The Catholic Weekly 23 October 2022

catholicweekly.com.au 2 23, October, 2022 H I S T O R I C A L E D I T I O N 2 0 0 Y E A R S T two young priests from Ireland ar- rived in Sydney on 2 May 1820 with both zeal and enthusiasm. They had volunteered to be missionaries in the far-off Penal Colony of New South Wales. The British Government had formally ap- pointed them as Chaplains and when they arrived, the local Governor, Major-Gener- al Lachlan Macquarie, recognised their cre- dentials and gave them instructions on how they were to conduct their work. These were the pioneers John Joseph Therry and Philip Conolly. They were given lodgings by some Syd- ney Catholics near The Rocks as they settled in to their new pastoral charge. Soon, they would have understood that their flock was almost entirely composed of convicts or for- mer convicts and amounted to around 7500 men, women and children spread through- out Sydney and its regions. Where to begin? Mass and the Sacraments had begun to be celebrated by the two in private residences, but they lost little time in determining that Catholics needed a permanent and fitting place of worship. There would be a bet- ter chance of boosting the practice of the Faith once a permanent church had been built. But most of all, they believed that God should be honoured with the construction of a permanent place of worship. And so, readers of the Colony’s newspa- per, The Sydney Gazette would have been surprised to find an announcement promi- nently placed on page 2 of the 17 June 1820 edition. The Gazette reported that a meeting of Roman Catholics two days earlier had unanimously resolved to hold a public meet- ing at the Sydney Court House at the end of June to begin fundraising for a Catholic Chapel. This was something different for the in- habitants of the Colony. Their experience of Catholicism was of a circumscribed, private religion, which had even proved politically subversive. The Church of England was the official form of Christianity in the Colony. The preliminary meeting, which The Ga- zette mentioned had been held at a prem- ises in Pitt Street, the property of John Red- dington. Reddington had come to Australia as a convict in 1800 for his part in the Irish Rebellion of 1798. He had done well for him- self and owned a premises where alcohol was served under licence - a pub namedThe Harp Without a Crown. The premises was also a grocery store and it was most likely a place frequented by Irish Catholics. Although he had died four years before the arrival of the priests - the beneficiaries of his estate still owned the Pitt Street building. They were Catholic and willing to offer their property for Church purposes. The building - most likelymade of timber - was near the cor- ner of Pitt and Market Streets, where the Syd- ney Tower now stands. Mass had also been celebrated in this premises in the month since the two priests arrived in Sydney. The proposed meeting took place in the Sydney Court House (now ground floor rooms in Parliament House in Macquarie Street) on 30 June and an extensive report appeared the following day in the pages of The Gazette . Unfortunately - and probably deliberately - the report does not indicate how many attended. From this, it would be safe to assume numbers were low. The writer of the report was at pains to point out, how- ever, that the meeting was attended by “all the Respectable Catholics of the Colony”. In the long-winded prose found in news- papers of those long-gone days, a series of 11 resolutions was recorded, which included thanking various persons for their benevo- lence. More practically, however, it was resolved that Catholics were to “unite with their cler- gy to build a House of Divine Worship in the Town of Sydney”. To this end, a Committee was formed at the meeting, led by Fathers Conolly and Therry, which would “select a site for the building, administer the con- tracts, manage the finances for its building and authorise fundraisers.” A sub-committee was also to be formed to oversee donations from non-Catholics. From those present at the meeting, sev- en Catholic laymen were appointed to the Committee: James Meehan, William Davis, James Dempsey, Edward Redmond, Patrick Moore, Michael Hayes and Martin Short - all former convicts. In their different ways, they had been accused of insurrectionary crimes in the patriotic Uprising on the West Coast of Ire- land in 1798 aimed at overthrowing British Rule. Each had arrived in the Colony of NSW in 1800 or 1802. John Reddington was also among their number. All had eventually received a condition- al pardon by the Colonial Government and had become successful businessmen, so that by 1820, two decades after their transporta- tion from Ireland, they had become “the re- spectable Catholics of the Settlement”. They had come to know each other very well from their 20 years in the Colony. The Treasurer of the Chapel Building Committee, however, was neither Catholic nor a former convict, but from Armagh in Northern Ireland and a prominent figure in the Colonial Govern- ment of Lachlan