St Bede’s Catholic Church (1867-present)
Before St Bede’s was built, mass was held at a rented school building on Pyrmont Street. In June 1867 fire damaged the building and the proprietor was convicted of arson.
St Bede’s was built in 1867 by volunteers with stone quarried on the spot, and from Saunders Quarry. The foundation stone was laid on 6 February, and the Church (seating 120 people) opened on 1 September. Next February the Council of Education was surprised to hear that the school building to which they had contributed £500 was in fact a church. The Council only learned about the church when the priest forbade the teacher from entering.
Fr Eugene Luckie was the first priest in charge. He had been Chaplain on the goldfields when priests often accumulated gold from lucky miners. In the 1850s Fr Eugene pledged £100 to St John’s College – but failed to pay. When the College sought legal remedies, he complained that he was a poor man, given the most miserable placements in the archdiocese, and had nothing to offer. (Many years later, Fr Eugene bequeathed £17,000 to his old seminary in Dublin to train Irish priests for Australia. This scholarship was still operating in the 1940s.)
On 28 June 1880, when there were a thousand Catholics in the parish, the Foundation Stone of St Bede’s School was laid. Attendance rose to 244 in 1891. A rebuilt school opened in 1924 with 220 children: on that occasion the Archbishop attacked the Government and Freemasonry for their attitudes to Catholic Schools. This School served the district until it closed in 1954. John Armstrong, a former pupil, became Lord Mayor of Sydney in 1965, a Labor Party senator and High Commissioner in London.
In the early 20th Century priests had to report on ‘special dangers’ to the faith of the people. Priests nominated drink (there was a pub on almost every corner), gambling and the Communist Party. Sailors were also a ‘danger’.
By the 1960s the greater danger arose from Pyrmont’s depopulation, which tempted the authorities to close St Bede’s and sell the site (as they did later to St Francis Xavier Church in Ultimo). Father Victor Doyle used St Bede’s Centenary celebrations and published a book, to rally resistance, and declared (successfully) “I’m NEVER going to sell my church”.
St Bede’s Church has recently had three major repairs. In 2006 the floor was restored. Mass was held in a meeting room in The Star casino – a neighbour since 1997, on the site of the old Powerhouse. Parishioners enjoyed these masses, as the casino was warmer and more comfortable than the Church in winter. In 2009 a new stained glass window, “Majestas Domini” was installed, providing Jeffrey Hamilton’s reinterpretation of the mediaeval image of Christ in Majesty surrounded by symbols of the four Evangelists. Most recently, the pipe organ was restored.
Further Reading
Colin Fowler, 150 Years on Pyrmont peninsula: the Catholic community of Saint Bede 1867-2017
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