How Catholicism came to Australia

In 1788, when the First Fleet sailed from England to Australia to set up its first penal colony, the Church of England was the only approved religion. There were several attempts to bring Catholic priests to the colony, but to no avail: since the colony was established, Catholics were obliged to attend the Anglican Sunday service, and their daily rations would be reduced if they did not.

A 1792 petition to secure an official Catholic priest for the colony also proved fruitless, leaving Catholics to turn to Anglican chaplains for ceremonies such as baptisms, marriages and burials. By 1802, there were more than 1700 Catholics in Australia but this burgeoning community still had no active Catholic priest. It wasn't until April 1803 that the Governor authorised the first Mass for a group of convicts at The Rocks, which today is commemorated in a stained glass window located in St Mary's Cathedral. Convict priests celebrated Mass when and where they could.

In 1819, after numerous requests and a Commission of Enquiry, two priests were officially authorised by the colonial government to minister to the Catholics of New South Wales. Fr John Joseph Therry was a major figure in the life of the early colony.

On 12 May, 1834, the Vicariate Apostolic of New Holland was erected and Father John Bede Polding was appointed as Vicar Apostolic with jurisdiction over what is now the Commonwealth of Australia

The first bishop

John Bede Polding, an English Benedictine monk, became Australia's first Catholic bishop. His dream was to establish a Church founded on English monastic ideals, but Polding's priests were mainly Irish secular priests and they had other ideas. Their efforts, and those of the Irish bishops who were appointed to other newly established dioceses, soon combined with Australia's singular geographical and social environment to subvert Polding's vision.
Irish clergy dominated Australian Catholic life and it was not until the 1930s that Australian-born priests outnumbered them.

Catholics in the post-war era

The 1950s were a boom time for Australian Catholics. Numbers grew rapidly, increasing the proportion of Catholics in the Australian population and established parishes. The Catholic community had grown to be what the Irish bishops of the 19th century had worked for and dreamed of: a thriving Church based on the Irish model.
Enormous social change in Australia during the 1960s and 1970s changed this, however, as did the huge post-war influx of immigrant Catholics from Italy, Lebanon, Vietnam and many other countries. These people wanted to attend Mass in their own languages and needed schools for their children. The Church responded by obtaining priests from the immigrants' countries of origin and building new schools and churches.

A significant aspect of Catholic schooling in the past thirty years has been the enrolment of students of families from non-English speaking backgrounds. In Sydney systemic schools, about 50% of all students have at least one parent speaking a language other than English. Clearly the new generation of Australian Catholics - coming from countries and regions such as Lebanon, Poland, Korea, the Philippines, Hong Kong, South America, South-East Asia and more recently from the Sudan - is continuing the tradition of looking to Catholic schools or the education of their young.