Catholic Federation of New South Wales JEFFKILDEA
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Copyright ofFull Text rests with the original copyright owner and, except as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, copying this copyright material is prohibited without the pennission ofthe owner or 200300833 its exclusive licensee or agent or by way ofa licence from Copyright Agency Limited. For infonnation about such licences contact Copyright Agency Limited on (02) 93947600 (ph) or (02) 93947601 (fax) TROUBLED TIMES An overview of the history of the Catholic Federation of New South Wales JEFFKILDEA Between 1913 and 1924 the Catholic Federation of New South Wales articulated and advocated the political interests ofthe Catholic Church in the state. As part of a world wide movement, having its origins in the successful resistance ofGerman Catholics to Bismarck's Kulturkampfduring the 1870s, the Federation was one of four such bodies that were established in Australia and which enrolled tens of thousands of Catholic men and women as members.' At its peak the NSW federation claimed a membership ofovera hundred thousand and there were times when its activities dominated news reports in the major metropolitan newspapers for days on end. Yet less than eighty years after its demise, few Catholics have heard of the Catholic Federation of NSW, let alone are aware ofwhat it did during its short existence. This article aims to give an overview of the history of the Catholic Federation of NSW so as to fill that gap in the awareness and understanding of the organisation and its significance in the history of the Australian Catholic community.' Catholics in early twentieth-century Australia When the Catholic Federation of NSW was established in 1913, Catholics were mostly Irish by birth or descent, the Irish were mostly Catholics, and the Irish Catholics were mostly on the lowest rungs of the socio-economic ladder. This three-fold identification of religion, ethnicity and class had long been a feature of Australian society. J From the earliest days ofEuropean colonisation, Irish Catholics had perceived themselves as a persecuted minority. The degree to which, if at all, Catholics were in fact subject to persecution in this country is a question which has frequently been debated in the historiography of religion in Australia' Whatever may have been the reality, it was the perception which was most important in shaping the attitude of Catholics as to their place in the wider community, and during the period of the Catholic Federation's existence persecuted Catholicism was the orthodox Catholic historical interpretation. In the first quarter of the twentieth-century Australian society comprised two JeffKildea, barrister and historian, received a PhD in 2001 for his thesis on the history ofthe Catholic Federation. This paper. the Twelfth Gavin Cashman Memorial Lecture, was given to the Society at St Mary's Cathedral on 14 Juty 2002 9 JournaloftheAustralian Catholic Historical Society communities: one was British in origin and Protestant in faith, the other Irish and Catholic, At a functional level these two communities generally co-existed and co- operated peacefully and effectively, but viscerally they were quite distinct and often in a state oftension. From 1910 political and industrial troubles magnified by the stress induced by the Great War saw these tensions increase to a point that at times threatened the social fabric ofthe nation. The education question The issue that chronically and most clearly divided the two communities concerned the financing ofeducation. Originating in the I870s, the struggle between the Catholic Church and the NSW government over the withdrawal of state funding for denominational schools had by 19 I0 endured far longer than either side initially contemplated and had in fact assumed a de facto stability. The Catholic Church regarded the restriction ofgovernment assistance to state- run schools as imposing an unjust burden on Catholic parents who in good conscience could not send their children to state schools. Protestants and secularists, on the other hand, were suspicious and hostile towards Catholics' insistence on conducting their own schools. According to the Methodist, the Catholic Church 'seeks to segregate its young people, and to bring them up under influences which imbue their minds with the narrowest and most bigoted notions, separating them in the most sacred relations of life from the rest of the citizenship of the State'.' With the election in 1910 of an avowedly non-sectarian Labor government, the Church sensed an opportunity to reopen the education issue. At first, Catholic Archbishops of Sydney, the scholarly patrician Cardinal Patrick Francis Moran, and his successor, the rotund and pious Michael Kelly, endeavoured to do so by a strategy of constructive engagement with the new government. However, the strategy's lack of success, and the mounting pressure from clergy and laity alike for Catholics to become organised in order to force the issue, resulted in increased militancy. But this approach also failed. Labor's opposition to sectarianism and the strong representation ofCatholics in the Labor caucus, particularly after the party split in 19 I6, did not translate into the party's sympathy for the Church's claims. A number of factors in the party's collective approach to the issue combined to dash the Church's hopes for a re-negotiation ofthe education settlement. These factors included: political realism in the context of a predominantly Protestant electorate that remained fearful of Catholic intentions; support for the existing education system that taught both secular subjects and non-dogmatic religion; and an anti- sectarianism that, far from promoting freedom ofdenominational choice in education. rejected the separateness considered to be inherent in such a system. 