HOBART, ARCHDIOCESE of. – It comprises the entire island of Tasmania with the small adjacent islands. Discovered in 1642, it was annexed to England in 1777 and occupied in 1804 to make it a penal colony. The first Catholic priest was the Rev. Filippo Connolly, who arrived there in 1821 and exercised the ministry alone until 1835 under the jurisdiction of the apostolic vicar of the island of Mauritius. In 1835 Msgr. Giovanni Beda Polding, apostolic vicar of Australia, landed there while travelling to Sydney, and had a serious disagreement with Connolly.
In 1842 the diocese of H. was erected for the entire island; the new diocese was able to develop amid great difficulties, arising from the fact that the population was and remains overwhelmingly Protestant, and many are completely indifferent to religion. The Aborigines were all eliminated. It was elevated to an archdiocese on 3 Aug. 1888. The climate is good and the land fertile. English is spoken there. The area of the diocese is 50,000 sq. km.,
with a population of 257,000 souls. According to the statistics of 1948, there are 48 diocesan priests and 11 religious priests, 21 brothers, 268 nuns, 39,000 Catholics, 217,850 Protestants, and 150 Jews. The seminarians study in the seminaries of Melbourne and Sydney. There are 1 district, 27 parishes, 59 secondary stations, 99 churches and chapels, 2 hospitals with 190 beds, 2 orphanages with 97 children, 31 elementary schools with 3,865 pupils, 5 middle schools with 740 pupils, and 3 secondary schools with 345 pupils. The weekly periodical Standard is published there, with a circulation of 2,900 copies.