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PART III Chapter Seven Hard-headed Spirituality and Soft-hearted Piety: The .

Sixteen years after Murray's installation as of Maitland he took another important step in securing religious discipline by introducing the Redemptorist Congregation to his diocese, an order hitherto unknown in . Impressed by the work of these religious men both in Rome and Limerick, Murray had invited them to Maitland during his visit to Europe between 1880 and 1882. 1 They arrived at a time when orders of regular priests with their particular brands of spirituality were notably absent from the Australian Church. It was not until the twentieth century that even older and more central dioceses such as and Hobart could boast of having religious priests among their clergy. 2 The coming of the Redemptorists to Maitland was a coup for Murray and like his own arrival it signalled a new phase in the history of the diocese. Within his episcopate it was a second period of revitalization. It was a time of consolidation, a time when he sought to confirm, more thoroughly than he had been able to do at the beginning, the moral citizenship of Catholics.

Murray's aspirations were not peculiar to him nor to Catholic generally, nor even to Catholics. They reflected events on the world stage, and new ideas about authority, during the second half of the nineteenth century. Nation states such as Britain, Germany and France were all expanding their territorial sway, with each one holding very definite ideas about the nature of citizenship within their empires. The new imperial citizenship had clear spiritual dimensions, especially evident among Germans. Advances in communications, such as the telegraph, supported the expansion and even global dissemination of ideas. Closer interrelationships and control became possible within

1 Manuscript prepared by Father Shearman, CSSR, 1907, Archives of the Redemptorists, Kogarah. 2 F. Mecham, 'The Contribution of the Clergy to the Spirituality of the Australian Church', The Australasian Catholic Record, Vol. LV, No. 1, January 1978, pp. 43- 55. 177 communities more vast and uniform than any the world had seen. The , in its own way, was doing the same. Always, in principle, a universal church, it now demonstrated a new energy in seeking to extend its earthly dominions. With the unification of Italy the papacy had lost one of the great symbols of its temporal power, namely the papal states, and in compensation, perhaps, the beleaguered Pius IX began more aggressively claiming and expanding his ecclesiastical boundaries. Besides, while ecclesiastical dominion might have now seemed entirely spiritual it continued to carry strong resonances of territorial lordship, and far beyond St Peter's Basilica. Murray, whose spiritual sway cast its own territorial shadow, began ordering his domain in an aggressive and systematic fashion.

It seems more than mere coincidence that the arrival of the Redemptorists coincided with the immediate aftermath of the 1880 Education Act. As we have seen, Murray had come to his diocese in 1866, the time of the passing of the Education Act which had marked the beginning of the end of state aid to denominational schools. Murray was able to play upon and use to effect the adversarial situation which evolved. For example, he wrote to Vincent Dwyer claiming that while 'we will be put to some inconvenience for a time ... in the end we will gain much by the fierce agitation which has been raised against us throughout the colony'. 3 Catholics came to define even more emphatically who they were, choosing Murray's path for a variety of reasons. The 1880s demanded even greater energy, focus and renewal from the Catholic community. Having lost the earlier battle, church authorities rallied the faithful in support of their own system of schools.4 Catholic schooling, and the broader religious campaigns to which schooling was central, would only succeed if all Catholics co-operated fully in the enterprise. There was no better group than the Redemptorists to terrorize the faithful into submission and to convince them of the hell which awaited them otherwise.

3 Murray to Vincent Dwyer, 22 December 1879, Murray Papers, MDA. M. Lyons, 'Aspects of Sectarianism in New South circa 1865 to 1990', PhD., Australian National University, Canberra, 1972, pp. 331-332. 4 Loc. cit. 178

The ceremony surrounding the arrival of the Redemptorists on 30 April 1882 was not unlike Murray's own triumphal entry into his diocese sixteen years before. Parishioners and local dignitaries assembled at Singleton Railway Station to greet the bishop and the Redemptorist C o mmunit y. 5 The gathered crowd then walked in procession to St Patrick's, where the official ceremonies and celebrations took place. As on the earlier occasion, the musical resources of the diocese had been gathered and St Patrick's was the venue for another performance of Mozart's Twelfth Mass. Well-known parishioners, Miss Quinn, daughter of the Mayor, J. P. Quinn ('a foremost Catholic of the district'), and a Mr McCosker, son of Bernard McCosker, resident in the area since 1837, sang the solo parts, and Miss O'Carroll played the organ accompanied by a small orchestra. 6 The superior of the Redemptorist Community, Father Edmund Vaughan, thanked the faithful for their enthusiastic welcome, promising that a mission would begin in Singleton on the very next Sun d a y. 7 This gathering at Singleton Station, itself a symbol of the changes brought by rail transport and the conquering of distance, the procession to the local church and the promise of a mission were very public declarations of the arrival of the Redemptorists. They were, too, acts of dominion: the claiming by Catholics of the public thoroughfares of Singleton and the claiming by the Redemptorists of the spiritual life of the Catholic community.

