CHAPTER XI.
RELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS: THEIR FOUNDATION AND FIRST CELEBRATIONS.
SYNOPSIS: —Early Troubles. —The First Priest. —Rev. P. B. Geoghegan. —First Mass. —The Original Church of St. Francis. —First Catholic Sermon. —Ways and Means. —Father Geoghegan's Early Career. —His Subsequent Promotion. —His Death and Burial. —The First Charity Sermon. —Catholic Population in 1841. —Laying Foundationstone of St. Francis' Church. —Thieves Abstract the Coins Therefrom. —First Solemnization of High Mass. —Dr. Pohlding's Arrival. —First "Baby Show." —Laying Foundation St. Mary of Angels, Geelong. —Rev. Mr. Geoghegan's Departure. —Rev. J. J. Therry locum tenens. —Father Therry Suspended by the Governor. —"Old Colonial Days." —Father Therry's Labours. —His Departure. —Address and Testimonial. —Father Geoghegan's Return. —His Solatium. —£250 for a Dog's Bite. —Miscellaneous Incidents. —Dean Coffey. —Opening of Catholic Chapel at Brighton. —Right Rev. Dr. Goold, First Bishop. —Discontent at His Selection. —Father Geoghegan a Favourite for the Office. —The Bishop's Arrival —Cavalcade and Demonstration. —Jehu Kippen's Belief in Dr. Goold and St. Patrick. —The Bishop's Installation. —His First Sermon. —Arrival of the Vicar-General, Dr. Fitzpatrick. —The First Native Australian Priest. —The Catholic Association. —Dr. Geoghegan's Mission to Europe. —The Bishop's First Confirmation. —Pope Pius IX. —Outrage at Geelong. —Laying Foundation-stone of St. Patrick's Church. —St. Paul's Chunk, Peulridge. —The Revs. Dunn and O'Hea. —The Bells of St. Francis. —Arrival of new Priests. —Church of St. Monica. —Bishop Goold's Departure for Europe. —Presentation of "New Chums." —Religious Order of Monks. —The "Hippo" Monastery. —The Prayer Question in the Legislative Council. —Dr. Geoghegan and the Press. —The Dying of the Storm. —Catholic Census in 1851, 1881, and 1886. —Dr. Goold created Archbishop. —Fees Prohibited.
The Roman Catholics.
A MR. PETER BODECIN, a carpenter by trade, and a very zealous French Catholic, once on a time occupied a small weatherboard cottage in the then thinly built on Collins Street West, on the side opposite St. James' Church, and this was the humble and unassuming home of the first Roman Catholic worship in Melbourne. At the beginning of 1839 there was, so to speak, only a mere handful of that persuasion in the community, and amongst them was Bodecin, recently arrived from Sydney, where he had been favourably known to the Bishop and clergy, as a man who had conformed scrupulously to the spiritual requirements of his creed. Though the wooden conventicle on the Western Hill was supposed to be open to "Free selection" on afternoons, it is a practice of Roman Catholics not to be participants in a usage which is not seldom availed of by other dissenting persuasions; and so it came to pass that the few Catholics said they would hold Sabbath services in Bodecin's house. Of course it is not meant by this that the usual Divine service took place, for this could not be without a duly accredited priest, which there was not; and for the Mass, Bodecin simply read aloud some of the Rosaries and Litanies of the Catholic Prayer book, his hearers making the responses. On the Easter Sunday, at the usual prayer-meeting, the necessity for taking some action towards the erection of a church and obtaining a pastor was discussed, a subscription list commenced, and a collecting staff organised. A memorial was also adopted for transmission to the Right Reverend Dr. Pohlding, the Roman Catholic Bishop, praying that a clergyman might be sent to Melbourne, where the Roman Catholics were solicitous "to be united by discipline, as they have ever been in faith, with the one Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church." The memorialists added an appeal on behalf of their proportion of the "rising generation," and communicated the not uninteresting intelligence in an infant settlement, that their children "were daily increasing." As a wordly inducement they declared that there is "not a place in which the temporal advantages of a clergyman could be better or more amply provided," an opinion fully verified in the future. Bodecin's most active colleagues were Messrs. Adam Murray, Thomas Halfpenny, Robert Hayes, and William Cogan.
Mr. Murray, secretary to this movement, had a plausible diplomatic way of doing business, and on his suggestion, an earnest, and indeed, eloquent appeal was made to the Protestant section of the
