James Quinn First Catholic Bishop of Brisbane
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LATE RIGHT REV. JAMES O'QUINN, V .t FIRST BISHOP OF BRISBANE Taken faom CaAdinctf. Motion’6 Hl&to/uj oX the CcuthotLc. Chwmh ST. STEPHEN'S CATHEDRAL 'in AuA&ialaAjji. ' ’ JAMES QUINN FIRST CATHOLIC BISHOP OF BRISBANE Yvonne Margaret (Anne) Mc La y , B.A., M.Ed . A THESIS SUBMITTED AS PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF Doctor of Philosophy of the University of Queensland Department of History University of Queensland Br i s b a n e . December, 197A To My Mottvlk and Vathun and to St&tin. M. Xav2,ntuJ> 0 ' Vonogkue [teacher, i^tznd, and ^zllow-hlktonian) ABSTRACT OF THESIS Title: "James Quinn, First Catholic Bishop of Brisbane". Y.M. (Anne) McLay. Now - as in his lifetime - Bishop James Quinn is a controversial, and to many an unattractive, though highly significant figure of the foundation years of the Catholic Church in Queensland. My interest was aroused in discovering his true personality through my work in the history of Catholic education in this State, especially that of Mother Vincent Whitty and the first Sisters of Mercy. After several years of research I am still ambivalent towards him. I feel, however, this ambivalence is due to the paradoxes inherent in his personality rather than to any deficiency in my research. I have tried to show in this thesis the complexity of his character that these paradoxes caused. Bishop Quinn died in 1881, but the foundations of his work in Queensland were laid by 1875. To appreciate the shape of the Church that soared grandly from these foundations, to understand the conflict and the turmoil that surrounded the man and his creation, the bishop must be first seen in his original environment, Ireland and Rome. Chapter I delineates his roots in the Old World, examines his attitude as an Irishman to the English and to Irish nationalism, considers the effects of his long years of study in Rome, and tries to make a preliminary assessment of his liberal-conservative tendencies. His work as educational administrator and his relations with Archbishop Cullen and John H. Nawman in the Dublin of the 1850s are treated in fair detail as a paradigm of the future. The period 1861-1875 was researched as thoroughly as possible and is treated under two themes which attempt to highlight the paradox within his personality, a paradox that was caused by the conflict between his liberal and conservative traits. Internally it was conservatism that won, a conservatism inherited from his Old World origins and reinforced by the challenges to his authority in Queensland from members of his own church. He reacted to these challenges with an extreme autocracy. Nevertheless his monolithic church soared grandly with a basic unity. Immigration, education, and land were its main motifs. Yet Quinn was a decided individualist. This individualism coupled with his strong pragmatism to lead him into a radical stand in his reaction to the freedoms of the New World, a stand whose ecumenism was profoundly suspect to less liberal confreres. Chapter III examines his dominant concept of "tolerance" and the various alliances into which it led him. His basic goal nevertheless remained, the building of a monarchical church, to achieve which he sought social integration within an increasingly liberal society. To achieve such social harmony, however, he adopted many radical stands and took advantage of the politics of democracy. Ideologically he upheld his stance by a theology at times unexpectedly liberal in a Vatican I bishop and by a social philosophy of cultural pluralism. It was on the rocks of immigration, land, and education that this social policy foundered. The years 1875-1881 were somewhat of an epilogue to these two basic themes. During them his conservatism overcame his liberalism. This victory was caused by an upsurge of internal challenges to his authority as much as by the final defeat of his greatest desire - to retain a niche for his schools in the general education system of Queensland. The V . internal challenges were the more ironic in that perhaps the greatest came from non-Irish clerics whom he had encouraged to settle in the colony, in an attempt to conquer its geographical vastness as well as to display a cosmopolitanism consistent with his liberal tendencies. Rejection and ill-health combined to push him into a triumphalism and flamboyant Irishism. Yet the period was not all tragedy, and his creation continued to soar, with the bishop and his people fundamentally at one within his predominantly monolithic church. He failed, however, to resolve the conflict inherent in his own nature. The greatest conflict lay between the demands of his institution and the personal human needs of himself and his people. Because the conflict was unresolved in his own life-time, no single consistent judgment can be made of his behaviour and character. But this can be said - he was a leader, if a grandiose and autocratic one; he did lay firmly the foundations of the Catholic Church in Queensland, even if the Church was an absolute monarchy that seems unacceptable to our open-ended era; he did set a tradition for Queensland Catholics of cultural tolerance and a relatively high degree of social integration. VI . ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Thanks are due to so many who have helped me search out data and reach conclusions that it seems discourteous to mention only the small number that lack of space permits. I appreciate especially the access to a basic source, the Archdiocesan Archives in Brisbane, opened to me by Archbishops Sir James Duhig, P.M. O'Donnell, and F.R. Rush. I appreciate also the kindness of Archbishop O'Donnell and Archbishop Rush in procuring entry for me to another basic source, the Roman Archives of the Sacred Congregation of the Propagation of the Faith. For this also I thank His Eminence Agnelo Cardinal Rossi and Father Metzler. I am grateful also to the guardians of the various other archives who responded to my requests: Archbishop D. Ryan and Father K. Kennedy of Dublin; Monsignor Hanley of the Irish College, Rome; Father C. Stephen Dessain of The Oratory, Birmingham; Monsignor C.J. Duffy, Professor P. O'Farrell and Mr. A. Cahill of St. Mary's, Sydney; Father J. Keaney and Father T.J. Linane of the Melbourne Archdiocesan Historical Commission; Bishop A.R.E. Thomas of Bathurst; Bishop J. Toohey of Maitland; Archbishop T.V. Cahill of Canberra-Goulburn; the Public Librarians or State Archivists of Dublin, Canberra, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane - and, above all, the latter's Oxley Memorial Library. More than one Convent Archives, and particularly the Mercy Archives in Dublin (Carysfort Park Convent) and All Hallows, Brisbane have been at my disposal. A number of Irish men and women helped me in Ireland and Rome - in especial Father P. MacSuibhne, Father Stan Roche, O.S.A. (recently deceased), Father Fergal McGrath, S.J., Father Donal Kerr, S.M., Professor K. Nowlan of University College, Dublin, Sisters Eugenia Barrett and St. Martin Downes and Mr. and Mrs. Austin Kennan. v i i. In Brisbane I would not have been able to proceed without the continued help and inspiration of Father F.H. Douglas, Sister M. Xaverius O ’Donoghue and Dr. T.P. Boland over so many years. Mr. Charles Hayes of Cork, Monsignor Owen Steele and the Beaudesert Historical Society, Miss Nora Frawley of Drayton and Sister Mary Rose MacGinley all gave me valuable notes. The History Department of the University of Queensland, Professor G. Greenwood, Mr. C. Grimshaw, and, above all, my supervisor Mr. R. B. Joyce, have also been indispensably encouraging. Finally I must register my sincere thanks to the Senate of the University of Queensland for awarding me the Venerable Archdeacon Edward Leo Hayes Post-graduate Research Scholarship during 1972 and 1973; and to Mother M. Marcella and the other members of my Religious Community of All Hallows for freeing me to accept the Award. During this last year of 1974, I have found further support in the patience of the members of the Catholic Education Office, Brisbane - and to Miss Mary Coman, who typed this thesis, and to Sister Francis Gillespie, R.S.J. who helped prepare it for presentation, I give a special "thank you". (Sr) Anne McLay, Brisbane. viii. CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGi ABSTRACT i i i. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS vi. TABLE OF CONTENTS viii. LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS X. INTRODUCTION xi. PROLOGUE xi i i. ROOTS IN THE OLD WORLD 1. Origins in Ireland; effect of English rule; Daniel O'Connell; student days in Rome; troublesome mixture of conservatism and liberalism; educational administration in Dublin; St. Laurence's School, Harcourt Street; Newman and the Catholic University; influence of Archbishop Cullen; no real dichotomy between Rome and Ireland; Quinn's individualism; Charles Gavan Duffy; Irish in a diaspora; consecration as Bishop of Brisbane; arrival in Australia. II. BUILDING A MONOLITHIC CHURCH: 1861-1875 44. Early Brisbane and the vastness of Queensland; founding his church; Queensland Immigration Society; his school system; his concept of authority - a monarchical bishop; diocesan structure and regulations; a continuous series of internal challenges to his rule made him react with further assertions of authority; challenges from freelancing clergy - McGinty of Ipswich, Patrick Dunne, Keating, Renehan et al; Quinn’s vindication of his actions, Propaganda's investigation; relations with religious men and women - French Assumptionists, Sisters of Mercy; trouble with German and Italian clerics; contest between the English Benedictine Archbishops and the suffragan Irish bishops; politicking over new sees; creation of a loyal laity; crises with laymen - Paddy O'Sullivan, Randal Macdonnell, William O'Carroll, C.B. Lyons; troubles over land, administration; attitude to Irish National League and Thadeus O'Kane.