-
30%of the 756 convicts to arrive on the first fleet in 1788 were baptised Catholics. In 1788, Governor Phillip ordered all convicts to attend Sunday Church services. Half of these Catholics were Irish.
-
Even though this petition was made early in the colony, it was many years before a priest arrived.
-
There accounts of Catholics using their prayer books in the colonies before the priests arrived.
-
The first priests were convicts caught up in the Irish rebellion of 1798 and were not allowed to celebrate mass.
-
A second mass was not allowed for a further 16 years.
-
While father O' Flynn was not a convict he was approved by England but had been sent by pope.
-
Fathers Connolly and Therry were the first official Catholic priests in Australia.
-
By the late 1820s most of the Catholics were still convicts or ex- convicts.
-
This Act meant that Catholics were no longer persecuted and could hold important jobs.
-
The emancipation Act meant that powerful people in Government in New South Wales could now be Catholics.
-
New South Wales now had 20,000 Catholics so a bishop was needed
-
Equality granted to all religions in New South Wales.
-
Caroline Chisolm was very important female and a Catholic in the new colony.
-
Bishop Polding spoke against the treatment of aborigines by the white settlers. He was especially concerned about the Myall Creek Massacres.
-
By 1839 there were 21,298 Catholics in the total population of 101,904 settlers. The Catholic Church was begging to be a significant group in New South Wales.
-
As the colony of Morten Bay (where Brisbane is now) was part of the colony of New South Wales at the this time, Polding was also the archbishop of Morten Bay
