Person Page 2,269

(Research Note: Mary Dowling was a witness to the marriage of Eva Dowling to Jacobus Norlan on 1 October 1867 in Tinryland, Carlow, Ireland. This person appears related to the married couple but may or may not be the sibling as shown here as such to preserve the apparent connection for future reference).

(Research Note: Pattrk Dowling of Ballaloo was a witness to the marriage of Mary Dowling to Patrick Norton on 11 February 1868 in Tinryland, Carlow, Ireland. This person appears related to the married couple but may or may not be the sibling as shown here as such to preserve the apparent connection for future reference).

Catholic Weekly (Sydney, NSW : 1942 - 1954), Thursday 28 August 1952, page 1
(transcribed by Brian Thomas Dowling (1955-) on 1 August 2025)

APOSTLE OF THE HUNTER - THE LIFE OF FATHER DOWLING

This article was written specially for 'The Catholic Weekly' by Sister Mary Assumpta O'Hanlon, O.P. Based on extensive original research, it tells the story of the Reverend Father Christopher Vincent Dowling, a Dominican, and the first religious, to work in Australia. Little has previously been published about Father Dowling, but Sister Mary Assumpta shows that he is, indeed, worthy of a special remembrance when the struggles of our pioneer Catholics are commemorated at next year's National Eucharistic Congress.

A '"NEW Australian" recently posed the question: 'Under God, to whom do Australian Catholics owe their Faith?'

In general terms, the answer, a truism perhaps, is merely that every man and woman, convict or free, who came to Australia in the first century of the settlement, formed and fashioned the way of life and the national character of future Australians.

In the light of historical fact this might well be a startling answer, seeing that the criminal population of that period numbered over 160,000 persons. Obviously, Australia's development from such a blighted and perverted infancy must have a different cause. It is to be accredited largely to the convicted patriots and wronged heroes who, at the termination of their sentence, remained to give Australia the benefit of their religion, ideals, and principles for which each patriot had already proved himself willing to die.

Men convicted of the 'crime' of fighting against a tyranny that would destroy their homeland and religion, over 24,000 from Ireland alone, together with the fine class of free settler from England, Ireland and Scotland, and the cosmopolitan thousands brought in by the gold rushes, overwhelmed the truly criminal element and fathered the freedom-loving Australians of to-day.

The same holds true in the history of the Australian Church : ex-convicts, akin in spirit to men like James Dempsey and William Davis, kept the faith alive when no priest was allowed to minister to the settlement. With James Dempsey at their head, an early chronicler records, old men, only a few at first but gradually increasing to 25 or 30, formed themselves into a confraternity. Every day they met in Dempsey's house to recite the Rosary. On Sundays and holy days, the Catholic public joined them in this devotion.

Thus, at a time when the Holy Mass was denied her, the Rosary kept Australia's spiritual foes at bay. Devoid of Catholic teaching and priestly ministration, yet with such men and women as these to protect it, the infant Australian Church survived and prospered. Thus the persecution of the Irish and their subsequent exile were the means God used to Christianise Australia. 'In the annals of Christendom,' writes Cardinal Moran, 'it would be difficult to find another Church whose beginnings were so cemented with the tears of the sorrowing faithful.'

As a preliminary blessing, infinite in its effects, God directed to Australia, more than 100 years before its official discovery, Spanish navigators. These men, under the leadership of De Quiros, landed on neighboring islands, some maintain on the Queensland coast, probably at Port Curtis. The report of De Quiros to King Philip III. of Spain describes an amazing incident:

'First ' of all, Sire, we erected a cross and we built a church under the invocation of Our Lady of Loretto. Twenty Masses were celebrated (in 1605) and our men flocked thither to gain the Indulgences. We had a solemn procession and feast of the Blessed Sacrament, The Most Holy Sacrament, preceded by your banner, being borne around a wide circuit of land which It sanctified by Its presence.'

After the discovery and settlement of Australia, Providence sent missionaries who might set their Individual impress upon the religious development of the land. The first priest to labor in Australia, John Joseph Therry, is now legendary as the spirit of self-sacrifice, zeal, and perilous devotion. His achievements have been perpetuated by Dr. Eris O'Brien in his monumental work, 'The Dawn of Catholicism in Australia.'

