Directions set by Brisbane's Bishops
A Brief History cont'd

In 1912 James Duhig, Bishop of Rockhampton, returned to Brisbane as Coadjutor, succeeding as Archbishop in 1917. He is remembered as a builder and as a community leader. His Church was now Irish-Australian, and his great achievement was the integration of Catholics into the community.

In 1929 the Diocese of Toowoomba was created, making the Archdiocese more compact and manageable. Duhig expanded the activities of the Diocese, introducing many religious orders, building institutions of every kind, fostering the sodalities which geared Catholics up for action. However it was not clear what the action should be. He patronised Catholic Action, both the Cardijn and the Santamaria kinds.

In the years after World War II, Brisbane faced a flood of migrants, many of them from Catholic countries. The diversity of cultures was welcomed but not adequately understood. The Irish Church was swamped by Italian, Maltese, Polish, Dutch and many other nationalities. To the problem of pastoral care for the new Catholics, there was added the pressure of expansion of schools and churches. Despite the great number of vocations in the 1950s, the system of Catholic education was strained to the limit.

In 1949 Bishop Patrick Mary O’Donnell came as Coadjutor. It was he who attended the second Vatican Council, and after 1965, when Duhig died, had to begin the implementation of the changes in the Church. Although an Irishman of the old school, he found ways of introducing the new liturgy and the new diocesan agencies. It was an age when the laity emerged as the labourers in the vineyard. A new Church appeared.