The Roman mould of the Australian Catholic Church, 1846-1878

Abstract

An historical analysis of the Roman Catholic Church in the Australian colonies between 1846-1878 presents a number of questions as to origins, composition and attitudes that as yet remain unanswered. This present work has avoided the general themes and tries to explore one limited problem - what was there in the Church of that period that can now be seen as distinctive and primary? If some headway can be made in answering that question it is possible that other aspects of the Church may thereby be illumined. The Church between those years was already sufficiently well established to have taken on the characteristics that marked the course of her future. Given the origins of the majority of her members it is natural that the most notable quality that has caught the attention of historians has been her Irish heritage and its consequences. But from the vantage point of a century and more, it is now possible to ask what distinctive features remain today as a result of that heritage. And if the answer is that little remains, except lightly worn customs such as an occasional procession on 17 March and an Irish page in the Melbourne Advocate, it is possible that some other attribute of the Church of the past was of even greater significance than the Irish background.