Father Daniel Power, who arrived six years later to replace Father Therry, is by comparison an insignificant figure, better remembered to-day for his misfortunes than for his, success: 'I regret that he ever came to an English colony,' wrote a leading Catholic of the day. 'The poor man is now before his and our Great Judge, but I must say it was very ill-judged to send him on a mission like this.'

But the third priest to hold the office of official chaplain only 43 years after the foundation of Australia is almost entirely forgotten or unknown. He was Father Christopher Vincent Dowling, a Dominican, the first member of a religious order to minister in Australia, a fact which justifies our sketching his career and indicating the spirit and ideals which he and fellow-Dominicans contributed to the Australian Church and to the education of its people.

In 1826 Father Therry, the first official chaplain, dogged by the ill-will of Governor Darling and the bigotry of his associates, was deprived of his chaplaincy and forbidden to hold divine services in public. Father Daniel Power was appointed in his stead, but died four years later. Since there was no other priest in the whole continent, Australia would have been utterly deprived of priestly ministrations were it not for the fact that Father Therry flouted the law, and attended his people wherever they needed him.

IN 1831 Governor Darling again applied to the Home Government for an official chaplain. The matter was referred to Dr. Bramston, Vicar-Apostolic of London, and in September, 1831, the following proclamation was gazetted: 'His Excellency, the Governor, directs it to be notified that Reverend Christopher Vincent Dowling has been appointed Roman Catholic clergyman of this colony in the room of Rev. Daniel Power deceased.'

Christopher Vincent Dowling was born in Dublin on September 24, 1789. Since the English Penal Laws forbade education for an Irish Catholic, the boy was sent to the Dominican College of Corpo Santo in Lisbon, Spain, to her eternal glory, was at that time known as 'Nutrix Nostra,'' the foster-mother and nurse of the persecuted Irish.

At Corpo Santo the young Dowling had as a classmate William Vincent Harold, nephew of Father James Harold, the convict-priest who at that very time was suffering unspeakably in the prisons of Norfolk Island. William Vincent Harold, regarding this wronged uncle with supreme admiration and love, resolved to dedicate his own life as a priest to the service of the Botany Bay prisoners in expiation of the wrongs inflicted upon his uncle.

We can imagine the enthusiasm with which he discussed such plans with his classmates, enkindling in them a like ambition. At ordination, however, his Dominican superiors assigned the brilliant young priest to the duties of professor at Corpo Santo. Later they loaned him to the American mission. Not he but a classmate was destined for the convict settlement.

In 1814, just one year before the downfall of Napoleon, Christopher Vincent Dowling was ordained priest by Archbishop Daniel Murray in Dublin, where he remained for 11 years. The Catholic Directory of 1821 records that he was then Guardian of the Charity School conducted by the Dominicans in Denmark street, at which school 25 boys were under instruction. During part of this time Father Dowling held the office of sub-prior in the Dublin priory.

In 1825 the young priest was obliged through ill health to leave Ireland. His superiors sent him to France, where he was appointed parish priest of Salignac in the diocese of Bordeaux. In the next year he was elected Prior of the Dublin priory, one of the electing community being Father Dominic Harold, O.P., another nephew of Father James Harold, the convict-priest.

FATHER Dowling did not return to Ireland to take up office possibly because the validity of his election was in doubt. Instead, he accepted the invitation of Dr. Bramston, Vicar-Apostolic of London, to take charge of the parish of Newport in the Isle of Wight. Here he was when offered the Government chaplaincy of New South Wales. With unconscious humor and inaccuracy, tho Birmingham 'Catholic Magazine' of April, 1831, records his acceptance:

'The Rev. Vincent Dowling, a respectable Irish priest of the Order of St. Francis (sic) knowing the great need tho Catholics of New South Wales have of pastors to attend to their spiritual concerns, has, with true apostolic zeal, volunteered the services of his sacred ministry to that important mission. His proposal has been gladly accepted by tho Government who have provided for the expenses of his voyage, and have made him a suitable appointment on his arrival at Sydney.

