THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN VICTORIA

New Zealand Tablet, 22 June 1911, Page 1143

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN VICTORIA

r UH tlle Feast 9* Pentecost his Grace the Archbishop of Melbourne presided v at High Mass at St. Patrick’s Lathed 1 al, and preached the occasional sermon. The congregation, said his Grace, was celebrating not only the birth of the Universal Church, but , also, by a fortuitous coincidence, the birth of the Catholic Church in Victoria. On Pentecost Sunday, 72 years ago, a few forlorn Catholics who were then in the Port Phillip settlement gathered in an unroofed shed at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass It could not have been given to those pioneers to know that in 72 years the Catholics of Melbourne would assist at the Holy Sacrifice in a majestic^cathedral that was capable of holding tne whole of the then population of Melbourne. If they could have seen in vision that noble structure, the many splendid churches, in city, suburbs, and country, the schools, convents, and hospitals, their minds must have been filled with wonder and gratitude. To-day they were more nearly concerned in the foundations and structure of the Universal Church. It was an old subject, but it was a

subject ever new, and which had in these days acquired a most intense interest when erroneous and rationalistic theories were being put forward in regard to the Church of Christ. There were some bold enough to deny that Christ any Church at all. A leading rationalistic writer of the present time had declared, however, that if Christ had established a Church the doctrines of the Catholic Church would follow it in natural sequence. Christ had established the Catholic Church to proclaim the truth of the Gospel, and He gave to that Church legislative powers which would enable her to make laws, to rule in her own spiritual powers just as kings and legislatures could make prohibitions for the temporal welfare of their own subjects. Seventy Years of Progress. At the evening devotions the Very Rev. Dean Hegarty, P.P., V.F., of Kyneton, preached. ' In the course of his sermon he said: —The unroofed shed in which the first Mass was celebrated, and to which the Archbishop referred, was an old hay and corn store which, in 1839, stood at the corner of Little Collins and Swanston streets, a site now occupied by the Colonial. Bank. The celebrant of’ this Mass was lather Patrick Bonaventure Geoghegan, an Irish Franciscan, the first priest appointed to watch over the Catholics of * the; infant colony of Victoria. He was in many ways a remarkable man, and it was his privilege to see the Church in Melbourne, which he tended , in its cradle,_ grow with giant strength, till the few scattered Catholic families, to whom he at first ministered, developed into a flourishing diocese. For a time Father Geoghegan was in. charge of St. Benedict’s district in Sydney, and; he may be said to have founded that mission. He was held in particular esteem by Archbishop Folding, and, when Dr. Davis, his Coadjutor, died in 1854, he requested the Holy See to appoint another prelate to continue to discharge the duties of Coadjutor in Sydney. One of the names presented was that of Father "Geoghegan, of whom the Archbishop wrote: —‘He is forty;.years of age, and is Vicar-General of the diocese of Melbourne. He was formerly for some years Vicar-Forane of the diocese ‘of Sydney, and gave abundant proof of prudence and ability to discharge the various ecclesiastical duties. He has had many difficulties to contend against, but be has succeeded nevertheless in performing the duties of his mission with credit to himself and with advantage to the Church. Religion has flourished under his auspices, and he has won the esteem as well of Protestants as of his own flock.’ When Father Geoghegan first arrived in Melbourne he had no house of his own, but slept in the bar of a public-house adjoining the rudely-constructed wooden hut in which Mass was celebrated. A pallet was prepared for him nightly by the hands of the good-hearted landlady on a few planks placed across some beer barrels. The poorest of his little flock knew that their pastor practised a poverty severer than theirs, and saw that what was a matter of admiration for them was but a matter of course for him, for he was bound with the cord and had taken the vows of the seraph of Assisi. In after years Father Geoghegan was elevated to the episcopate, being consecrated second Bishop of Adelaide in 1859. He died five years later. In 1841 there were only a few scattered Catholic families in Victoria, Jbut, according to the official census taken in March, 1851, before the gold mania had led countless thousands to the colony from all over Australia, the total Catholic population was given as 18,014, of whom 5631 were resident in Melbourne. To-day there, are 265,000 Catholics in the State, divided thus: Archdiocese of Melbourne, 145,333; diocese of Ballarat, 59,488; diocese! of Sale, 14,000; diocese of Sandhurst, 45,368. In Catholic schools 38,000 children are being educated; there are 230 secular and 51 regular priests; and nearly 1400 nuns. The churches number more than 460, and the primary, superior, and boarding schools, about 280. ±