Category:

Latin Mass Pioneer Priests - Australia II

7/14/2013

THE MASS THAT REFUSED TO DIE

At about 8 a.m. on Monday 13th September, 1976, Fr. Fox himself heard this brief item on the ABC Radio News session: "Because of the Tridentine Latin Mass which he celebrated at East Lindfield yesterday, Fr. Patrick Fox now faces disciplinary action, but his Provincial Fr. K. Turnbull added that this disciplinary action would not go as far as excommunication" (!!). And indeed, just before beginning his Tridentine Latin Mass at East Lindfield Hall at 9 a.m. before a congregation of at least a hundred people on the previous morning Sunday 12th September, 1976, Fr. Fox had used the only escape route from his dreadful dilemma that he could then see - namely, by announcing for all to hear that this Mass (though celebrated as usual) would be a PRIVATE Mass (as opposed to the forbidden PUBLIC Mass), an announcement of course which Fr. Turnbull did not relish at all when he later heard of it, and which formed the basis of the next day’s Radio News item already quoted. But whatever disciplinary threats might now hang over him from that direction, Fr. Fox’s conscience was however clear: on Sunday 12th September, 1976 he had not celebrated the forbidden public Tridentine Latin Mass, but a self-announced private Mass, which yet however had saved his flock from being liturgically stranded and abandoned - an answer to prayer indeed!

After the aforesaid threat of disciplinary action by Fr. Turnbull against Fr. Fox as proclaimed on Monday 13th September, 1976, some Mass-Media reporters or agents rang Fr. Fox to ask what had been done to him, or what would be done to him in the way of disciplinary action; and they left phone numbers so as to learn the verdict (TV channel 9, Alan Gill - religious writer for the "Sydney Morning Herald", and "The Australian"). However, as day succeeded day in that traumatic week, on each one of which Fr. Fox was expecting to be summoned to the Provincial Office to learn the details of his disciplinary sentence, nothing of the kind happened, although Fr. Turnbull was in and out of Ashfield where Fr. Fox then lived; and on the Wednesday evening (15th September) Fr. Fox had even "sneaked in" another old Latin Mass for some of his flock in the other Sydney suburb of Killara (at the Masson family home).

But it was on Saturday 18th September, that this "disciplinary" week ended with Fr. Turnbull’s final "canonical" action therein: at 5.15 p.m. he sailed away out through Sydney Heads for a four weeks Pacific Ocean cruise as chaplain on board the cruise-ship "Fairsky" - Fr. Turnbull’s annual holiday in fact. This holiday could not have come at a better time for Fr. Fox who, still undisciplined, on the next morning 19th September, 1976 celebrated the Tridentine Latin Mass as usual for his Sunday congregation in the East Lindfield Hall - "Fairsky" so far, both on land and sea! And, interestingly, when some weeks later after his Pacific Ocean cruise Fr. Turnbull returned to Sydney, the old Latin Masses on Sundays in the East Lindfield Hall continued on unabated year after year, without any red signal from Fr. Turnbull for Fr. Fox to stop them - they might even in his mind have been private Masses, and still not public ones! Furthermore, the previous threat of disciplinary action against Fr. Fox was for practical purposes no longer mentioned - no doubt to the disappointment of the newspaper and TV reporters. But since that exciting month of September, 1976 those old Latin Masses have gone on in that East Lindfield Hall for well over twenty years, even to this day, the 9th February, 1997, when this Mass looks set to continue there well into the next century - how good God has been to us already in allowing this Mass to exist for so many years, and may His blessings be with it for the future at this oldest existing traditional Latin Mass centre in Australia!

And what powerful motivation we have for persevering with this old Latin Mass, when we learn from a French Courtoise Radio session of Jean Guitton, the great friend of Pope Paul VI, that this Pope, when promulgating the new Mass in 1969, had this intention regarding the Mass, namely, to reform the Catholic liturgy so that it would almost coincide with the Protestant liturgy, to get it as close as possible to the Protestant Lord’s supper, to tone down what was too Catholic in the Catholic Mass, and to get the Catholic Mass closer to the heretical Calvinist service (!!). 19/12/1993

We learn also that in 1986 eight out of nine Cardinals appointed by Pope John Paul II to study this matter declared that the old Latin Mass had never been suppressed, and all nine Cardinals declared that no Bishop may forbid a Catholic priest in good standing to celebrate this old Latin Mass.

Finally, "our traditionalist priests" (see above) are greatly encouraged to keep saying this Mass by these lovely words of the same Susan Claire Potts (see above): "What glory in heaven will be theirs! Imagine the look on Our Lord’s Holy Face, when He greets them in eternity! Imagine the love in Mary’s heart, when She beholds her sons. For they are the faithful ones. They are the ones obedient to the mandate of Christ. In the face of the most terrible opposition ever known to priests in the whole history of the Church, these "Latin Mass priests" have not faltered - or, if they have faltered, they have come good again - amid odd clouds in the Church’s Fairsky!

And the Lord said: "Simon, Simon, behold Satan hath desired to have you that he may sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and thou, being once converted, confirm thy brethren." (St. Luke 22:31-32)

Father Patrick Fox, C.M. was called to his reward on July 24, 2007. At the age of 91, after 67½ years of priesthood, he was an exemplary model of simplicity and obedience to the seminarians and priests alike, as well as a great inspiration for traditional Catholics throughout Australia, for he had never celebrated the New Mass, and had always publicly stood firm for Tradition, Archbishop Lefebvre and the Society of Saint Pius X.

St. Frances Xavier Cabrini

7/13/2013

Cabrini was born in Sant'Angelo Lodigiano, in the Lombard Province of Lodi, then part of the Austrian Empire, the youngest of the eleven children of Agostino Cabrini and Stella Oldini, who were wealthy cherry tree farmers. Sadly, only four of the eleven survived beyond adolescence. Small and weak as a child, born two months premature, she remained in delicate health throughout her life.

Cabrini took religious vows in 1877 and added Xavier to her name to honor the Jesuit saint, Francis Xavier, the patron saint of missionary service. She became the Superior of the House of Providence orphanage in Codogno, where she taught, and drew a small community of women to live a religious way of life In 1880, the orphanage was closed and then opened again by her. She and six other women who had taken religious vows with her founded the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (M.S.C.) on November 14.

Cabrini composed the Rule and Constitutions of the religious institute, and she continued as its Superior General until her death. The congregation established seven homes and a free school and nursery in its first five years. Its good works brought Mother Cabrini to the attention of (the now Blessed) Giovanni Scalabrini, Bishop of Piacenza, and of Pope Leo XIII.
Missionary

Cabrini went to seek approval of the Pope to establish missions in China. Instead, he suggested to her that she go to the United States to help the Italian immigrants who were flooding to that nation in that era, mostly in great poverty. "Not to the East, but to the West" was his advice.

