The Sacred Heart Monastery in Kensington, New South Wales, is a monastery of the Catholic men's religious order, the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart (MSCs). Since its establishment in 1897 it has played a leading role in the Catholic life of Sydney.
The French order of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart had established a base in Sydney for missionary work in New Guinea in the 1880s. With the support of Cardinal Moran, they embarked on an ambitious building project on the hill that dominates West Kensington. [1] The building was designed by Sheerin and Hennessy and completed in 1897. [2] It is a large stone building in the Gothic style and features an attic storey and a prominent central tower. It also includes a brick chapel in a Romanesque-Byzantine style which was designed by Mullane and built in 1939, and which is joined to the monastery by a matching brick cloister. The monastery is a prominent landmark which can be seen from various parts of Kensington and surrounds and is now listed on the Australian Heritage Database. [3] [4]
The monastery suffered financial difficulties in the 1910s through the technically successful but financially disastrous efforts of Fr Archibald Shaw, the pioneer "radio priest" who set up a factory nearby to manufacture radios. [5] The monastery authorities also came into conflict with their subordinate Fr Ted McGrath, who with Eileen O'Connor founded in 1913 Our Lady's Nurses for the Poor, an order committed to helping the sick poor in their own homes. Fr McGrath was temporarily expelled from the order. [6] [1] : 122–4
The monastery acted as a headquarters, supply base and training establishment for the MSCs' far-flung missionary activities in Oceania, such as those of Fr F.X. (later Bishop) Gsell and Frank Flynn in the Northern Territory and Bishop Alain de Boismenu in Papua. [7] Bishop Gsell retired to the monastery in the 1950s and wrote his memoir, The Bishop with 150 Wives (referring to his practice of "buying" young promised brides). [8] The Nelen Yubu Missiological Unit published many reports and studies of the Australian missions, [9] including the Nelen Yubu Missiological Journal (1978-2002). [10]
From 1968 to 1998, the monastery was the site of St Paul's National Seminary for late vocations, which ordained 281 priests. [11] [1] : 287–97
From 1998, the MSC Mission Office was established at the Monastery, reviving the work of decades earlier in supporting the MSC missions in Oceania and elsewhere. It was led for twenty years by Fr Adrian Meaney MSC. [12]
In 1928 Dr Rumble, a theology lecturer at the monastery, began a popular Sunday evening radio programme, 'Question Box', answering queries about Catholicism. It continued until 1968 and written versions of his 'Radio Replies' sold millions of copies. [13] [1] : 188–90
In 1932 the prominent athlete Jim Carlton entered the MSCs, forfeiting his opportunity to compete in the 1932 Olympics. He left the monastery and married in 1945. [14] [15]
In the 1940s and 1950s, the monastery's philosophy lecturer Dr P.J. ("Paddy") Ryan became a prominent speaker on the evils of Communism and leader in Sydney of the anti-Communist "Movement". After the Australian Labor Party split of 1955 he spoke at a large gathering of Movement members held at the monastery, successfully urging them to remain with the A.L.P. instead of joining the new Democratic Labor Party. [16] His colleague Fr Leo Dalton also wrote against communism. [17] [18]
Fr Eugene James (Jim) Cuskelly, who joined the MSCs in 1941, became the Superior General of the order 1969-81 and a writer on spirituality. He was later Auxiliary Bishop of Brisbane. [19] [20]
Fr Barry Brundell is a leading scholar on Pierre Gassendi, [21] [22] while Fr Michael Fallon has published commentaries on all the books of the Bible. [23]
Paul Collins, who as an MSC was a lecturer at St Paul's National Seminary in 1974-7, resigned from the priesthood in 2001 over a dispute with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith concerning his 1997 book Papal Power. He is a prominent author and broadcaster. [24]
Annals Australasia (originally Australian Annals of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart), a magazine of Catholic culture, was established in 1889 and for most of its life was published at the Sacred Heart Monastery. For most of the years from 1964 to 2019, it was edited by Fr Paul Stenhouse MSC. [25] [26] [27]
Also published at the monastery was Compass Theology Review. Founded in Melbourne in 1967, it moved to Kensington in its later years before closing in 2016. [28] Chevalier Press, located at the Monastery, has published a number of books by Australian MSCs. [29]
Kensington is a suburb in south-eastern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is located 6 kilometres south-east of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area (LGA) of the City of Randwick, in the Eastern Suburbs region. Colloquially, Kensington is referred to as "Kenso", "Ensington" or "Enso".
Monivae College is an independent Roman Catholic co-educational high day and boarding school of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart (MSC) tradition located in Hamilton, Victoria, Australia. It is part of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Ballarat. Set on 48 hectares, the college was founded in 1954.
