The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1889-09-28
.CATHOLICITY IN AUSTRALIA.
The Early Struggle Of Exiled IRISH
men in That Far Off
Land
CHRISTIAN MISSION HARDSHIPS.

The First Catholic Priest Imprisoned
and Sent Back to England BY
Religious Bigots.
When Great Britain sent out her first
cargoes of convicts to Australia it never
entered into the ideas of that enlight.
ened power that such an attendant as a
minister of religion might be wanted.
and, as Mr.. Marshall saws In his book
on "Christian Missions ''The first
ship which bore away it's freight of des.
pair, bruised hearts, and woeful memor-
les, and fearful expectations, would
have left the shores of England without
even solitary minister of religion but
for one Individual. The civil authori-
ties had deemed their work complete
when they had given the signal to raise
the anchor and unloo:e the sails; the
rest was no concern of theirs;;' he adds
something more extraordinary and more
to our purpose still.
ssAmong the emlgrants to the new
continent were some of those children
of Ireland, whom Providence seems to
have dispersed through all the homes of
the Saxon race, that they might one day
rekindle among them the light OF faith,
which their own long misfortunes have
never been able to quench, and they
carried the first fruitful seeds of the
ever blooming tree of the Church. .
To these exiles it was necessary to
convey the succors Of religion. The first
Catholic priest who arrived in Australia
on his mission of charity, and whom the
policy of self-interest at least might
have prompted the authorities TO greet
with eager welcome, was treated with
derision, and was directed as one of
his most energetic successors relates
'tro produce his permission or ''hold
himself in readiness for departure by
the next ship" He was alone, and
consequently safe victim; and though,
as the latest historian of the colony OBJ
serves, s'hls ministrations would have
been not less valuable IN social than a
religious point of view,'' he was seized,
put in prison and finally sent back to
England, because his presence was irk-
some to men who seem to have felt in
stinctively that his prof1ered ministry
was the keenest rebuke to their own
cruelty and profaneness.
This first Catholic priest was the Rev.
Fr. Flynn on whom the Holy See had
conferred the title Of archpliest, with
power to administer Confirmation. Ar
rived at Sydney in 1918, he did much
good there in short time. Mr.. Mar
shall has told us how the colonial au-
thorities treated him.
But q circumstance, not mentioned in
this clever authors work on Missions"
shows who and what were those Irish
exiles whom the priest had come to
serve and direct in his spiritual capac-
ity. When suddenly carried of to
prison he left the Blessed Sacrament in
their little church at Sydney. There
the faithful frequently assembled dur
ing the two years which followed his
departure as large number as could
muster to offer up their prayers to. God
and look for consolation in their afaic-
tion. The visible priest had been
snatched away from them; the Arch
priest of souls, Christ, remained.
Rev. W. Ullathorne, now Bishop of
England, was afterward
made vicar general apostolic Of that
lesolate mission by the Holy See. He
informs us. in letter published among
The '.Annals Of the Propagation Of the
Faith how these poor Irish people
we're treated by their masters In Aus
tralia.
''It was forbidden them to speak
Irish under pain of fifty strokes Of the
whip; and the magistrates, who for the
most pat belonged to the Protestant
clergy sentenced also to the whip and
10 close confinement those who refused
10 90 to hear their sermons and to assist
at service which their consciences
In 1920 two fresh missionaries re-
placed FIR. Flynn. They found their
little church where their predecessor
had left our Lord two years before still
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