Brian Condon: Letters and Documents in 19th Century Australian Catholic History
[Source: Adelaide Archdiocesan Archives copy. Marked 'No. 13']
Port Louis
2nd. Oct 1822
Revd Sir,
Very long after its date I received yours of March last. The Ship which takes this sails at too short a notice for me to answer you in detail, but I feel great pleasure in observing that there is much in your letter, and your conduct as therein represented which claims my warmest approbation.
That everything which is intended to secure future generations should in its origin be laid on an extended foundation, has at all times been the opinion of wise men, provided the early means be adequate to the purposes of extent and firmness.
I would rather you should be three years in building a commodious Chapel, offering a respectable and inviting front to the public, than see your first means exhausted on one that must afterwards be destroyed to make place for another better adapted to the wants of a rapidly increasing Congregation. I am pleased too with the wish you express to establish as much as possible Schools in the different towns and divisions of the Colony. But you must remember that an ardent head will always form plans more rapidly than the most active hand can execute them, particularly when the kindly affections of the heart elevated to the rank of Christian Charities are in union with the wishes of the head.
Suggest the idea to the principal inhabitants of each district, commence real subscriptions; they will tend to form a capital and when you see that your means are sufficient to justify a hope that you can go on - begin.
Your school rooms may serve on Sundays for the performance of Divine Service, and whenever you are rich enough to erect a building for that particular purpose, do it on such a plan that the construction may afterwards form a portion of the Chapel your future means may enable you to complete.
I shall be exceedingly happy to see the number of labourers increased by any means, but if you quit the vineyard, who will cultivate the portions committed to your care.
I have the prospect of raising a Seminary here, and if you have any young men who are promising subjects, you may send them hither. We have great facilities of Education in this island. The Classics are taught exceedingly well. No town out of Europe has so large or so well appointed a College as Port Louis. We have now 340 students. The whole expense for any boys you [send] hither will be £50 per annum. If intended for the Church, cloathing [sic] will be included, without any claims for reimbursement, in case the dispositions of the Student should be found incompetent with the vocation.
Continue, I entreat you, a yielding disposition. It is necessary that fellow labourers in the vineyard of Christ should live together as brothers but a superiority must exist, and the claims of prior appointment and more advanced age should in the first instance have obviated any appeal.
I trust in the Lord the first difficulties got over you will have no further subject of difference.
You should have sent me a copy of your Catechism for approbation. Be exceedingly cautious in Baptising the children of the indigenous inhabitants of the country. You must not forget that no baptism can be given except in the immediate proximity of death, without a credible voucher that the promises required in the Administration of the Sacraments will be faithfully executed. Mixed marriages have always been condemned in the Church, and it is the duty of its Ministers to lend themselves on such occasions with very great caution. The instrument of publication of Banns may be affixed on the door of a building used as a Chapel when Mass is not celebrated in the district. When a marriage is intended to be contracted you must consider the discipline of the Council of Trent as in full force in the whole of New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land. Allow me my dear Sir to recommend to your frequent perusal the Catechism of that Council as the most useful book a Clergyman can read.
I perceive that I have written to you more at length than I thought my time would allow. Receive my thanks for the good you have done, continue to labor with zeal in the land committed to your care. Remember that Charity, soft indulgent forbearing Charity, is the Spirit which animates a faithful Servant of Christ, which secures to his own soul peace, whilst it administers hope and consolation to others, and gives him on earth a foretaste of the happiness which awaits him in Heaven. May the Lord have you in His Holy Keeping.
+Edward E. R.
[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]