Directions set by Brisbane's Bishops
A Brief History

The Diocese of Brisbane started with the colony of Queensland in 1859. It then covered the whole of Queensland, a vast diocese with few people. The first bishop, James Quinn, organised an immigration scheme which brought thousands of Irish, establishing the style of the Church for a century.

There were some Catholics who were comfortably off, but the majority were not. Church policy was to raise their economic and social status in a Catholic atmosphere.

Education was the means. In 1880 government funds were withdrawn from Catholic schools and it was impossible to maintain the lay-run schools.

A century of dependence on Religious began. At first there were only the Sisters of Mercy, the Irish Christian Brothers and, for a while, the Sisters of St Joseph. The characteristic of the Diocese was the struggle for Catholic schools.

Bishop Quinn died in 1881 and was succeeded by Robert Dunne who became first Archbishop of Brisbane in 1887. Northern and Central Queensland were excised from the Diocese, since closer settlement made the colony too large for management. Where Quinn had laboured for churches and schools, Dunne put his faith in Catholic family settlement. In the 1880s the Queensland government heavily subsidised migration, and a steady flow of Irish fixed the Hibernian character of the Brisbane Church.

Social concerns were revealed in hospitals and orphanages; but in the political arena, the Church was largely conservative. When Pope Leo XIII initiated a new age of Catholic social teaching, the laity began a shift to the new Labour Party, but the Archbishop was more hesitant.