The fathers and brothers had come from the English Province of Redemptorists established in 1843 at Clapham near London. The religious circumstances of Clapham were very different from those of Maitland. There would have been no enthusiastic welcome nor triumphal procession for them at their arrival there. was an emphatically Protestant nation and Clapham was the weekend retreat of those

5 The term, community, refers to the six fathers and brothers who arrived in Singleton. 6 Singleton District Pioneer Register, Singleton, 1989, p. 57, and Freemans Journal, 6 May 1882. 7 E. Vaughan, CSSR to V. Dwyer, Singleton, n.d., File C2.29, Murray Papers, MDA. 179 champions of Protestantism, the 'Clapham Sect'. 8 Australia was a territory on which the Redemptorists might hope to make a bolder impression. The first Australian community was both English and Irish.9 Fathers Edmund Vaughan and Henry Halson were English, while Fathers James Hegarty and Thomas O'Farrell and Brothers Lawrence Watters and Daniel Gleeson were Irish. 10 Murray, Roman and Irish though he was, was delighted to have these Redemptorists from England in his diocese. He was even pleased to have as superior Edmund Vaughan, uncle of the Benedictine, Roger Bede Vaughan, Archbishop of , although ten years later Murray confided to Father Thomas O'Farrell that perhaps an Irish superior would better serve the needs of Irish Catholics, a comment suggesting that it was time for a change.11

Despite Edmund Vaughan's Englishness and his Benedictine associations his social connections obviously impressed Murray. 12 The youngest of nineteen children, Vaughan had been raised by his eldest brother, who had inherited the Vaughan estate of Courtfield in Herefordshire. His was an old English-Catholic family. One of his brothers, William, became Bishop of Plymouth and two of his nephews, Roger Bede and Herbert, became archbishops, the first of Sydney and the second Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster. 13 They were a family with ambitions of high ecclesiastical office and the means of attaining it. Edmund himself was a scientist, musician and a poet. 14 Of the same age and from eminent ecclesiastical families it is not surprising that Murray and Vaughan respected one another. 15 Murray had not found such a kindred spirit in Edmund's nephew, Roger Bede, Archbishop of Sydney.

8 E. M. House, Saints in Politics: The 'Clapham Sect' and the Growth of Freedom, London, 1971, pp. 15-20. 9 The Irish Province of Redemptorists was established from England in 1853. P. Corish, The Irish Catholic Experience: A Historical Survey, Dublin, 1985, p. 202. 10 S. J. Boland, CSSR, Faith of Our Fathers: The Redemptorists in Australia 1882- 1992, Armadale, 1982, p. 19 and pp. 25-26. 11 Ibid., p. 74. 12 P. O'Farrell, The Catholic Church and Community in Australia, West Melbourne, 1977, pp. 173. 13 Ibid., pp. 25-26. 14 Manuscript prepared by Father Shearman, CSSR, 1907, Archives of the Redemptorists, Kogarah. 15 Murray Papers, C.1 and C2.1-61, MDA. 180

However, in 1882 other fights remained to be fought against the enemies of Catholicism.

The Redemptorists, with their pastoral devices — missions, retreats and devotion to Our Lady of Perpetual Succour — and their particular preaching style, greatly impressed the , priests and religious of the diocese. They were different from anything the Catholic people of Maitland had hitherto encountered. Founded by a lawyer and priest, Alphonsus Liguori, in Italy in the mid-eighteenth century, the order had been approved by Benedict XIV in 1749 under the title, Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer (CSSR). 16 Redemptorist apostolic zeal was directed towards those who had never heard the church's message and to those whose faith needed strengthening. Working in crowded city churches and isolated country villages, they usually remained in each city or country area for a period of two to four weeks, during which they engaged in an intense campaign of preaching, teaching, visitation and hearing confessions. According to Alphonsus, the preachers were to move people to renounce their sins and to find God. Integral to the process was the opportunity for confession, the means by which each person could speak freely with a missioner and receive personal instruction. The Redemptorists considered their role as confessors to be central to their mission and they counted the numbers coming to the confessional as one of the best indicators of their success. 17 It was in the confessional that the Redemptorists displayed a genuinely human face and a compassion which assisted people in reaching some accommodation between hope and fear.

Most importantly for Murray's purposes, and reflecting the theological climate of the time, Redemptorist theology supported the Ultramontane understanding of authority. Liguori, a renowned theologian and prolific writer, had refuted the principal errors of the eighteenth century and had presented the truth of the Catholic faith to unbelievers. Arguing that the Catholic Church was the only church of Christ, he stressed the necessity of a supreme authority in the church. By

16 Boland, op. cit., p. 15. 17 Ibid., pp. 68-69. 181 the nineteenth century the Redemptorists had become the vanguard in the papacy's assault upon the Enlightenment and liberalism. They shored up papal power and supported the centralizing tendencies of the papacy.18 Alphonsus' writings added weight to the claims of the Ultramontanes, particularly at Vatican Council I, which ratified papal infallibility. The arrival of the Redemptorists in Maitland, with their dynamic preaching and the certainties they offered, underlined, again, the importance of the Holy See, and consequently the importance of the local ordinary, as the touchstone of orthodoxy.19