Macquarie. His name was JohnThomas Campbell. He had arrived in Sydney with Governor Mac- quarie’s entourage in 1810 and was imme- diately appointed the Governor’s Secretary. For 11 years he was Macquarie’s chief assis- tant in the administration of the colony, his intimate friend and loyal supporter. It is significant that a man as prominent and well-connected as Campbell became the Committee’s treasurer. It was obviously strategic - he would be instrumental in at- tracting support froma broader range of Col- onists than Catholics. That he accepted the nomination indicates his personal support for the Chapel project and his good will. The Committee lost little time in encour- aging donations to the Chapel building fund. Mr Campbell placed an advertisement about the building of the Chapel in The Sydney Ga- zette on 2 September 1820, in which he ad- vised that an account had been opened at the Bank of New SouthWales “for the purpose of receiving subscriptions” and he requested “that persons of every Religious persuasion, [The new priests] would have understood their flock was almost entirely composed of convicts or former convicts and numbered around 7500 men, women and children ... I n this edition  BEGINNINGS  BUILDING BEGINS  A VISION IN STONE  CATHOLIC LIFE IN 1821  FOUNDATION DAY  THE TIME & WORLD 2 10 4 6 8 13 “Governor Macquarie has to ac- knowledge the receipt of the note addressed to him by the Rev Mr Therry and in reply begs to inform him that he will be very happy to have the honour of laying the first stone of the intended Roman Catholic Chapel, pro- viding it can be conveniently done a few days sooner than that mentioned by Mr Therry ...” - Governor Lachlan Macquarie, to Fr John Joseph Therry, 20 October 1821 QUOTABLE EDITOR Peter Rosengren (02) 9390 5400 REPORTERS Marilyn Rodrigues (02) 9390 5410 Debbie Cramsie (02) 9390 5396 Adam Wesselinoff (02) 9390 5400 SUBSCRIPTIONS Rita Ng (02) 9390 5411 ADVERTISING AND MARKETING Steve Richards (02) 9390 5404 Katie Clarke (02) 9390 5402 DESIGNERS Renate Cassis Mathew De Sousa Our story begins in 1839 with the Australasian Chronicle, continuing with the Freeman’s Journal in 1850. Level 13, Polding Centre, 133 Liverpool Street, Syd- ney, NSW 2000. Phone (02) 9390 5400 | Vol 73, No 5258 The Catholic Weekly is published by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney ABN 60 471 267 587 and is printed by Spotpress Pty Ltd, 24-26 Lilian Fowler Place, Marrickville NSW 2204. CatholicWeekly The Call 02 9649 6423 or visit www.catholiccemeteries.com.au Consecrated lawns and chapels Sydney’s only Catholic crematorium Monthly mass for the Repose of Souls Funeral directors available for a Catholic service Bereavement pastoral care Serving the Catholic community for over 150 years A house of God in old Sydney’s Catholics were overwhelmingly Irish and overwhelmingly current or former convicts. But that  Michael Sternbeck disposed to contribute to this laudable Ob- ject, will make their subscriptions there as soon as possible, in order to the Committee being thence enabled to commence on the purposed building.” But Campbell also sounded a note of cau- tion to those suggesting that there should be more than one Chapel supporting the needs of Catholics outside Sydney. PUBLISHED 30 OCTOBER 2022 SPOTLIGHT P E R F O RM I NG A R T S M E D I A A R T S V I S U A L A R T S ACPA 2021 AWARD WINNER DISCOVER ST MARY’S TODAY l The St Mary’s Cathedral parish includes St Columbkille’s in Woolloomooloo, Sa- cred Heart in Darlinghurst and St Philip Howard Church, Norfolk Island. l The Cathedral is built on the oldest con- tinuous site of Catholic worship in Austral- ia. l The cathedral is the seat of the Archbish- op of Sydney and the mother diocese of Australia The First Fleet enters Port Jackson on 26 January 1788. The journey from England to Australia in the late 1700s and early 1800s was long and dangerous and could take several months. For convicts transported in harsh conditions it was often far worse. IMAGE: E. LE BIHAN. STATE LIBRARY OF NSW Many Sydneysiders will know this beautiful image of the Blessed Virgin and her infant Son which stands inside St Mary’s Cathedral. This edition should have appeared 12 months ago but, due to COVID, it was delayed - just as the pandemic delayed so much else going on in the world. This bicentennial edition celebrates the establishment of our country’s first Catholic cathedral here in Sydney. However when our forbears in faith built what was to become the first Catholic cathedral they had no doubt as to whose patronage they wished to dedicate it: that wonderful, mysterious and amazing ma- ternal figure: Mary, the Mother of God. Today it is known everywhere as simply St Mary’s. For- mally, it is dedicated to the Immaculate Moth- er of God, Help of Christians, who is also the patroness of our nation. This edition honours not only our ancestors but, we hope and pray, it honours her too. Mary, help of Christians, pray for us, your children, in this Great South Land of the Holy Spirit. PHOTO: GIOVANNI PORTELLI ACathedral for the Mother of theLord