Cabrini followed the papal will and left for the United States, arriving in New York City on March 31, 1889 along with six other Sisters. There she obtained the permission of Archbishop Michael Corrigan, the Archbishop of New York, to found an orphanage, which is located in West Park, New York, today and is known as Saint Cabrini Home—the first of 67 institutions she founded: in New York, Chicago, Des Plaines, Seattle, New Orleans, Denver, Golden, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and in countries throughout South America and Europe. Long after her death, the Missionary Sisters would achieve Mother Cabrini's goal of being missionaries to China. In only a short time, after much social and religious upheaval there, the Sisters left China and, subsequently, a Siberian placement.

In New York City, she founded Columbus Hospital and Italian Hospital. In the 1980s, they were merged into Cabrini Hospital. This facility was closed in 2002. In Chicago, the Sisters opened Columbus Extension Hospital (later renamed Saint Cabrini Hospital) in the heart of the city’s Italian neighborhood on the Near West Side. Both hospitals eventually closed near the end of the 20th century. Their foundress’ name lives on in Chicago's Cabrini Street.

Cabrini was naturalized as a United States citizen in 1909.

Death

Mother Cabrini died of complications from dysentery at age 67 in Columbus Hospital in Chicago, Illinois, on December 22, 1917, while preparing Christmas candy for the local children. By that time, she had founded 67 missionary institutions to serve the sick and poor and train additional Sisters to carry on the work.

Cabrini's body was originally interred at Saint Cabrini Home, an orphanage she founded in West Park, Ulster County, New York.
Shrine

In 1931, her body was exhumed as part of the canonization process, and was found to be partially incorrupt. The major portion of her body is now enshrined under glass in the altar at St. Frances Cabrini Shrine, part of Mother Cabrini High School, at 701 Fort Washington Avenue, in the Washington Heights section of Manhattan. At that time, her head was removed and is preserved in the chapel of the congregation's international motherhouse in Rome. The street to the west of the shrine was renamed Cabrini Boulevard in her honor.

Cabrini was canonized in Rome in 1946 by Pope Pius XII. Due to the overwhelming increase of pilgrims to her room at Chicago’s Columbus Hospital, the then-Archbishop of Chicago, Cardinal Stritch, consecrated a National Shrine built in her honor within the hospital complex.

The National Shrine of Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini was dedicated in 1955, 38 years after her death. Mother Cabrini lived, worked and died in Chicago so she is considered one of Chicago’s “Very Own”. It is located in the Lincoln Park area of Chicago at the former Columbus Hospital.

The Latin Mass Pioneer Priests - Australia I

7/13/2013

THE MASS THAT REFUSED TO DIE

1969: AUSTRALIAN AFTERMATH

9th February 1997 (from the Achives)

The beautiful old Latin Mass is timeless, changeless, universally the same, and has about it that untranslatable beauty, the gestures, the eloquent silences, the sublimity, the transcendence, the touch of heaven, the majesty, the mystery so tremendous and yet so fascinating!

It arouses in the heart, whether we ourselves know Latin or not, a sense of something ever ancient, ever new, something rich, strange, different, awesome, majestic yet lovable, demanding attention and belief, not to be trifled with, sacred and secret, immune to the vagaries of fashionable taste and to the corruption of the passing ages - Christian Order 12/1987, p.p. 586-7; The Remnant 17/10/1980 p.1.

I think of this old Tridentine Latin Mass as the spiritual health food, the real spiritual food, of our day, as of any age. In this Mass none of the most nourishing ingredients have been refined out of it by so-called liturgical reform: consequently we see the Tridentine priest, taken from among the people, yet set apart at the Holy Sacrifice by his vestments, by his aloneness at the altar, offering to God the Body and Blood of His Son in atonement for our sins, the people reverently kneeling to adore the awesome majesty of God and the unfathomable mysteries of His love in coming to us in Holy Communion - which we would not be so brazen as to receive standing or in our unconsecrated hands. This is true nourishment sacramental and spiritual. It has sustained saints and strengthened sinners for many, many centuries and, like the wheat that grows century after century from God’s earth, is always the same, always life-giving.

By contrast, the 1969 New Ordo Mass is the spiritual junk food of our generation. Those who partake of it lose their spiritual health and often their entire faith. Their understanding of Catholicism becomes twisted and weakened, because too often at their Masses there is flagrant irreverence, much non-Catholic teaching in their sermons, far too much unruly guitar-strumming, a sign of peace that erupts into an orgy of hugging, kissing and squealing, with dancing girls, and Holy Communion given by lay ministers, while the clergy sit and watch and perhaps chit-chat-"The Angelus", July 1982, p.18.

Again by way of contrast with these New Ordo priests, during the long critical years between the New Ordo Mass year of 1969 and the Roman Indult year of 1984 (which allowed the old Latin Mass back, though never legally abolished), the following priests, by celebrating the old Latin Mass over long periods for the persecuted lay people who wanted it, saved this Mass from total extinction not only in the Archdiocese of Sydney but in several country areas of New South Wales, and all this in the face of bitter opposition and intense personal suffering: Msgr. Leo Hatswell, Fr. Carl Pulvermacher O.F.M. Cap., Fr Joseph da Silva S.M., Fr. Dudley Dyson-Smith, Fr. Terence Hogan, Fr. Gerard Hogan S.S.P.X., Fr. Francois Laisney S.S.P.X. and Fr. Patrick Fox C.M. Elsewhere in Australia, Fr. Cyril Crocker S.M., Fr. Augustine Cummins C.S.S.R. and Fr. Brian Buckley of Townsville Diocese did the same. But the difficulties by no means disappeared in 1984, and even before then some of these priests were taking this Mass interstate. "I think that in Australia you can never pay enough honour to the very small group of priests who kept the old Latin Mass going here, no matter what it cost, after the 2nd Vatican Council (1965...........), when otherwise this Mass would have vanished totally from Australia. But there was never a time when the Latin Mass was not kept going in Australia " - this kind tribute to the aforesaid group of "Latin Mass priests" came from Mr. Michael Davies (famous English convert, author and lecturer) during his lecture at ‘Sancta Sophia’ University College, Sydney on Sunday evening 14th April, 1996; and about a year earlier in the U.S.A., (‘Remnant’ 30th April, 1995,p.4), Susan Claire Potts had written this inspiring appreciation of these "Latin Mass priests", as regards both their earthly trials and achievements on the one hand, and their great eternal rewards in heaven on the other:

"In more places than you would think of across the land and throughout the world, the old Latin Mass is said by good, faithful priests with quiet dignity, and with the Faith passed down. These priests, undaunted, face ridicule and derision. They are ostracised and maligned. They are marginalized and despised. They suffer like Our Lord. But because of them, our cherished Catholic traditions will not die, and so we lay people can still live the Faith. So a remnant lives on in the Divine Embrace, because of the sacrifice and love and devotion of these priests, whom the people call "our traditionalist priests".

