Historians have generally tended to represent the pioneering Catholic mission in Western
Australia as an homogenous ecclesiastical entity with little cultural diversity. With a few notable
exceptions the nature of the Western Australian colonial Catholic mission is portrayed as a
'hibernised' form of Catholicism with an Irish clergy taking care of the pastoral needs of a
predominantly working class Irish Catholic constituency. This thesis challenges the traditional
paradigm as restrictive, and argues that it ignores significant contextual influences and veils the
wider cultural tapestry in which the Western Australian pioneering Catholic mission proceeded.
The traditional analysis of the internal dynamics of the Catholic mission implies that there
was a beneficial, almost symbiotic relationship between sympathetic bishops and their 'valiant
helpers.' Internal conflicts concerning administrative issues have been represented as little more
than mere personality clashes.
The thesis takes a more critical contextual approach and argues that the manifestation of
internal dissension during this period can only be fully explained by taking account of external
influences rather than local conditions. These influences include both Gallican and Ultramontane
ecclesiastical perspectives as well as the individual community cultures that were transported
from Europe to the Perth diocese by missionary personnel.
This new perspective corrects the more traditional approach which overlooked the different
ecclesiastical approaches, orientations and community cultures that were represented within the
colonial Catholic mission. This expansion of the existing interpretative paradigm through which
historians view the West Australian Catholic mission in general and the development of the
school system in particular marks a significant shifi in the existing historiography. As a
consequence, scholars will in future take a more critical approach to the study of not only the
Catholic education system but also the Western Australian Catholic mission in general. Rather
than representing the definitive closing chapter it is intended that this work will invigorate
renewed historical interest in the development of the Australian Catholic mission.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/221816 |
| Date | January 2005 |
| Creators | Eugene Mckenna |
| Publisher | Murdoch University |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | http://www.murdoch.edu.au/goto/CopyrightNotice, Copyright Eugene Mckenna |
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