business dealings in land and livestock to fund the diocese but these, too, failed and he was soon carrying a catastrophic level of debt. Trouble with Serra first comes into view when, in letters sent to Rome, Brady threw the blame on to others, particular-
ly the Spanish Benedictines. Besieged by creditors, the bishop sent Serra to Europe early in 1848 to raise funds to stave off the total financial ruin of the Western Australian mission. However, on arrival in Rome Serra found himself appointed as bishop of Port Victoria, a new diocese in the Port Essington district on the northern coast of Australia that had been recommended by Archbishop Polding. When Brady heard of Serra’s elevation to episcopacy, he assumed that the funds collected would be diverted from Perth and applied to the new bishopric. Resentful that Serra had not done what he had been sent overseas to do, Brady
Polding to undertake the arduous journey by ship and horse from one side of the Australian continent to the other. Although bitter and resentful, Brady had no alternative under these circumstances but, on 4 July 1852, to submit formally to the papal will, apologise for the disruption and scandal he had caused and unreservedly hand over to the archbishop all financial and property claims. Brady left Western Australia forever the following month and spent the rest of his uneventful life in semi-retirement in Ireland and France, supported by a generous pension supplied by the impoverished diocese of Perth. He was allowed
Bishop Brady’s report to Rome on the circumstances of the mission territory had been wildly exaggerated to the point of fantasy... Every part of his hopelessly ambitious scheme failed except for New Norcia where Serra’s Benedictines managed to hang on. sent another Spanish Benedictine, Serra’s colleague, Rosendo Salvado, to collect money for Perth itself. He also applied to Rome for the appointment of Salvado as a coadjutor or assistant bishop to ensure that the funds that Salvado raised would be for the benefit of Perth. Rome had other ideas. It decided that Brady’s coadjutor should be, not Salvado, but Serra, who had already amassed a very large amount of money, and that Serra should have the entire charge of the temporal affairs of the diocese of Perth to compensate for Brady’s bungling. Salvado would be transferred to the diocese of Port Victoria. This complicated plan was adopted, despite warnings that Brady had specifically asked for Salvado, did not get on well with Serra, would be humiliated by having the temporal government of the diocese taken out of his hands, and that it was unethical to divert monies collected for one cause to a different cause. The absurdity of having three bishops for a region in Australia in which the Catholic population had probably not yet exceeded 500
When Brady arrived, the struggle resumed and the Catholic community in Perth tipped over into anarchy. Violent brawling between the two bishops’ respective adherents for possession of the cathedral and the bishops’ residence required the intervention of police.
Left, a portrait of Bishop Serra who replaced Perth’s first Bishop John Brady as apostolic administrator after his final departure from the diocese in 1852. Above, the high altar of the Pro-Cathedral at the Benedictine community of New Norcia during the late 1860s. The community was co-founded by Serra and Salvado. A late 19th-century depiction of New Norcia, top of page. PHOTO: BENEDICTINE COMMUNITY OF NEW NORCIA
was not lost on Bishop Francis Murphy of Adelaide who commented wryly that there was “a number [of bishops] sufficient to convert the whole colony black and white”. At first all went well between Bishop Brady and Bishop Serra when the latter returned to Western Australia at the end of 1849 with a pile of money and a fresh cohort of missionary workers. However, as soon as Serra paid off the diocesan debt, Brady’s attitude changed completely. He appointed as his vicar general the possibly mentally unstable Fr Dominic
Urquhart who had been recruited by Serra from an Irish Cistercian monastery but quarrelled with him bitterly on the voyage out. Brady launched legal action against Serra in the civil courts for control of diocesan assets and summoned a diocesan synod at which Serra was vilified and excommunicated, forcing him to retreat to New Norcia from which he and the Benedictine community were subsequently expelled at gunpoint by Brady’s agents. Brady wrote often to Rome urging that Serra be sacked and decided to follow this up with a per-
sonal visit to the city. Throughout the greater part of 1850, Brady’s agent in the absence of the bishop, Urquhart, pursued Serra relentlessly and aggressively through the courts and the press for control of the property of the Church. The Roman decree appointing Serra as temporal administrator of the diocese was ignored. In Rome, Brady’s mission was a failure. Roman officials had tried to be even-handed but the evidence for Brady’s disobedience, belligerence and incompetence was overwhelming. Not only was Urquhart dismissed from his
offices and ordered to leave Australia, but Brady was deprived by a papal decree of June 1850 of all powers belonging to the bishop of Perth, spiritual as well as temporal, which were transferred to Serra. Brady was left with the title ‘bishop of Perth’ only and narrowly escaped deposition. Furthermore, he was forbidden to return to Australia. Brady ducked and weaved to avoid these commands and censures and eventually ignored them, taking ship for Western Australia in September 1851. A panicked Rome moved to protect Serra by appointing
him apostolic administrator of Perth. When Brady arrived towards the end of the year, the struggle with Serra was resumed and the Catholic community in Perth tipped over into anarchy. Violent brawling between the two bishops’ respective adherents for possession of the cathedral, the bishop’s residence and other ecclesiastical buildings required the intervention of the police. When the papal documents conferring all diocesan authority on Serra arrived in Perth in April 1852, Brady argued incoherently that since they addressed
him as bishop of Perth, he still held the jurisdiction attached to the office. With Serra pleading exhaustion, helplessness and inability to deal any longer with a state of affairs that he justifiably termed a schism and Brady intransigent, pugnacious and defiant even towards the command of the Holy Father himself, Rome came to the realisation that, having exhausted all other avenues, only some kind of local, personal confrontation of Brady in Western Australia with papal authority could bring him to heel. Hence, Rome deputised Archbishop
to keep the title ‘bishop of Perth’ to the end of his days which came in 1871. Serra governed the Church in Perth as apostolic administrator until 1862 when he resigned and returned to Spain. He died in 1886. The chaos in the Western Australian Church in the late 1840s and early 1850s was caused by a complex number of contributing factors, not the least of which was a clash of personalities. The evidence for John Brady’s character is very patchy but he was a complex man. He was a dedicated, self-sacrificing and hardworking if impractical pastor, but ambitious and self-willed, imprudent and stubborn, aggressive and persecuting towards enemies. His persistent uncooperativeness with higher authority was spectacular. Polding wondered if Brady suffered from a mental malady that was said (with little evidence) to run in the Brady family. Brady’s alliance with the fiery, obsessive Dominic Urquhart could well have been a meeting of like minds. Not unreasonably, Serra presented himself as a vic-
tim during the Brady years, but Serra’s personality, too, was difficult: authoritarian, vain, imperious, bad-tempered and touchy, as some Western Australian Catholics discovered when Serra inherited the apostolic administratorship of the mission on Brady’s departure. National differences between the Irish and Spanish doubtless added fuel to the explosive mix, a point which Brady manipulated in his local politics and Roman correspondence. On the other hand, shared nationality did nothing to temper Serra’s quarrel with his fellow Spaniard, Rosendo Salvado, sustained through the 1850s. The exclusion of Polding as metropolitan of the Australian Church from early decisionmaking about the diocese of Perth was a Roman mistake, contrary to the normal procedures of advice and consultation in such cases. Polding’s hitherto high reputation with Rome was already in decline and Brady worked hard to persuade Roman officialdom to leave Sydney out of the calculations. But, in the end, Rome had no option but to turn to the archbishop to subdue Brady and restore ecclesiastical law and order in Perth. On the other hand, maybe Polding should take some responsibility for the fiasco in appointing Brady to the leadership of the isolated Swan River Colony mission in the first place. Also significant in explaining the prolongation of the Perth ‘schism’ was the primitive quality of mid-19th century communications. Around 1850, a full turn-about of correspondence between Australia and Europe could not be achieved in much less than nine months to a year. The ponderously slow rate of communication was exacerbated by Brady and Urquhart playing fast and loose with Roman letters, pretending not to have received instructions. The sheer distance of Perth from Rome – and to a lesser extent from Sydney – gave Brady a sense of invulnerability which he exploited to the full. In the end, whatever the allocation of blame should be, the long, drawn-out and ferocious fight between John Brady and Joseph Serra and aspects of the personalities of the two bishops hindered the progress of the Catholic community and institutions of Western Australia for the first 20 years or so. It was only when both of them were off the scene and leadership of the Catholic community passed to another Spaniard, the diocesan priest Martin Griver, that the Western Australian mission started to move forward.
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HE PERIOD from 1846 to 1870 is matched closely by the longest pontificate in Catholic history: the reign of Pius IX or Pio Nono, as he is affectionately known (reign 1846-1878). His time as pope was one of immense significance, during which a number of historic Catholic dogmas were promulgated, most notably the Immaculate Conception of Our Lady and Papal Infallibility, the latter of which was part of the First Vatican Council. By themselves, these are some of the major theological developments of the modern era, but they were accompanied and shaped by a European social and political history that makes their advent more plausible to the contemporary reader who interprets Catholicism within a secular and multicultural society, usually through the lens of the Second Vatican Council. The historic moment that defined how Catholicism reacted to events of the 19th century was the French Revolution (1789-1799). It is easy for us to forget how earth shattering this event was to the Church. France had long been a symbol of the intimate relationship that could exist between Church and State. However, revolution in France had overturned the privileged place Catholicism had in French society. The subsequent spread of revolutionary ideas throughout Europe (including Italy) gave the papacy a defensive edge that made it a fervent opponent of modernistic tendencies into the 19th century. Pio Nono, who had initially seemed partial to liberal ideas, had only reigned for a few years before Italian nationalism drove him from Rome during the Italian revolution of 1848. The Pope returned to Rome in 1850, though by now he had come to see liberal ideas— both in politics and theology—as a danger to the Church. A reactive attitude against liberalism would become a defining feature of Pio Nono’s pontificate. It resulted in the Pontiff supporting the conservative ultramontane wing within the Church and regarding with intense suspicion the liberal Catholics of Europe who tried to reconcile the Church with modern ideas, notwithstanding the revolutionaries who sought to overthrow it. Pio Nono’s theologically aggressive and centralising papacy resulted in a number of developments that re-affirmed the Church’s spiritual authority in an age perceived to be fundamentally hostile to it.