As for some examples of the earthly trials of these traditionalist priests, Monsignor Leo Hatswell in 1976 was forced out of his parish at Lockhart in the country Diocese of Wagga, N.S.W., because he was saying the old Latin Mass in his parish church, for which ‘crime’ some of his parishioners dobbed him in to the Most Rev. Francis Carroll, then Bishop of Wagga; and as this Bishop later told Fr. Fox: "In these circumstances, I regarded it as my duty to dismiss Msgr. Hatswell from his parish in my diocese"; Msgr. Hatswell then went to live with his relatives, the Dowling family, on their property five miles out of Penrith, about 30 miles from Sydney, now in the Diocese of Parramatta. Part of the Dowling family home was converted into a lovely chapel; and Msgr. Hatswell’s old Latin Mass therein was like a rustic magnet for nearly nine years, drawing people from miles around and even from Sydney, not only for his 9 a.m. Sunday Mass, but for confessions, Benedictions, Holy Hours and even for Holy Week ceremonies - and all this at the age of 78 or so! Truly, Lockhart’s loss was Penrith’s gain, and Wagga’s loss was Sydney’s gain. What a great example this is of a venerable priest who suffered so much for his Mass, and yet remained so genial and cheerful in spite of it all! He died on 4th December, 1991, over 60 years a priest, and ordained in 1930.

Then on 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th August, 1991, Fr. Patrick Fox C.M., committed the ‘dreadful crime’ of celebrating four old Latin Masses in a private house at Mackay in Queensland, with about two dozen people at each Mass. But until then no such Masses had been celebrated in Mackay for years and years; and these four Masses stirred up such vigorous and adverse comment among the local priests that Fr. Fox on his next visit to Queensland in late October, 1991, was confronted with this startling message at Townsville: "If Fr. Fox appears again in Mackay, "HE WILL BE SHOT!" It was later explained that although the priests at Mackay had not expressed their strong feelings in these precise words, yet in the opinion of a well known Mackay lady Miss Jessie Roger, that was what the verdict of these priests amounted to. But shooting or not, similar Masses were to continue there at regular intervals; and indeed even before this shooting threat had been targetted at Fr. Fox, it had been arranged in Sydney that the priests of the Society of St. Pius X would continue these Latin Masses in Mackay, while from Melbourne came a warning to the people of Mackay to beware of Fr. Fox: "He is, as he claims, in union with the Pope, but only just"(!!) - ‘Fidelity’, Ormond, Victoria., September, 1991.

The next year 1992 Fr. Fox made his first Tridentine ‘assault’ on the diocese of Cairns (much further north in Queensland than Mackay), with another bleak welcome. He arrived in Cairns direct by air from Mt. Isa on Saturday 16th May, and was told that no church in the entire diocese of Cairns was available for his traditional Latin Masses; but that private homes could be used for such Masses, if the visiting priest possessed a Celebret (written permission to say the Mass from a Superior, which Fr. Fox did have from the Vatican Cardinal Augustine Mayer O.S.B., in Rome), with attendance of lay people allowed by Msgr. M. Walsh who was in charge of the Diocese until a new Bishop be appointed. So next morning, Sunday 17th May, 1992, Fr. Fox celebrated one of these Masses (followed by Benediction, with the sung Litany of Our Lady) in the home of Mr and Mrs L. Giacomo, located in the outlying Parish of Gordonvale, with about 30 people attending. The local Parish Priest sent a message to Fr. Fox not to ring him up, lest he (Fr. Patrick Jones) speak severely to Fr. Fox; and furthermore, any of the parishioners present at the Latin Mass were to be penalized in some way.

But during those years when the very survival of the old Latin Mass in Australia was so critically at stake, Fr. Fox had no need to leave Sydney or to travel interstate to experience entrenched opposition to his old Latin Masses. For on Monday 6th September, 1976 Fr. K. Turnbull C.M., Vincentian Provincial in Australia handed to Fr. Fox this written directive:

"I, as Visitor (=Provincial) of the Australian Province of the Vincentian Fathers,

exercising the authority committed to me in the Congregation of the Mission

a) Forbid you to say publicly, the Latin Tridentine Mass.

b) I forbid you to publicly and personally as a priest and member of the Congregation of the Mission to promote the celebration of the Latin Tridentine Mass and attendance at such."

Fr. K. Turnbull C.M."

This directive at once faced Fr. Fox with a dilemma of conscience regarding the accustomed (since Sunday 28th September, 1975) Latin Tridentine Mass at East Lindfield Hall to be celebrated at 9 a.m. on the following Sunday, 12th September 1976, and on Sundays thereafter. Was Fr. Fox to cancel this Mass totally for the future, and thus leave his flock suddenly and permanently stranded without their Latin Mass? Or was he to continue this Mass as usual, and thus be branded as disobedient and contumacious by his Provincial Fr. Turnbull in the light of the aforesaid directive? Or again, could Fr. Fox find some escape route out of this dilemma?

Whatever might be the answers to these questions, as that week progressed and Sunday 12th September, 1976 drew inexorably closer, Fr. Fox felt the ever increasing pressure of that dilemma within himself, and had recourse to much prayer so as to solve this difficulty - a difficulty never envisaged at any stage of his long seminary training. For now in the 1970’s Fr. Fox’s Vincentian Superiors were actively suppressing the very Mass which his Vincentian Superiors of his seminary days in the 1930’s had taught him to celebrate!........

Part II

American Catholic History - Blessed Diego Luis de san Vitores of Guam

7/12/2013

Blessed Diego Luís de San Vitores (November 12, 1627 – April 2, 1672) was a Spanish Jesuit missionary who founded the first Catholic church on the island of Guam. He is responsible for establishing the Spanish presence in the Mariana Islands.
Contents

A son of a nobleman, he was baptised Diégo Jeronimo de San VitoreSan Vitoress y Alonso de Maluendo. He was born on November 12, 1627 in the city of Burgos, Spain to Don Jeronimo de San Vitores and Dona Maria Alonso Maluenda. His parents attempted to persuade him to pursue a military career, but San Vitores instead chose to pursue his religious interests. In 1640, he entered the Jesuit novitiate and was ordained a priest in 1651. Believing his calling was to serve as a missionary to non-Christians, San Vitores was granted his request and assigned to a mission in the Philippines.

In 1662, San Vitores, stopped in Guam on the way to the Philippines and vowed to return. Three years later, through his close ties to the royal court, he persuaded King Philip IV of Spain and Queen Maria Ana of Austria to order a mission in Guam be established.

Martyrdom

The tide of discontent continued with the missionaries’ presence. For whatever reason, profit or pride, historical documents pinpoint a Chinese man named Choco, who was living on Guam for about two decades after he was shipwrecked in the Marianas prior to the missionaries’ arrival, as having been the instigator of rumors that would have negative ramifications for the missionaries.

Choco was married to a Chamorro woman from Saipan, and living in the southern village of Paa (which has now disappeared in present-day Guam). Choco came to the Marianas when the boat he and other Chinese men sailing from the Philippines shipwrecked.