10 The catholicFederaoon a/NSW Origins ofthe Catholic Federation The Catholic Federation was not the first, nor would it be the last, organised effort by the Catholic Church in Australia to promote its interests in the wider community, particularly on the education issue, In the nineteenth century a Catholic Association had been formed on two occasions to defend, improve and raise funds for Catholic schools.6 At the turn ofthe century Catholics once again felt the need to organise. In June 1900 the newly established Melbourne Catholic newspaper, the Tribune, after reporting on the activities of the American Federation of Catholic Societies, pledged itself 'to promote the consolidation and federation [ofCatholic societies in Australia], believing that union is strength both for individuals and societies that have similar purposes'.' A few months earlier W. L. Bowditch in the AustralLight had urged Catholics to combine to 'put an end to dissention and division, and weld us into one body for a holy war against injustice and political tyranny'.' Political organisation was also the theme of A. L. Kenny's address to the first Australasian Catholic Congress in 1900 in which he argued forthe establishment of a Catholic voter registration organisation with a view to securing the 'return to each Colonial Parliament and to the Commonwealth Parliament [of] a solid Catholic party, which should be able to exercise a power similar to that possessed by the great Catholic party in the German Reichstag'.' The success of the German Centre Party and the German Catholic federation, the Volksverein, was often cited in support ofarguments in favour ofCatholic organisation.'o In 1905 Father M, P. Malone of Sydney wrote two articles for the Austral Light in which he addressed the nature, methods and aims ofCatholic federation," and in the following yearbranches ofthe Voters' Registration Society were established in Victorian parishes." Although the Freeman's Journal considered that, in the normal course, 'the experiment would be a dangerous one, as likely to indicate the segregation ofthe Catholic body in the exercise of its political privileges', it stated that the circumstances were such as to justify it." At about this time, steps were being taken in Sydney to establish a Catholic Union, but they did not proceed," Catholic newspapers frequently contained letters advocating Catholic organisation, but, despite these agitations and the fact that Father Malone was invited to deliver a paper on Catholic federation at the 1909 Australasian Catholic Congress, it was not unti I 1911 that a federation was established in Victoria, and 1913 in New South Wales." History ofthe Catholic Federation ofNSW Up until his death in August 1911 Cardinal Moran maintained his opposition to the formation ofa federation, but shortly thereafter Archbishop Thomas Carr gave his consent to the establishment of the Australian Catholic Federation in Melbourne. 11 JournaloftheAustralian catholic HistoricalSociety In Sydney Archbishop Kelly continued the Cardinal's opposition, hoping that by quiet negotiation he could gain concessions from the !..abor government. He achieved some success in 1912 with the Bursary Endowment Act that enabled pupils at Catholic primary schools to compete for state bursaries to pay for their secondary education. But increased government benefits to state schools meant that Catholic families who obeyed the Church's teaching on Catholic schools were paying for their children's education as well as contributing through their taxes to an expanding slate education budget. In October 1912 P. S. Cleary, a leading lay proponent ofCatholic federation, wrote to Archbishop Kelly setting out the case for the establishment of a federation. Although Kelly responded favourably to Cleary's suggestion, he had his doubts and attempted to limit the proposed organisation's purposes. He openly expressed his concern that there was a lack of lay leadership of sufficient ability and standing to carry out the tasks which such a body would demand. Nevertheless, during December and January representatives of a number of Catholic societies held meetings under the auspices ofthe Catholic Club, whose president, P. J. Minahan, was a strong supporter of Catholic federation. By March 1913, there emerged from that process a proposal and a constitution that met with the archbishop's approval. The P.S Clear)', President (If the Catholi(' Catholic Federation had arrived.