A Brief History of the

Sydney University
Catholic Society
90th Anniversary
4 August 2018
 Our origins
The University of Sydney Catholic Society came to be in 1928, the year in
which the Twenty-Ninth Eucharistic Congress was held in Sydney from 6 - 9
September. The Society’s raison d’etre is inextricably tied to this event.

Eucharistic Congresses were the idea of French Bishop Gaston de Ségur, a

fruit of the Eucharistic apostolate of St Peter-Julian Eymard, with the first being
held at Lille, France, 21 June 1881. They are gatherings of clerics, religious and
laity for the purpose of glorifying and celebrating the Holy Eucharist. In 1928 it
would be Sydney’s turn, the first Congress to be held under the Southern
Cross.

The idea of a University Catholic Association was first proposed by G.B.

Thomas at a welcome to Catholic freshmen at St John’s College on 23 March
1928. A Committee was subsequently formed and first met on 13 April.
There was a consensus amongst Catholic students that there was a need for
a society of Catholic students at Sydney University and in fact, they were
particularly conscious of the lack of such a body in a Eucharistic Congress
year. It was therefore resolved in July at St John's College, one month and
half before the Congress was to begin, that local university men would march
in the Congress procession wearing academic dress.

On Friday, 3 August 1928, our Society was born. The inaugural general
meeting resolved to name us the 'Sydney University Newman Society' so as to
bring it into line with the Universities of Melbourne and Western Australia, each
of which had its Newman Society.

A constitution was adopted with the following aims:

1. To foster the spiritual, intellectual and general interests of Catholic
graduates and undergraduates, and to create a spirit of fellowship
amongst Catholic freshers to the University.
2. To introduce Catholic freshers to the University.
3. To encourage Catholic graduates and undergraduates to take part in
University activities.
4. To encourage Catholic members to take an active part in Catholic
affairs.
Shortly after the foundation, members sent out the first circulars but with no list
of names, they went through the University Calendar and sent out notices to
everyone they knew to be Catholic or had an Irish name.
‘We made some horrible mistakes. The list compiled was just short of
1,000 names…some of the recipients of the letters were not amused.’
During the congress, on the afternoon of 8 September, the lawns forming the
quadrangle between St. John's College and Sancta Sophia College ‘were
thronged with many hundreds of people’ when Catholic students of the
University arranged a garden party in honour of delegates and visitors to the
Eucharistic Congress.
But the main event would be at the conclusion of the Congress, when the
Sacred Host would be carried in procession from St Patrick’s Seminary Manly,
across the harbour to Circular Quay and to St Mary’s Cathedral for
Benediction. About 400 Newman Catholic students were part of this
procession.
It is thought 500,000 – 750,000 crowded to watch the procession and attend
the Benediction. Granted there were many interstate visitors, for a city with a
population of 1,101,000, it was an enormous event.
 The First Executive
President – Sir Edward Aloyious McTiernan KBE
Sir Edward Aloyious McTiernan KBE emerged as
our first President. Graduating first first-class
honours in Arts and Law, McTiernan ran for NSW
Parliament becoming Attorney General of New
South Wales.

He was later appointed as a justice of the High

Court of Australia, serving on the Court for 46
years. He is the longest serving judge in the
history of the High Court. Following his retirement,
a Constitutional amendment was passed to limit
the age of judges to 70, meaning McTiernan will
likely hold the title as the High Court’s longest
serving judge.

He died in 1990, aged 97.

Treasurer – Dr Kevin James Fagan KCSG AO

Dr Kevin James Fagan KCSG AO, studied

medicine at Sydney University. He was a
prominent doctor, war hero and described as an
“Aussie saint”

After the outbreak of World War II he joined the

Army Medical Corps and was posted to
Singapore in 1942 with the 8th Division.

He was soon a prisoner-of-war of the Japanese,

first in Changi and later on the infamous Thai-
Burma Railway. His name became a legend
among the recovered prisoners because of the
miraculous feats of jungle surgery performed on
Australians who toiled on the Burma Thailand railroad.

He had a successful career as a surgeon following WW2, practicing at Royal

North Shore hospital.
Vice President - Dr Cyril Joseph Fallon KCSS

One of three inaugural Vice-

Presidents, the Catholic Weekly
described him as one of the most
outstanding Catholic laymen in
the history of the Church in
Australia.

