Roman Catholic Church in Australia

The Roman Catholic Church in Australia is part of the Roman Catholic Church worldwide . 5.3 million Australians - about 22.6% of the total population - belong to the Catholic Church.

history

Mary MacKillop

The Catholic Church has its origins in the colonization of Australia in the 18th century. Intended as a place of exile for convicts, Australia also became a country of immigration for many Irish people. Accordingly, religious life was deeply imbued with Irish customs. The Church was officially constituted in 1820. With a change in the ethnic composition of the country, which has also affected the Catholic Church since the 1950s, the face of the Church in Australia began to change.

The founder of the first Australian order, The Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart , Sister Mary MacKillop (1842-1909), is the first and so far only Australian person to be beatified .
So far, three popes have visited Australia: Paul VI. (1970), John Paul II (1986, 1995) and Benedict XVI. (2008).
Sydney hosted World Youth Day 2008 . As part of the World Youth Day, Pope Benedict XVI visited first time Australia.

organization

The Roman Catholic Church in Australia is divided into five ecclesiastical provinces with headquarters in Adelaide , Brisbane , Melbourne , Perth and Sydney consisting of seven archbishoprics and 33 dioceses, with five dioceses having national jurisdiction (dioceses of the Chaldean, Maronite, Melkite and Ukrainian rites as well the military ordinariate). The Australian Catholic Bishops Conference (ACBC) as the national bishops' conference with its seat in Canberra represents the approximately 5.1 million Catholic Christians, that is 28% of the Australian population. The president is Philip E. Wilson , Archbishop of Adelaide. Since April 15, 1914, the Roman Curia has been represented by an Apostolic Nunciature based in Canberra. Archbishop Adolfo Tito Yllana has been the nuncio since 2015 .

The Catholic Church has been involved in the Australian school system since the beginning of the 19th century. Church-sponsored 1,749 primary schools, 473 secondary schools as well as 30 colleges and universities with more than 700,000 pupils. Well-known institutions are the Australian Catholic University , University of Notre Dame Australia and Bond University . The Catholic Church runs 58 hospitals, 407 nursing homes for the elderly and the disabled, 164 orphanages and kindergartens, 480 social rehabilitation centers and 210 advice centers for families and centers for the protection of life.

Archbishopric and Diocese of Australia

The Saint Mary's Cathedral

Ecclesiastical province of Sydney

Ecclesiastical Province of Brisbane

Archdiocese of Brisbane

Church Province of Adelaide

Archdiocese of Adelaide
- Diocese of Darwin
- Diocese of Port Pirie

Ecclesiastical Province of Melbourne

Ecclesiastical Province of Perth

Archdiocese of Perth

Immediate

literature

Eris M. O'Brien: Life and Letters of Archpriest John Joseph Therry: Founder of the Catholic Church in Australia. 1927. (New edition Kessinger Pub Co., 2010, ISBN 978-1-164-10627-2 )
Patrick James O'Farrell: The Catholic Church in Australia (1788-1967). Chapman, London 1969.
Patrick James O'Farrell: Catholic Church and Community: An Australian History. New South Wales University Press, Kensington, 3rd revised edition 1992, ISBN 0-86840-225-7 .
Peter Carpenter: Woman and Man: One in Christ Jesus - Report on the Participation of Women in the Catholic Church in Australia. HarperCollins Religious, Nashville 1999, ISBN 1-86371-782-X .
Thomas A O'Donoghue: Upholding the Faith: The Process of Education in Catholic Schools in Australia, 1922-1965. Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main 2001, ISBN 0-8204-5653-5 .