Francis Stanislaus Flynn AC FRACO was a Northern Territory-based Australian medical doctor (ophthalmologist), author and missionary priest. He is notable for his contributions to religion, medicine and Aboriginal welfare.
The Missionaries of the Sacred Heart of Jesus are a missionary congregation in the Catholic Church. It was founded in 1854 by Servant of God Jules Chevalier (1824–1907) at Issoudun, France, in the Diocese of Bourges.
The Catholic Church in Papua New Guinea is part of the worldwide Catholic Church, under the spiritual leadership of the Pope in Rome. Papua New Guinea has approximately two million Catholic adherents, approximately 27% of the country's total population.
Chevalier College is an independent Roman Catholic co-educational secondary day school, located in Burradoo, in the Southern Highlands region of New South Wales, Australia. The College is administered by the priests and brothers of the international religious institute, the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart (MSC); and is a member of the Independent Schools Association (ISA).
Patrick Joseph "Paddy" Ryan, an Australian Catholic priest and anti-communist organiser, was born in Albury, New South Wales in 1904. He was ordained as a priest in the order of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart in 1929. After gaining a doctorate in Rome, he returned to Australia and for many years taught philosophy at the order's seminary in Kensington, New South Wales. His philosophy was strictly neo-scholastic and he vigorously debated the atheist philosophers of Sydney University.
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Mendi is a suffragan diocese of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Mount Hagen, in Mendi, Papua New Guinea. It was erected Prefecture Apostolic in 1958 and elevated Vicariate Apostolic in 1965. It was elevated, along with other Oceanic vicariates and prefectures, to a diocese on 15 November 1966. The bishop is Donald Lippert, O.F.M. Cap.
The Roman CatholicDiocese of Tarawa and Nauru in Kiribati and Nauru is a suffragan diocese of the Archdiocese of Suva. It was erected as the Vicariate Apostolic of Gilbert Islands in 1897, with see in Tanaeang from 1936 to the end of 1950s, and later elevated to as the Diocese of Tarawa in 1966. There was a name change in 1978 and, in 1982, the diocese was split from the Mission sui iuris of Funafuti. The diocese currently has jurisdiction over all of Kiribati and Nauru.
The Congregation of the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart is a Roman Catholic religious institute founded on 30 August 1874 by Servant of God Jules Chevalier (1824-1907), the Founder of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart. From the Latin form of its name, Filiae Dominae Nostrae Sacro Corde, it takes the abbreviation FDNSC. The order has an orientation towards missionary work. It is one of the members of the Chevalier Family group.
The Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart is a Roman Catholic religious institute, founded on 25 March 1900 in Germany by a Dutch MSC, Fr. Hubert Linckens (1861–1922). The institution is member of the Chevalier Family.
Yule Island is a small island in Central Province, Papua New Guinea. It is located 160 km NW from Port Moresby, on the south coast of Papua New Guinea.
Francis Xavier Gsell, OBE was a German-born Australian Roman Catholic bishop and missionary, known as the "Bishop with 150 wives". He was born at Benfeld, Alsace in 1872. He was ordained as a priest in the order of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart in 1896, after study in Rome.
Our Lady of the Sacred Heart College is an independent Roman Catholic single-sex secondary day school for girls, conducted in the traditions of the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, located in the eastern Sydney suburb of Kensington, New South Wales, Australia.
The Catholic Church in Kiribati is part of the worldwide Catholic Church, which, inspired by the life, death and teachings of Jesus Christ, and under the spiritual leadership of the Pope and Roman curia in the Vatican City is the largest Christian church in the world. Koru Tito is Bishop of Tarawa and Nauru, with see in Kiribati.
Edmund John Patrick Collins, also known as Bishop Ted, was the Bishop of Darwin, Australia, from 1986 to 2007.
Annals Australasia was an Australian magazine of Catholic culture.
Paul Stenhouse (1935-2019) was an Australian Catholic priest and editor. A member of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart, he was a scholar, linguist, expert on Samaritan studies, writer, historian, and editor of the longest lasting journal in Australia's history, Annals Australasia: Journal of Catholic Culture.
Leslie Audoen Rumble (1892–1975), usually known as "Dr Rumble", an Australian Catholic priest and religious controversialist, was born in Enmore, New South Wales in 1892. His family was mostly Anglican but he converted to Catholicism. He was ordained as a priest in the order of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart in 1924. After gaining a doctorate at the Angelicum University in Rome studying with such teachers as Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, he returned to Australia in 1927 and for many years taught theology at the order's seminary in Kensington, New South Wales. He worked closely with his colleague, philosophy lecturer Dr P.J. Ryan.
Fr Timothy Edward (Ted) McGrath (1881–1977), was an Australian Catholic priest and with Eileen O'Connor the founder of Our Lady's Nurses for the Poor.