Establishing a medical practice

at Randwick in 1919, during the
next 29 years he became family
doctor to hundreds of families, a
‘veritable institution in the district.’

In April 1940 Fallon was

appointed Knight Commander of
the Order of St Sylvester by Pope
Pius XII

Vice President - Wilfred Howard Coop

Wilfred studied Arts and Law, was an
accomplished athlete, setting a new record for
the university half mile at two minutes, one
second. He was also a member of the
champion debating team at St John’s College.
After graduating, he practised as a solicitor.
He enlisted in the Australian Army in December
1939 and reached the rank of captain,
eventually serving as Area Officer in the
Newcastle area, with charge of recruitment.
Resuming practice as a solicitor after the War,
he worked for many years as a defence
solicitor in Darwin. He was outspoken in his
criticism of the Native Affairs Branch in how it
treated the interests of Aborigines, who were
often represented by him in court.
Secretary – Gregory Bede Thomas
The ‘energetic’ foundation secretary of the
Newman Society and apparently the man who
came up with the idea, he was also President
from 1932-1934. For many years he was
responsible for receiving applications for
membership.
In February 1961, he was appointed a judge of
the District Court of N.S.W.
Thomas was a lifelong parishioner at Mary
Immaculate Church, Waverley, living just down
the road from the Church on Victoria St, and
was involved in fundraising for St Clare’s
College.

General Exec - Dr Theodore (‘Tod’) Carl Meurer

One of the inaugural members of the

executive committee and secretary of the
Newman Society in 1929

He went on to study Medicine and

Chemistry at the University of Sydney, and
received a blue in rowing. After a few years
in general medicine, he began his
postgraduate training in ophthalmology and
eventually settled in Dubbo and there
established the practice which would
occupy his attention for the next 30 years.
He was regarded as one of Australia’s most
competent ophthalmologists

Described as a big, gentle, kindly man,

devoted to his family, dedicated to his
patients, and a staunch friend to all, he died
suddenly on 30 May 1972 at Dubbo.
 The First Events
FIRST NEWMAN SOCIETY LECTURE / ADDRESS
'Do Catholics Grow Up?' Rev. Fr C.C. Martindale SJ.
Delivered at 8:00pm, 3 October 1928, at the Union Hall.

Fr Martindale was the

representative of the English
Hierarchy at the Eucharistic
Congress in 1928, thus explaining
his presence in Australia at the
time.
The gist of Fr Martindale's
address was that with the
intellectual religious outlook
falling down in the West, the
world would soon be either
Catholic or pagan, and if the
world fell into paganism it would
be dragged into the chaos that
had followed the earlier pagan
revivals. He remarked that
Catholic principles could not
triumph if Catholics were too
lazy to apply them, if they were
too lazy to develop universally, if
they failed to 'grow up'.

'WELCOME TO FRESHERS'
8:00pm Friday 15 March
1929

Although it was founded

in 1928, the Newman
Society was not
especially active that
year, aside from its
taking part in the
Eucharistic Congress procession in September and the Martindale lecture in
October.

The first important function of 1929 was a 'Welcome to Freshers' to be held at

the University Union Withdrawing Room at 8:00pm, 15 March. This took the
form of a welcome to the Catholic students commencing their
University courses, interesting speeches of advice to the Freshmen of the
various faculties by graduate members of the society, interspersed with songs
and recitations, ‘which were very much appreciated.’ The event was well
attended
LECTURE ON NEWMAN’
Tuesday 7 May 1929
Mr. Francis J. H. Letters, M.A., LL.B

According to Letters, the

distinguishing feature of Newman is
that he is always trying to do difficult
things — he attempts to present in a
sort of way things not actually present
to the senses. ‘The supreme example
of Newman's style is, of course, the
'Apologia pro Vita Sua,' designed to
refute an attack by Canon Kingsley on
the veracity of the priesthood.

Letters' lecture was judged by

members of the audience, who had
attended many other such events, as
one of the best public lectures heard
at the University during recent years.
His 'exposition of his subject revealed
a thoroughness and appreciation of
the life of the great Cardinal, the
memory of which will linger for a long
time in the minds of those privileged to
be present.'

