News came through last week that Michael Robert Kennedy had been appointed the next Catholic Bishop of Armidale. His appointment came less than a month after the election of Rick Lewers as the next Anglican Bishop of Armidale. It is the second time that the two appointments have almost coincided. Within a few days of Luc Matthys being ordained a Catholic bishop and installed in Armidale in May 1999, Peter Brain was elected as the next Anglican bishop. There was a time when the majority of Armidale’s population was Anglican or Catholic, and faithfully rallied round their bishop as loyal members of his flock. This week we’ll look at bishop-making on both sides of Dangar Street.
Armidale’s Anglican and Catholic dioceses have many parallels in their histories. For instance, Anglicans and Catholics in Armidale had waited for years for their first bishops to be appointed, but neither first bishop was here for long, because one drowned and the other was undermined. But let us go back to the beginning.
White men with their women and children arrived in the New England district from the 1830s. With their animals, tools, clothing and possessions, they brought memories, hopes and fears. They also brought their religion. Armidale’s four main religious groups in the early years were Anglicans, Catholics, Presbyterians and Methodists. Each group was initially under some form of ecclesiastical jurisdiction outside the region before local government commenced.
Anglicans had been part of the Sydney Diocese and then the Newcastle Diocese until the Diocese of Grafton and Armidale was constituted in March 1863. There was a long delay before William Collinson Sawyer arrived in Armidale on January 17, 1868, but drowned at Grafton on March 13. He was succeeded by James Francis Turner, who was installed in Armidale on September 10, 1869 and died in Rome in April 1893. His successor, Arthur Vincent Green, returned to Ballarat in 1900 and was succeeded in Armidale by Henry Edward Cooper, who had been the assistant bishop in Ballarat. In 1914 the coastal portion of the Anglican Diocese was formed as a separate diocese, where the resident assistant bishop, Cecil Henry Druitt, was elected as the first Bishop of Grafton.
Bishop Cooper died in July 1916. The Bishops of Armidale from then on were Wentworth Francis Wentworth-Sheilds (1916-1929); John Moyes (1929-1964), Clive Kerle (1965-1976), Peter Chiswell (1976-1999) and Peter Brain (2000 onwards). There will be more about them another time. Meanwhile, we’ll look at the parallels with the other side of Dangar Street.
Catholics were part of the Archdiocese of Sydney until the Catholic Diocese of Armidale was erected in October 1862 by Pope Pius IX. Names of suitable candidates to be the bishop were received in Rome, where a decision was made to appoint James Hayes from Victoria to Armidale, but he declined the appointment. Similarly, John Crookall, from Southampton, England, also declined, on the grounds he could not ride a horse. The NSW bishops were told in 1868 to meet and send names to Rome for appointments of bishops to Perth and Armidale. Michael McAlroy from Goulburn was chosen for Armidale and Timothy O’Mahony from Cork for Perth. Archbishop Polding made a private submission to Rome opposing McAlroy and recommending Martin Griver (who was already there) for Perth. He got it and O’Mahony was given Armidale. His arrival in March 1871 ended a process that had taken ten years.
Things did not go well, and Bishop O’Mahony left Armidale in November 1875 to go to Rome, where he resigned in 1877, and later accepted an appointment to Toronto, Canada.
Meanwhile, his successor also came in through the back door. The NSW bishops had been told to meet, vote and send three names to Rome. They did it twice. The names on the second list included John Cani (who became Bishop of Rockhampton in 1882) and Joe Byrne (who became Bishop of Bathurst in 1885). Archbishop Vaughan sent off a private recommendation that Elzear Torreggiani, a Capuchin friar who had successfully served the Irish in Wales, be appointed to Armidale and he was chosen by the Pope. Bishop Torreggiani arrived in Armidale in November 1879.
Australia’s Catholic bishops decided in 1885 that the coastal portion of the Armidale Diocese should be a separate diocese. Jeremiah Doyle became the first Bishop of Grafton, but didn’t like Grafton so he moved back to the Richmond River and had the name of his diocese changed to Lismore.
By 1902 Bishop Torreggiani’s health was failing and he petitioned Rome for a coadjutor bishop to assist him and to succeed him. A new process was then in use for selecting Australian bishops. In the absence overseas of Cardinal Moran (the Archbishop of Sydney), Bishop James Murray from Maitland was appointed to supervise the election held in Armidale on September 10, 1902. Only the clergy of the Armidale Diocese could vote. They had to compile a list of three names, and chose three of their own: Monsignor O’Connor (Armidale), Dean Corcoran (Tenterfield) and Dean Guerrini (Bundarra).
The next step was in Sydney where the NSW bishops considered the three names, removed Guerrini’s and added one of their own choosing, and forwarded the new list to Rome for consideration by the relevant authorities before they made a recommendation to the Pope, who made the decision. On January 10, 1903 Pope Leo XIII appointed the 54 year old Monsignor Patrick Joseph O’Connor as coadjutor bishop. When Bishop Torreggiani died in January 1904 he was succeeded by Bishop O’Connor, who served until dying in July 1932.
In 1928 the priests of the Armidale Diocese voted for Bishop O’Connor’s coadjutor and successor, but the election was private, and the documents in Rome have not yet been researched. John Coleman, who was in charge of the Armidale Cathedral Parish, was appointed. He died in December 1947 and was succeeded by Ted Doody from Queensland, who died suddenly in April 1948. His successor, James Freeman from Sydney, was promoted Archbishop of Sydney in July 1971. Harry Kennedy from Brisbane was installed in Armidale in February 1972, retired in May 1991, and was succeeded by Kevin Manning, who was transferred to Parramatta in July 1997. Almost two years passed before Luc Matthys from Melbourne was installed in Armidale. His retirement was accepted on December 7, 2011, coinciding with the appointment of Michael Kennedy. Ecce sacerdos magnus.