The Redemptorists, and particularly the writings of their founder, were crucial in the fight against Jansenism as a moral system.20 Alphonsus' writings on moral theology were consistent with his dogmatic theology in their stress upon law as a guide for decisions of conscience. However he developed a moral system, equiprobabilism, which sought to steer a middle course between conscience and the law. He warned against both an excessively lax and an excessively rigorous moral position and he recognized the obligation of the more probable opinion in favour of the law, although he saw the law as a system of moral values. In the case of two equiprobable opinions, one favouring the law and the other liberty, the individual should be left free, he claimed, to make his or her own decision.21

The issue of conscience under law was, in essence, internally contradictory, allowing as it did for both individual freedom and perfect obedience. The fundamentalist interpretation given to Ligouri's teaching by Redemptorists themselves compounded the inherent contradictions. The founder had encouraged his preachers always to leave the people with

18 W. G. McMinn, 'Bishop Murray and the Pattern of Australian Catholicism', Journal of Religious History, Vol. 6, 1970-1, p. 360. 19 L. Vereecke, 'Alphonsus Liguori', New Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. 1, Washington, DC, 1967, pp. 336-341. 20 P. Hughes, A Short History of the Catholic Church, London, 1974, pp. 198-199. 21 Ibid., p. 340-341. A. Berthe and H. Castle (eds), Life of St Alphonsus de Liguori, Bishop and Doctor of the Church, Dublin, 1905, 2 vols, Vol. 2, pp. 263-264. For a full discussion of the debate and -Liguori's findings, see Berthe, op. cit., Vol. 1, pp. 445-461. 182

'consoling truths'. 22 After all, it was from the ordinary people that Alphonsus himself had learnt the process of moral decision-making, claiming that 'God is simpatico to the paesani'. 23 The Redemptorists, particularly those of the nineteenth century, preached a much harder line, allowing little or no individual choice, sensitive only to the soul which longed to obey. The juxtaposition of freedom and restriction must have produced problems for Catholics, many of whom combined old fashioned habits of piety, extending even to truculent non-conformity, with an outward docility. 24 The large theological questions articulated by Ligouri were worked out in the minds of Catholics against a rigidly proclaimed orthodoxy, producing tension between the dispensers of grace and those receiving it.

The question of liberty of conscience was a complex one, not only for the faithful of the nineteenth-century Catholic Church but for the exponents and followers of free enterprise. The rigour of the Redemptorists was not very different from that extolled by the eager preachers of free enterprise. The penalties were obvious, in both the religious and secular spheres, for those who did not use their freedom in the right way. And yet a belief in freedom was central to the preaching and teaching of both groups.

Murray's intended deployment of the Redemptorists within the Maitland diocese became a matter of some delicacy of negotiation. Initially he had proposed that they take charge of a parish. However, they were unwilling to be bound in that way, a reaction which Murray should have anticipated. According to their rule they were to be free for the work of the mission. Murray finally reached an agreement with the Superior-General in Rome and the Provincial of the English Redemptorists that the fathers should take the parish of Singleton until a permanent monastery could be established, preferably in Newcastle. Murray also agreed that while the

22 K. O'Shea, The Courtesy of God, An Appreciation and Interpretation of Saint Alphonsus Liguori As A Moral Theologian, Pennant Hills, 1988, p. 28. 23 Ibid., pp. 15-23. 24 K. Condon, 'The Australian Catholic Identity', The Australasian Catholic Record, April 1988, Vol. IXV, Two, pp. 131-132. 183 fathers were in his diocese they would be free to conduct missions anywhere in Australia. The bishop, for his part, supported the Redemptorists in their various foundations. 25 Five years after their arrival in Singleton they moved to a new monastery in a suburb of Newcastle now called Mayfield.26 But Murray's promise did not stop him from trying to involve the Redemptorists more closely in diocesan affairs. Twice he invited them to participate in the diocesan synod and on both occasions Edmund Vaughan had to ask for an exemption, explaining in detail to Murray that their rule did not allow such involvement. 27 The Redemptorists, while integral to the diocese and its religious practice, remained independent of, and separate from, its episcopal authority.

The Redemptorists responded with great fervour and commitment to Murray's request to give missions in the diocese. 28 As we have seen, Vaughan promised a mission to the people of Singleton a week after the community had arrived. But even before they had come to Singleton, the fathers had begun a parish mission at Lambton-Wallsend. According to Vaughan, 'the mission proved successful, far beyond the best hopes of the local pastor both in the number of negligent Catholics brought back to their duty and in the number of converts returning to the true faith'. 29 As preachers the Redemptorists were powerful tools of social control. Their religious showmanship was an effective means of drawing crowds and moving people to confess their sins, to be confirmed and to go to communion. Missioners had their set sermons: death, judgment, hell, the sin of scandal, the sixth commandment, mortal sin and, for men, drunkenness. Each one called for strict discipline, hard penances and the promise of severe prohibitions for those who did not comply. The Redemptorists set out clear rules for life and had a firm answer for every question, thus assuring the obedient of a high place in heaven.3

25 Boland, op. cit., p. 25. 26 Ibid., p. 51. 27 Vaughan to Murray, 22 July 1888, C.2. 42 and n.d. C2. 48, Murray Papers, MDA. 28 Manuscript prepared by Father Shearman, CSSR, 1907, Archives of the Redemptorists Monastery, Kogarah. 29 Edmund Vaughan to the people of Singleton, 30 April 1882, quoted by Boland, op. cit., 37. 30 P. O'Farrell, The Catholic Church and Community in Australia: A History, Melbourne, 1977, p. 212. 184

Catholics were left in no doubt about the meaning and requirements of being a Catholic. Redemptorist methods were very different from those of the parish priest but very much in keeping with the authoritarianism of the papacy of Pius 1X, with its rigid approach to matters of faith.