It was, indeed, an assertive period for the Church. 1850 saw the English Catholic hierarchy restored, but more significant was Pio Nono’s definition of the Immaculate Conception in 1854, solemnly making it a dogma of the Church that “[t]he Most Blessed Virgin Mary was, from the moment of her conception, … preserved immune from all stain of original sin”. Indeed, Our Lady featured prominently in this period, her example inspiring the faithful to a deeper and more active piety. The following decade saw Pio Nono’s fight against liberalism increase in intensity. In 1864, the Pontiff released the Syllabus Errorum (Syllabus of Errors), a forceful summation of 80 modernistic errors that the Church
A reactive attitude against liberalism would become a defining feature of Pope Pius IX’s pontificate... Though condemning of ideas that it feared could destroy it, the Church did not retreat from the world. rejected. The errors listed ranged from religious liberty to freemasonry. The document was an ideological declaration of war on modernity, its contents made more understandable today by paying attention to the context of the revolutionary age the Church was enduring. The Syllabus’ most famous statement was its final condemnation: “That the Roman pontiff can, and ought to, reconcile himself, and come to terms with progress, liberalism and modern civilisation”. By far the most prominent event of the Church in this period, however, was the First Vatican Council (186970), which resulted in the historic definition of papal infallibility. This doctrine can be said to have represented the zenith of Catholic assertiveness during the 19th century. As the decree itself stated, the Catholic Church now decreed that infallibility, albeit within the confines of strict conditions, was a part of the Petrine office: “[W]e teach and define that it is a dogma divinely revealed: that the
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Roman Pontiff, when he speaks ex cathedra, that is, when he defines a doctrine regarding faith or morals to be held by the universal Church, by the divine assistance promised to him in blessed Peter, is possessed of… divine infallibility.” Like the Syllabus, the context of the period explains why a definition of infallibility emerged when it did, for almost immediately after the council, Pio Nono lost the last remaining vestige of papal territory—Rome itself—to the forces of Italian nationalism (the other papal states had been lost in 1860 during a similar conflict). It was the end of an era. Since the 8th century, popes had ruled over territories and even commanded armies. By 1870, however, the Pope’s temporal power was gone. Perhaps the definition of papal infallibility is best interpreted as the Church’s way of stating that it held a spiritual authority that no army or political movement could ever remove. Defiant against modernism to the end, Pio Nono died in 1878. Though unbending in his principles, he exhibited a charm and warmth of disposition that many Catholics were attracted to. Like John Paul II, people loved Pio Nono. John Henry Newman, for example, referred to the ‘magic of his presence’, even if he did not always see eye-to-eye with the prudence of all his decisions. Of course, it would be a mistake to interpret the history of the Church in this period solely through the pontificate of this one Pope, no matter how influential. Though condemning of ideas that it feared could destroy it, the Church did not retreat from the world. There were, indeed, many notable examples of sanctity and theological creativity during this period that inspired the faithful. In France, the saintly Curé d’Ars inspired tens of thousands of French and European Catholics towards holiness through his example of pastoral devotion, whilst at Lourdes in 1858 a 14-year-old Bernadette Soubirous was told by Our Lady that she was the Immaculate Conception. Across the channel in England, the Anglican convert Newman interpreted and explained the faith with more sagacity than any other theologian of his time; whilst across the globe, in the expanding European colonies, Catholic missionaries—priests, monks, nuns and the laity—attempted to keep the faith alive amongst settlers and, more importantly, convert natives.
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THE RECORD HISTORICAL EDITION
therecord.com.au
2 October 2013
Swan River’s tenacious woman of mercy Ursula Frayne was no newcomer to missionary work when she stepped ashore in the Swan River Colony in 1846. Back in Ireland, the bishop of Perth had told her about more than 5,000 European children and millions of Aboriginal ‘heathens’ awaiting ministry and conversion. It was nothing like the reality, writes Dr Catherine Kovesi. FRUSTRATINGLY for any wouldbe biographer, the motto chosen by the Irish Sister of Mercy, Mother Ursula Frayne, on the day of her religious profession was ‘But Jesus was silent’. Perhaps it was in recognition of her forthrightness, her desire to speak in order to get the job done, that Ursula had this motto as a personal reminder that she had taken a vow of obedience, not just to God, but to her religious superiors, no matter how unreasonable, unjust and counter productive they might prove to be. Certainly for Sisters of Mercy both in Newfoundland and in Melbourne it is always something of a conundrum that nothing in the way of personal reflection or even basic correspondence remains from their foundress; with problematic outcomes for foundation stories in the case of the former, and frustration for the latter given Ursula’s 28 years in Melbourne of religious, educational, and charitable activities of the highest order. Fortunately, however, there is a remarkable legacy of personal correspondence, and a unique document of missionary reflection, from Ursula’s years in the fledgling Swan River Colony and its Catholic mission. And it was her relatively brief time in Perth, controversial and painful as it turned out to be, that seems to have had the most enduring impact on Ursula’s sense of herself and her mission in Australia. When, finally, in a period of ill health in Melbourne shortly before her death in June 1885 of cancer, it was not to Dublin, Newfoundland or Melbourne, but to Perth that her mind turned, and about those years that she chose to write; to be silent no longer. Perhaps it was partly because Melbourne was a cosmopolitan, well-established city and, whilst her work there was demanding, it was not on the same level of strangeness, otherness, and extraordinary difficulty (both practical and spiritual) as that posed by the fledgling Swan River Colony in the mid-19th century. But also maybe because a mission to the Aboriginal peoples of Australia, which had first brought her to Australia, and its ultimate failure, led her to reflect more deeply on the nature of mission, of conversion and religious faith. Ursula wrote her Sketches of Conventual Life in the Bush and Anecdotes of the Native Australians in part “to encourage members of the religious order to which I have the honour and happiness of being associated, should they find themselves in positions of trial or difficulty”. Ursula Frayne was already an experienced missionary when she arrived in Perth in 1846. Born Clara Frayne in Dublin probably in 1817 at the age of 16, she was drawn to join a new and dynamic religious order for women in the city, that of the Sisters of Mercy founded by Catherine McAuley in 1831, and became a fully professed sister in January 1837, taking the religious name Ursula. The Sisters of Mercy were granted an unusual and historic privilege, that of being unenclosed, seen by Catherine as essential if her focus on dispensing Mercy wherever it was most needed was to be fulfilled adequately. Not seen on the streets of the world since the papal bull Periculoso in 1298 (reinforced by the bull Circa pastoralis of 1566), nuns out of enclosure ensured that the Sisters of Mercy—the ‘walking nuns’—were to be one of the most visible and influential Catholic female missionary orders of the 19th century. The three principal objects of the Sisters of Mercy were: education of poor girls; visitation of
A portrait of Mother Ursula Frayne hanging in the Sisters of Mercy Nicholson Street Convent in Fitzroy, Victoria.
the sick; and protection of poor women of good character. Ursula completed her novitiate under Catherine McAuley’s tutelage, was professed by her, was shortly under her close guidance as her chosen Superioress of the convent of St Anne’s in nearby Booterstown, was the sister chosen to nurse Catherine McAuley on her deathbed in 1841, and was also one of the sisters named personally by Catherine in a codicil in her will. The charism of Mercy which Ursula imbibed and in turn brought to remote corners of the
globe was, therefore, one learnt directly from her charismatic foundress. Although Ursula was always eminently practical, there must also have been something of a
rience. As a Sister of Mercy, Ursula was to travel an astonishing 62,480km—from one end of the world and its extremities of weather to the other. Ursula was sent to the island of
PHOTO: COURTESY OF THE INSTITUTE OF SISTERS OF MERCY OF AUSTRALIA AND PAPUA NEW GUINEA
she and another of the founding sisters returned to Dublin. Then, in 1845, the newly elevated Bishop John Brady from Perth came to call on the sisters in Dublin. Ascetic, undoubtedly holy, but naïve,
Although Ursula Frayne was always eminently practical, there must also have been something of a 19th-century romantic about her. 19th-century romantic about her. Apart from its spiritual rewards, joining a religious order gave a single woman scope for travel and adventure that other single women of the day could only rarely expe-
Newfoundland in 1842 in order to bring the Sisters of Mercy to that country. Her period there under Bishop Michael Fleming was difficult and ultimately untenable, and, just one year later, in 1843,
misguided, and ill-informed, Brady was seeking sisters to join a missionary band which he had convinced (and had somehow convinced himself) was to tend to more than 5,000 European
children and two million heathen Aboriginal peoples awaiting Catholic instruction in the 16-year-old Swan River Colony. Fired by Brady’s words, the Sisters of Mercy agreed to send three sisters and three novices on this mission and Ursula Frayne was selected as their Superioress. The Irish sisters were part of a group totalling 27 missionaries from Spain, Italy and France. She arrived in the blistering summer heat of a Perth January in 1846, dressed in her dark Irish serge woollen habit, with no accommodation prepared for her band,
and a small, dominantly Protestant community in the city hostile to their presence. Ursula’s first experiences in the colony were in stark contrast to the vision of millions of souls ripe for conversion inspired by Brady. There were, in fact, only 337 Catholics in the colony, and an unspecified, but not large, number of Aboriginal peoples. When only one Catholic girl turned up at the newly minted Mercy School on 2 February 1846 (a number which rose only to five after a week), Ursula wrote: “[t] his was rather discouraging to persons who had come a journey of sixteen thousand miles in order to teach some at least of the four thousand little ones … I fancy His Lordship had mentally included the Aboriginal natives who might possibly number 4,000 roaming about the wilds of Australia, and whom it might be possible to Christianise”. Although they did end up being visited quite regularly by Aboriginal people, Ursula and her sisters quickly realised that converting Aboriginal adults to Christianity was not ever going to be their chief mission in Australia. However, the original ideal of heathen conversion, which had brought her to the colony in the first place, proved remarkably tenacious. This ideal underpinned the establishment of the so-called Benevolent Institution – a small residential house for Aboriginal children and destitute European children adjacent to the sisters’ convent. Initiated when Dom Rosendo Salvado brought an abandoned Aboriginal child to the sisters in 1847, the Benevolent Institution soon housed a shifting population of nine Aboriginal children, all of whom were baptised and given Christian names. The importance placed on this by Ursula is made clear by an extraordinary letter she penned to Queen Victoria asking for aid in the care of these children. And, in a manner strikingly similar to that of Bishop Brady in 1845, when Ursula travelled back to Ireland in 1850 in order to inspire others to join her mission in Perth, it was not the needs of the children of English settlers in Perth about whom she spoke. Instead she brought with her a young Aboriginal girl whom she left behind to be educated in England as evidence of the need for, and success of, her mission. (Tragically, this child, baptised Mary Catherine Palamira, died shortly afterwards in an English boarding school from pulmonary tuberculosis.) The greatest legacy of Ursula Frayne in Perth, however, was not to be in the problematic moral minefield of Aboriginal care and conversion. It was, instead, her role as an educator that is still clearly in evidence today. Mercedes College in Victoria Square at Perth’s centre traces its origins back to Ursula’s first school of 1846 and was the first school Australia-wide to be founded by a religious order, the first permanent school in Western Australia, and Western Australia’s first secondary school. Similarly, when she arrived in Melbourne in 1856, Ursula established the first secondary school for girls in Victoria, the presentday Academy on Nicholson Street, Fitzroy. But I wonder whether, in her heart, Ursula still craved the role of missionary to the Aboriginal people in the bush and whether that is why in the months before she died her final effort was to write about those early days in Perth.