'Mr. Dowling is about thirty years of age, strong and healthy, experienced in missionary duty, which, he has exercised with applause in the Isle of Wight and in London, and has the reputation of being an eloquent preacher. His missionary services at Sydney, where there is only at present one priest, will be very valuable. He set sail from London in the beginning of the present month for his new mission.'

Father Dowling, we learn from another source, was a brilliant classical scholar, spoke five or six languages fluently and was much in demand as a preacher of Charity sermons.'

AFTER five months at sea, Father Dowling arrived in Sydney on September 17, 1831 — the receipt for his passage from London, dated February, 1831, is in the Cathedral archives, West Maitland. His first view of Sydney must have been much the same as that recorded by a contemporary voyager: 'The bays of Port Jackson, are in my opinion the most beautiful in the world, the entrance to the harbor is magnificent.'

But his second impressions were akin to those of Sir Roger Therry, Judge of the Supreme Court of New South Wales, who arrived in the colony about the same time (1829) and who in the magic light of evening thought Sydney 'a prosperous community':

'When, however, day dawned,' he writes, 'the delusion of evening was dispelled. Early in the morning, the gates of the convict prison were thrown open and several hundred convicts were marched out in regimental file and distributed amongst several public works in and about the town. As they passed along — the chains clanking at their heels, the patchwork dress of coarse grey and yellow cloth, marked with the Government brand, in which they were paraded, the downcast countenances, and the whole appearance of the men exhibited a truly painful picture.

'Nor was it improved throughout the day, as one met bands of them in detachments of twenty yoked to wagons laden with gravel and stone, which they wheeled through the streets. In this and in other respects, they performed all the functions of labor usually discharged by beasts of burden at home.'

These were degrading scenes, but to the disgust they caused was soon added a thrill of horror :

'The Sydney Hospital, well situated, was in a line with the prisoners' barracks and at a short distance from them. I n an enclosed yard of these barracks, shut out from the public road by a high brick wall, flogging was administered. A band of from 10 to 20 were daily at one period marched into this yard to be flogged.

'As I passed along the road about 11 o'clock in the morning, there issued from these barracks a party consisting of four men who bore on their shoulders — two supporting the head, two the feet — a miserable convict writhing in an agony of pain, his voice piercing the air with terrific screams. Astonished the at the sight, I inquired what this meant and was told it was 'only a prisoner who had been flogged and was on his way to the hospital'.

This was Sydney when Father Dowling arrived, assuredly dismal surroundings for a solitary young priest already lonely for his home folk, already suffering the privations of learning and of scholarly companionship to which he had been used. Father Therry, the only priest in the colony, had but cool welcome for the newcomer who must supersede him as official chaplain. He stoutly refused to vacate the Chapel House for the new chaplain; or to allow him possession of Church funds; and forthwith appealed to the Prefect-Apostolic in far-away Mauritius to approve his attitude.

Father Dowling, like Father Power before him, was faced with an unpleasant and extremely difficult situation. He, the official chaplain, must work with the priest whom he had unwillingly ousted from authority, a man who through the dogged opposition of Government officials had become antagonistic to any authority but his own. Unlike Father Power, however, Father Dowling was a strong charactor, ready to assert his lawful claims. Possibly he was tactless and overbearing in his attitude towards Father Therry. Inevitable clashes followed. (Continued on Page 16.)

APOSTLE OF THE HUNTER CONTINUED FROM PAGE 11

At a distance of many thousand miles the Benedictine Prefect apostolic at Mauritius gave his support to the irate Father Therry to whom he wrote: 'I will inform you that I have written to Mr. Dowling a letter which I hope will in future prevent his assuming any right of superiority over you,' and proceeded to formulate 'peace terms' without ever setting eyes on either of the priests nor being personally acquainted with the conditions under which they were laboring.

Thus it is clear that from the start of his mission in Australia, Father Dowling's position as Government chaplain put him at odds with ecclesiastical authority. Moreover, in spite of his attractive personality and devoteness, in spite of his official appointment, perhaps because of it, he was regarded as an outcast. A large section of the Catholic population rejected, insulted and opposed him. The outraged Father Therry was their idol.