The religious renewal heralded by the coming of the Redemptorists appears to have been well realized, at least in the area of Singleton. A Redemptorist chronicler recorded that the number of communions in that parish between May and December 1882 had risen from an unstated number to 5,500. Given that the Catholic population of Singleton was 300 and that the surrounding 'hamlets and farms' included another 700, these statistics indicate the extent to which people responded to the Redemptorists' efforts. To promote piety, the Angelus was rung every day at 6 a.m., 12 noon and 6 p.m. The church bell also rang a quarter of an hour before Sunday masses and evening services both on Sundays and weekdays. During the first twelve months, feast days were solemnized with High Mass and sermons and the ceremonies of Holy Week introduced and conducted 'to the great edification and benefit of the people who had never before witnessed them'. 31 In September 1883 the Forty Hours Devotions were held, including an all-night adoration and a procession around the grounds of St Patrick's Church.32

On a more practical level the Redemptorist Fathers called attention to the state of the local Catholic cemetery, overgrown with weeds. A Mr Jones was appointed caretaker and sexton and the Catholic people of Singleton were invited to share the cost and labour of tidying the cemetery. 33 Faith was meant to equip Catholics for life and to prepare them for death. Efforts to restore and tidy the cemetery were a tangible reminder to the Catholics of Singleton of the inevitability of their own death and judgment. It was also a signal to the wider community that

31 Manuscript prepared by Father Shearman, CSSR, 1907, Archives of the Redemptorist Monastery, Kogarah. 32 The Forty Hours Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament was not new to Australia but had been introduced by Polding in the 1860s. O'Farrell, op. cit., p. 212. 33 Manuscript prepared by Father Shearman, CSSR, 1907, Archives of the Redemptorist Monastery, Kogarah. 185

Catholics were well established, that they had pride in their Catholic community and that they had some continuity with their past. Not only did they respect their dead but they were themselves respectable.

The Redemptorists refused to be territorially restricted, yet they were Murray's main weapon in claiming the more remote parts of the diocese. While the heartland of Maitland had been secured in earlier years the bush barbarians were yet to be tamed. 34 In September 1883 the Redemptorists had their first experience of the more isolated Australian bush when one of their number, Father Thomas O'Farrell, accompanied by Murray, began a visitation of the north-west of the diocese. As a local newspaper reported it, the Redemptorist was to 'give a mission before the bishop'. 35 Beginning at Gunnedah, Murray and O'Farrell travelled to the far reaches of the diocese, to Coonabarabran, Baradine, Coonamble, Walgett and Dubbo. Both men were indefatigable in their efforts to bring the people to the practice of their religion and to establish Catholic territorial legitimacy. However, bishop and missioner experienced some resistance as they tried to persuade people to come and listen to them. For many, a priest was a rare sight. To see a Redemptorist in his long black robe, with Rosary beads draped around his waist and a large crucifix hanging from his neck, must have been startling, formidable and even frightening.

For Catholics in isolated places knowledge of the faith could be most rudimentary, as the bishop himself had found on his arrival. The Josephite and Brigidine Sisters had just come to the diocese but they were few in numbers and not ready yet to make their foray into the outer regions. At Baradine Murray sought to rally the people by going around the little township at five o'clock in the morning ringing a bell to bring them together for Mass and a sermon. This bell ringing so early in the

34 Gipps to Stanley, 3 April 1844, HRA, Series 1, Vol. XXIII, pp. 510-511. Gipps, despairing at the unchecked spread of settlement beyond the influence of civilization, feared the coming of women into the bush because a 'race of Englishmen must speedily be springing up in a state approaching to that of untutored barbarians'. 35 Boland, op. cit., p. 43. 186 morning and outside the doors of sleeping Protestants, says a good deal about Catholic assumptions regarding their rights and place in Australian society. Murray was claiming his spiritual territory in a way unheard of for ministers of other denominations. Such a scene in England — in Clapham for instance — would have been unthinkable. At Walgett, a new settlement, the majority of the population lived in tents and appeared to be indifferent to the missioner. Aroused by their obstinacy O'Farrell 'came down on them hard', managing to round them up with some success, for there was a general rush to the confessional. Both Murray and O'Farrell heard confessions until midnight and then again the next morning.36 Murray's very deliberate claiming of these isolated areas had become crucial since the passing of the 1880 Public Instruction Act. With the gradual removal of state funds from all denominational schools it was essential to have the full support of Catholics and to bring them all into the fold.