Greatest credit for early success belongs to Frayne for capable, robust leadership By Hal Colebatch THE SIX Sisters of Mercy and one postulant recruited by Bishop Brady in Dublin under Mother Ursula Frayne formed the nucleus of Western Australia’s oldest order of sisters. They may be counted as among Bishop Brady’s success stories, but the greatest credit must go to Mother Ursula Frayne herself, who showed extraordinarily capable leadership, robust
good spirits and commonsense, enabling them to make steady progress in spite of many difficulties. Fortunately, many of her letters and other writings have been preserved. She was an eloquent writer and these provide a fascinating picture of life in the early days of the colony, as well as illuminating her spirit. Her portrait, like that of Salvado, gives some notion of her powerful personality. Upon arriving in Western
Australia in January 1846, the Sisters set to work at once, organising a temporary convent and
the thousands of children “eager for the light”, whom Bishop Brady had promised them in Dublin, one
The girl was about to be killed and eaten but was rescued and brought in to the sisters. makeshift school, improvising furniture from bricks, planks and packing cases. But, as Fr Bourke puts it in his history, instead of
single child turned up: “This did not discourage them: ‘Since they will not come to us, we will go to them’, said the dauntless
superior, and they began their house to house visitation.” After three months they had 50 children, Catholic and nonCatholic, at the school, and 100 by August. The Blue Book of 1846 observed that they were running a free school for females with an attendance of 63. Fr Bourke continues: “On the third Sunday of September, a very unusual child was brought in to the sisters. Dom Salvado, in his wanderings
through the bush with the natives, had come across an abandoned little girl. “She was about to be killed and eaten, but he rescued her and carried her on his shoulders the eighty miles to the Sisters in Perth. Other native girls followed, though not in such dramatic circumstances, some being brought in by their parents.” Dom Salvado later gave another of his piano recitals to help them raise funds for a convent, which
was completed in 1848. They were able to begin a second school at Fremantle in December 1847. The following year they received reinforcements from Ireland. Throughout the turmoils of Bishop Brady’s troubled years the Sisters carried steadfastly on, running their usual raffles and bazaars to keep the schools open and also the Aboriginal girls who attended them cared for. In 1855, two sisters established a school at Guildford to teach the local children.
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Church finds its feet through the sanctity of Griver When an anti-clerical government prevented his ordination, Martin Griver turned to studying medicine. Before that, he worked as a clerk in an accountancy firm. They were skills which would hold him in good stead, more than a decade later, when he was called on to helm a rather difficult diocese, writes Odhran O’Brien.
F
OLLOWING the arrival of the founding party of Catholic missionaries in the colony of Western Australia in 1843, the early years of the Catholic Church were marked by instability. Several reasons explain these turbulent beginnings. The diocese had been established primarily as a mission with an over-ambitious and under-resourced plan to evangelise the Aboriginal people using missionaries, many of whom were unable to cope with the hostile environment; the population of Catholic European settlers was small, poor and spread over a vast colony which economically was in a parlous state and was unable to support the missionary staff. Compounding these difficult circumstances were the complex personalities of the Church’s early leaders. The first bishop, John Brady, governed the diocese from 1845. He was a zealous and pious missionary but was unable to raise sufficient financial support to back his missionary efforts and was forced to retire from Perth in 1852, under orders from Rome, although he retained the title of bishop of Perth until his death in 1871. Bishop Jose Maria Serra, the Spanish Benedictine monk, was made administrator of the diocese in 1852 until he resigned in 1862. Serra excelled at raising money and recruiting missionaries but lacked the ability to create unity within the Catholic community. Serra was followed by Martin Griver, another Spaniard from the region of Catalonia. Griver’s leadership marked a period of much greater unity and progress. Griver was temporarily placed in charge of the diocese in 1862 and, unlike his predecessors, he had no great missionary plan for Perth. His administration lasted some 24 years and, along with the completion of many churches, boasts the construction on Victoria Square of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary which was opened in 1865. It was later extended and became known as St Mary’s Cathedral. Under Griver’s leadership, the Catholic Church expanded its role, establishing a greater number of charitable works and obtaining government financial support for Catholic schools. The following is a brief account of the man and the missionary. Early Life in Spain MARTIN Griver y Cuni was born in the city of Granollers on 11 November 1814. His parents Jaume and Teresa, who worked in the local wine industry, had five children of whom Martin was the second youngest. At the age of 14, he entered a minor seminary in the city of Vic. He then graduated to the major seminary in Barcelona during which time he also worked as an accountancy clerk and tutor. In 1835, while young Martin was in the seminary, the anti-clerical Liberal Spanish government placed a ban on ordinations. Unable to obtain holy orders at the end of his theological training, Griver enrolled to study medicine and surgery during 1841, graduating in July 1845. Finally, in late 1847, he was able to be ordained and his first appointment was to his native Granollers as a curate. During his curacy, Griver decided to volunteer for missionary work in Western Australia, having been introduced to Bishop Serra. Both Rosendo Salvado and Serra, who together had co-founded New Norcia monastery in 1846, were travelling Europe at that time in search of missionaries and donations. Bereft of substantial support from the colonial government at a time of severe economic difficulties, Bishop Brady had sent Serra and Salvado, one after the other, to Europe to recruit missionaries and raise funds for the necessitous Perth diocese. After a series of complex events at the Vatican regarding the affairs of Perth and the appointments of Serra and Salvado as bishops, it was decided that Serra would be made coadjutor bishop of Perth and placed in charge of its finances while Salvado was given the diocese of Port Victoria, near modern-day Darwin. In December 1849, Serra returned to Perth with over 30 missionaries, including Fr Griver, whom he and Salvado had recruited from Europe. Early Missionary Career A FEW months after Serra’s return and several heated meetings, Brady left for Rome to have Serra’s appointment as coadjutor overturned, causing a schism
bishopric, the construction of St Mary’s Cathedral, along with other new churches and schools and the inception of Catholic charitable organisations. Eventually, Propaganda Fide decided to consider his candidature which was endorsed by Salvado and other senior clergy. While travelling on the road to Fremantle in January 1870, Fr Griver spotted his assistant, Fr Matthew Gibney, riding towards him and, on approach, Gibney addressed Griver as ‘Your Lordship’. This signified that Rome had at last promoted him to the episcopate. Griver remained the administrating bishop of the diocese until 1873 when, following Brady’s death, he was officially appointed the second bishop of Perth.
The second bishop of Perth, Martin Griver, was renowned during his own lifetime for his sanctity and the eminently pastoral nature of his ministry. His was a period of stability, relative unity and growth. He is pictured above in a portrait which hangs in the dining room of Perth’s Cathedral House, painted by Margaret Johnson. PHOTO: PETER ROSENGREN
between the two. Griver remained loyal to Serra and followed the bishop along with his recruits to Guildford where they established a temporary Benedictine monastery and attempted to avoid Dominic Urquhart, Brady’s vicar general, who had been hostile towards the group. As a condition of volunteering for Western Australia, the newly-arrived recruits had promised to consider monastic profession and to live according to the Rule of St Benedict. Griver, however, decided to remain a secular priest. On Brady’s return to Perth late in 1851, arguments continued, with the clergy and the laity taking sides, over who was the legitimate ecclesiastical authority in Perth. In 1852, Roman authorities decided to resolve the dispute by requesting that John Bede Polding, archbishop of Sydney, travel to Western Australia to obtain Brady’s resignation and departure from the colony. On Brady’s departure, Serra gained full control of the diocese. Griver was based predominantly in Perth serving the cathedral, hospital and prison while also regularly attending the mission district of Fremantle. One of the difficulties in serving the prisons was preparing those condemned to death for their final hour. In 1855, he gave the last rites to Bridget Hurford, the first woman executed in the colony. She was sentenced to death for murdering her older affluent second husband with the help of her lover. After the execution, Griver removed Bridget’s body and organised a burial as
her family had deserted her. He regularly continued to visit condemned prisoners, demonstrating compassion and ensuring that they were not alone in such a time of need. In later years, on separate trips to Spain, he was asked to give the last rites to two of the bishops of Barcelona. Whether by fate or through a personal ministry, he was often called to prepare souls for the afterlife. Outside of his work in Perth
a concern for the spiritual wellbeing of the Catholics he encountered and he often alerted his superiors of the need for more missionaries. Administrator IN 1859, at Salvado’s request, Rome separated New Norcia monastery from the jurisdiction of the diocese and placed it under the abbot’s sole control. All of the Benedictine monks were given the
the Vatican office for missionary affairs, to alter the decree. Ultimately, he resigned in January 1862 in favour of Griver who was appointed apostolic administrator until another bishop was elected. Although despondent that his superior had given up, Griver was immediately consumed by the task of building a cathedral on the land which Serra had requested from the government. The original cathedral built by Brady was no
In serving at prisons, he prepared those condemned to death for their final hour. In 1855, he gave the last rites to Bridget Hurford, the first woman executed in the colony. She was sentenced to death for murdering her older affluent second husband. Griver was the one who removed Bridget’s body and organised a burial as her family had deserted her. and Fremantle, Griver visited the outer districts, riding great distances up to 1,000 miles and more. His duties included performing baptisms and marriages and giving religious instruction; he often found himself sleeping in mining huts or under the stars and celebrating Mass in makeshift chapels. When Salvado returned from Europe in 1853, having been relieved of the responsibility for Port Victoria diocese, Griver also visited New Norcia to help care for sick monks and Aboriginal people. Due to isolation, he often had to create medicines from natural and easily accessible sources such as mustard seeds. The reports that Griver wrote during time spent travelling the outer districts show
choice of remaining in the bishopric or entering New Norcia. Serra was fearful that the decree would significantly reduce the number of monks at his disposal to work as missionaries throughout the diocese. Further, it threatened his plans for a chain of monasteries throughout the colony under the control of the diocesan bishop, which would supply priests for the growing number of churches and act as beacons of Catholic faith and teaching and so he set sail for Europe with the intent of reversing the decree. In haste, Serra placed his diligent assistant Fr Griver in charge during his absence. However, on reaching Rome, Serra was unable to convince Propaganda Fide,
longer adequate for the growing Catholic population. The difficulty for Griver came with funding the construction, which cost just under £4,000 - an enormous sum for the time. Thrifty by nature, Griver showed great financial acumen, no doubt fostered by his experience of working as an accountancy clerk in his youth. He raised £1,586 alone from implementing measures of economy within the diocese and selling assets purchased by Serra such as jewellery and a carriage. Since the beginning of convict transportation to Western Australia in 1850, followed by the assisted passage of women from the poor parishes in England and Ireland, the number of Catholics in the colony increased significantly.