Choco promoted the rumor that the baptismal water and anointing oils used in religious rites were killing people, thwarting conversion efforts so much that San Vitores would eventually end up confronting Choco at Paa. The two were locked into in a days-long public debate about religion with Choco supposedly conceding and even receiving baptism, but it did not take long for him to renounce Catholicism.

In their search for a runaway companion named Esteban, San Vitores and his Visayan companion Pedro Calungsod came to the village of Tumon, Guam on 2 April 1672. There they learnt that the wife of the village chief Matapang gave birth to a daughter, and they immediately went to baptise the child. Influenced by the calumnies of Choco, the chief strongly opposed; to give Mata'pang some time to calm down, the missionaries gathered the children and some adults of the village at the nearby shore and started chanting with them the tenets of the Catholic religion. They invited Mata'pang to join them, but he shouted back that he was angry with God and was fed up with Christian teachings.

Determined to kill the missionaries, Mata'pang went away and tried to enlist another villager, named Hirao, who was not a Christian. Hirao initially refused, mindful of the missionaries' kindness towards the natives, but when Mata'pang branded him a coward, he became piqued and capitulated. Meanwhile, during that brief absence of Mata'pang from his hut, San Vitores and Calungsod baptised the baby girl, with the consent of her Christian mother.

When Mata'pang learnt of his daughter's baptism, he became even more furious. He violently hurled spears first at Pedro, who was able to dodge the spears. Witnesses claim that Calungsod could have escaped the attack, but did not want to leave San Vitores alone. Those who knew Calungsod personally meanwhile believed that he could have defeated the aggressors with weapons; San Vitores however banned his companions to carry arms. Calungsod was hit in the chest by a spear and he fell to the ground, then Hirao immediately charged towards him and finished him off with machete blow to the head. San Vitores absolved Calungsod before he too was killed.

His Martyrdom in 1672 by Mata'pang and Hurao.

Mata'pang took San Vitores' crucifix and pounded it with a stone whilst blaspheming God. Both assassins then denuded the corpses of Calungsod and San Vitroes, tied large stones to their feet, brought them out to sea on their proas and threw them into the water.

The death of the Spanish mission leader led to Spanish army reprisals against Chamorro chiefs who had decided to defend their homeland from Spanish subjugation. Bounties were offered for these chiefs' decapitated heads and many were hunted down. Under Spanish military governors, Chamorros who were anti-Spanish were massacred in their villages. European plague and warfare eventually contributed to the defeat of the Chamorros. The Chamorro - Spanish Wars lasted more than 25 years.

North American Martyrs of Canada

7/9/2013

The Canadian Martyrs, also known as the North American Martyrs or the Martyrs of New France, were eight Jesuit missionaries from Sainte-Marie among the Hurons, who were brutally tortured and martyred in the mid-17th century in Canada, in what are now southern Ontario and upstate New York, during the warfare between the Iroquois and the Huron.
The Martyrs are St. Jean de Brébeuf (1649), St. Noël Chabanel (1649), St. Antoine Daniel (1648), St. Charles Garnier (1649), St. René Goupil (1642), St. Isaac Jogues (1646), St. Jean de Lalande (1646), and St. Gabriel Lalemant (1649).
Jesuit map

By the late 1640s the Jesuits appeared to have been making more progress in their mission to the Huron, and had made many converts at this time. Nevertheless, within Huron communities, the priests were not universally trusted. Many Hurons considered them to be malevolent shamans who brought death and disease wherever they travelled. Their arrival had coincided with epidemics after 1634 of smallpox and other infectious diseases, to which aboriginal peoples had no immunity. The Iroquois considered the Jesuits legitimate targets, as the missionaries were nominally allies of the Huron. They had often helped organize resistance to Iroquois invasions

Captured in 1642 by the Iroquois, St. Isaac Jogues was tortured for 13 months. During that time, he taught the Faith to any who would listen, and finally escaped. In 1644, he returned to France to recuperate, and there he saw his dear mother for the last time. She wept to see the scars on his hands, as the brutal Indians had cut off some of his fingers with shells and knives and eaten them, as was their custom. She fondled his mutilated hands and knew there was no way of convincing him to remain in France.

What compelled him to want to return to so cruel a land? It was his love for his spiritual children, his beloved Huron converts whom he stood by to the end. On his return to New France, he assisted William Couture, an envoy of France, in communicating with the Indians. No white men were as well versed in the Indian languages as Jogues and Couture.

It was on the Mohawk mission in Ossernenon that he and his lay missionary companion John de LaLande met their death as martyrs of Our Lord Jesus Christ, thus sanctifying the land immersed in what Fr. Jogues called "demonic worship.” Instigated by the medicine men, the shamans, who spread rumors that the blackrobes were responsible for the epidemic and failing crops, a group of Mohawks on the warpath made him a captive. One Indian tore strips of his flesh from his arms and neck, saying, "Let us see if this white flesh is the flesh of an oki (devil)."

The Saint simply replied, "I am a man like yourselves, but I do not fear death or torture. I do not know why you would kill me. I come here to confirm the peace and show you the way to Heaven, and you treat me like a dog"(Fr. John O'Brien, Saints of the American Wilderness, p. 119) .

The Indians admired his courage, but the fury of the shamans could only be satisfied by his death. On October 18, 1647 Fr. Isaac Jogues was brutally tomahawked and scalped by an Indian chief. The American historian Francis Parkman, who was by no means a devout Catholic, wrote this about St. Jogues: "Thus died Isaac Jogues, one of the purest examples of Roman Catholic virtue that this Western Continent has seen. The priests, his associates, praise his humility, and tell us that it reached the point of self contempt, a crowning virtue in their eyes..... With all his gentleness he had a certain warmth or vivacity of temperament; and we have seen how, during his first captivity, while humbly submitting to every caprice of tyrants and appearing to rejoice in debasement, a derisive word against his Faith would change the lamb into a lion, and the lips that seemed so tame would speak in sharp, bold tones of menace and reproof" (Ibid., p. 89).

Because of the courage and zeal of Jesuit missionaries like St. Issac Jogues, some of these savages escaped the perversity of Satan. The names of the North American martyrs should be inscribed on our minds, and we should ask their intercession that this country might still become a Catholic land.

In conclusion, we would like to mention several of the most impressive converts made by these early Jesuit missionaries. One was baptized Joseph Chihouatenhoua, a married Huron who abandoned the superstitions of his ancestors and became a loyal disciple of the Black-robes, a friendship that lasted into eternity. He became a devout and knowledgeable Catholic, even studying and learning Latin. He also died at the hands of the Indians who refused to accept the sweet yoke of Christ.

Another remarkable Indian convert to the Catholic Faith, was a famous Huron war chief by the name of Ahatsistari. "Thither came one of the greatest war chiefs of all the Hurons into the Church. On Holy Saturday 1642, he and a number of other Hurons were received by Jogues and other missionaries into the Church. Ahatsistari was baptized Eustace" (Ibid., p. 35).