While Murray used the Redemptorists for taming the Catholics of the bush he also placed the sisterhoods within their special care. The religious women did not need taming but they did require suitable confessors and spiritual advisers. The secular clergy were, of course, available but they were not necessarily attuned to the needs of religious women. By comparison religious priests were well educated and followed a conventual life similar to that of the sisters and so were better equipped for the role of confessor. The Redemptorists, as I have noted, also had a special ministry as confessors. They became well-known for the interest they took in the penitent in the confessional and for the patient care and spiritual advice they offered. Murray invited the Redemptorists to provide confessors to communities of sisters on a weekly basis.37 However, the Redemptorist rule did not permit such regular involvement with a religious community; once again, this duty would be a distraction from the all important work of the mission. With permission from the Superior-General in Rome, the Redemptorists did agree to Murray's request to be extraordinary confessors, that is, to visit the

36 Ibid., pp. 44-45. 37 Vaughan to Murray, August, n.d., C.2. 47., Murray Papers, MDA. 187 communities of the and the Sisters of St Dominic four times a year. This permission, 'obtained with difficulty' and largely because of the esteem in which the Superior General held Murray, allowed them to hear the sisters' confessions on a regular basis.38 Obviously the Redemptorists were keen to extend their sway. Australia offered somewhat greener fields than England, but they wanted to possess the territory on their own terms.

The Redemptorists were in a position to exert a great deal of influence over the religious women of the diocese. Not only did they act as their extraordinary confessors and spiritual advisers, they also directed their annual retreats. 39 The Sisters of St Joseph, for example, received their first retreat from the Redemptorists in June 1884, less than a year after the sisters had arrived at Lochinvar. During the next fifty years the Redemptorist fathers conducted more than three-quarters of the retreats given at Lochinvar. 40 In the young Josephites, who did not have the tradition of a Dominican spirituality nor the defined spirituality of the Sisters of Mercy, the Redemptorists found a group receptive to their spiritual advice. 41 Whilst the Redemptorists were resident in Singleton between 1882 and 1887 the Sisters of Mercy also had the benefit of their teaching. In their role as parish priests, the Redemptorists said Mass each day in the convent chapel. Moreover, they preached and taught day in and week out to congregations in the parish church, with the sisters often attending, albeit out of sight in their chancery at the side of the building. The fathers were also present for ceremonies of religious reception and profession and they preached on special days of celebration, such as Mother Superior Stanislaus Kenny's silver jubilee in 1887.42

38 Vaughan to Murray, 3 March nay., C.2. 41., Murray Papers, MDA and Vaughan to Murray, 21 October 1890, C2. 60., Murray Papers, MDA. 39 Edmund Vaughan to Murray 27 July n.y., Murray Papers C.2.35, MDA. 40 Lochinvar Community Diaries, RSJLA. 41 M. S. McGrath, These Women? Women Religious in the History of Australia, The Sisters of Mercy Parramatta 1888-1988, Kensington, 1988, pp. 122-132. 42 Edmund Vaughan to Murray, 28 January 1887, Murray Papers C.2.36., MDA. 188

Murray was particularly keen that the Redemptorists give retreats to the priests as well as the . 43 Edmund Vaughan gave a retreat to the local clergy in 1883 and in August 1884 discussed with Murray how he might improve upon the previous year's programme. He suggested to the bishop that the four lectures given each day be reduced to three so that there might be more time for public exercises and for private prayer, the examination of conscience and confession. Here Vaughan deferred to Murray as bishop and pastor of the diocesan priests, but he presented his case with skill. Vaughan also advised the bishop on the book that might be used for public reading, 'the life of the newly canonised St John Baptist Rossi'. 44 Rossi (1698-1764) had been beatified by Pius IX in 1860 and canonised by Leo XIII in 1881. Born of a poor family in Genoa, he was stricken with epilepsy whilst studying for the priesthood. Ordained with special dispensation, he was not allowed to exercise his powers as a confessor for 27 years, but his concern for both the temporal and spiritual welfare of the poor made him one of the most popular priests of his time. 45 Venerated as the patron saint of diocesan clergy, Rossi's life offered a great deal in the way of inspiration and emulation. Vaughan saw the need, and Murray realized the value of his advice. Such spiritual nourishment, together with Redemptorist theology, became features of the priests' retreat held annually at the Redemptorist Monastery at Mayfield.46

With the arrival of the Redemptorist fathers and brothers a more pervasive order permeated the structuring of the diocese, particularly at a moral and spiritual level. The secular priests, with their people, had built the churches, and the ministry of the nuns in schools and homes had implemented the religious discipline espoused by Murray. The Redemptorists contributed to the fine-tuning of the process, extending the spiritual boundaries of the diocese and establishing moral citizenship

43 Manuscript prepared by Father Shearman, CSSR, 1907, Archives of the Redemptorist Monastery, Kogarah. 44 Edmund Vaughan to Murray, 15 August 1884, Murray Papers, C.2.15., MDA. 45 P. D. Smith, 'St John Baptist Rossi', New Catholic Encyclopedia, Washington, DC, 1966, Vol. 12, pp. 680-681. - 46 Thomas O'Farrell to Murray, 30 August 1885, Murray Papers, C.2.30., MDA. 189 throughout. Their preaching, their exhortation to rectitude and warnings of hell-fire, were a powerful force in the making of the diocese and the moulding of its people. However, while the Redemptorists imposed a new authority, they also offered a spirituality which appealed to the people and especially to the Irish. With its emphasis on prayer, particularly the prayer of petition linked to devotion to Mary, Redemptorist piety allayed some of the fears engendered by their threats of hell-fire and damnation.