The growing Catholic population provided Griver with the challenges of building new churches and schools as well as providing priests and teachers. The diocese’s income consisted predominantly of Sunday collections, a moderate amount of donations from Europe and allocations from the colonial government. The Sisters of Mercy, and for a brief period the De La Salle Brothers, played a central role in providing personnel for the schools. At the same time, the system also relied heavily on lay teachers. As with religious orders, English-speaking priests were not easy to attract to the poor and isolated diocese when they could obtain better conditions on the east coast or in America. Griver depended on the cooperation of Salvado who allowed some of the Benedictine priests to work in the diocese. However, Griver was still required to employ the occasional itinerant priest who came to the colony. One of the most eccentric was Fr Francis Kum, a Belgian priest who would often go hunting with his gold-tipped gun, filled his room with Chinese idols and entertained the children attending the Catholic Boys’ School, adjacent to the bishop’s palace, with his pet monkey. While Griver was apostolic administrator from 1862 to 1869, Propaganda Fide failed to secure a new bishop for the diocese. During this time Griver had overseen the separation of New Norcia from the
Bishop BY 1870 when Griver was ordained bishop, the Catholics of Western Australia accounted for close to 30 per cent of the population. He utilised this in a successful campaign against the government to reinstate funding for Catholic schools, withdrawn during Serra’s administration. He instituted important social welfare provisions in the colony such as the opening of orphanages and attempted to establish a mission for the Aboriginal people in the Kimberley. All this he did at a time when there were few agencies, public or private, promoting the welfare of the disadvantaged. By the end of his life, Martin Griver was accepted as a religious leader and respected elder of colonial society – and not just among his own flock. He inspired faith and devotion in people. On one occasion, Lady Filumena Weld, wife of the governor, on hearing that the bishop was sick, rushed her son to the cathedral, vowing before God that if the bishop was spared from death her son would dedicate himself to the religious life; two of her sons entered religious life, one into the Carthusian Order and the other the Benedictine; however, there is no certainty that their decision had any connection to this event. In his later years, Griver regularly suffered from bouts of ill health. He drew the strength to continue his religious duties from his longstanding devotion to the Blessed Virgin, the celebration of the saints and the major feast days. One of the most inspiring examples of this was the celebration of the feast of Corpus Christi in July 1886 when, still recovering from a stroke, he led 600 people on a procession through the grounds of Subiaco Orphanage. The sight of the feeble bishop leading the congregation brought tears to the eyes of many in the crowd. Later in the year, on 1 November, All Saints Day, after a period of prolonged sickness, Fr Gibney was relieved to see that the bishop felt able to celebrate Mass after a period of prolonged illness. Afterwards, Griver remained on the sanctuary in prayer as he often did. Eventually, on Gibney’s request, he retired to the palace. That evening, the bishop had a massive stroke and, shortly after he was given the last rites, passed away. The colony went into mourning and the flag at Town Hall was flown at half mast – an unusual mark of respect for a religious leader. His funeral was attended by senior public officials and members of the legislature of all faiths. In preparing his body for burial, the Sisters of Mercy discovered two wooden crosses with protruding spikes attached to the late bishop’s chest and back. Fr Gibney was called and removed the crosses from the body. It appeared as though he had worn them for many years as his skin had partially covered them. It was an act of self-sacrifice and discipline – a tradition carried out by holy men and women and saints throughout the centuries. Martin Griver made a unique contribution to the colony of Western Australia, both as a man of God and also a true leader within colonial society. He united the Catholic community and guided its members as their teacher and guardian. He campaigned for the rights of his people to practise their faith as well as the rights of those on the margins of society such as the Aboriginal people, orphans and convicts. He also built St Mary’s Cathedral and many churches and schools. His legacy was both spiritual and temporal. In both title and actions, he was truly the second Catholic bishop of Perth.
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LOCAL
THE RECORD HISTORICAL EDITION
therecord.com.au
2 October 2013
Early Catholic community grows in fits and starts From the most humble of beginnings, the small and more than occasionally fractured community of Swan River Catholics struggled to grow, suffering along with other non-Catholic colonials from the isolation of their new home. It was a stagnation, however, which would not last, writes Hal Colebatch.
Above, Richard Ffarington’s Bunbury Western Australia 120’ from Perth. Dating from 1840s and crafted in watercolour and pencil, the painting is part of the Art Gallery of Western Australia’s State Art Collection. Below, Victoria Square as it was in the 1860s showing St Mary’s Cathedral at left and the Bishops’ House. The picture is from the Hampton Album of the AH Stone collection. PHOTOS: COURTESY OF THE ART GALLERY OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA; COURTESY OF MRS DOROTHY CROFT
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T IS WORTH considering the social conditions of the earliest days of Western Australia to gain an understanding of the hardships under which the first Catholic missionaries laboured. The period of approximately three decades from the foundation of the Swan River Colony in 1829 to the introduction of convicts was a time of struggle for all and widespread poverty for some. It seems astonishing today that settlers landed on a sandy coastline without an acre having been surveyed or a building erected. Only the slightest knowledge had been obtained of the soil, climate, products or inhabitants. There was almost no labour to work the land or to build up infrastructure. Although there was virtually unlimited land available, there were great difficulties over its allocation at first and accusations that the government had retained all the arable land for members of the aristocracy. Further, of course, much of the land was of little use due to a lack of roads. The remoteness of the colony meant that it was outside most of the world’s trade routes. For many of the settlers, largely members of the British middle class, the culture shock must have been terrifying. However, many of the men were also veterans of the Napoleonic Wars and the tough campaigning of the Iberian Peninsula. The colony might easily have failed completely and been abandoned. It would not have been the first or last time such a thing happened. That it did not fail was a tribute to the courage and endurance of the settlers who made it through every kind of disappointment and frustration. Letters home as early as 1831 and 1832 speak of enjoyment and gaiety, as well as the fact that when provisions from Britain failed to arrive, the colonists made a good fist of growing their own produce. At the end of 1830 the Swan River Colony numbered 1,767 souls. Ten years later it still numbered less than 2,000 and, 20 years later, it was only 4,622. However, farming, particularly wheat and sheep, was doing well. As described in the official centenary history, A Story of a Hundred Years: “In 1836, when people in England were talking of the complete failure of the settlement, a cargo of wheat was sent from Western Australia to New South Wales, where a severe drought was experienced.” As far as sectarianism goes, one does
not get an impression of great sectarian bitterness except possibly among some of the Anglo-Irish officials. The Anglican Church received some official favouritism and, in the future, there lay the long, long battle for State aid to the Catholic education system. There seems to have been many instances of Catholic and Protestants cooperating with and helping one another. In the circumstances, they probably had little choice. In 1849, the settlers petitioned the British government for convicts. This coincided with the abolition of convict
transportation to New South Wales and the request was accepted with alacrity. Transportation to Western Australia went
being particularly important. JT Reilly, a prominent Catholic and newspaper editor, has stated that marriages between the
The colony might easily have failed completely and been abandoned... That it did not fail was a tribute to the courage and endurance of the settlers. on for 18 years, and there is no doubt that it transformed the colony. In addition, there were many free Irish immigrants – the fact that many of these were women
Irish girls and ex-convicts were ‘nearly always happy as well as lasting’. In 1848, of a total white population of 4,622, there were 337 Catholics in
the colony, 213 of these living in the Perth area, the rest very thinly scattered through the few outlying settlements and farms. By 1854, there were 2034 Catholics out of a population of 11,976. There were 455 Catholics living in Perth and 258 in Fremantle, as well as 279 Catholic soldiers and 431 Catholic convicts. By 1868, the population had risen to 22,000. Roads and other infrastructure had been created and there were new towns. In Hay Street the new Perth Town Hall gave a touch of metropolitan dignity and a promise of more to come. New areas and
industries such as pearling were opening up, as was the south west. Albany, which had been trembling on the edge of extinction, looked like surviving. The Catholic population of Western Australia – convicts, guards, ex-convicts and new free settlers, had also increased dramatically and the whole Church establishment was moving to a more rational and economically viable basis. Further, the ludicrous and tragic schisms associated with Bishop Brady had fizzled out with his departure. There was a proper cathedral and a number of other substantial church buildings, including the monastery of Subiaco. Development remained relatively slow until the great gold discoveries – by 1889 the European population was still only 43,000 in Western Australia – but the corner had been turned and the settlers no longer had to live in quite such an extremity of isolation. In 1871, the European population of Western Australia had numbered 23,315, plus 12,470 convicts. Of these nearly half were Western Australian-born, and 3,569 had been born in Ireland. The Catholic population, again exclusive of convicts, numbered something over a quarter at 6,674, of whom 2,490 lived in Perth and Fremantle, being more than a quarter of the total of 8,220. This was a very different situation to that when Bishop Brady brought out the first group of missionaries. Albany’s Catholic population numbered 414 out of 1,585 and there was also a surprisingly large Catholic population of 908 out of a total of 2,472 at Toodyay. York also had a substantial Catholic population of 627 out of 2,493. In the Greenough and Irwin region, Catholics numbered 528 out of 1,557. These were congregations big enough to maintain small churches and schools. Written at a slightly later date, the poem Said Hanrahan, and other writings by ‘John O’Brien’ (Monsignor PJ Hartigan), give a wryly humorous picture of Catholic farmers. An Anglican clergyman, CHS Matthews, writing of his experiences in Australian country towns in the book A Parson in the Australian Bush, remarked that “to our shame” the Catholic churches were generally the most impressive and best-maintained church buildings. Then, in 1898, the vast new diocese of Geraldton, probably the largest in the world, was created. It contained about 7,000 Catholics.
therecord.com.au 2 October 2013
THE RECORD HISTORICAL EDITION
LOCAL
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Ordination latest step in a great history
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HE BEGINNINGS of the Church in Western Australia are a remarkable tale, yet nothing sums up the extraordinary history of the Church better than an event within the last week - the latest ordination to the priesthood of Perth seminarian Brennan Sia by Archbishop Timothy Costelloe SDB on 27 September in St Mary’s Cathedral (pictures, this page). Today, the Archdiocese of Perth and the Church in wider Western Australia cover an extraordinary variety in geographical extent and those who make up the Catholic Church in this State. The archdiocese, dedicated to the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, is bounded in the north by the Diocese of Geraldton, in the east by the South Australian border, and in the south by the Diocese of Bunbury and by the Southern Ocean in its south-east corner. Perth is the Metropolitan See for the Province of Western Australia which includes the Dioceses of Bunbury, Geraldton and Broome. The archdiocese covers 471,118 square kilometres and has a population of about 1.5 million, of whom about 365,000 are Catholics. The bulk of the population is in the capital city; however, the archdiocese also includes extensive fishing, agricultural, pastoral and mining industries. This special historical edition of The Record has focused on the first 50 years or so of the Catholic story in WA. By 1854, Catholics had expanded to 18 per cent of the population with the arrival of free settlers, a number of Irish amongst the convicts, and young government-sponsored Irish women. But it was the gold discoveries of the 1890s which changed the face of WA and the Catholic Church by bringing an influx of lay Catholics from the eastern states of Australia. Anticipating the abolition of government aid to religious schools in 1895, Bishop Gibney began to seek the help of overseas religious orders to provide Catholic education: Christian Brothers, Oblates of Mary Immaculate, and Sisters from the Presentation, St John of God, Our Lady of the Missions, Loreto and Good Shepherd Orders. For a short time beginning in 1887, Mary MacKillop’s Australian Josephite Sisters worked at Northampton. Meanwhile, the vast territory of the archdiocese was made more manageable with the establishment of the Kimberley as a Vicariate Apostolic in 1887. It became the Diocese of Broome in 1966 with Pallottine John Jobst its first bishop. In 1898, Geraldton became a separate diocese with William Kelly,
Archbishop Timothy Costelloe SDB ordains Brennan Sia to the priesthood in St Mary’s Cathedral on 27 September. The moment summed up the enormous changes in the Church in WA over the years. Once strongly Irish, the Church is now much more Asian in character, including traditional Anglo parishioners and clergy, but also many members from India and the Asian region. PHOTOS: ROBERT HIINI
Newly-ordained Fr Brennan Sia blesses family and friends, above. Earlier in the evening, he lay prostrate as the Litany of Saints was prayed, top. The St Charles’ seminarian was supported by fellow clergy from around the archdiocese, centre.
