Launch of Good Shepherds 1859-2009: The Catholic Bishops of Brisbane
Jubilarians Luncheon
Tattersall's Club, Brisbane
+ Cardinal George Pell, Archbishop of Sydney
29 Jun 2009
Archbishop Bathersby and I are old friends and we have known each other through our work together at the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference for many years.
So I was delighted to see his photo as one of the six portraits on the cover of Good Shepherds 1859-2009: The Catholic Bishops of Brisbane and eagerly opened its pages to see what revelations the book might hold about him. Alas, while it contains five short biographies of his predecessors there is no biography of Archbishop Bathersby. We will have to wait for this in another book.
I am very pleased to say a few words to launch Good Shepherds. I believe in bishops and I don't say that just out of union solidarity. Nor is it like "my country right or wrong". But with all our imperfections bishops are an essential part of Christ's plan. Christ is the foundation, and just as the commission that he gave to Peter, the rock, continues through his successors, the commission Our Lord gave to the Apostles continues their successors, with bishops serving as a framework of unity locally and universally. The universal collegiality of bishops is recognised with the pallium which each archbishop receives from the Pope.
The worldwide unity that Catholics take for granted is precious. It has to be preserved in every generation. The instinctive universalism of Catholics is an enormous strength. Fifteen or twenty years ago I read that there were 22,000 small Protestant groups in the United States. More recently I read that this number had increased to 40,000. This is what happens when there is no focus of unity.
Sociologically the bishop has an important number of functions as well as his theological duties to teach, to sanctify and celebrate, and to rule. A bishop also has to weed the garden regularly!
But as well as all this a bishop is someone to talk about. Occasionally he is also a lightning conductor, perhaps even a stink pipe. More usually however, he is a focus of loyalty, and often of affection. He is also the subject of much good humoured disparagement, such as the story of the Irish priest saying after his bishop had conducted a visitation: "there is no finer sight than back of a departing bishop".
The world is changing its focus or centre from the world of the Atlantic to the world of the Pacific. The rise of China and India is of immense significance and it certainly means that we here in Australia will be closer to the action, for better or worse. So too the focus in Australia is moving north. Melbourne used to be the first major port of call for ships from Britain. It is no longer the major transport hub but Melbourne is well able to look after itself because of the intellectual vitality of its schools and universities and its continuing wealth. A few years ago Melbourne was still responsible for about sixty percent of Australian corporate philanthropy.
There are now more Catholics in the Archdiocese of Brisbane than in Sydney Archdiocese, although in my own defence I should point out that the greater metropolitan area of Sydney was divided into three dioceses in 1986. Queensland today supplies the Prime Minister, the Treasurer, and the Governor-General. And for the first time Queensland has won the State of Origin for four years in a row.
Eventually I suspect Australia will move to develop the north the way the United States rose to the challenge of moving to the west. But whatever of that Brisbane and its surrounds are likely to become more and more important in the Australian scene.
The Archdiocese of Brisbane is very well served by its priest biographers, with top class biographies of Archbishop Duhig and Archbishop Dunne by Father Tom Boland and Father Neil Byrne. The first bishop of Brisbane was James Quinn. Later in life he styled himself O'Quinn but that seems to have passed away with the man. Quinn was handsome, faith-filled, courageous, and difficult. He fought with most of his collaborators from Newman in Dublin on the Catholic university to Blessed Mary MacKillop, Robert Dunne, and Mother Vincent Whitty. He worked mightily to encourage Catholic immigrants to the new colony, so much so that some people suggested that it should be called "Quinnsland". He clashed with Father McGinty, had an unfortunate experience with the Italian volunteer priests, and often had his own priests in revolt. But at the end of his time the new colony comprised four dioceses, forty-nine churches, thirty-three schools, twenty-eight priests, and six seminarians.
Quinn was succeeded by Bishop Robert Dunne in 1882. In his inaugural address he said that the first question in Christian ministry must be "'what is becoming of the people?' Their spiritual and material welfare had to be the sole determinant of all ecclesiastical initiatives". Dunne was less interested in expensive churches and while he came to Queensland to serve as Quinn's secretary, he was exiled after a few years to the Darling Downs. He was determined that Catholics should own property and worked hard to encourage this. He was strict in his choice of clergy and would have "no drunkards, fighting men or money grabbers". Over the course of his time serving people in the country he had become "'absurdly sensitive to the bush and its people, especially the children who had no peer in Europe'. These were the same children Steele Rudd would later describe as 'quaint phenomenons of raggedness, freckled-faces under oversized hats, the keepers of jew-lizzards and koalas'. Dunne recognised in them a new and unspoiled race perfectly attuned to their wild surroundings". Dunne was a true Australian patriot.
After Dunne came Archbishop James Duhig. A legend in his life time, he ranks with Moran and Mannix as among the greatest human gifts to Australia from Ireland. Many stories are unique to him, unlike other stories of bishops which are told in different dioceses changing only the name of the bishop. One of these unique stories also concerns Mannix. As you know, Duhig's coadjutor was Bishop Patrick Mary O'Donnell. I do not know whether it is fact or mythology that when farewelling a Brisbane priest from Melbourne, Mannix asked to be remembered to "Sir James and Lady Mary".
I am not sure of the truth of that story but it is certainly true that Archbishop O'Donnell served a long apprenticeship as coadjutor. His time as Archbishop coincided with the difficult years immediately following the Second Vatican Council. He was a good, hard-working, and conscientious man.
The chapter on Archbishop Frank Rush who succeeded Archbishop O'Donnell was written by his friend Bishop John Gerry. I was privileged to know Archbishop Rush and admired him, from my own time as a young bishop when I was able to see how highly esteemed he was by his brother bishops. He served as President of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference and his opinion regularly carried a lot of weight among them.
These five bishops were different men with different personalities and somewhat different pastoral priorities. But they stand squarely in the Catholic tradition. We are all blessed, but especially the Catholic community here in Brisbane, to have had them as Archbishops. I am delighted to launch Good Shepherds 1859-2009: The Catholic Bishops of Brisbane and warmly commend it to you.
