Christians in AUS

By olivia tooley
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    1788 La Perouse enters Botany Bay and his chaplain, Abbe Mones, celebrates the first Mass within Australian territory

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    First Irish convicts transported to Botany Bay

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    1792 Catholic settlers in Parramatta petition Governor Phillip for a Chaplin

  • 1800 Fr James Dixon and two other priests arrested as part of the 1798 Irish Rebellion are transported to New South Wales as convicts

  • 1803 The first official public Mass is held under strict Government supervision and is celebrated by prisoner priest, Fr Dixon.

  • 1817 Fr Jeremiah Flynn arrives to minister to convict Catholics

    but he does not have the official sanction of the church or state. The following year after ignoring Governor Macquarie’s instructions not to carry out any of the functions of a priest, he is arrested and deported despite protests from the colony’s Catholics and several Protestant leaders

  • 1822 Fr Therry founds the first Catholic school on Hunter Street, Parramatta

  • 1828 Australia’s first census is held and reveals a white population of 36,598 which includes both free settlers and convicts. Among these, 25,248 are Protestants and 11,236 Catholics

  • 1839 The weekly Catholic newspaper, Australasian Chronicle is launched with former schoolteacher turned journalist William as founding editor. The journal champions rights not only of the church but of small farmers, working men and the dispossessed

  • 1865 Fire destroys St Mary’s Cathedral.

    Although much of the edifice is stone, the flames raze the building to the ground. Archdeacon McEncroe begins fundraising efforts for a new cathedral designed by William Wardell, the architect responsible for St John’s College at the University of Sydney and St Patrick’s Cathedral in Melbourne.

  • 1889 St Patrick’s Seminary College opened in Manly

    and initially intended to provide priests not only for Australia but for all British colonies. The seminary is the initiative of Cardinal Moran and he contributes a library of several hundred books, a collection of medieval manuscripts, as well as items for a museum.

  • 1909 Death of Mother Mary MacKillop

  • 1922 Formation of the Catholic Teachers’ Federation

  • 1942 Catholic Weekly prints its first issue

  • 1963 Death of Pope John XXIII who is succeeded by Pope Paul VI. The Second Vatican Council commences and appoints Cardinal Gilroy to the Council of Presidency. The Mass changes from Latin to English

  • 1996 The Catholic Institute of Sydney for Theology and Ministry opens at Strathfield. The Seminary of the Good Shepherd is also officially opened

  • 2005 Death of much loved, Pope John Paul II. Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger is elected Pope Benedict XVI

  • 2014 The Holy Father Pope Francis appoints George Cardinal Pell as Prefect of the new Secretariat for the Economy. The Most Rev Anthony Fisher is appointed as the ninth Archbishop of Sydney.