born in the WA town of York, its first bishop. Perth diocese was elevated to an archdiocese on 28 August 1913 with Bishop of Perth Patrick Clune CSsR becoming the first archbishop. He commenced the building of a new cathedral but, because of financial restrictions, only the sanctuary and
local seminary, the founding of The University of Notre Dame Australia, the development of the WA Catholic Education Commission and its Leederville administration, the establishment of Redemptoris Mater Archdiocesan Missionary Seminary and the completion of St Mary’s Cathedral.
transepts were built (opened 1930). They adjoined the nave of the 1865 cathedral awaiting completion in 2009. The archdiocese, which had become strongly Irish at the turn of the 20th century, began to change in the 1920s and 1930s as Italian and Yugoslav migration picked up. After World War II, big
waves of migration meant the rapid expansion of parishes and schools, especially in country areas. St Charles’ Seminary opened in 1942 to help provide additional priests for those arriving from England, Ireland, Italy, Poland, Hungary, the Ukraine and Malta. In contrast, at the beginning of the 21st century,
the Perth Church is characterised by Catholic migrants from Asian countries. In 1954, the separate Diocese of Bunbury under Bishop Launcelot Goody was formed. Significant developments in recent decades have been: the re-structuring of St Charles’ Seminary as a complete
The evening was also a showcase for the changing face of the Church in WA. Religious and congregation members attending the ceremony hail from all over the region. Fr Sia’s family joined him and Archbishop Costelloe after the ceremonies to be able to record this special moment in their lives, centre. For Perth’s newest Catholic priest, the moment was also extremely special as he concelebrated his first Mass as a priest with Archbishop Costelloe, Bishop Donald Sproxton and fellow clergy. The evening, it could be said, all started with John Brady, Ursula Frayne and their fellow missionaries when they arrived in Perth in 1846. Fr Sia celebrated his first Mass two days later on Sunday, 29 September at St Thomas More Parish in Bateman. PHOTOS: ROBERT HIINI
HISTORY IS A STORY THAT CAN’T BE FORGOTTEN Every week, The Record brings readers through its print and electronic platforms the news of the Church at every level. That’s why our motto, proudly displayed for years, has been ‘The Parish. The Nation. The World.’ The history of the early Church in WA is just the beginning of a story that continues today throughout Western Australia and The Record seeks to communicate the living, vibrant reality that is Catholicism in the 21st century. Each year, week by week, we try to make our readers’ Sundays just that little bit better. If you want to stay in touch with the world that spans nations, cultures - and centuries - pick up a copy of The Record each weekend. We promise you, you’ll like it. www.therecord.com.au
WORLD NEWS
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Catechists keep the faith alive By Carol Glatz BEING A catechist is about teaching the faith in its entirety and putting Christ – not oneself – on centre stage, Pope Francis told catechists from around the world. Catechists “are people who keep the memory of God alive; they keep it alive in themselves and they are able to revive it in others”, he said in his homily. The Pope spoke during a special Mass in St Peter’s Square on 29 September for hundreds of catechists. In his homily, the Pope said a catechist teaches the faith to be “at the service of proclamation, not to be important, not to talk about himself or herself, but to talk about God, about his love and his fidelity”. They also speak about and “transmit all that God has revealed, that is, the doctrine in its totality, neither adding nor subtracting anything”, he said. The Pope warned against forgetting about God. “If we don’t think about God, everything ends up being about ‘me’ and my own comfort.” The real meaning of life, the importance of other people, “all of these become unreal, they no longer matter, everything boils down to one thing: having”, he said. “Whenever material things, money, worldliness, become the centre of our lives, they
take hold of us, they possess us; we lose our very identity as human beings,” he said. He reminded his audience that “we are made in God’s image and likeness, not that of material objects, not that of idols”. In an earlier audience with catechists, the Pope said the Church needs good catechists who love Christ, live out the Gospel in their lives and courageously go to the margins of society to share the gift of faith. “Let us follow him, imitate him in his dynamic of love, of going to others, and let’s go out, open the doors, have the audacity to strike out new paths to proclaim the Gospel,” he said on September 27, in a talk that was both improvised and drawn from a text. Seated behind a large wooden desk facing his audience in the Vatican’s Paul VI hall, the Pope joked that he was going to make just three points, “like the old-time Jesuits used to do: one, two, three”, he said to laughter. Many in the audience hall took notes, closely following the Pope’s words. The Pope thanked them for their service to the Church and said being a catechist isn’t a job or a title, it’s a vocation, an approach to life. It starts first with being with God, getting to know him and conforming one’s life to the Gospel – a task that lasts a lifetime, he said. Being close to God means
praying to him, talking with him and letting him “watch over you,” he said, which “warms the heart and keeps the fire of friendship with the Lord alive.” Not everyone, especially busy mothers and fathers, can spend a lot of quiet time in prayer before the tabernacle, where Christ is truly present, he said. But everyone can find some way to be and stay with Jesus because, if not, “if there isn’t the warmth of God, his love, his tenderness in our heart, how can we – poor sinners – warm the hearts of others?” The second thing catechists need to do, he said, is imitate Christ by going outside of themselves and be there for others. Receiving the gift of faith and having Christ at the centre of one’s life, “pushes us out”, compels Christians to go outside their ego and reach out “to others in Christ’s name”, This dynamic of receiving and then giving is like the diastolic and systolic pressures at work in the bloodstream, he said. Without both of these forces at work, the catechist’s “heart stops beating, he cannot live”. But this gift of faith must be total, 100 per cent: “You don’t take a cut for yourself,” he said, “This is not a bargain.” The third thing to do is to not be afraid of striking out into the unknown. - CNS
therecord.com.au
2 October 2013
‘Beware the Church of efficiency’ THE DAY before Pope Francis was set to meet with a select group of cardinals to discuss reforming the governance of the Roman Curia, the Pope said the signs of God’s presence in the Church are peace and joy, and not necessarily a perfectly efficient, flawless operation.
“The disciples wanted efficiency, they wanted the Church to go forward without any problems and this can become a temptation for the Church – the Church of functionalism,” he said, on 30 September. A Church that focuses only on functioning smooth-
ly, being “well organised” and having “everything in its place, but (is) without memory and without promise,” he said, “will not work out”. “It will be the Church of the battle for power, it will be the Church of jealousies among the baptised and many other things that arise
when there is no memory and no promise,” he said. “The Church’s vitality” doesn’t come from documents and meetings “to make plans and do things well”, the Pope said. While those things are necessary, they are not “the sign of God’s presence”, he said. - CNS
Children one cost of Syria’s civil war
Rou’a, 10, from Daraya, plays on a swing with her cousin Abdullah, 2, at an informal refugee settlement in Talabaya in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley. The camp is home to some 55 families who fled to Lebanon from their homes in Syria. Caritas and the agencies’ local partners are helping more than 15,000 refugees across the country, and more than 100,000 Syrians across the region. PHOTO: SAM TARKING, CRS
US Little Sisters of Poor, tertiary College, sue Obama plan THE US Little Sisters of the Poor and a Catholic college are the latest Catholic entities to file a lawsuit or join an existing suit against the US Department of Health and Human Services over its mandate that most religious employers’ health insurance plans cover contraceptives, sterilisations and some abortion-inducing drugs free of charge. The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty filed suit on 24 September in Federal
District Court in Denver on behalf of the order of women religious, saying it does not “fall within the government’s narrow exemption for ‘religious employers’”, despite the fact homes run by the sisters “perform a religious ministry of caring for the elderly poor”. In Santa Paula, California, Thomas Aquinas College, a four-year Catholic liberal arts college, announced it joined in a lawsuit refiled on 20 September by the international firm of
Jones Day on behalf of the Archdiocese of Washington and The Catholic University of America. Meanwhile, a three-judge panel of the 6th US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on 17 September that a Michigan business must comply with the mandate even though the Catholic owner is morally opposed to such coverage. In a statement released in Washington by the Becket Fund, Sister Loraine Marie, superior for one of the three
Little Sisters of the Poor US provinces, stated: “Like all of the Little Sisters, I have vowed to God and the Roman Catholic Church that I will treat all life as valuable, and I have dedicated my life to that work. We cannot violate our vows by participating in the government’s program to provide access to abortioninducing drugs.” The HHS mandate, part of the Affordable Care Act, includes an exemption for some religious employers
that fit the criterion for a nonprofit organisation as specified by certain sections of the federal Internal Revenue Code, namely those referring to “Churches, their integrated auxiliaries, and conventions or associations of Churches, as well as to the exclusively religious activities of any religious order”. The Little Sisters of the Poor do not fit the exemption. The order would have to comply with an HHS accom-
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9 TA L U S D R I V E , M T R I C H O N I N A R M A D A L E 9399 2349 | www.schoenstattwa.org.au
modation for nonexempt religious entities and provide the coverage through a thirdparty administrator who must ensure that payments for contraceptive services come from outside the objecting organisation’s premiums. “The sisters should obviously be exempted as ‘religious employers,’ but the government has refused to expand its definition,” said Mark Rienzi, Becket’s senior counsel and lead counsel for the order. “These women just
want to take care of the elderly poor without being forced to violate the faith that animates their work,” he said in a statement. “The money they collect should be used to care for the poor like it always has – and not to pay the IRS.” Final rules issued by HHS on June 28 extended the deadline for nonexempt religious employers to implement the mandate, setting it for 1 January 2014. If those employers do not comply, they will face IRS fines. - CNS