Central to Redemptorist spirituality was their love for, and devotion to, Mary as Our Lady of Perpetual Succour. In September 1883 an altar of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour, incorporating a picture brought by the Redemptorists from England, was erected in the Singleton church. This altar, with its miniature spire and delicate and skilful carving, was the work of Brother Lawrence Watters. The following year, during May, a month set aside for special devotion to Mary, an icon blessed by the pope was carried in procession to the altar and enthroned in place of the previous picture. This portrait, said to be a copy of the original centuries- old icon in the Church of St Alphonsus in Rome, became an object of special Marian devotion, pilgrimage and of petitioners' prayers at Singleton and later at the Redemptorist monastery in Mayfield.47 Redemptorist preaching on Mary, the Mother of Mercy, provided a counter-balance to the dictatorial exhortations of their sermons. The nature of their ministry was indeed fraught with inherent tensions and contradictions. It is difficult to preach about hell-fire, on the one hand, and a Mother of Perpetual Help, on the other, without de-emphasizing the issue of either punishment or mercy.48

Marian devotion, particularly the recitation of the Rosary, was, of course, not new to the Catholics of Maitland, priests and religious women included. Josephite Sister, Aquin Leehy, for example, encouraged her young brother, Thomas, 'not to forget to say his prayers and his Rosary' when he was away droving. 49 Thomas junior's faithfulness to his Rosary

47 Thomas O'Farrell to Murray, 30 August 1885, Murray Papers, C.2.30., MDA. 48 O'Shea, op. cit., p. 14. 49 Aquin Leehy to her family, 22 November 1890, RSJLA. 190 indicates just how well this particular practice had been maintained even in remote areas of the diocese. 5 ° The Irish, who were the bulk of Australia's Catholic population, had a long tradition of devotion to Mary as the Mother of God. In Australia Marian piety had been strong even from the time of Father Therry, who had placed the old St Mary's in Sydney under the protection of Mary Help of Christians. In 1847 Rome had spoken of Our Lady Help of Christians as 'Patroness of Australia', and the definition of the Immaculate Conception in 1854 had given further impetus to the cult of the Blessed Virgin in the colony. Neither was this belief new, that Mary 'from the first instant of her conception, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, Saviour of the human race, was preserved immune from the stain of original sin'. 51 Devotions to Mary under the title of Mary Immaculate had been celebrated for several hundred years. Catholics in Australia responded well to this doctrinal development in so popular a devotion. 52 By 1901 thirteen churches scattered over the seventeen parochial districts of the Maitland Diocese were under the patronage of Mary. Titles included St Mary's, St Mary's Star of the Sea, Holy Rosary, The Immaculate Conception and Our Lady of Perpetual Succour.53

Marian devotion, which the Redemptorists themselves so vigorously encouraged, best exemplifies the soft-hearted piety of the Irish. However, there were other expressions of faith which provided Catholics with an alternative to the pervasive authoritarianism of Redemptorist preaching and to church discipline generally. Closely following devotion to Mary herself was devotion to the Sacred Heart. Having its roots in the Middle Ages, this devotion became remarkably strong in the church's fight against Jansenism. The Sacred Heart, symbol of the infinite love and mercy of God, countered the often tortured and pessimistic teachings of

50 B. Zimmerman, 'The Search for Legitimacy: Mother Mary Aquin Leehy and the Sisters of St Joseph of Lochinvar, 1890 to 1960', M.Litt., University of new England, Armidale, 1987, p. 47. 51 'The Doctrine of the Immaculate Conception' in H. Bettenson (ed.), Documents of the Christian Church, London, 1964, pp. 381-382. 52 J. N. Molony, The Roman Mould of the Australian Catholic Church, Melbourne, 1969, p. 7. 53 Australasian Catholic Directory for 1901, Sydney, 1901, pp. 44-45. 191

Jansenius. A special aspect of the devotion, the Nine First Fridays — the practice of going to Confession and Communion on the first Friday of nine consecutive months — had become common in Ireland during the devotional renewal of the 1850s.54

Murray himself greatly venerated the Sacred Heart and was largely responsible for the introduction of this devotion into his diocese.55 Seeking to instruct his people, he encouraged both priests and people to read the Record, a periodical published by priests of the Bathurst Diocese. It was 'full of useful articles well calculated to instruct and edify our Catholic people', especially by propagating devotion to the Sacred Heart.56 Murray encouraged this form of devotion by appending relevant prayers to his pastorals, which he hoped would benefit all, but particularly 'the faithful in the remote districts'. 57 His college for boys at Campbells Hill was under the patronage of the Sacred Heart as was the new brick church at Hamilton, opened in 1875. 58 On Rosary Sunday, October 1873, Murray had consecrated the diocese itself to the Sacred Heart.59 This celebration, and the juxtaposition of Mary and the Sacred Heart, highlight two of the key elements of the devotional life of the people of Maitland.

