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PROVIDENCE WILL PROVIDE

50 YEARS OF THE DISCALCED CARMELITE FRIARS IN AUSTRALIA (1948-1998)

Introduction

When Fr Ross Collings, the Australian Regional Vicar, asked me earlier this year to produce something for the fiftieth anniversary of the first foundation of the friars in Australia I was quite hesitant-with good reason, because of my prior commitments and my distance from the source material. Yet also interested enough and committed enough to the value of history to see that something should be done. I suggested therefore that I produce a chronology giving the outline of significant dates. That chronology is at the heart of this modest work.

Above: St Teresa's, Gregory Terrace, Brisbane, in 1993, after the great fig tree had been chopped down.

To help me in this work materials that Fr Hilary Doran had gleaned from the archives were made available. I have made use of this material as well as an earlier account Fr Hilary wrote of the foundation in Brisbane. It is this material which is the basis of the account I have written largely based on the memoirs of Fr Matthew. It is his recollection of the constant saying of Archbishop Duhig "Providence will provide" that gives this work its title. For the sake of both perspective and completion I have also made available the stories of the individual Carmelites who came to Australia before 1948.

I have not tried to interpret the last 50 years of our Australian foundation. However any list of dates always implies selection. In making this selection of what I think is important, one of the themes I have sought to highlight is the recruitment of local vocations. A necessary part of any successful foundation if the Order is to be implanted, or as they say nowadays, inculturated. Hence there is an attempt to list all those who have entered since the Order came to Australia.

I am only too aware of the gaps in my own memory and know that there will be mistakes in what I have written. I simply ask that any corrections be made known. I expect that the meeting of the friars in Varroville this July will provide an opportunity for this and for rich reminiscences, anecdotes and personal perspectives. In this context it is wonderful that we will have the presence of one of the founding fathers, Fr William Fenton from California.

This, then, is a family story. In making it available I hope it provides a sense of the past so that in remembering we may learn for the present and the future. I also hope that the inevitable curiosities of history will make this an enjoyable as well as an instructive story.

Gregory Burke, OCD
Morley,
June 1998

Revised and updated, October 2002.

50 YEARS OF THE DISCALCED CARMELITE FRIARS
IN AUSTRALIA (1948-1998)

Contents::

Introduction
1. Daniel MacEvey - the first Discalced Carmelite in Australia
2. Other Discalced Carmelites in Australia before 1948
3. The First Foundation
4. Chronology of the Friars in Australia (1948-2002)
5. A Who's Who

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