Brian Condon: Letters and Documents in 19th Century Australian Catholic History
[Source: Adelaide Archdiocesan Archives copy. Marked 'No. 2']
My Lord,
As I did not receive your letter until Saturday, and had not an opportunity of an interview with Dr Murphy until 11 o'clock on the night of that day, and as my duties on yesterday Sunday were more than usually heavy in consequence of the illness of a brother Clergyman, I had it not in my power to sit down to write before this moment. Tho' my Lord I hope that I duly appreciate the high honor conferred on me by your very polite letter, yet I must acknowledge that I was not at all prepared for its reception, as I never made application for the appointment which it offers, thro' the conviction that I was very badly qualified for it, being involved in rather peculiar circumstances, which I conceive I owe it to Candor and to you My Lord now to explain.
Indeed I have frequently said since the return of the Revd Mr Flyn [sic] from New South Wales, and I believe before he went there, that if no other Clergyman offered that I would be inclined to volunteer my services on that mission, on the principle that it were better for its inhabitants to have a clergyman tho' not well fitted for the situation than none.
The course of my College studies was interrupted at a very early stage by family embarrassments (the knowledge of which influenced my Superior to allow me to be prematurely ordained, but in justice to him I must say that it was not without a strong recommendation to him which I had elicited from the too great partiality of my Professor). The continuance of these in a greater or less degree to this moment, a great deal of natural and criminal indolence, and the duties of the Mission in which I have been employed, have prevented my making, since, any considerable improvement. And I am, I confess, if not absolutely ignorant, at least very deficient in the knowledge which any ordinary Missioner ought to possess. Besides, I am utterly destitute of any acquaintance with the Irish language.
If my Lord, a person with these disqualifications, which are not exaggerated, but possessing it is hoped a zeal for the Glory of God, and a solicitude for the Salvation of his fellow man would in your opinion be likely to promote these objects by accepting such a mission, and that you can without deranging in any degree the plans you may have adopted with regard to it, allow me sufficient time as by great exertion on my part will enable me to establish persons in a competency which it has hitherto been my duty to afford, who would otherwise have no alternative, and who have on me the strongest possible claims, I shall cheerfully place myself under Your Lordship's jurisdiction.
John Joseph Therry
[Note: The most extensive collection of transcriptions of Fr Therry's correspondence remains Eris O'Brien's The Foundation of Catholicism in Australia; life and letters of Archpriest John Joseph Therry, Sydney, Angus & Robertson, 1922]