Inspiration from our Founders

The first Catholics to reside in Australia arrived with the First Fleet in 1788. They were mostly Irish convicts, together with a few marines. It was not until 1800 that the first priests arrived in the colony, as convicts!

One of these, James Dixon, was granted conditional emancipation and permission to say Mass for the Catholics of Sydney, Liverpool and Parramatta on successive Sundays, a practice that continued from 1803 until March 1804, when the Castle Hill rebellion so alarmed Governor King that he withdrew Dixon's privileges. Dixon soon after returned to Ireland, and Mass was not legally celebrated again in the colony until Fathers John Joseph Therry and Philip Connolly, chaplains appointed by the Government in London, arrived in 1820.

Their arrival can be regarded as the formal establishment of the Catholic Church in Australia.

At least two Catholic schools were established in the early years of the nineteenth century but neither survived very long, and it was not until after the arrival of Therry and Connolly in 1820 that significant development took place.

By 1833, there were about ten Catholic schools in the country. From this time until the end of the 1860s, Catholic schools received some government assistance under a variety of schemes, but campaigns for 'free, secular and compulsory' education had begun in the 1850s and it became increasingly clear that Catholic schools would not be able to rely on government aid for much longer.

Between 1872 and 1893, every State passed an Education Act removing state aid to Church schools. This was a turning point for Catholic schools and, indeed, for the Catholic community in Australia.

Bishops and people decided to persevere with the Catholic system. With no money to pay teachers, the bishops appealed to religious orders in Ireland and other European countries, and soon religious sisters and brothers were responding to the crisis.

There were already a few religious orders in Australia: as well as the Sisters of Charity, there were also, among others, the Good Samaritan Sisters, founded by Polding in 1857, and the Sisters of St Joseph, founded in 1866 by Fr Julian Tenison Woods and Mary MacKillop, now recognised as Australia's first saint.

By 1871, these 'Josephites' were running thirty-five schools in the Adelaide diocese. By 1880, there were a total of 815 sisters from all orders teaching in schools; by 1910 the number exceeded 5000.

The sisters not only set up schools in the cities but also established little parish schools all over Australia, providing a Catholic education for the children of the bush. Their efforts, with almost no money and in the face of considerable hardship, were nothing short of heroic.

The largest of the male teaching orders, the Christian Brothers, had 115 brothers teaching in thirty schools by 1900.

Under the influence of the religious orders, Catholic schools not only survived but flourished; the sisters and brothers were to be the mainstay of the schools for a hundred years.

TIMELINE OF RELIGIOUS ORDERS

1206

Dominican Sisters of Australia, The Federation of (OP)

There are four autonomous congregations of Dominican Sisters of Australia. Founded by St Dominic in 1206 at Prouille France. Introduced to Australia by Bishop James Murray (foundress was Mother M Agnes Bourke) in 1867 in the Diocese of Maitland, NSW, from Ireland.

Models of Christian service

TIMELINE OF RELIGIOUS ORDERS

1206

1540

1609

1680

1696

1775

1800

1802

1807

1815

1816

1817

1820

1831

1832

1857

1863

1872

1874

For Reflection and Discussion

Further Resources

WEBLINKS