Some 900 year old advice for the Pope By Francis X Rocca ALONG THE western edge of the Vatican Gardens, just inside the wall that separates them from Italian territory, stands a statue of the great abbot and writer St Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153). The statue portrays the saint holding a book which, upon close inspection, turns out to be De Consideratione (“On Consideration”), a volume addressed to one of his former pupils, Pope Eugene III (1145-1153). Pope Francis may not have noticed the statue yet during his highly active first six months as Pope. But as he prepared to meet from 1-3 October with the eight cardinals he has chosen to advise him on reforming the Vatican bureaucracy and governing the universal Church, he may have done well to consider some mediaeval advice for facing his modern challenges. Many of Pope Francis’ predecessors, such as Blessed Pope John XXIII, have found St Bernard’s book a comforting and enlightening guide. St Bernard wrote under especially tumultuous circumstances, a time of inspiring cultural ferment within the Church but also of struggle between the papacy and secular rulers, when the lines between spiritual and temporal leadership grew often scandalously blurred. The abbot described the papal court of his day as infested by the “ambitious, the avaricious, the simoniacal, the sacrilegious, the fornicating, the incestuous and every other kind of monstrous person crowding around (the Pope) from every corner of the earth to obtain or retain ecclesiastical honours by his apostolic authority”. By comparison, even the corruption and mismanagement sensationally documented in the 2012 “VatiLeaks” of confidential correspondence seem like relatively minor problems. St Bernard offered the Pope spiritual guidance, including admonitions on the importance of humility and selfexamination, and reflections on the heavenly hierarchy as the ideal model for the Church’s hierarchy on earth. He also provided unsentimental, practical advice for papal management. Here are a few examples taken from the 1976 translation: l Never give an order that you cannot enforce, because “impunity (is) the child of negligence, the mother of arrogance, the root of insolence (and) the nurse of transgression.” l Choose men of proven wisdom and virtue for the Church’s central administration, because the “Curia usually accepts good men more easily than it makes men good”. l “The servants of a priest are either more honourable than others, or are subjects of gossip to all,” St Bernard warned the Pope. “Allow nothing disgraceful, nothing improper to remain in the appearance of those who are around you, or in their deportment or their demeanour.” l Beware of ostentatious humility in job seekers: “How many whom you have received as humble have you afterwards put up with as troublesome, insolent, quarrelsome and rebellious!” l Don’t hire anyone who wants the job: “Take in not those who wish office or who run after it, but those who hesitate and those who decline it; even force them and compel them to enter.” l “A mind occupied with so many important matters ought to be without the worry of minor, insignificant concerns,” so a Pope should delegate the “trivial affairs” of his household to someone else – even if that man isn’t the perfect candidate, since none other than “the saviour had Judas as his overseer.” - CNS
therecord.com.au 2 October 2013
THE RECORD HISTORICAL EDITION PANORAMA
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 5 25th Annual Mass at Grotto on Richard and Judy Priestley’s Farm 10.30am at 473 Chinganning Rd, Wooroloo. Head east on Great Eastern Hwy, 10km past The Lakes Roadhouse, 100m past El Caballo Blanco, right/ south into Wariin Rd 1.8km, left at Chinganning Rd, 2.3km to farm gate top of hill on right. Bring chair, hat, and picnic lunch. BBQ meat provided free. All welcome. Enq: 9367 3223, 0428 502 749. One Day Inner Healing Retreat 9am-1.30pm at Holy Family Parish, 34 Alcock St, Maddington. Program includes Praise and Worship, Preaching of the Word of God, Confession, Holy Mass, Eucharistic Adoration and Healing Prayers. Morning tea and lunch provided. Enq: 9493 1703 or vincentiansperth@yahoo.com. Day with Mary 9am at Santa Clara Church, cnr Coolgardie and Pollock Sts, Bentley. Day of prayer and instruction based on the Fatima message. 9am Video; 10.10am holy Mass; Reconciliation, Procession of the Blessed Sacrament, Eucharistic Adoration, Sermons on Eucharist and on Our Lady, Rosary, Divine Mercy Chaplet and Stations of the Cross. Finish approx 5pm. BYO lunch. Enq: Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate 9250 8286. Embracing Womanhood 9.30am-3pm at St Francis Xavier Parish Hall, 279 Forrest Rd, Hilbert. A spiritual dimension over a cup of tea with Sr Ann Cullinane sjg. Cost: $10 includes morning tea and light lunch. Registration closes Sunday, September 29. All women welcome. Enq: Parish Office 9399 4687. SUNDAY, OCTOBER 6 Divine Mercy - Afternoon with Jesus and Mary 1.30pm at St Francis Xavier Church, 25 Windsor St, East Perth. Homily on St Francis of Assisi by Fr Marcellinus Meilak OFM followed by Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, holy Rosary and Chaplet of Divine Mercy. Concludes with Benediction and veneration of first class relic of St Faustina Kowalska. Reconciliation also offered. Refreshments follow. Enq: John 9457 7771. SUNDAY, OCTOBER 6 TO SATURDAY, OCTOBER 12 Individual Silent Directed Retreat 4.30pm at St Catherine’s House of Hospitality, 113 Tyler St, Tuart Hill. Meet daily with your retreat directors, Celia Joyce or Fr Stephen Truscott SM, to explore the movement of God within your life. The retreat unfolds at your own pace. (Limited to 10 retreatants.) Enq: 9485 8980 or www.fullnessoflife. org. SUNDAY, OCTOBER 6 AND THURSDAY OCTOBER 10 Small Group Emmaus Walks 2.30pm, Sunday at Bardon Park carpark, cnr Fourth Ave East and Bardon Pl, Maylands. Thursday, 10am. 10 minutes walk from the carpark to Friendship 2000 Townhouse on the Swan River walkway. With Gospel reading and reflection session on life’s Emmaus experiences. Refreshments, donation to Mission Partners Morley outreach. Bookings essential. Enq: margaretbox7@icloud.com or 9272 8263. SUNDAY, OCTOBER 6 AND 13 Latin Mass 8.30am at The Good Shepherd Church, Streich Ave, Kelmscott. Enq: John 9390 6646. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 8 Mental Health Week 2013 Parish Event 6.45pm for 7-9pm at St Luke’s Parish, cnr Whitfords Ave and Duffy Tce, Woodvale. Mental health touches all of us. 1 in 5 adults experience mental illness. Come along and hear how we can support our own mental health and wellbeing. Guest speaker: Tasha Broomhall, a mental health motivational presenter/trainer. Enq: Barbara 9328 8113 or Emmanuelcentre@westnet.net.au. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 8, 22 AND 29 Springtime with St Francis of Assisi 7.30pm Alverna Centre Meeting Room, St Lawrence Parish, 392 Albert St, Balcatta. Franciscan spirituality for youth 18-35 years. Join us on a journey of fraternity, of love, of trust – Pope Francis. Enq: Anne-Marie 9207 3691. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 11 TO SUNDAY, OCTOBER 13 Inner Healing Live-In Retreat 7.30am at Epiphany Retreat Centre, 50 Fifth Ave, Rossmoyne. Come and receive Jesus’ embrace and healing through his Word and Sacraments during this retreat. Led by the Vincentian Fathers. Enq: Melanie 0410 605 743 or vincentiansperth@yahoo. com. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 12 Mental Health Week Celebration 10am-1.30pm at St Francis Xavier Church, 23 Windsor St, Perth. Archbishop Emeritus Barry Hickey will lead us on a journey, beginning with Mass at 10am, and concluding with light lunch. Confirmation of attendance appreciated (for catering purposes). Enq: Barbara at Emmanuel Centre on 9328 8113 or Emmanuelcentre@westnet.net.au. Divine Mercy Healing Mass 2.30pm at St Francis Xavier Church, 25 Windsor St, East Perth. The main Celebrant will be Fr Marcellinus Meilak OFM. Reconciliation will be offered in English and Italian. Divine mercy prayers followed by veneration of first class relic of St Faustina Kowalska. Refreshments afterwards. Enq: John 9457 7771. SUNDAY, OCTOBER 13 World Apostolate of Fatima Eucharistic Hour 3pm at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish, Castledare Place, Wilson. All welcome. Enq: 9339 2614. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 15 Spirituality and the Sunday Gospels (no meetings in school holidays) 7-8pm at St Benedict’s School Hall, Alness St, Applecross. Presenter Norma Woodcock. Everyone is welcome. Cost: collection. Accreditation recognition by the CEO. Enq: 9487 1772 or www. normawoodcock.com. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 18 Medjugorje Evening of Prayer Group 7-9pm at Our Lady Queen of Poland Church, 35 Eighth Ave, Maylands. In thanksgiving, the Medjugorje evening of prayer group meet every third Friday of each month in a different parish to spread Our Blessed Mother’s messages. Free DVDs on Medjugorje. His Holiness Pope Francis is consecrating the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary Oct 12/13 in Rome, pilgrimage departing Perth Oct 8 will be there, let us be united in prayer at this time. Enq: 9402 2480 or 0407 471 256 email medjugorje@y7mail.com. SUNDAY, OCTOBER 27 Auslan Cafe 10.30am-12 noon Emmanuel Centre hall next to St Francis Xavier Church, Windsor St, Perth. Ever thought about learning how to communicate with profoundly deaf people through Auslan (Australian
Sign Language)? Now you can and it’s FREE. Come and learn in a relaxed and fun way. There is always an interpreter at St Francis Xavier Church for the 9.30am Sunday Mass. Lunch provided. Enq: Emma or Barbara at emmanuelcentre@westnet.com.au or 9328 8113. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1 First Friday Holy Hour 7.30pm at St Bernadette’s Parish, Glendalough, cnr Jugan and Leeder Sts. Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, music and chants, silence, readings and meditative decades of the holy Rosary. Tea/coffee and cake to follow. Enq: Sean Tobin of Bl Elisabeth of the Trinity Choir 0439 720 066. SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 24 Peranakan Community Perth - Fair 9am-2pm at Fr O’Reilly Centre, St Norbert College, 135 Treasure Rd, Queens Park. Proceeds from fair will go towards St Norbert College’s “breakfast club” to feed students who come to school without any basic nutrition; Holy Spirit Freedom Community for their Perth’s homeless, abused, poor ministry and those who have been hurt. Those interested in helping or running a stall offering anything typically Peranakan, are welcome. Enq: Fr Christopher Lim 0437 307 170 or 9458 2729.
REGULAR EVENTS EVERY SUNDAY Gate of Heaven Catholic Radio Join the Franciscans of the Immaculate from 7.309pm on Radio Fremantle 107.9FM for Catholic radio broadcast of EWTN and our own live shows. Enq: radio@ausmaria.com.
Cathedral Cafe Cathedral Cafe is now open every Sunday 9.30am1pm at St Mary’s Cathedral parish centre, downstairs after Mass. Coffee, tea, cakes, sweets, friendship with Cathedral parishioners. Further info: Tammy on smcperthwyd@yahoo.com.au or 0415 370 357. Pilgrim Mass - Shrine of the Virgin of the Revelation 2pm at Shrine, 36 Chittering Rd, Bullsbrook. Commencing with Rosary followed by Benediction. Reconciliation available before every celebration. Anointing of the sick administered during Mass every second Sunday of the month. Pilgrimage in honour of the Virgin of the Revelation last Sunday of the month. Side entrance to Church and shrine open daily between 9am-5pm. Enq Sacri 9447 3292. Praise and Worship 5.30pm at St Denis Parish, cnr Osborne St and Roberts Rd, Joondanna. Followed by 6pm Mass. Enq: Admin on admin@stdenis.com.au. EVERY FIRST SUNDAY Singles Prayer and Social Group 7pm at All Saints Chapel, Allendale Sq, 77 St Georges Tce, Perth. Begins with holy hour (Eucharistic Adoration, Rosary and teaching) followed by dinner at local restaurant. Meet new people, pray and socialise with other single men and women. Enq: Veronica 0403 841 202. EVERY SECOND SUNDAY Healing Hour 7-8pm at St Lawrence Parish, Balcatta. Songs of praise and worship, Exposition of Blessed Sacrament and prayers for sick. Enq: Fr Irek Czech SDS or office Tue-Thu, 9am-2.30pm on 9344 7066.
