HOBART, Archdiocese of. - It comprises the whole 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. Philip Connolly, who arrived there in 1821 and exercised the ministry there alone until 1835 under the jurisdiction of the vicar apostolic of the island of Mauritius. In 1835 Msgr. John Bede Polding, vicar apostolic of Australia, landed there on his journey to Sydney, and had a strong disagreement with Connolly.
In 1842 the diocese of H. was erected for the whole island; the new diocese was able to develop amid great difficulties, arising from the fact that the population was and is overwhelmingly Protestant and many are completely indifferent toward religion. The aborigines have all been eliminated. It was elevated to an archdiocese on 3 Aug. 1888. The climate is good and the soil is 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, the diocesan priests number 48 and the religious 11, brothers 21, sisters 268, Catholics 39,000, Protestants 217,850, Jews 150. 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 3865 pupils, 5 middle schools with 740 pupils, 3 higher schools with 345 pupils. The weekly periodical Standard is published there with 2900 copies.
Bibliography3 works
Saverio Paventi