Redemptorist spirituality allowed Catholics to express their faith in a way which appealed to them, but Catholics, and Irish Catholics in particular, had their own brand of spirituality. The Redemptorists, with their preaching of hell-fire and eternal damnation, had the ability to put the fear of God into the hearts of their listeners. At the same time Irish Catholics carried with them a simple faith which was both liberating and fearless. For example, Irish Catholics knew the ten commandments and

54 Actually Corish refrains from using the term, 'devotional revolution', referring rather to Rome's 'stiffening' of decrees already set in place by the Synod of Thurles, Corish, op. cit., pp. 211-212. 55 J. Murray, Pastoral, 9 June 1892, and Moran to Murray, 18 October, 1890, D.3.,, Murray Papers, MDA. 56 J. Murray, Pastoral, 10 June, 1878, MDA. In 1880 the Jesuits produced the periodical, Messenger of the Sacred Heart, which enjoyed wide circulation throughout Australia. O'Farrell, op. cit., p. 213. 57 J. Murray, Pastoral 10 June, 1878, MDA. 58 Almanac of the Diocese of Maitland and Family Home Journal, 1900, Maitland, 1900, p. 18. 59 Ibid., 1900, p. 26. 192 they knew that they were breaking the first of these whenever they talked of dreams, omens and charms. Yet, to discuss their dreams was second nature. They would accommodate this need to speak of dreams by saying, 'God forgive me, but I had this dream last night and ...'. Moreover, their fearlessness was ,underpinned by a strong sense of not being alone, a belief that God was with them, expressed in the prayer to the Guardian Angel:

Guardian Angel from heaven so bright Watching beside me to lead me aright Fold thy wings round me And guard me with care.

O'Farrell writes that the Irish in matters of faith had the benefits of a 'personalised security company of benign comfort and invincible strength'. 6° Their simple prayer language enabled them to speak to God almost as equals. Their conversations with each other were interspersed with pious sayings such as, 'God willing!', 'Please God!', 'God bless you!' Among the Irish, faith encompassed practices and belief beyond formal religious dogma, so that piety and religiosity had a life of their own quite apart from the structural regime imposed by the church. Irish piety provided a way of life, a way of thinking and acting which was all- pervasive, seemingly rigid but also liberating and individual.

But while the Irish, including the Irish in Australia, had their own prayer language, they also had the benefits of the official language of prayer. The Latin Mass, the rosary, litanies and the ceremony of formal prayer structures such as the Stations of the Cross enriched the imagination and the vocabulary of the faithful. Not that Catholics necessarily understood the mysterious language which they thus embraced. Nor did anyone ever explain the obscure words found in prayers such as the Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary — 'Mystical Rose', 'Tower of David', 'Tower of Ivory', 'House of Gold'. It was sufficient that it was language in praise of Mary and it was mystical language, enabling Catholics to converse with God. As with the exotic and theatrical and even awesome appearance of the Redemptorists, mystery reinforced

60 P. OFarrell, Vanished Kingdoms- Irish in Australia and New Zealand: A Personal Excursion, Kensington, 1990, pp. 77-78. 193 sanctity. The nineteenth-century novelist, George Eliot, captures this same notion in Silas Marner. Mrs Winthrop tries to explain to Marner the significance of the letters I.H.S. which she has pricked on her lard cakes (though the context here is, of course, Anglican). She cannot read the letters; nor does she know what they mean, but she understands that 'they've a good meaning, for they're the same as is on the pulpit cloth at church'. 61 Eliot expands on the same idea when explaining the congregation's attitude to the Athanasian Creed. Read only on 'rare occasions' and little understood, 'the creed brought a vague exulting sense...that something great and mysterious had been done for them in heaven above and in earth below which they were appropriating by their presence'.62

The words of hymns also gave Catholics a rich language. Hymns and hymn singing were, according to Father Edmund Vaughan, superior of the Redemptorists, a means of achieving 'a beautiful celebration of the church's liturgy'.63 Noting a 'certain drabness' in Australian liturgical ceremonies, he himself taught the children of Singleton the hymns of Father Furness; he established the Society of St Cecilia to promote good music and he compiled his own hymnal, The Australian Catholic Hymnal, which was to be used extensively throughout Australia. Many of these hymns, such as '0 Bread of Heaven', 'God of Mercy and Compassion' and 'Look Down 0 Mother Mary', were translations of Alphonsus Liguori's own writings. 64 With their themes of devotion to the Blessed Sacrament and to the Blessed Virgin and of trust in the Compassion of God, these hymns reinforced Redemptorist spirituality.65

Hymns also encouraged Catholic belief and practice. One of the most popular hymns of the time, 'Faith of Our Fathers', stressed the martial virtues: fighting for the faith, heroism in the face of persecution and courage in adversity. Words such as,

61 G. Eliot, Silas Marner, London, 1953, [1861 p. 86. 62 Ibid., p. 91. 63 Boland, op. cit., pp. 39-38. 64 The Living Parish Hymn Book, Sydney, 1960, pp. 86, 107 and 126. 65 Boland, op. cit., pp. 39-38. 194

Our fathers chained in prisons dark Were still in heart and conscience free: How sweet would be their children's fate If they, like them could die for thee!66 were sung with great enthusiasm by Catholics of all ages. They embodied a tough Christianity and they became a rallying cry particularly for male participants at the Redemptorist Mission. Other hymns, especially those in honour of the Blessed Virgin, highlighted the ideals of femininity. For example, the second verse of one of the most enduring Marian hymns, 'Hail Queen of Heaven', identifies the female virtues of gentleness and chastity:

O gentle, chaste and spotless maid, We sinners make our prayers through thee; Remind Thy Son that He has paid the price of our iniquity. Virgin most pure, Star of the Sea, pray for the sinner, pray for me.67

These virtues are exemplified by Mary herself, model for all Catholic women, but they were also virtues closely linked to late nineteenth- century ideals of female behaviour and respectability.