Nor must we condemn them for this: Father Thierry had fought tooth and nail for their spiritual and temporal welfare. Regarding him as a victim of tyranny, a virtual martyr, they acclaimed and supported him as such. On the other hand, they strongly resented the Dominican 'usurper.' The misguided and hooligan element even went so far as to lie in wait for Father Dowling in Hyde Park. After 'bringing the Reverend Gentleman to the ground,' The Australian' tells us, 'they eased him of his watch and chain and seals,' and adds that Father Dowling was badly injured. When the robbery was announced at Mass the following Sunday, the congregation immediately subscribed £50 as a reward for the discovery of the thieves. Other like incidents give proof of the resentment that burned amongst what 'The Australian calls 'the lower order of Irish Catholics.'

But the new chaplain was first and foremost a priest. He apparently laid small store on being a popular hero. Instead, he set out, just as resolutely as Father Therry, to advance the interests of the Church. True to the ideal of his Order, his first claim on the Government was for education. Almost immediately, Governor Bourke, declaring Father Dowling to be 'an excellent clergyman,' granted 'a further sum for the promotion of education amongst the Roman Catholics.'

All through the newspaper files of this year we find instances of Father Dowling's devotion to the convict class. The inmates of the 'Phoenix Hulk' are visited and consoled in their misfortunes. Repeatedly convicts beg Father Dowling to stand by them on the scaffold; and the newspapers give almost sadistic details of the sufferings of the criminal before death and of the selfless charity of the priest.

In 1832, Father McEncroe arrived in Sydney as a second official chaplain. Whereupon Governor Bourke appointed Father Dowling to Windsor, as chaplain for the Hawkes- bury District. Windsor of 1832 consisted of soldiers' barracks, a gaol, a hospital Government granary. Court House, Anglican / Church of England (Protestant) church and rectory, inns, and a few cottages. There was no Catholic church. Father Dowling celebrated Mass in a kind of barn in Macquarie-street. Once again he tackled the problem of education and established a Catholic school conducted by James and Esther Cassidy, also securing from the Government three and a half acres of land for a church and cemetery.

In the last-named place he probably laid to rest the soldier immortalised by his mates with the following inscription:

This stone is raised by his comrades to the memory of Private Dunn who was kicked out of life by the Colonel's horse, as a mark of respect. Here lies Private Dunn No more alive and quick He died and so would anyone That had so hard a kick.

In 1836, a second Dominican arrived in the Colony. He was Father James Vincent Corcoran, a relative of the Corcorans of Burrowa, after whom 'Corcoran's Plains' are named. The new priest was appointed to Windsor, and Father Dowling was moved 122 miles further north to take charge of the parish of Maitland. Incidentally, Father Corcoran's apostolate, fruitful though brief, ended in tragedy.

In 1837 he was thrown from his gig near the toll-gate on Sydney-road where the island tramshed now stands at the George-street entrance to Sydney Railway Station. The wheel having passed over his head, he died half an hour later. By a remarkable intervention of Providence, Father Sumner, O.S.B., the first priest to be ordained in Australia, and one of the five then on the mission, happened to be driving behind Father Corcoran and was with him as he died.

By this time Dr. Polding had arrived, and was ruling the Catholic population as the first Archbishop of Sydney. During his episcopate Father Dowling figures hardly at all in Sydney affairs. His signature is appended to the letter offering sympathy to Queen Adelaide on the death of her husband William IV.; he signs also the document congratulating Queen Victoria on her accession to the throne; but except in this strictly official capacity he plays no part in the public life of the Archdiocese.

From his arrival in the Colony, as we have already seen, Father Dowling received scant recognition or approval from his Benedictine superiors in the person of Dr. Slater, and after 1833, Dr. Ullathorne. A man of forthright opinions, a priest learned, capable, and zealous, he was for some reason not 'persona grata' with ecclesiastical authority, and apparently did not alter this record under Dr. Polding, who nourished 'a scheme of setting the seal of the Benedictine Order on the whole Australian Church' (Cardinal Moran).

