PERTH, Archdiocese of. - It is located in Western Australia and the city of P. is the capital of the State. In 1842 the Catholics of P. asked Archbishop Msgr. Polding John Bede (1794-1877) for a priest, and Fr. John Brady was sent who, accompanied by Fr. John Joostens and the Irish catechist Patrick O'Reilly, arrived at P. on 13 Dec. 1843. On 16 Jan. 1844 the first Catholic church was established.

The territory was erected into the diocese of P. on 6 May 1845, as a suffragan of the archdiocese of Sydney, from which the apostolic vicariates of Essington and Sounde were also detached and declared interim dependent on the bishop of P., suppressed on 25 June 1847. On 12 March 1867 the territory of the nullius abbey of New Norcia was detached. On the same date the boundaries of the diocese were modified, and on 27 Apr. 1903 it ceded a part of the territory to the abbey of New Norcia. On 30 Jan. 1898 the territory was detached to form the diocese of Geraldton. The progress of the new diocese was fairly rapid and on 28 Aug. 1913 it was elevated to an archdiocese. Catholics number about 60,000 out of 250,000 inhabitants.

The area is 210,051 sq km with 73 parishes, 180 churches, 122 secular priests, 32 religious priests, 63 brothers, 967 sisters. Hospitals 6 with 600 beds, orphanages 3 with 810 children, homes for the aged 1 with 170 residents. Elementary schools 87 with 6,820 boys and 5,300 girls, secondary schools 27 with 970 male students and 1,200 female students. The periodical The Record is printed there with 16,000 copies. Catholic Action and the Legion of Mary are well developed.

Bibliography5 works

BIBL.: Australasian Catholic Directory 1918, Sydney, pp. 511-25; MC, 1950, 453-54; Bullarum S. C. de Propaganda Fide, Rome s. a., app. 3, pp. 48-49; anon., Centenary of the Catholic Church in Western Australia, 1916-1918, Sydney s. a.; P. Moran, History of the Catholic Church in Australia, ibid. s. a., pp. 553-61.

Saverio Paventi

@incollection{ec9_perth_arcidiocesi_di, author = {Paventi, Saverio}, title = {Perth, arcidiocesi di}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {IX}, pages = {1236--1237}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1952}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/perth-arcidiocesi-di} }

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Perth, Archdiocese of

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