These conversions would have never occured without the sacrifice, and pure, untainted faith of the Jesuit missionaries. May their zeal inspire new apostles with that same burning fire for the salvation of souls in our own days, and bring down upon our country the blessings of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

The martyrs were canonized by Pope Pius XI in 1930.[7] They are collectively the secondary patron saints of Canada. St. René Goupil, St. Isaac Jogues, and St. Jean de Lalande are considered the first three U.S. saints, as they were martyred in Upstate New York. Their feast day is celebrated in the General Roman Calendar and in the United States on October 19 under the title of "John de Brébeuf and Isaac Jogues, Priests, and Companions, Martyrs", and on September 26 in Canada and among Traditionalist Catholics.

Many churches are dedicated to the martyrs, including the Canadian national church in Rome; Martyrs' Shrine church in Midland, Ontario, the site of their missionary work among the Huron; the National Shrine of the North American Martyrs in Auriesville, New York,[8] along the Mohawk River; North American Martyrs Parish and School in Monroeville, Pennsylvania; North American Martyrs Catholic Church in Lincoln, Nebraska; North American Martyrs Catholic Church, a parish of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter in Seattle, Washington; American Martyrs Parish in Manhattan Beach, California; and American Martyrs Roman Catholic Church in Bayside, New York. Many schools also honor the martyrs, including the sports teams of the Pontifical North American College in Rome; a primary school named after them in Newmarket, Ontario; Jesuit High School in Sacramento, California, where each building on the campus has been named after one of the saints; Jesuit High School in New Orleans, Louisiana; the torture of the eight North American Martyrs by North American Indians is the subject depicted in the twelve-light World War I memorial window (1933) by Charles William Kelsey at the Loyola College (Montreal) chapel; at the Chapel of Our Lady of Lourdes on the campus of Georgetown Preparatory School in North Bethesda, Maryland; and a side shine at Madonna Della Strada Chapel on the campus of Loyola University Chicago. The martyrs are honored at Camp Ondessonk, a Catholic summer camp in Ozark, Illinois, where each unit of cabins is named after one of the martyrs.

Saints Of The American Wilderness: The Brave Lives And Holy Deaths Of The Eight North American Martyrs

History of the Catholic Faith in America - Fr. Serra

7/8/2013

Junípero Serra, the founder of the Missions, which were the first settlements of civilized man in California, was born on the island of Majorca, part of the kingdom of Spain, on the 24th of November, 1713. At the age of sixteen, he became a Monk of the order of St. Francis, and the new name of Junípero was then substituted for his baptismal name of Miguel José. After entering the convent, he went through a collegiate course of study, and before he had received the degree of Doctor, was appointed lecturer upon philosophy. He became a noted preacher, and was frequently invited to visit the larger towns of his native island in that capacity. Junípero was thirty-six years of age when he determined to become a missionary in the New World. In 1749 he crossed the ocean in company with a number of Franciscan Monks, among them several who afterward came with him to California. He remained but a short time in the City of Mexico, and was soon sent a missionary to the Indians in the Sierra Madre, in the district now known as the State of San Luis Potosi. He spent nine years there, and then returned to the City of Mexico where he stayed for seven years, in the Convent of San Fernando.

In 1767, when he was fifty-four years of age, he was appointed to the charge of the Missions to be established in Upper California. He arrived at San Diego in 1769, and, with the exception of one journey to Mexico, he spent all the remainder of his life here. He died at the Mission [San Carlos Borromeo] of Carmel, near Monterey, on the 28th of August, 1784, aged seventy- one years.

Our knowledge of his character is derived almost exclusively from his biography by Palou, who was also a native of Majorca, a brother Franciscan Monk, had been his disciple, came across the Atlantic with him, was his associate in the college of San Fernando, his companion in the expedition to California, his successor in the Presidency of the Missions of Old California, his subordinate afterward in New California, his attendant at his death-bed, and his nearest friend for forty years or more. Under the circumstances, Palou had the right to record the life of his preceptor and superior.

Junípero Serra, as we ascertain his character directly and inferentially in his biography, was a man to whom his religion was every thing. All his actions were governed by the ever-present and predominant idea that life is a brief probation, trembling between eternal perdition on one side, and salvation on the other. Earth for its own sake, had no joys for him. His soul did not recognize this life as its home. He turned with dislike from nearly all the sources of pleasure in which the polished society of our age delights. As a Monk he had, in boyhood renounced the joys of love, and the attractions of woman’s society. The conversation of his own sex was not a source of amusement. He was habitually serious. Laughter was inconsistent with the terrible responsibilities of his probationary existence. Not a joke or a jovial action is recorded of him. He delighted in no joyous books. Art or poetry never served to sharpen his wits, lighten his spirit, or solace his weary moments. The sweet devotional poems of Fray Luis de Leon, and the delicate humor of Cervantes, notwithstanding the perfect piety of both, were equally strange to him. He knew nothing of the science and philosophy which threw all enlightened nations into fermentation a hundred years ago. The rights of man and the birth of chemistry did not withdraw his fixed gaze from the other world, which formed the constant subject of his contemplation.

It was not sufficient for him to abstain from positive pleasure; he considered it his duty to inflict upon himself bitter pain. He ate little, avoided meat and wine, preferred fruit and fish, never complained of the quality of his food, nor sought to have it more savory. He often lashed himself with ropes, sometimes of wire; he was in the habit of beating himself in the breast with stones, and at times he put a burning torch to his breast. These things he did while preaching or at the close of his sermons, his purpose being, as his biographer says, “not only to punish himself but also to move his auditory to penitence for their own sins.”

We translate the following incident, which occurred during a sermon which he delivered in Mexico, the precise date and place are not given:—

