Brian Condon: Letters and Documents in 19th Century Australian Catholic History
[Source: Adelaide Archdiocesan Archives copy. Marked 'No. 18']
Government House
Sydney
14th. Oct 1820
Gentlemen,
In conformity with the wish you have expressed to be informed of the line of conduct which, in my opinion, you should pursue in the performance of your Clerical Duties in New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land, I willingly embrace the occasion to express feelingly and candidly to you what I conceive is the course you are called upon by your Sacred functions and a due regard for the Laws of the Mother Country to pursue.
Altho' by the Laws of England, marriages there can only be legally celebrated by the Clergy of the Church of England, yet as I find that all the Provisions of the Marriage Act do not extend to the Colonies of Great Britain, you are at liberty to celebrate Marriages where both are Roman Catholics, subject however to the following regulations:
1st. That the Names, Residences and Descriptions of the persons desiring to be joined together in Holy Wedlock (provided they be Convicts or either of them a Convict) be transmitted in like manner as is done by the Chaplains of the Church of England to the Governor, and his permission obtained for the ceremony taking place.
2nd. That you transmit applications to the Governor for leave to celebrate Marriages in all cases where it is required, on the first Monday (or as early as possible in the first week) of each month, in the same manner as is done by the Chaplains of the Church of England.
3rd. That you keep a Register of all Marriages which shall be celebrated by you, regularly vouched, and capable of being duly authenticated, in all cases where proof of marriage may be required.
4th. That you make a quarterly return to the Governor of all marriages which shall have been celebrated by you within that period, and in order that your said Returns may coincide in regard to Dates with similar ones made by the Protestant Chaplains, you will please consider the four Quarters of the year as terminating respectively with the 31st. of March, the 30th. of June, the 30th. September and the 31st. of December.
But you are on no account or consideration whatever to Celebrate Marriage between parties being Protestants, or where one of them is Protestant, or where one or both is or are of any other Religious persuasion than that of Roman Catholics. The steady adherence to this injunction involving in it the Rights of Legitimacy and Inheritance, it will be your duty to keep this prohibition at all times clearly in view, both as it regards your Obedience to a direct Command, and as it is of absolute necessity to guard against the validity of such Marriages being hereafter called in question, and thereby, the inheritance of property rendered doubtful and insecure. It would therefore appear a Measure of sound Policy on your part, on behalf of members of the Romish Communion, and would mark in a very gratifying way your disposition to maintain and uphold the Constitution and Laws of the Mother Country, were you frequently to impress on their minds that the Legitimacy of their offspring and their claims to the Inheritance of Property will hinge on the validity of the Marriages of Parents.
The penalty attached to a Roman Catholic Priest for Celebrating the Marriage Ceremony between parties, other than those immediately belonging to, and Members of the Church of Rome, must be too well known to you to require me to say more on that subject, than merely to call it thus to your mind, and therefore I need not dwell on the risk that would be incurred by your performing such forbidden service. Your own good sense and feeling not only of propriety but of personal responsibility also will fully mark the line of conduct you have to pursue in all such cases.
You have likewise my permission to Baptise the children of Parents of the Roman Catholic Communion, but you are strictly enjoined to confine yourself, in the performance of that Service, to those persons of your own Communion.
I see no objection whatever to your performing the Funeral Services according to the rites of your Church, when called upon, over the remains of any deceased member of the Roman Catholic Persuasion.
In the way of advice I have to recommend most strongly to you, for the sake of Concord with the Members of other Religious Persuasions that you endeavour not to make converts from the Established Church or generally from the Protestant church, but that you may confine your Spiritual Ministry to those persons exclusively who are of the Romish Communion. Indeed within your own flock, which is very numerous, you will have quite enough Duty to perform conscientiously without attempting proselytizing to acquire additional members.
What I have already observed on this subject is altogether in the form of advice, for the Laws of England to which we must all conform at our Peril are too strong to require me to be more explicit in regard to their operation. I shall now advert to some points which are more of necessary local arrangement and political expediency in this Colony than what I have already dwelt on, and shall preface them by observing to you that the melancholy effects lately produced in England by large popular meetings, under the banners of itinerant Political Demagogues, long practised in the Arts of Faction, and ripe for anarchy and confusion, having rendered the enactment of certain Laws in regard to future assemblages of people a matter of absolute necessity, in order to restrain the excesses to which they were becoming every day more and more the Dupes, it will be incumbent on this Government to tread in the steps of those of the Mother Country, in order to avert the evils arising out of such popular Meetings. In order therefore to guard against large meetings taking place under any pretence whatever, unless when called together by the proper legal authority, it will be expected and required of you:
First That when you shall have fixed on certain Stations whereat you purpose to Celebrate Divine Service at regular periods, that you transmit to me or the Governor for the time being, a return of the places you shall have so determined on, whereby I shall be enabled to judge of their fitness, and when approved by me, I shall transmit Authority to the Magistrates to permit the Assemblage of your Congregations at those particular places.
But no Meeting or Assemblage of Roman Catholics consisting of more than five persons, for the Celebration of the Rites or service of your church, is to be convened or held at any other place or places than those approved in the foregoing manner unless leave for that special purpose shall have been first had and obtained from the Magistrate residing nearest to the place of Assemblage; and notice of the time at which the intended meeting may be proposed to be held shall also be given to said Magistrate, whose permission must be obtained before such Meetings or Congregations shall be there assembled.
Second That you confine the public Celebration of Mass to the Sabbath Day and to the Holydays set apart by the Church of England, on which service is performed accordingly in this Colony in the Established Church.
Third That you administer the comforts of your Religion to those persons exclusively who are of the Roman Catholic Faith.
Fourth That on Sundays and the other Holy Days of the Church of England when you celebrate, that you adopt the same hours for that service as are prescribed by the Clergy of the Established Church, in order that the Prisoners of the Crown of your Religious persuasion may be mustered in the same manner as those of the Church of England, and proceed to Mass and return from it, under the charge of the Constables appointed for that duty.
Fifth That you do not interfere with the Education of Orphans in the Government Charitable Institutions of this Colony, they being by the Fundamental Regulations of those Institutions, to be instructed in the Faith and Doctrine of the Church of England.
Sixth That you keep Registers, and make Quarterly Returns to the Governor, of Births and Deaths among the Roman Catholic Inhabitants, in like manner as already directed for Marriages, and the Returns to be made up to the same periods.
Having now, Gentlemen, dwelt on the principal points, both religious and political, which have occurred to my mind at this time, I shall wind up these my Instructions by assuring you that I at present entertain a full confidence in the purity and integrity of your views and purposes as you have expressed them to me, and I shall feel much mortified indeed, if I should hereafter have reason to doubt that purity and integrity, or to call in question any part of your conduct in the Ministry of the Rites and Ceremonies of the Church of Rome.
But I willingly dismiss that subject from further observation, in order to give you the assurance that you will ever find me ready to advocate and support the Religious Liberty of your Flock, and to maintain your own just rights and privileges and to show you every mark of favor to which exemplary conduct can lay claim.
I am
Reverend Sirs
Your obedient humble servant
L. Macquarie
[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]