This attitude to him perhaps explains his withdrawal from Sydney affairs; it may also explain the rumor that for a brief period he was suspended. Perhaps his motive was purely and simply the salvation of souls; at all events for the next 40 years of his life Father Dowling devoted himself exclusively to the care of souls in a parish extending from Newcastle to the Queensland border.

'If Father Therry may be looked upon as the Patriarch of the Australian Church in general,' writes the 'Freeman's Journal' of 1873, 'Father Dowling may be called the Apostle of the Hunter in particular.'

In this far-stretching parish he had in 1843, as what in those days would be called a near neighbor, a brother Dominican, Father Cornelius D. Coghlan, resident priest at Brisbane Water, a priest whose missionary labors and unique qualities merit far worthier recognition in our history than the few lines carved on a Dapto tombstone. Suffice it to say here that 'Father Con' was the Apostle of the Manning River as well as of the Brisbane Water, and a rare example of the big-hearted, versatile priest of the early days.

On the Hawkesbury he lived on an island near Woy Woy, for many years called 'Coghlan's Island,' but known to-day as 'Kinnane's Island.' Here he cultivated a banana plantation, when not on 'Peter Gillighan' rides to outback settlers. In 1863 he was moved to Port Macquarie to minister alone to the whole north coast of Now South Wales and Southern Queensland. He died in 1872 broken down from 30 years of primitive hardship, and is buried at Dapto, N.S.W.

In 1838 Father Dowling took up residence as its first parish priest in Newcastle, an embryo city meriting at the time no more flattering praise from Dr. Polding than 'a town situated between Maitland and the Ocean.' The Newcastle of 1838 had little to recommend it beyond a gaol, two hospitals, military barracks, and a large stockade for convicts.

With characteristic zeal, Father Dowling at once began agitation with the Government on behalf of the convicts. In consequence they were given leave to interview the chaplain any time he might visit the stockade, and to attend week-day services. Mass for the shifting population of Newcastle was celebrated at tho priest's house on the Sand Hills and later in a Government store. In 1852 Father Dowling built the first church in Newcastle near the present site of St. Mary's.

From the Diary of Thomas Callaghan, B.A., District Court Judge in N.S.W. (the Diary is in the possession of the Royal Australian Historical Society), we glean other interesting details about Father Dowling. Judge Callaghan himself arrived in Sydney and was admitted to the Bar in 1840. In his diary he speaks of a warm friendship with Father Dowling, arising from the fact that they were 'townies' — Callaghans and Dowlings being neighbors in Dublin. He makes mention of several, professional visits to Newcastle when Father Dowling was resident priest.

On one such visit he saw four convicts being flogged on Nobby's Island :
'The most terrible process of cruelty I ever saw. My blood fevered when I saw the first man bound to the post, but when I saw the first lash given, I could not refrain from tears. The men winced under every lash, but never uttered the sound of a murmur or groan.'

This spectacle was the daily torture of the young Dominican who saw his own countrymen being brutally and unjustly flogged by English gaolers at Newcastle. England had done its best to make 'The Land of the Holy Ghost' into an earthly Hell. Such was Cardinal Manning's charge against his own countrymen in 1841: 'We must answer for the heathenism of India, for the destitution of Canada, for the degradation of the West Indian slaves, for the Hell we have made in Australia.'

On each of his visits to Newcastle we find Judge Callaghan calling on Father Dowling to seek personal advice; and repeatedly he enters: 'Served Mr. Dowling's Mass,' adding to one entry 'Mr. Dowling is a brother of Mrs. David Chambers.'

Research through newspaper files of the thirties has revealed to us that Miss Mary Teresa Dowling arrived with Father Dowling by the 'Mary Ann,' which reached Sydney on September 17, 1831. Her purpose in coming to the Colony was evidently to marry Mr. David Chambers, who had migrated to Australia a short while previously. They were married in Sydney on May 5, 1832. Mr. David Chambers was made Crown Solicitor and Sheriff in N.S.W. and helped to codify the laws of the State. He and his young wife lived at 'Leitrim' near the present Erskineville Railway Station. Their sons became graziers in the Cobar-Bourke district of the last century.