Colourful religious ceremonies greatly appealed to the Catholic working class, whose lives often lacked high ritual and sentimental indulgence. A description of the Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament in an introduction to Ron Blair's play, The Christian Brothers, suggests why this most popular of the Eucharistic devotions attracted worshippers of the nineteenth century. Blair writes powerfully, describing the

guttering candles on the high altar, the sweet smell of incense afloat, the flaming majesty of the priest robed in gorgeous cope and surplice, the reedy singing of the 0 Salutaris and Tantum Ergo, the gabbled Divine Praises flung back in unison towards

66 'Faith of Our Fathers Living Still', Frederick William Faber, 1814-1863, The Living Parish Hymn Book, Sydney, 1960. 67 'Hail Queen of Heaven', John Lingard, 1771-1851, ibid. 195

the priest's head, the numinous and faintly terrible white disc in the golden monstrance presiding over a packed church.68

Benediction always concluded each evening of a Redemptorist Mission. For some Catholics this ceremony was akin to a foretaste of heaven. It helped to focus their sights on the rewards rather than the punishments offered by their Redemptorist preacher. Catholics could thus look beyond the sweat and dirt and even the indignities of their everyday lives and become involved in, and emotionally satisfied by, the ceremonies of their church.69

Church decor, with its excessive drapery and ornamentation, characteristically Victorian, also appealed to the soft-hearted piety of the Irish and to Catholics generally. Catholics' adornment of their churches is clearly illustrated in St Patrick's Church at Singleton in the 1890s.70 Drapes, flowers and candles decorated the main altar and both side altars, one to Our Lady of Perpetual Succour and the other to St Joseph. The banners of the various sodalities were placed around the altars. Catholics could enjoy the fine decorations of their church, take pride in them, and become part of an occasion filled with pageantry, colour and splendour. For the working-class Catholic, especially, religious ceremony provided an extra bonus, an opportunity for putting on one's Sunday best and moving beyond the secular routine of everyday life.

Images, symbols and ornate decorations were important to Catholics for other reasons. Since the language of the church was Latin and spoken in muted tones by a priest with his back to the congregation, images became especially significant. Pictures of the thorn-crowned, blood- dripping Sacred Heart were eloquent reminders of the price paid for salvation and of the need to save one's soul. Statues, polished and

68 E. Campion, 'Irish Religion in Australia', The Australasian Catholic Record, Vol. LV, January 1978, No. 1, p. 10. 69 D. N. Jeans and E. Kofman, 'Religious Adherence and Population Mobility in Nineteenth-Century ', Australian Geographical Studies, Vol. 10, 1972, p. 197. 70 M. Sternbeck, The Catholic Church in Singleton: An Historical Look at its People and Progress, Singleton, 1981, p. 122. 196 stainless, portraying the smiling faces of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Saints, provided Christian models.71 Holy pictures, Way of the Cross and statues, though they belonged to traditions centuries old, were now arranged and reinforced with a passionate rhetoric which expressed the concentrated emotionalism of the late-nineteenth century. Although the images to which Catholics raised their eyes were far removed from the lives of many of them, perhaps herein lay their special attraction.

The arrival of the Redemptorists set the direction for the diocese in the second half of Murray's episcopacy. Initially Murray and the Redemptorists asserted their territorial as well as their spiritual power. By going around the diocese marking boundaries and establishing sovereignty — that of the Kingdom of God — they gathered isolated Catholics into the temporal as well as spiritual kingdom of the Catholic Church. It was a disciplining enterprise shot through with contradictions and tensions. The harder edge to faith was accommodated in two main ways: by the confessional and by the soft-hearted piety of the dominant Irish, both being reinforced by mystery and splendour. As confessors the Redemptorists modified the harshness of their message and offered moral and spiritual advice in a way that met the needs of the penitent. But confession at one level (psychologically) is potentially a relationship of power, when one individual is wholly subject to another. The kindness of the Redemptorists in the confessional followed directly, with a logic implicit in the late nineteenth-century church, from their hard-edged authority. Kindness in any circumstances is an act of power. Redemptorist authority was the beginning and the end of the business.

At the same time Irish understanding of the supernatural must on many occasions have stood out against the cerebral religion and the rigidity of the Redemptorists. The extent to which the people of the diocese maintained their own judgment under this regime is difficult to document and impossible to ascertain. In many respects the Irish hedged their bets, seemingly acquiescing to the authority imposed upon them but

71 Campion, op. cit., p. 10. 197 at the same time relying very much on their own beliefs to see them through. Religion was in principle strict and absolute, but its practice, among the houses, huts and hovels of the Catholic people, was also a matter of habitual, dog-eared routine. While there was power, there was also accommodation. Structures of Faith: Guilds and Sodalities

(xii) The Hibernian Guild, St John's West Maitland, St Patrick's Day, early 1900s.