Transcript Challenge and Change in the Early Australian Catholic

First Priest? and Three
Convict Priests
Fr Louis Le Receveur
 Irish priests were not the first
Catholic clergy in Australia.
 A French expedition arrived in
Sydney Cove on 25th January 1788.
 On board was a priest-scientist Fr
Louis Le Receveur.
 Fr Receveur would have said Mass
daily and so the first Mass said in
Australia would have been on this
French ship.
 Fr Receveur died on the expedition
and is buried in La Peruse, Sydney.
Fr Peter O’Neill

 Fr O’Neill arrived in
February 1801, unjustly
sentenced after the 1898
Rebellion in Ireland.
 Little is known of his
ministry in the colony.
 He left Sydney in 1803,
following a review of
his case.
Fr James Harold

 Fr Harold arrived in Sydney in January 1800, but as he was
not permitted to minister in New South Wales he sought
leave to depart.
 Unrest among Irish convicts led the authorities to suspect
him , though he claimed that he 'tried at all times to prevent
any disturbance and to preserve the peace of the
community'.
 He refused to name Irishmen whom he knew were planning
disturbances.
 Several Irishmen were flogged, and Fr Harold with others
was banished to Norfolk Island.
Fr Harold

 On Norfolk Island Fr Harold conducted a school . He
repeatedly petitioned Governor Philip Gidley King for
permission to minister as a priest but was ignored.
 When Father James Dixon left Australia, Fr Harold returned
to Paramatta in 1808.
 He was among the Irishmen pardoned by Governor
Macquarie in June 1810, and left the colony in the Concord in
July for the United States.
Fr James Dixon
Fr Dixon was caught up in the
reaction to the Irish Rebellion
of 1798 and was transported
to Australia, arriving in
January 1800.
Governor King allowed him
to conduct a school because
he trusted him as an educated
member of the “middle class”.
To help soothe discontent,
King allowed Fr Dixon to
work as a priest among the
people.
First Public Mass
Father Dixon celebrates an early Mass.
Note the " Chasuble" fashioned from an
old damask curtain. We see that this was
not an " officially" sanctioned Mass : note
the " cockatoo" or lookout stationed at the
door in case of trouble from the
Authorities.
This image comes from a stained glass
window in St. Mary's Basilica in Sydney.
The First “Official” Catholic
Mass celebrated in
Australia occurred in
Sydney on 15th May 1803.
Catholics were only able to
attend mass in their place of
residence, so Sunday mass
was held in rotation in
Sydney, Parramatta and
Hawkesbury.
As well as Mass, Dixon
officiated at marriages,
baptised children and
attended prisoners on the
scaffold.