THE FIRST SOCIETY BALL

University Union Refectory – Thursday 13 June 1929
Approximately 340
people attended the
dance, which had a
‘Japanese setting’ of
forty different shades of
colour, with the usual
strict simplicity of
refectory (as pictured)
discarded for the night.
Among the guests
present were a future
state premier (and
governor-general) and
his wife, Mr and Mrs
William John McKell,
who were Anglicans,
although they had
many connections to
the Catholic community
 Women Leaders
Dame Constance Elizabeth D'Arcy OBE, Vice President of the University of
Sydney Newman Society (1937-1941).
D'Arcy was considered 'one of Sydney's most
brilliant women', and 'one of the ablest doctors in
the Commonwealth'.

Dame Constance became the first woman ever

to be elected to the Senate of the University of
Sydney and she served as a fellow for the next
thirty years.

In 1943, Dame Constance became the first

woman to be elected as Deputy Chancellor of
the University of Sydney and served in that
capacity till 1946.
Speaking to the Newman Society in 1944 she
noted that as graduates of the University, and as
members of the professions, Catholics had a responsibility to uphold the
training of their faith, their schools and their home life, she said. If they did not
do the 'right thing' they would lower the prestige of the whole Catholic body.

Rosemary Goldie AO (1916 – 2010)

Graduated in Arts with the University Medal,
Vice President of the Newman Society, Founder
of the Australian Catholic Students Association,
and Lay Auditor to the Second Vatican Council
and Undersecretary of the Pontifical Council for
the Laity (1967-1976).

She was the first woman appointed to the Papal

Curia, the highest office ever given to a woman
in the Vatican!

She was described by Pope St John XXIII as la

piccinina (‘the little one’), by Pope Paul VI as
‘our co-worker’ and by a journalist as la bambina
Vaticana.

She was appointed one of the first two women

auditors at the Second Vatican Council 1962-
1965. Then in 1967 she was promoted to
Undersecretary of the Pontifical Council for the
Laity. When the council became a permanent
part of the Roman Curia in December 1976, Goldie took a professorship for pastoral
theology at the Pontifical Lateran University continuing there as tutor when she retired
from that post. Even after her retirement from teaching, Rosemary continued to supervise
the thesis work of some of the Lateran's students. Working in a crowded office in the
Palazzo San Calisto, overlooking the façade of Santa Maria in Trastevere, she
researched the history of the many decades in which she had laboured for the Church
and in particular for the Catholic laity. The resulting book, From a Roman Window,
appeared in 1998.
In 1990, Goldie was made an Officer of the Order of Australia for ‘service to religion and
to international relations.’ She returned to Australia early in 2002 and took up residence
in the care of the Little Sisters of the Poor in Randwick, where her mother had died 30
years earlier.
During their visits to Australia both Pope St John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI made a
point of meeting Goldie. She died at Randwick on 27 February 2010, aged 94.

Rev Mother Margaret MacRory (1862-1931)

In 1923 Mother MacRory was
chosen to open a house at 150 City
Road, Darlington, for Catholic
women at the University of Sydney
(our current Centre!)

Mother MacRory was responsible

for the building of the residence
within the university for Catholic
women on part of the land of St
John's College. She established its
independence from St John's,
whose rector had seen the new
foundation as simply an extension
of his college. She could not
prevent the foundation stone from
bearing the inscription 'In honorem
St Joannis Evangelistae'—but the
new hall, which opened in 1926
with Mother MacRory in charge,
became Sancta Sophia. Under her
guidance the number of students
increased and a wing of twenty-four rooms was added in 1927.
When in 1929 legislation established Sancta Sophia as a college within the
University of Sydney, the council appointed her as its first principal. She chose
the crest of the college with its symbols of truth and wisdom.

Our First Chaplains

 The USYD Newman Society's first chaplain was Right
Rev. Monsignor Thomas Joseph King OBE, born in
Sydney in 1880 and educated at St Aloysius' College,
he was formerly the senior Catholic chaplain to the AIF
during the First World War. I

In June 1937, he was appointed by papal brief

Protonotary Apostolic of Pope Pius XI by Eugenio
Cardinal Pacelli, then Secretary of State, later Pope Pius
XII. He died 10 February 1954, aged 74 at Lewisham.

Very Rev. Dr Maurice Joseph O’Reilly

CM (1866–1933), Second Chaplain to
the Newman Society 1931-32.

Over six feet tall and a master of

rhetoric, O’Reilly was known as ‘The Dr
Mannix of NSW’, possessing an
abundance of Irish wit and definitely
loved the limelight.