“Imitating his devout San Francisco Solano, he drew out a chain, and letting his habit fall below his shoulders, after having exhorted his auditory to penance, he began to beat himself so cruelly that all the spectators were moved to tears, and one man rising up from among them, went with all haste to the pulpit and took the chain from the penitent father, came down with it to the platform of the presbiterio, and following the example of the venerable preacher, he bared himself to the waist and began to do public penance, saying with tears and sobs, ‘I am the sinner, ungrateful to God, who ought to do penance for my many sins, and not the father who is a saint.’ So cruel and pitiless were the blows, that, in the sight of all the people, he fell down, they supposing him to be dead. The last unction and sacrament were administered to him there, and soon afterward that he died. We may believe with pious faith, that this soul is enjoying the presence of God.” Serra, and his biographer, did not receive the Protestant doctrine, that there have been no miracles since the Apostolic age. They imagined that the power possessed by the chief disciples of Jesus had been inherited by the Catholic priests of their time, and they saw wonders where their contemporary clergymen, like Conyers, Middleton, and Priestly, saw nothing save natural mistakes. Palou records the following story, with unquestioning faith:-- “When he [Serra] was travelling with a party of missionaries through the province of Huasteca [in Mexico], many of the villagers did not go to hear the word of God at the first village where they stopped; but scarcely had the fathers left the place when it was visited by an epidemic, which carried away sixty villagers, all of whom, as the curate of the place wrote to the reverend father Junípero, were persons who had not gone to hear the missionaries. The rumor of the epidemic having gone abroad, the people in other villages were dissatisfied with their curates for admitting the missionaries; but when they heard that only those died who did not listen to the sermons, they became very punctual, not only the villagers, but the country people dwelling upon ranchos many leagues distant. “Their apostolic labors having been finished, they were upon their way back, and at the end of a few days’ journey, when the sun was about to set, they knew not where to spend the night, and considered it certain that they must sleep upon the plain. They were thinking about this when they saw near the road a house, whither they went and solicited lodging. They found a venerable man, with his wife and child, who received them with much kindness and attention, and gave them supper. In the morning, the Fathers thanked their hosts, and taking leave, pursued their way. After having gone a little distance they met some muleteers, who asked them where they had passed the night. When the place was described, the muleteers declared that there was no such house or ranche near the road, or within many leagues. The missionaries attributed to Divine Providence the favor of that hospitality, and believed without doubt that these hosts were Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, reflecting not only about the order and cleanness of the house (though poor), and the affectionate kindness with which they had been received, but also about the extraordinary internal consolation which their hearts had felt there.”

Serra’s religious conviction found in him a congenial mental constitution. He was even- tempered, temperate, obedient, zealous, kindly in speech, humble and quiet. His cowl covered neither greed, guile, hypocrisy, nor pride. he had no quarrels and made no enemies. He sought to be a monk, and he was one in sincerity. Probably few have approached nearer to the ideal perfection of a monkish life than he. Even those who think that he made great mistakes of judgment in regard to the nature of existence and the duties of man to society, must admire his earnest, honest and good character.

Early Australian Catholic History V

7/8/2013

Articles that appeared in the 1990's in 'The Catholic' Newspaper, before the Old Redemporist took it over.
By Thomas Acres

The next scene of the story of the Catholic Church in Australia, opens with a young English Benedictine, William Bernard Ullathorne, who was appointed First Vicar - General of New South Wales in 1833. Born at Pocklington in Yorkshire on May 7, 1806 William Ullathorne was the oldest of ten children. At 13 he became a cabin boy on a freighter and spent five years in the rough seafaring life of the British merchant marines. In 1823, he abandoned the sea and entered Saint Gregory's College, Downside, to become a Benedictine. He received his first Holy Communion when 18 years of age, was confirmed at twenty-two and ordained priest at twenty-five.

When he arrived in Sydney - he was but twenty-seven years of age - he found his path considerably smoother than had been Father Therry's. The new Governor, Sir Richard Bourke, (1831-37) was sympathetic to the Catholic claims and adapted a religious policy on the grounds of equality. So much so that he passed a Church Act on July 29, 1836, which put all denominations on a equal footing. Chapels and rectories were built at government expense, this act gave Catholics in Australia broader recognition than their brethren enjoyed in England.

Father Ullathorne found other support upon his arrival in the form of Father John McEncroe who had been appointed chaplain the previous year arriving in Sydney on June 13, 1832. Father McEncroe's own apostolate to the convicts was second only to that of Father Therry. In 1839 he went to Norfolk Island, where the worst elements of the convicts were isolated and he laboured amongst them for two years.

Besides this support Father Ullathorne was soon to be joined by an old friend and teacher from Downside, John Bede Polding, O.S.B. On May 7, 1834, the Pope made "New Holland" a separate vicariate, and Dr. Polding was appointed First Vicar Apostolate.

Born at Liverpool on October 18, 1794, John Polding was educated by the Benedictines at St. Gregory's and joined the order in 1811. Early in life he manifested a curious interest in the Australian Mission and was jestingly called by his brethren the "Archbishop of Botany Bay." But for twenty-one years he lived the life of a Benedictine monk and was forty years of age when he arrived in Sydney in September 1835. Bishop Polding ruled the Catholic Church in Sydney for twenty-nine years and the magnitude of his achievements in the face of tremendous difficulties must rank him as one of the greatest missionaries of the nineteenth century. Writing nearly fifty years later, Ullathorne affirmed that "he was the most wonderful missioner I ever knew, especially among the convicts over whom he had an immense power. Among them he was a true St. Vincent de Paul." The historian of the Benedictines in Australia says that those who knew him best declare him "undoubtedly the greatest missionary of his age."1

Immediately upon his arrival in New South Wales he impressed his energy and personality in the whole community and in the short space of five years (1835-40) he not only transformed the spirit and status of the Catholic body, one third of the entire population, but wrought a change in the whole tone of society, to which the Government authorities paid glowing tribute.

Bishop Polding adjusted himself to the frontier conditions of the country and the cultural level of the people. he established "circuit riders" who made constant journeys into the Australian bush to minister to the Catholics. Though it is true that Father Therry was the pioneer priest of the saddle bishop Polding planned a systematic and periodical visitation of the missions. A superb horseman he outdid his younger clergy in endurance and went as far south as the Murray River and beyond.

He seemed to spend most of his life in the saddle, so that the Vicar-General complained that he neglected his correspondence. He always carried a blanket for sleeping under the stars, and occasionally "a pair of pistols for show." One day he was attacked by bushrangers on a lonely track. the outlaw pretended to be the constable of the district and stood at the horse's head, holding the bridle. but, relates the Bishop, "a severe blow on the head made him retreat. " When an accomplice rushed from the bush a few yards away, he "was treated in like manner."

The secret of his endurance he confided in a letter. "I live when I travel," he wrote, "entirely on bread and tea, now and then an egg, nothing more; no wine nor anything inebriating; and here is the secret, keep the body cool and you may endure great fatigue without feeling it."2

Most of the Emancipists and their children, had little, if any, education. The bulk of them were illiterate. The pioneer priests were therefore faced with the difficult problem of teaching them even the elements of religion. Bishop Polding, a teacher for many years, developed instruction through the eye as well as the ear. He used to the full every liturgical rite in the Ritual and Pontifical, and where none was provided, it is said, he invented one.3 On their rural rides, he and his priests held pontifical ceremonies, public penances, processions and cavalcades, bell-ringing and popular festivals, which made a profound impression, not only on the poor and ignorant, but on the more comfortable and educated, for the darkness of the Penal Laws still lingered in their minds.

Meanwhile Father Ullathorne had gone to Norfolk island to help the convicts transported to this island of the worst kind of depravities. he went to Norfolk Island on two different occasions, firstly in 1834 to prepare thirteen hardened convicts for death. Three were Catholic and four other put themselves under his care. Working from six in the morning to six at night for a week, he was instrumental in a remarkable change of disposition of the men. They manifested extraordinary fervour of repentance, went to the scaffold with light steps, having sewn large black crosses on their white caps and shirts and died cheerfully, repeating together the prayer, "Into thy hand I commend my spirit: Lord Jesus receive my soul."

