is necessary to consider the public Archbishop Mannix not only made according to B.A. Santamaria—yet leadership he provided in Australia history; he is someone about whom another Mannix biographer—was during World War I and also the many people, both within and outside one of the last things on the mind of catholic Cold War. The stand he took against the Church, still feel strongly. It Archbishop Mannix before he died, heritage conscription and the later resistance testifies to his enduring importance aged 99. to the threat of communism may and influence that the mere fact of Apart from anything else, I find it have been attacked vociferously by his his arrival in Australia a century ago inspiring to think that someone who adversaries, yet history, I believe, shows should be the occasion of an official had attained such a great age could Archbishop Mannix to have been right celebration. How many other migrants all along. continue to be so active, forward- to this country would have their thinking and effective in his approach. His determined and principled arrival marked by a major conference Archbishop Mannix did not arrive in opposition to attempts to impede convened at a state library? Australia until he was in his 40s, yet he the reasonable exercise of individual accomplished enough to fill more than My own interest in Archbishop Daniel conscience and the encroachment of one lifetime. the secular state upon religious and Mannix was awakened some years other freedoms is a touchstone for ago when I joined the residential For details of the upcoming conference, us today. It is significant that while college at Monash University named Daniel Mannix: His Legacy, see Events, Mannix Archbishop Mannix resisted the spread after him, the establishment of which, page 33. of communism, he rejected a move by A much the Menzies government to outlaw the examined life Communist Party of Australia. The Mannix At the same time as he engaged years in events of the day, Archbishop Mannix remained far-sighted. His Daniel Mannix was born Words • Dr Simon Caterson patient advocacy for state financial in Ireland on 4 March CH D I O CE S E F m ELB U R NE aid to non-government schools 1864. He was ordained eventually was accepted by prime at St Patrick’s College, minister Robert Menzies as central Maynooth, in 1890, and to the Australian education system, a appointed its president policy that in our time has attracted in 1903. In 1912, he was bipartisan support. In higher education, consecrated a bishop and Archbishop Mannix encouraged the appointed Coadjutor O LIC aR R E © M D HC CATH PICTU Archbishop of Melbourne, Archbishop Daniel Mannix, after his arrival in Melbourne. full participation of Catholics within the then expanding public university arriving in Melbourne sector as a natural progression towards in 1913 to take up the Catholics taking their rightful place in position. He became For anyone born subsequent to he went about doing what he did. To as Daniel Mannix, with the sole public and professional life. the third archbishop of the lifetime of Archbishop Daniel borrow the phrase used by Michael exception of another Irish-Australian, Melbourne in 1917. He Mannix, he may loom as a somewhat Gilchrist, a biographer more readily Ned Kelly. He was very much a public figure; as held the position for the monumental figure. But once you appreciative than Griffin of his subject’s Brenda Niall observes, the inner man next 46 years, a time of begin to learn more about him, virtues, what characterised Archbishop For his part, Archbishop Mannix is remains elusive. Archbishop Mannix immense social change Archbishop Mannix’s extraordinary Mannix most particularly was his wit widely recognised as the best-known has a strong presence in Australian and growth for the life and career draws you in. You can and wisdom. and most influential churchman in culture, inspiring several plays and Archdiocese of Melbourne start to appreciate just why Archbishop Australian history. He may well be appearing (in fictional guise) in at least and Australian society. Mannix was such a powerful presence The sheer number of full-length the only archbishop ever arrested on one well-known novel. He is also the Archbishop Mannix died for so long in the lives of generations of biographies, the first of which appeared the high seas by the British Navy, as subject of a number of portraits painted on 6 November 1963. Melburnian, Victorian, and Australian not long after his arrival in Australia, occurred in 1920 when Archbishop by prominent artists. indicates the importance of Archbishop Mannix was detained on the orders Throughout this year, Catholics, and non-Catholics also, as which marks a century Mannix, and biographies continue to of British prime minister David Lloyd When aged in his 90s, Archbishop well as having a major impact overseas since Mannix’s arrival in due to his interest in Irish affairs. be written half a century after his death. George, who dispatched a warship to Mannix granted one of the very first in-depth interviews to be broadcast on Melbourne, and 50 years Griffin’s biography has just been published, prevent him from landing in Ireland. In since his death, Kairos Even his most critically minded Australian television, an event regarded and one of Australia’s leading biographers, those volatile and markedly sectarian Catholic Journal will feature as a landmark in the history of the biographer, James Griffin, Brenda Niall, currently is working on a times, Archbishop Mannix, being Irish, articles about Archbishop acknowledges that ‘no personality in new life of Archbishop Mannix. Catholic and outspoken, was accused of media. It is also great television that Mannix and his enormous Australian history is more worthy of the features, among much else, Archbishop disloyalty to the Empire. y F i o na B a s ile contribution to the epithet charismatic than Daniel Mannix’. It has been observed by Cardinal George Mannix displaying his eloquence, Archdiocese and beyond. It was not just what Archbishop Mannix Pell that no other figure in Australian In reflecting upon who Archbishop humility, keenness of mind and set out to do that matters, but the way history has inspired as many biographies Mannix was and why he matters, it strength of spirit. r e b pictu Statue of Archbishop Daniel Mannix, by Nigel Boonhem, in the grounds of St Patrick's Cathedral.

20 www.cam.org.au/kairos Kairos • 3 march 2013 21