Bible Study at Cathedral 6.15pm at St Mary’s Cathedral, Victoria Sq, Perth. Deepen your faith through reading and reflecting on holy Scripture with Fr Jean-Noel Marie. Meeting room beneath Cathedral. Enq: 9223 1372. Holy Hour - Catholic Youth Ministry 5.30pm at Catholic Pastoral Centre, 40A Mary St, Highgate. Mass followed at 6.30pm with Holy Hour. Enq: 9422 7912 or admin@cym.com.au. EVERY FIRST WEDNESDAY Novena to St Mary of the Cross MacKillop 7-7.45pm at Blessed Mary MacKillop Parish, cnr Cassowary Dr and Pelican Pde, Ballajura. Begins with Mass, novena prayers and Benediction. Followed by healing prayers and anointing of the sick. Enq: Madi 9249 9093 or Gerry 0417 187 240. EVERY SECOND WEDNESDAY Chaplets of Divine Mercy 7.30pm at St Thomas More Parish, Dean Rd, Bateman. Accompanied by Exposition, then Benediction. Enq: George 9310 9493 or 6242 0702 (w). Miracle Prayers 7.30pm at 67 Howe St, Osborne Park. An opportunity to receive prayers for healing of mind, body and soul. Enq: miracleprayers@disciplesofjesus.org or Michelle 0404 028 298. EVERY THURSDAY Divine Mercy 11am at Sts John and Paul Church, Pinetree Gully Rd, Willetton. Pray the Rosary and Chaplet of Divine Mercy and for consecrated life, especially in our parish. Concludes with veneration of the first class relic of St Faustina. Enq: John 9457 7771. St Mary’s Cathedral Praise Meeting 7.45pm at the Legion of Mary’s Edel Quinn Centre, 36 Windsor St, East Perth. Includes praise, song and healing ministry. Enq: Kay 9382 3668 or fmi@flameministries.org. Group Fifty - Charismatic Renewal Group 7.30pm at Redemptorist Monastery, 150 Vincent St, North Perth. Includes prayer, praise and Mass. Enq: Elaine 9440 3661. EVERY FIRST THURSDAY Holy Hour Prayer for Priests 7-8pm at Holy Spirit Parish, 2 Keaney Pl, City Beach. All welcome. Enq: Linda 9341 3079. Prayer in Style of Taizé 7.30-8.30pm at Our Lady of Grace Parish, 3 Kitchener St, North Beach. Includes prayer, song and silence in candlelight – symbol of Christ the light of the world. Taizé info: www.taize.fr. Enq: secretary 9448 4888 or 9448 4457. EVERY SECOND THURSDAY Life in the Spirit Seminar 6pm at 2 King St, Coogee. The Resource Centre for Personal Development and Catholic Charismatic Renewal will hold seven sessions every second Thursday until October. Enq: Eva 0409 405 585. FIRST AND THIRD THURSDAY Social Dinner (Young Adults aged up to 35) and Rosary Cenacle 6.30pm at St Bernadette’s Church, 49 Jugan St, Mt Hawthorn. Begins at 6.30pm with dinner at a local restaurant, followed at 8pm by a Rosary Cenacle, short talk and refreshments at the Church. Great way to meet new people, pray and socialise! Enq: 9444 6131 or st.bernadettesyouth@gmail.com.
EVERY THIRD SUNDAY Oblates of St Benedict’s 2pm at St Joseph’s Convent, York St, South Perth. We welcome all who are interested in studying the Rule of St Benedict and its relevance to the everyday life of today for laypeople. Vespers and afternoon tea conclude our meetings. Enq: Secretary 9457 5758.
EVERY FRIDAY Eucharistic Adoration at Schoenstatt Shrine 10am at Schoenstatt Shrine, 9 Talus Dr, Mt Richon. Includes holy Mass, Exposition of Blessed Sacrament, silent adoration till 8.15pm. Join us in prayer at a place of grace. Enq: Sisters of Schoenstatt 9399 2349.
Divine Mercy Hour 3pm at St Pius X Church, 23 Paterson St, Manning. There will be Exposition of the Most Blessed Sacrament, Divine Mercy prayers, Rosary and Benediction. Please join us in prayer. Enq: Mrs K Henderson 9450 4195.
Healing Mass 6pm at Holy Family Parish, Lot 375, Alcock St, Maddington. Begins with Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, Rosary, Stations of the Cross, Healing Mass followed by Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. Enq: admin 9493 1703 or www.vpcp. org.au.
EVERY FOURTH SUNDAY Shrine Time for Young Adults 18-35 Years 7.30-8.30pm at Schoenstatt Shrine, 9 Talus Dr, Mt Richon; Holy Hour with prayer, reflection, meditation, praise and worship; followed by a social gathering. Come and pray at a place of grace. Enq: shrinetimemtrichon@gmail.com.
Eucharistic Adoration - Voice of the Voiceless Ministry 7.30-9pm at St Brigid’s Parish, 211 Aberdeen St, Northbridge. Eucharistic Adoration, beginning with praise and worship; and reflection to the scriptures. All welcome. Enq: adrianluke1999@yahoo.com.au.
Holy Hour for Vocations to the Priesthood, Religious Life 2-3pm at Infant Jesus Parish, Wellington St, Morley. Includes Exposition of Blessed Sacrament, silent prayer, scripture, prayers of intercession. Come and pray that those discerning vocations can hear clearly God’s call. EVERY LAST SUNDAY Filipino Mass 3pm at Notre Dame Church, cnr Daley and Wright Sts, Cloverdale. Please bring a plate to share for socialisation after Mass. Enq: Fr Nelson Po 0410 843 412, Elsa 0404 038 483. EVERY MONDAY For You My Soul is Thirsting (Psalm 62:1) 7pm at St Thomas Parish, 2 College Rd, Claremont. Tend to your thirst for God. Begins with Adoration, then 7.45pm - Evening Prayer; 8pm - Communion Service and Night Prayer. Come to the whole thing, or just to a part! Enq: Michelle: 0404 564 890.
LAST MONDAY Be Still in His Presence – Ecumenical Christian Program 7.30-8.45pm at St Swithun Anglican Church, 195 Lesmurdie St, Lesmurdie (hall behind Church). Begins with songs of praise and worship, silent time, lectio divina, small group sharing and cuppa. Enq: Lynne 9293 3848 or 0435 252 941. EVERY TUESDAY Novena to Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal 6pm at Pater Noster Church, Marmion and Evershed Sts, Myaree. Mass at 5.30pm followed by Benediction. Enq: John 0408 952 194. Novena to God the Father 7.30pm at St Joachim’s parish hall, Vic Park. Novena followed by reflection and discussions on forthcoming Sunday Gospel. Enq: Jan 9284 1662. EVERY FIRST TUESDAY Short MMP Cenacle for Priests 2pm at Edel Quinn Centre, 36 Windsor St, East Perth. Enq: Fr Watt 9376 1734. EVERY WEDNESDAY Holy Spirit of Freedom Community 7.30pm at Church of Christ, 111 Stirling St, Perth. We welcome everyone to attend our praise meeting. Enq: 0423 907 869 or hsofperth@gmail.com.
EVERY FIRST FRIDAY Mass and Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament 11am-4pm at Little Sisters of the Poor Chapel, 2 Rawlins St, Glendalough. Exposition of Blessed Sacrament after Mass until 4pm, finishing with Rosary. Enq: Sr Marie MS.Perth@lsp.org.au. Healing and Anointing Mass 8.45am Pater Noster Church, Evershed St, Myaree. Begins with Reconciliation, then 9am Mass of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, anointing of the sick and prayers to St Peregrine. Enq: Joy 9337 7189. Pro-life Witness – Mass and Procession 9.30am at St Brigid’s Parish, cnr Great Northern Hwy and Morrison Rd, Midland. Begins with Mass followed by Rosary procession and prayer vigil at nearby abortion clinic, led by the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate. Please join us to pray for an end to abortion and the conversion of hearts. Enq: Helen 9402 0349. Catholic Faith Renewal Evening 7.30pm at Sts John Paul Parish, Pinetree Gully Rd, Willetton. There will be songs of praise, prayer, sharing by a priest, then thanksgiving Mass and light refreshments. Enq: Ivan 0428 898 833 or Ann 0412 166 164 or catholicfaithrenewal@gmail.com. Communion of Reparation All Night Vigils 7pm-1.30am at Corpus Christi Church, Loch St, Mosman Park or St Gerard Majella Church, cnr Ravenswood Dr/Majella Rd, Mirrabooka. Vigils are two Masses, Adoration, Benediction, prayers, Confession in reparation for outrages committed against the United Hearts of Jesus and Mary. Enq: Vicky 0400 282 357, Fr Giosue 9349 2315, John/ Joy 9344 2609. EVERY SECOND FRIDAY Discover Spirituality of St Francis of Assisi 12pm at St Brigid’s parish centre. The Secular Franciscans of Midland Fraternity have lunch, then 1-3pm meeting. Enq: Antoinette 9297 2314. EVERY SATURDAY Teachers, Parents and Friends Mission Outreach 10am at Morley Parish Centre, 47 Wellington Rd, Morley. Meet during school terms. Primary English teachers and prospective aides offer their services for a small remuneration and donations from the tuition are distributed to missionaries. “Come and See” sessions are offered. Enq: Maggie 9272 8263, margaretbox7@icloud.com.
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CLASSIFIEDS Children’s Religious Education Program (Pre-Primary and Year One) 11am–12.30pm at Our Lady Queen of Poland Parish, 35 Eighth Ave, Maylands. The official Perth Archdiocese Parish Religious Education Program gives an opportunity to children attending nonCatholic schools age-appropriate religious education in a creative and fun environment. Families outside of Maylands welcome. Enq: Hayley 0423 008 500. EVERY FIRST SATURDAY Vigil for Life – Mass and Procession 8.30am at St Augustine Parish, Gladstone St, Rivervale. Begins with Mass celebrated by Fr Carey, followed by Rosary procession and prayer vigil at nearby abortion clinic. Please join us to pray for the conversion of hearts and an end to abortion. Enq. Helen 9402 0349. Mission Rosary Making at the Legion of Mary 9.30am-2pm at 36 Windsor St, East Perth. All materials are supplied. The Rosaries made are distributed to the schools, missions and those who ask for a Rosary. Please join us and learn the art of Rosary making on rope and chain. Enq: 0478 598 860. EVERY SECOND SATURDAY Novena to Our Lady of Perpetual Help (Succour) and Divine Mercy Chaplet (Chant) 8.30am at Our Lady of the Mission Parish, Whitford, 270 Camberwarra Dr, Craigie. Holy Mass at 8.30am followed by Novena. Enq: Margaret 9307 2776. EVERY FOURTH SATURDAY Voice of the Voiceless Healing Mass 11.30am at St Brigid’s Parish, 211 Aberdeen St, Northbridge. Bring a plate to share after Mass. Enq. Frank 9296 7591 or 0408 183 325.