Thus by the sacrifice and zeal of these "Apostles of Australia," the seeds of the Catholic Faith were planted in the sunburnt country, the land of rugged mountain ranges, of drought and flooding rains.

You may be interested in: Read also Latin Mass Australian Pioneer Priests
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1 Henry Norbett Birt, Benedictine Pioneers in Australia, Vol. 1 P. 277
2 Birt, op. cit. VII p185.
3 Australian Catholic Record (Jan. 1936) pp.15-16.

Early Australian Catholic History IV

7/6/2013

Articles that appeared in the 1990's in "The Catholic' Newspaper, before the 'Old' Redemporists took it over.
By Thomas Acres

The most effective writing came from the pen of Father John England, destined to be one of America's foremost bishops, he was liberal and forthright with experience as to the plight of transportees. He wrote a series of articles in the "Cork Chronicle" giving an historical survey of the work he had done for Irish transportees. He told also of how he had obtained a promise from authorities that a Catholic mission should be sanctioned in New South Wales. He had known Father O'Flynn before his departure to New South Wales and with vigour launched an appeal to the authorities demanding legal status for the Catholic church in Australia.
    Two years later he was named First Bishop of Charleston, South Carolina. His open letter written on January 5, 1819, produced immediate results, and may be regarded as one of the instrumental causes for the foundation of the Catholic church in Australia.
    An enquiry was undertaken into the conditions in New South Wales, which took two years and was undertaken by John Thomas Bigge, who regarded the settlement purely as penal where free men should be treated as a superior class. He strongly opposed the emancipist policy and Macquarie's building policy. Having wide powers his presence soon became intolerable for the old autocrat who resigned and sailed home to England before the completion of the report.
    The enquiry also dealt with the situation of the Catholics and the results of his report to the English authorities was that colonial autocracy was overturned making way for constitutional government. This would thus make way for freedom of conscience for Catholics and a subsidised Catholic Mission in New South Wales, when in England such freedoms were a mere dream.
    Thus the way was clear for the foundation of the Catholic church in Australia. Jeremiah O'Flynn became the unconscious reformer of British social policy in Australia. He spent his last years in the West Indies and the United States of America, where he was finally admitted into the diocese of Philadelphia. He built the first Catholic church in Susquehanna County at Silver Lake in 1828 and died on February 8, 1831 aged 42 years.
    When Bigge was travelling around the colony gathering information for his report, two Catholic priests arrived in the colony, John Joseph Therry and Phillip Connolly. On May 7, 1820 Father Connolly celebrated Mass in a house on Pitt Row and on May 8 Father Therry offered Holy Mass for the Glory of God and Saint Michael. It is thought that he also found the Blessed Sacrament left in the Oak Press by his predecessor Father O'Flynn. This miraculous preservation of the Sacred Species was hailed by the Catholic population as a miracle and the arrival of the priests was a mercy that they had yearned for as an answer to prayers. They had hoped that God would allow them to be forever shut out from the blessing of His Holy Church.
    Though in time the Protestants sneered at such beliefs, the arrival of the two priests caused little anxiety to them. Even Macquarie confined himself to report that the two priests had arrived with the permission of the government and had come as passengers of the "Janus". In fact the Protestant community felt inclined to help more than to hinder the work of the Catholic priests. A Protestant, by the name of John Piper, helped them find board and lodging. Then in a public meeting held on June 30 Protestants agreed to unite with Catholics to raise money to build a church. The first signs of Australian friendliness were beginning to show forth in the people of the colony.
    On June 6, 1820 Macquarie informed Fathers Connolly and Therry of the restrictions on freedom in New South Wales. The could celebrate Mass; marry two Catholics but not a Catholic and Protestant; they could baptize the children of Catholic parents, but they were not to try and win converts; they were not to concern themselves with the religious education of children in the government institutions of the colony, who were to be instructed in the faith and doctrine of the Church of England.
    Meanwhile Father Connolly to Van Diemans Land. Father Therry remained on the mainland, saying Mass every Sunday at Parramatta and Liverpool, giving instruction in the Faith, visiting the sick and giving extreme unction to those in danger of death, with a circuit of 200 miles. Once, word was brought to Father Therry that a convict sentenced to death wanted to see him for confession. Father Therry immediately mounted his horse and set out for Sydney. But a bridgeless river which he had to cross was in a raging flood and impossible to ford on horseback . He called for help, "in the name of God and departing soul," to a man on the other bank. A rope tied to a stone was thrown across and fastening it around his body he was dragged through the swollen stream to the other side. Without rest or change of clothing, he immediately mounted another horse and arrived in time to attend to the condemned man. By such acts of heroism and devotion to duty, as well as a boundless charity Father Therry demonstrated that the image of Christ lived in the sons of the church.
    The work of Father Therry was most vividly shown in his apostolate to the convicts. It had a three fold character; firstly, a personal mission to individual convicts; secondly, an appeal for pardon or revisions of sentences; thirdly, demands for a strict adherence to the law in the matter of evidence, procedures and punishment. His personal apostolate became a legend in the colony. He became the felons' friend, attending to them in prisons, hospitals and chain gangs. When bushrangers and escaped convicts intercepted him on one of his missionary journeys, they would immediately release him with expression of regret and allow him to pass on his way. Despite the length of his circuit, he was always at the beck and call of the convicts.
    He knew each convict individually in the prisons, and his figure passing from cell to cell became part of the gaol routine. But soon the work of Father Therry was suspended and he could no longer count on concessions and favours for the convicts. Still, Father carried on perseverance and not a little ingenuity. On one occasion, for example, he was called to a dying person only to find the bayonet of a guard blocking his entrance. He asked the guard if he was willing to take the death of a person on his shoulders: "it is not in the name of the Government I come here but in the name of God." The guard lowered his bayonet and Father Therry passed on.

In 1846 he was parish priest of Melbourne, a settlement little more than ten years old. Here he found no convicts but he was remembered for his zeal in the cause of temperance and for his apostolic charity. It was recorded of him that "he sat with his breviary in his right hand and his left delving in and out of his pockets for alms for the endless train of beggars who called upon him." He had blazed the way, cleared the scrub, and laid the cornerstone of the Catholic Church in Australia. Others were build on his foundations. With the shadows closing in, he was elevated to the dignity of Archdeacon and spent the evening of his life in Sydney where he died in May 1864 and was buried in the crypt of Saint Mary's Cathedral.

Part V Prev Part III

Early Australian Catholic History III

7/6/2013

Articles that appeared in the 1990's in "The Catholic' Newspaper, before the Old Redemporist took it over.
By Thomas Acres

Father O'Flynn entered the colony in the height of the autocratic rule of Lachlan Macquarie (1810-1821). Macquarie was a rugged and overbearing Scot, who transformed the life of Sydney in the course of a decade. he hastened to assimilate the emancipated convicts into the society granting them land, admitting them to professions and even inviting them to social functions. This policy greatly favoured the Catholics, most of whom were ex-convicts, thus enabling the Rebels of '98 to become prominent citizens of Sydney.

