Page:Handbook of Western Australia.djvu/157

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Roman Catholic Church.
139

inquiries have also been set on foot as to the best method of teaching the native and half-caste population, so as to christianize and civilize them.

This sketch may suffice to show that, with grounds of humiliation within her communion, and with discouragements from without, God has hitherto helped her on her way,


Roman Catholic Church.—In the year 1843, on the petition of the few Roman Catholics residing in the Colony, Dr. Folding, Archbishop of Sydney, sent the Rev. J. Brady as his Vicar General, accompanied by the Rev. J. Joosteens. A grant of land having been obtained from the Government, the building of a church was commenced.

The Rev. J. Brady then proceeded to Rome, and on his giving an account of the new mission, the Congregation de Propaganda Fide recommended its erection into a new Diocese; and accordingly he was consecrated the first Bishop of Perth in May 1845. Desirous not only to supply the religious wants of the European population, but to civilize and christianize the Aborigines, he secured the assistance of Don Joseph Serra and Don Rosendo Salvado; also of some other religious persons from France, and some catechists, and nuns of the Institute of our Lady of Mercy for the education of children and the visitation of the sick. With those the Bishop arrived at Fremantle in January 184ft, when schools for boys, girls, and infants were commenced by the good ladies the Sisters of Mercy, who gained the sympathy of many parents of other religious denominations, who gladly availed themselves of their services for the education of their children.

The Bishop distributed his clergy in four divisions; the first to King George's Sound; the second to Port