Brian Condon: Letters and Documents in 19th Century Australian Catholic History

[Source: Adelaide Archdiocesan Archives copy]

Sydney

3^rd. August 1826

Dear Sir,

I have had the honor to receive your communication of the 1^st. inst. in reference to my letter of the 29^th. of last May, and which notifies to me that the period is not far distant when you shall call upon me for a return of Births, Marriages and Deaths of Roman Catholics for the present year. And in reply I beg to state that whilst the Regularly established Clergymen of the National Church and other Clergymen of a more modern church are permitted by His Excellency the Governor to celebrate marriages in cases where both of the contracting parties are Catholics, it is utterly impossible for me to furnish the required returns. It is just as easy a matter for His Excellency to enable me to perform certain duties as to require the performance of them when it is not in my power. I am convinced however by the knowledge I have of the justice and impartiality of His Excellency's character that if he were aware of the many difficulties I had to encounter in the discharge of my duties prior to his becoming the Local Government he would not have allowed, whatever his sentiments towards or his opinions of me might be, those difficulties to have increased so much as they have done. Since the commencement of this local administration, I am as much convinced as any person can possibly be of the great utility, I may say absolute necessity of keeping a regular and accurate Register of Baptisms, marriages and deaths, and even were I not so convinced I should feel it my imperative duty notwithstanding, strenuously to endeavour to keep one in obedience to the injunction of His Excellency, and His Excellency will not disbelieve me when I take the liberty to assure him that this obedience should not be less cheerful or less prompt if the Government's General Order to which you refer had never existed.

His Excellency has, if I am rightly informed, frequently condescended to consult with and receive suggestions from persons who tho' they may not be so humble as the writer, fill much less important situations than he. Now if I were allowed the same distinguished privileges I would submit to the Governor that (as His Excellency must be anxious that His Majesty's Roman Catholic subjects in this Colony should continue to conduct themselves as good subjects and moral men, and I believe they are even now as much so (caeteris paribus) [other things being equal] as any other portion of the Community) it would be very desirable that the Roman Catholics should be furnished with an opportunity of attending public prayers and hearing an approved moral instruction read on the Lord's Day in all those places where their Protestant Brethren enjoy a similar privilege. That a sober, honest and moral man and known to be such by the Resident Magistrate and the Catholic Clergyman should be appointed by Government (with the pay of an ordinary constable) in every populous district for the purpose of Reading those prayers and instructions, of keeping, and regularly occasionally transmitting to the Chaplain, the district register of births and deaths, and of teaching the Children of the Catholics, particularly on Sunday, their prayers and the rudiments of the Christian Doctrine. And that assistance should be afforded by the Government for the erection of temporary places of worship in proportion to the sums that should have been contributed for that purpose by the free inhabitants of the respective districts.

I have the honor to be

with the greatest respect

your humble servant

John Joseph Therry R.C.C.

[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]