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Australia and the Popes
Significant events in Australia's history
during the reign of Pope Pius XI, 1922-1939
Two important lay apostolates:
In 1916, during the First World War, a significant development occurred in
the lay church in Australia when the Catholic Women's League was established
in Victoria. Just after the War, in 1919 the Catholic men's apostolate, the
Knights of the Southern Cross, was established in Sydney. These two organisations
soon blossomed in the other States and in many ways were harbingers of what
became one of the most vigorous periods of growth for the Church in Australia
during that long period from 1880 to the 1960s when government funding was not
available to Catholic schools and the Catholic people themselves had to improve
their lot through their own resources.
This following lengthy extract from Yuri Koszarycz's online History of the
Catholic Church in Australia provides a good overview of the activities,
the flavour and style of Catholicism that developed in Australia between the
two world wars during the pontificates of Pius XI and Pius XII and prior to
the cultural and financial shifts of the 1960s.
Catholicism in Australia between the two World Wars:
The period from the 1880's to 1950's has been described as the period of self-congratulatory
Catholic Triumphalism (Eddy, 1973: 313), and in terms of what was happening
inside the Catholic ghetto this seemed to be quite in order. Finally they were
assisted by State Aid in their educational endeavours, and were blessed by an
abundant presence of clergy and religious, as well as the proliferation of Catholic
property and the establishment of church hospitals orphanages, schools. All
these contributed to a sense of success.
Source: Australian
Catholicism: A Brief History by Yuri Koszarycz
Continued on next page... >>
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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.
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