GENERAL Free Divine Mercy Image for Parishes High quality oil painting and glossy print – Divine Mercy Promotions. Images of very high quality. For any parish willing to accept and place inside the Church. Oil paintings: 160 x 90cm; glossy print - 100 x 60cm. Enq: Irene 9417 3267 (w). Sacred Heart Pioneers Would anyone like to know about the Sacred Heart pioneers? If so, please contact Spiritual Director Fr Doug Harris 9444 6131 or John 9457 7771. St Philomena’s Chapel 3/24 Juna Dr, Malaga. Mass of the day: Mon 6.45am. Vigil Masses: Mon-Fri 4.45pm. Enq: Fr David 9376 1734. Mary MacKillop Merchandise Available for sale from Mary MacKillop Centre. Enq: Sr Maree 041 4683 926 or 08 9334 0933. Financially Disadvantaged People Requiring Low Care Aged Care Placement The Little Sisters of the Poor community is set in beautiful gardens in the suburb of Glendalough. “Making the elderly happy, that is everything!” St Jeanne Jugan (foundress). Registration and enq: Sr Marie 9443 3155. Is your son or daughter unsure of what to do this year? Suggest a Cert IV course to discern God’s purpose. They will also learn more about the Catholic faith and develop skills in communication and leadership. Acts 2 College of Mission and Evangelisation (National Code 51452). Enq: Jane 9202 6859. AA Alcoholics Anonymous Is alcohol costing you more than just money? Enq: AA 9325 3566. Saints and Sacred Relics Apostolate Invite SSRA Perth invites interested parties, parish priests, leaders of religious communities, lay associations to organise relic visitations to parishes, communities, etc. We have available authenticated relics, mostly first-class, of Catholic saints and blesseds including Sts Mary MacKillop, Padre Pio, Anthony of Padua, Therese of Lisieux, Maximilian Kolbe, Simon Stock and Blessed Pope John Paul II. Free of charge and all welcome. Enq: Giovanny 0478 201 092 or ssra-perth@catholic.org. Enrolments, Year 7, 2014 La Salle College now accepting enrolments for Year 7, 2014. For prospectus and enrolment, please contact college reception on 9274 6266 or email lasalle@lasalle.wa.edu.au. Acts 2 College, Perth’s Catholic Bible College Is now pleased to be able to offer tax deductibility for donations to the college. If you are looking for an opportunity to help grow the faith of young people and evangelise the next generation of apostles, please contact Jane Borg, Principal at Acts 2 College on 0401 692 690 or principal@acts2come.wa.edu. au. Divine Mercy Church Pews Would you like to assist, at the same time becoming part of the history of the new Divine Mercy Church in Lower Chittering, by donating a beautifully handcrafted jarrah pew currently under construction, costing only $1,000 each. A beautiful brass plaque with your inscription will be placed at the end of the pew. Please make cheques payable to Divine Mercy Church Building fund and send with inscription to PO Box 8, Bullsbrook WA 6084. Enq: Fr Paul 0427 085 093. Donate Online at www.ginginchitteringparish. org.au. Abortion Grief Association Inc A not-for-profit association is looking for premises to establish a Trauma Recovery Centre (pref SOR) in response to increasing demand for our services (ref www.abortiongrief.asn.au). Enq: Julie (08) 9313 1784. RESOURCE CENTRE FOR PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT - 2013 COURSES Holistic Health Seminar The Instinct to Heal (began July 25) Thursdays 11am-1pm; RCPD2 Internalise Principles of Successful Relationships, and Use Emotional Intelligence and Communication Skills, now on Thursdays 11am-1pm. 197 High St, Fremantle. Bookings essential. Enq: Eva 0409 405 585 or www.rcpd.net.au. Drop-In Centre and Op Shop - Volunteers urgently needed at RCPD, 197 High St, Fremantle. 1) RCPD6 ‘The Cost of Discipleship’ This course combines theology with relationship education and personal/spiritual awareness by teaching self-analysis. 2) ‘The Wounded Heart’ Healing for emotional and sexual abuse promotes healing and understanding for the victim and the offender. Holistic counselling available - http:// members.dodo.com.au/~evalenz/. PERPETUAL ADORATION Would You Not Watch One Hour with Me? Adoration - St Jerome’s, Spearwood Adorers are needed. Please contact Mary 0402 289 418. Pilgrimage: Following Christ and His Saints Fr Tim Deeter and Fr Michael Rowe will lead a
Deadline: 11am Monday BEAUTY
PILGRIMAGE
FUNDRAISING
LOOK YOUNGER. The Younger You Mobile Clinic for facial rejuvenation. We come to you. Visit: www.youngeryouclinic.com.au or call 0478616781.
A CALLING TO VISIT THE HOLY LAND - join us! Pilgrimage on “Treasures of the Promised Land” in Jordan and Israel from 17 November to 1 December 2013. For details, email: info@alternative-events.net or call Sue at 0421 835 408.
DINNER DANCE Holy Cross Parish, Hamilton Hill supported by the Voice of the Voiceless Ministry, Dinner Dance fundraising for Burmese orphans, at Cyril Jackson leisure center Bassendean on 12 October 2013, from 7pm-11pm. “Hot,Hot,Hot” live band will perform. Burmese food will be served. Tickets $20, no door sales, to purchase tickets please call, Frank 0408 183 325, Maureen 0424 413 188 or Marlene 0412 855 568.
RURI STUDIO FOR HAIR Vincent and Miki welcome you to their newly opened, international, award-winning salon. Shop 2, 401 Oxford St, Leederville. 9444 3113. Ruri-studio-for-hair@hotmail.com.
SETTLEMENTS ARE YOU BUYING OR SELLING real estate or a business? Why not ask Excel Settlements for a quote for your settlement. We offer reasonable fees, excellent service, no hidden costs. Ring 9481 4499 for a quote. Check our website on www. excelsettlements.com.au.
TAX SERVICE QUALITY TAX RETURNS PREPARED by registered tax agent with over 35 years’ experience. Call Tony Marchei 0412 055 184 for appt. AXXO Accounting & Management, Unit 20/222 Walter Rd, Morley. Trade services.
RELIGIOUS PRODUCTS RICH HARVEST YOUR CHRISTIAN SHOP Looking for Bibles, CDs, books, cards, gifts, statues, Baptism and Wedding candles, etc. Visit us at 39 Hulme Ct (off McCoy St), Myaree. Ph 9329 9889 (after 10.30am Mon to Sat). We are here to serve. KINLAR VESTMENTS w w w. k i n l a r v e s t m e n t s . c o m . a u Quality vestments, Australianmade, embroidered and appliquéd. Contact Vickii for a quote - 08 9402 1318, 0409 114 093 or kinlarvestments@gmail.com.
KEEN ON CATHOLIC TOUR WITH A DIFFERENCE? Sri Lanka (16 to 25 November 2013) Myanmar (27 December to 5 January 2014) For details, email: info@alternative-events.net or call Sue at 0421 835 408.
SERVICES BRENDAN HANDYMAN SERVICES Home, building maintenance, repairs and renovations. NOR. Ph 0427 539 588. PAINTERS IN PERTH since 1933. AJ Cochrane & Sons 08 9248 8211. BRICK RE-POINTING Ph Nigel 9242 2952. PERROTT PAINTING Pty Ltd For all your residential, commercial painting requirements. Ph Tom Perrott 9444 1200. BOB’S PAINTING Registered and insured. Free quotes 0422 485 433 www.bobthepainter.com.au. VAN REYK MEDIATIONS Alternative Dispute Resolution. Contact Lisha Van Reyk on 0404 290 778.
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FURNITURE REMOVAL ALL AREAS. Competitive rates. Mike Murphy Ph 0416 226 434.
C R O S S W O R D ACROSS 3 Fort in the San Antonio diocese 6 Best friend of David 8 Gift bearers 9 ___ rosa (secret appointment) 11 This kind of man renounces the Lord (Ps 10:3) 13 Old Testament prophet who was the successor of Elijah 15 The Lord appeared to Moses in this (Ex 3:2) 17 Aquinas’ opus, for short 20 Where the altar is located 21 What the choir does 23 Hebrew for “son of” 24 Joseph was told in one to flee to Egypt 26 Arizona-Vatican connection 27 Biblical tooth action? 30 Easter is observed on the Sunday following the first full ___ of the vernal equinox 32 Meal for Ezekiel? 34 “Bad company ruins good ___” (1 Cor 15:33) 37 Coordinator of parish programs (abbr) 38 Biblical trial word 39 Make holy 40 In some versions of The Lord’s Prayer, trespasses are called these
5 7 10 11 12 14 16 18 19 20 22 25 27 28 29 31 32 33 35 36
was made king over Israel (1 Kings 16:16) Patron saint of servants DC Catholic university team Catholic horror actor Lugosi Preparation of the ___ To do this is human, but to forgive is divine One of the prophets Number of Popes named Alexander Municipal Pope? The four ___ of the Church Abraham, in the beginning Father of well-known twins ___ docendi One from 8A Superior of convent One of the two natures of Jesus Latin for “to pray” Brother of Ham and Japheth Father of Jesse Sacred Roman ___ Eternal ___
LAST WEEK’S SOLUTION
DOWN 1 “…now and at the ___ of our death. Amen” 2 “For our ___, he was crucified…” 3 11th century theologian 4 Commander of the army who pilgrimage to the Holy Land and Italy, Jan 6-31, 2014. Israel and Jordan, Rome, Subiaco, Genazzano, Norcia and Cascia in Italy. $7,850 from Perth is all-inclusive except your drinks and souvenirs. Enq: casapgf@iinet.net.au or 9271 5253.
PANORAMA
Acts 2 College of Mission & Evangelisation Competition Create a viral 30-second video that will promote Acts 2 College of Mission & Evangelisation and win a Samsung Galaxy Tablet 2.7” 8GB Wi Fi. Acts 2 is a Catholic Bible
College under the authority of the Archbishop and a fully registered training organisation. Enq: 9202 6859 or http://acts2come.wa.edu. au. WORD SLEUTH TO RETURN IN TWO WEEKS.
DEADLINE: EVERY FRIDAY, 5PM WEEK PRIOR TO PUBLICATION.
BOOKS ON CHURCH HISTORY
NOW IN STOCK
L.J. Goody. K.B.E., D.D., D.Ph.
MARTIN GRIVER
SECOND CATHOLIC BISHOP OF PERTH After tumultuous and quite disastrous beginnings, the Catholic Church in the Swan River Colony of Western Australian was given peace and began to prosper under Father Martin Griver who, for 37 years (1849-1886), laboured as a missionary priest and, for the last 16 years of his life, was the second Catholic Bishop of Perth.
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