Judge Callaghan, if we may be permitted to digress a little, was a militant Catholic who with a'Beckett, Plunkett, and Roger Therry greatly raised the prestige of Catholics in N.S.W. Unfortunately, when only 48 years old, he was killed at Braidwood while on circuit in 1863, not by the bushrangers who were electrifying the district at that time, but by a colt which he had just bought in the sale yards adjoining the Doncaster Hotel.

The Judge was inspecting the horse when it charged at the slip-rails and so severely injured him that he died. Judge Callaghan is buried in St. Bede's Churchyard, Braidwood, in a tomb erected by public subscription 'In testimony of the impartiality and ability with which he discharged his official duties.'

But to return to Father Dowling. Long journeys on horseback through the bush, as distant by coast as Port Stephens, which was in the parish of Newcastle, and south and west to Windsor, Mudgee and beyond, made the priest's a household name in the isolated homesteads of the 1840's. Long after his death, old settlers recalled with emotion memories of the kindly priest who shared their joys and sorrows and taught them to sanctify the hardships of the bush.

But by 1857 Father Dowling's weak health could no longer support the burdens of the missionary. The grim surroundings of Newcastle had done little through the years to bring cheerfulness into his solitary life, yet he was uncomplaining. The only hint of loneliness and physical suffering to be found is in a letter to the Dominican Provincial in Ireland:

'I cannot describe the pleasure I experienced on reading your account of the spirit and efficiency of our Order in Ireland. One must be separated for years from the Institute of early affection to appreciate this feeling.'

He ends a long letter in which he rejoices at the news that his brother Dominican, Pere Lacordaire, is holding Paris spellbound by his preaching, with the words:

'Once more I remind you that a reply . . . including a continuation of your valuable and interesting account of the Order, particularly in Ireland, will be most acceptable to the aged, infirm, and unworthy member of the Order, Brother Christopher Vincent Dowling, who solicits your prayers and those of the other members of the Order.' (Continued on Page 20.)

APOSTLE OF THE HUNTER ( C O N T I N U E D F R O M P A G E 16.)

IN 1863, Father Dowling was forced by ill health to request that he be relieved of the parish of Newcastle.

For the next ten years he lived alone in his cottage on the Sand Hills, where he celebrated Mass in a private oratory and heard the confessions of an amazing number of settlers who still sought the counsel of this life-long friend and spiritual father.

'Father Dowling,' writes a visitor to Newcastle in the 70's, 'was known to nearly all the inhabitants of the Hunter District. . . . When he came here, I cannot learn, for the oldest resident says he was here before him and the old men of the Upper Hunter when visiting Newcastle always cross the sands to visit him, and invariably introduce themselves by saying: 'Don't you remember, Father Dowling, you married me at such a place' . . . (He is) a singularly venerable and long-lived personage . . . now verging on ninety years of age, and his white hair hangs down over his shoulders in thick, curly profusion like what we imagine of the 'Crinitus Iopas' of Virgil.'

By this time a long vista of Australian history spread behind the old missionary. He had seen the land of his priestly sacrifices develop from a convict prison through the teeming period of the gold rushes into a prosperous, far-settled country. He had lived through the exciting period of the 'Bushrangers' War' (1861-65). He had watched, and perhaps participated, as Australians repudiated convictism and turned back the last convict ship from their shores in 1849 and secured instead self-government. He had seen the Church, of which he was the third official representative, extend into ten dioceses with over 100 priests.

Moreover, the last days of the old Dominican were gladdened by the kindness and companionship of his sisters in religion, who, in accordance with a custom seven centuries old, come to supplement the preaching of the friars by their instruction of the young and the maintenance of the liturgical life through the choral recitation of the Divine Office. By this time the Dominican Nuns were conducting schools in Maitland and Newcastle.

On Sunday, December 14, 1873, at the age of 84 years, Father Dowling died peacefully at his house on the Sand Hills. Newcastle mourned for him as for a national hero. 'During Sunday evening and up to 2 o'clock on Monday crowds went to take a last look at all that remained of the once sturdy veteran of the Cross,' records 'The Freeman's Journal,' adding in its description of the funeral, 'after the clergy came Major Bolton, a very old friend of the deceased, and Dr. Harris, his medical attendant. Next came the children of St. Mary's School and the procession was closed by a large body of gentlemen on foot.'