The free settlers did not approve at all of this policy, thus a bitter feud was underway when Father O'Flynn stepped ashore on November 9, 1817. Macquarie received this intruder with official courtesy, but flatly refused him to perform his ministry. He prohibited him from saying Mass in public, but delayed any other action till he received word from London. Well, after all he did have the title of Prefect-Apostolic from Rome. in Sydney at the time there were around six thousand Catholics, who were a despised minority with very little influence. But besides this small size they found themselves in the centre of a popular movement in his support, petitions were signed and presented to the Governor, but Macquarie remained unmoved, and a warrant for his deportation was served on December 12, 1817.

Father O'Flynn, in order to forestall his deportation 'went bush', which very much tried Macquarie's patience. Another vessel was prepared and after a ten day cat and mouse game with the police Father O'Flynn was eventually arrested and lodged in a common goal. Then on May 20, 1818, he was put aboard the 'David Shea' heading for London, and Governor Macquarie recorded bluntly in his diary: 'O'Flynn, the popish missionary, was this day sent back to England."

During father's six month stay in Sydney he carried on a busy underground apostolate which has become the most vivid and inspiring tradition in the story of the Catholic Church in Australia. He performed his priestly function in secret, saying Mass in a small room of a settlers cottage, with nine or ten people in attendance. For the first time in ten years the faithful could receive the sacrament of Penance and Holy Eucharist, obtain the Church's blessing on their marriage, have their children baptised, and even receive the Sacrament of Confirmation, for which the missionary had special faculties.

But he is most vividly remembered for his role in the story of the 'Holy House of Australia.' tradition has it that before his arrest and deportation, he left the Blessed Sacrament, reserved for the sick, in a cedar press in the cottage of William Davis, (site of St Patrick's Church today) an Irish Blacksmith who was transported for making pikes for the Rebels of '98. For two years after his departure, with the nearest priest six thousand miles away, a lamp was kept burning before the humble tabernacle, and with inspiring faith and fervour the little band of Catholics would gather in secret for devotions. The story is an historically true fact that Father O'Flynn left the Blessed Sacrament in Sydney.

When Father O'Flynn arrived in London he presented a "humble remonstrance and petition of the Roman Catholics of New South Wales" pleading that a priest be sent to them in their plight. His own personal petition for official recognition was dismissed by the Home Office, and the failure of his mission seemed to be complete. But God was to draw from this seeming failure in man's eyes a curious triumph. Father O'Flynn was to become the silent, passive and mostly unconscious reformer of the policy concerning the colonies.

He arrived in England when new liberal and democratic ideas were gaining ground in the political arena. Thus the story of Father's plight was received with sympathy amongst those wishing reform. It touched off a newspaper and political campaign in England and Ireland for the plight of colonial Catholics and the horrors of transportation.
Part IV Prev Part II

Early Australian Catholic History II

7/4/2013

Articles that appeared in the 1990's in "The Catholic' Newspaper, before the Old Redemporist took it over.
By Thomas Acres
A more serious rebellion occurred in 1804, when 400 "United Irishmen" mutinied at Castle Hill, a short distance from Sydney. It started on March 4th when William Johnston, an Irishman who had been transported for his part in the rebellion of 1798 gathered together the group, armed them at Castle Hill with rifles, improvised pikes and cutlasses, and planned to raise another 300 at the Hawkesbury from where he proposed to march on Sydney and Parramatta using the catchy of liberty.

At 11:30 on Sunday night, word reached Government House that the convicts at Castle Hill were in a state of insurrection. King issued a proclamation ordering them to surrender or face court marshal, and in the early hours of Monday morning, he and a company of soldiers under Major Johnston set out for Parramatta to confront the rebels. Johnston rode on ahead accompanied by quartermaster Laycock and caught up with the insurgents at 11:30 am. at Vinegar Hill, 7 miles out of Toongabbie. They advanced within pistol shot of the rebels and called on them to surrender and take advantage of the mercy offered by the governor's proclamation. When they refused, Johnston asked to talk to their leaders, who in trusting Irish fashion, met the Englishmen Johnston and Laycock halfway. Johnston pointed his pistol at Philip Cunningham's head and Laycock pointed his at William Johnston's head. The men who had shouted for liberty offered no resistance.

In the meantime, Johnston's detachment of twenty-five soldiers had arrived on the scene. When Johnston ordered them to charge they cut the rebels to pieces. Within minutes nine lay dead, their leader, Cunningham, lay wounded, and the rest were in flight for the Hawkesbury. After Johnston caught up with them at 9 PM., retribution began. After taking the opinion of the officers about him, he directed that Cunningham be hanged on the staircase of the public store. On March 7th King announced that the principal ringleaders had given themselves up, and appealed to the rest to surrender. Only the leaders were tried, the three hundred odd of the rest were sent back to their work with a reprimand. After a brief trial eight of the leaders were hung and many others flogged, thirty-four were sent to the coal mines at Newcastle, about 100 miles north of the settlement.

Mass by Reverend James Dixon in the kitchen of a house in 1803. A lookout is at the door, looking for soldiers.

After the Castle Hill rising reports came in that the gatherings for Mass were being used to stir up another revolt, and the Governor revoked his permission for Fr. Dixon to say Mass at the close of 1804. Father Dixon remained in Sydney for another four years, but no record remains of the spiritual and social work he must have done amongst the convicts. He carried with the highest respect of the people when he returned to Ireland in 1808.

During the ten years from 1808-18 the faithful of Sydney were without ministry of a priest and almost completely forgotten by the English vicars-apostolic and the Irish Bishops. Thus left without spiritual ministration the Catholic convicts were forced to attend Protestant services or else suffer twenty-five lashes for the first refusal fifty for the second, and if they persisted, the third time, they were transported to Norfolk Island, fifty miles out in the Pacific.

This period has been called the 'catacomb era' of the Church in Australia. The Faith was kept alive by laymen alone.

This long night of suppression ended with the arrival of Fr. Jeremiah O'Flynn. Jeremiah O'Flynn was born in County Kerry on December 25, 1788, he studied with the Franciscans at Killarney and entered the Trappist monastery at Lulworth, Dorsetshire, where he was ordained priest on March 9, 1813. After a period as missionary in West Indies, he became a secular priest and volunteered for New Holland, as Australia was still called. On September 9, 1815 he was appointed but Rome at the prefect of the mission to Botany Bay, or 'Bottannibe' as it was stated in the document, he was instructed to be given 'a chalice, pyx chasuble of all colours and the sum of 50 scude.' But he was refused official status from the British authorities, so he paid his own fare to the settlement hoping that his approval would follow.

Part III Part I

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