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Australia and the Popes

Significant events in Australia's history
during the reign of Pope Benedict XV, 1914-1922

The period of Benedict XV's pontificate has been seen by historians and social commentators as one of the most important in the forging of the adult national character of Australia. In a sense our nation "grew up" through the deaths of 8,000 of our young men on the beaches and cliffs at Gallipoli. In the years following Gallipoli this small nation sacrificed 45,000 of the 416,000 men who volunteered to fight in the Great War in the trenches, mud and no man's land of the Western Front. There were many Catholic volunteers, casualties and deaths within the total and, it might be argued, that the experience of the Great War also led to a maturing of Catholicism in Australia as well.

Archbishop Daniel Mannix:

Perhaps almost as important as the impact on the Church as the contributions of so many young men was the arrival in Australia of one Dr Daniel Mannix. Dr Mannix arrived in Melbourne from Dublin as Coadjutor to Archbishop Carr on 23 March 1913. He became Archbishop of Melbourne on the death of Archbishop Carr on 6th May 1917.

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The textual material on these pages was sourced from a large number of places all of which can be found through the links on each page. The material was researched, assembled and produced by Brian Coyne for Catholic Australia. The images used in the Flash animations are in the public domain. Other images used are in the public domain or sourced from the webpages to which they are linked.