O’Reilly was both an Irish and

Australian republican, a strong critic
of the British Empire of which he
thought neither country should
continue to be affiliated.

The 1940s
War with Honi Soit
In 1945, the 12 July issue of Honi Soit featured, inter alia, an article on artificial
birth control and venereal disease which parodied Catholic liturgy, insulted
the priesthood, mocked chastity, misquoted the Bible and contained ‘much
common vulgarity.’ At the time, the SRC was controlled by a disciple of John
Anderson (Challis Professor of Philosophy and avowed atheist) whilst Honi
Soit’s editor Jean Wilson was a communist and fellow Andersonian.

The article, written under the pseudonym ‘White Knight’, was actually,
according to academic Alan Barcan, the work of Anderson’s own son Sandy!
It is perhaps of little surprise that Professor Anderson entered the controversy
to defend the publication of the article.
When members of the Newman Society met to discuss the article, they voted
231 to 1 to send a letter of protest to the SRC, expressing their wish for the
editor Jean Wilson and the entire editorial team to be dismissed. The following
issue of Honi Soit was headlined: ‘Wilson must go – Catholics Demand!’
The society’s former chaplain (1934-40) Rev. Fr John Christopher Thompson
CM and Rector of St John’s College, lodged a former protest with the Vice-
Chancellor Sir Robert Wallace who agreed the issue was ‘quite unnecessarily
offensive.’ Eventually, a combined letter of protest was sent to the SRC by the
Newman Society, the Student Christian Movement, and (in a rare instance of
cooperation) the Evangelical Union.

When the SRC met on Thursday 20 July 1945, Newman member Mr L Cashen,
aiming at the ‘banishment of the clique which was running Honi Soit’, moved
for Miss Wilson’s dismissal, arguing that the present policy of the newspaper
was one of blasphemy, obscenity, and hypocrisy, and that it was becoming a
'rag of filth.’ After a six hour debate on the night which lasted till 12:20am, the
motion of dismissal failed seven votes to five. Jean Wilson would remain editor
although the following month the Senate of the University expressed ‘strong
disapproval’ with Honi Soit, as did law and engineering students who voted in
their respective student associations to join the protest.
Despite the failed motion, the Archbishop of Sydney Norman Gilroy (later
Cardinal) praised the members of the Society at their annual Communion
breakfast: ‘You have opposed blasphemy, moral degradation and
intellectual anarchy in a manner that brings great credit upon you. You have
rallied to the banner of truth and decency against falsehood and indecency.
What is of the greatest importance is that you have, with admirable courage,
repelled an impious attack on God and His Church. Your very effort is its own
reward.’
Though this particular battle may have been lost, it may interest you to know
that in 1954 the former editor and Andersonian, Jean Wilson, who the Society
failed to have dismissed, married Francis William Cull and converted to
Catholicism! She died on 5 March 2002.

A common problem
An illustration from 'The
Newman Review',
Michaelmas Term 1947
expressing the apparently
perennial frustration at the
disproportion between the
number of known Catholic
students on campus and
the number of Newman
Society members.

THE POPE VISITS

Pope St John Paul II visited the University of Sydney as part of his Australia-wide visit in
1986, possibly the first papal visit to a non-denominational university outside South
America. The date in question was 26 November 1986. The 'Society to Welcome JPII'
was created for the purpose of preparing Catholic and non-Catholic students alike for the
visit through lectures and publicity. Led by Cathy Swan, it did a fantastic job, acting as a
sort of Catholic Society on campus - Newman had since changed its name, apparently
because its then members thought the name 'Newman' was sexist (the less said about
that, the better).

Both the 58th and 59th SRC, in 1985

and 1986 respectively, were
uncharacteristically supportive of the
Papal Visit to the University, of course
partly explained by the fact that the
President of the 59th SRC, a certain
fellow by the name of Joseph Benedict
Hockey, was also a member of the
executive committee of the Society to
Welcome JPII! Take a look at this first
letter from the SRC to the Papal Visit
Office, expressing its gratitude for the
change of venue from the Great Hall to
the Quadrangle, to enable a larger
number of people to listen to the Holy
Father's address. This is followed by an
earlier document from the 58th SRC
which, to its credit (especially the credit
of its Catholic representatives like Miss
Therese Bizannes) carried a motion in
which it agreed to formally encourage
the Papal Visit to the University and
invite the Holy Father to give a lecture to
its students.