(Please boost for reach, and try to CW your answers)
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what is my name?born 1864 in County Cork
ordained as a catholic priest in 1890
i moved to australia 1913
as coadjutor [assistant/ next in line] Archbishop of melbourne
and became archbishop in 1917
serving in that role for 46 years
my militant advocacy on behalf of a separate Roman Catholic school system, in defiance of the general acceptance of a secular school system, made me immediately a figure of controversy
In 1914, when Australia entered World War I on the side of the UK
i denounced the war as "just a sordid trade war",
& was labelled a traitor.
When the Australian Labor Party govt of Billy Hughes tried to introduce conscription for the war,
i campaigned against it
i spoke out more frequently about the 1917 referendum, which was also defeated. This campaign included a speech before a huge crowd of perhaps 100,000 at the Richmond Racecourse (which was provided by John Wren)
When the Labor Party split over conscription, i supported the Catholic-dominated anti-conscription faction
i opposed the Easter Rising in 1916 and always condemned the use of force by Irish nationalists. i also counselled Irish Catholic australians to stay out of Irish politics…
[yada yada yada]
i predicted the 1915 Treaty of Versailles, would lead to a greater war than the one just ended…
the british tried to keep me from visiting english cities with a large irish population, and there were efforts to stop me returning to australia
In the 1920s spoke against the Industrial Workers of the World and the Communist Party of Australia.
i was leader of the largest ethnic minority in melbourne
and lived at Raheen, in kew
After 1941, authorised Bob Santamaria to form the Catholic Social Studies Movement, aka "The Movement", to organise in the unions and defeat the Communists.
by 1949 it had taken control of the Victorian branch of the Labor Party
i spoke against the white australia policy
although i saw communism as a threat to the church, i opposed - as totalitarian - Menzie’s 1951 referendum to ban communism
when the Labor party split again i supported the new democratic labor party, (DLP) & allowed religious to openly support them
in 1957 the vatican ruled “the movement” should not interfere in politics
By the 1960s the distinct identity of the Irish community in Melbourne was fading, and Irish Catholics were increasingly outnumbered by Italian, Croatian, Polish, Maltese and other postwar immigrant Catholic communities.
i remained active and in full authority, but was no longer a central figure in the city's politics.
I died in 1963, a few months shy of my 100th birthday