As his remains passed through the streets of Newcastle on the way to East Maitland business houses closed their doors in respect for the dead, flags flew at half-mast, including those of every ship in the harbor, while crowds lined the streets or followed the remains of the beloved friar 22 miles to Maitland.

'His long, laborious life, his gentle, unassuming manners, his kind words of encouragement to those who needed solace,' says 'The Freeman's Journal,' were the theme on every tongue.'

At his expressed wish Father Dowling was buried next to his friend, Father Mahony, in the grounds of St.Joseph's Church, East Maitland. On Tuesday, December 16, Solemn Requiem Mass was celebrated for the soul of this Apostle of the Hunter. The panegyric was delivered by Dr. Murray, the first Bishop of Maitland. In St. Mary's Cathedral, Sydney, Archbishop Vaughan presided at a Solemn Requiem for the third chaplain Australia had known, and from whose charity and knowledge she had enlarged her Catholic beliefs.

On August 13, 1933, when the century-old church at East Maitland was replaced by a more beautiful edifice, the remains of Father Dowling were reburied within its walls. In St. Mary's, Newcastle, a stained-glass window perpetuates his memory. At the Dominican Convent, the nuns treasure a monstrance, silver altar-cruets and ornaments of fine china left to them by Father Dowling.

Amongst his personal belongings they have the old armchair in which so often the white-haired friar dreamed long dreams.

At East Maitland is preserved the chalice which for over half a century was consecrated each morning by Father Christopher Vincent Dowling who, like St. Dominic, his spiritual father, gave his life for the cause of truth.

The writer of this article, would welcome any kind of information: letters, photographs, references, newspaper-cuttings, which might add to our far-too-limited knowledge of Father Dowling.

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MONUMENT AUSTRALIA:
https://monumentaustralia.org.au/themes/people/religion/display/111652-reverend-c-v-dowling/photo/1

Reverend Christopher Vincent Dowling (1789-1873), Catholic priest, was born on 24 September 1789 in Dublin, and went at an early age to the famous Dominican College of Corpo-Santo in Lisbon, Portugal. There he joined the Dominican order, returned to Dublin in 1814 and was ordained by Archbishop Daniel Murray.

In 1829 Dr Bramston, the Catholic vicar apostolic of London, appointed him to Newport in the Isle of Wight. After ten months he went to London and was ministering there, when at a request of the Colonial Office Bramston nominated him to go to New South Wales to replace the only official Catholic chaplain, Daniel Power, who had died in March 1830.

In August 1836 Dowling became the only resident priest north of Sydney. His parish covered the whole Hunter River district and extended north indefinitely.

In September 1838, Dowling moved to Newcastle as its first resident priest. He lived in a cottage on the Sandhills but for seven years said Mass and ran a school in Croasdill's Long Room above four dwellings in Newcomen Street. Catholic soldiers rented and furnished it for him. When it had to be vacated in 1845, the services took place in his house which had been the first hospital in Newcastle and was close to the old gaol. He regularly attended executions to console the condemned. His Newcastle parish extended from Lake Macquarie to Myall Lakes and included Raymond Terrace and Clarence Town. Owning no means of transport he either travelled by boat or walked. Later he lost the use of his legs and was carried by parishioners to call on sick or dying Catholics. In 1849 he began saying Mass in a government store-room in Watt Street, Newcastle. In 1852 the first Catholic Church of St Mary was built, a temporary structure, in Church Street; it was the only church Dowling built in an era of church builders.

When he died on 14 December 1873 men of all persuasions joined in mourning him. Crowds attended the lying-in-state in St Mary's. All ships in Newcastle Harbour flew their flags at half-mast and many shops closed when, at his own request, he was buried in St Joseph's Churchyard, East Maitland. He was one of the first ten Catholic priests, the fourth official Catholic chaplain and the first member of a religious order, to minister in Australia.

Location: Address: 54 Perkins Street, St Mary`s Star of the Sea Catholic Church, The Hill , 2300; State: NSW; Area: AUS; GPS Coordinates: Lat: -32.929051; Long: 151.777998; Note: GPS Coordinates are approximate.

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