| 1901 | Federation of Australia; St Joseph’s Foundling Hospital begun in Melbourne |
| 1904 | Second Australasian Catholic Congress, Melbourne; Cardinal Moran resists papal decree on church music; Australian Catholic Truth Society begun |
| 1905 | Australian Catechism inaugurated; Third Australian Plenary Council; controversy over compatibility of Catholicism and socialism |
| 1908 | Harvester Judgment follows Leo XIII in declaring “reasonable and frugal comfort” the standard for a minimum wage |
| 1909 | Death of Mary MacKillop, with her order having 1000 sisters; St Columba’s Seminary Springwood opened; Haberfield church the first in the world to be named after newly beatified Joan of Arc; Third Australasian Catholic Congress, Sydney |
| 1911 | Death of Cardinal Moran; Michael Kelly appointed Archbishop of Sydney; Catholic Federation formed in Melbourne; Francis Xavier Gsell establishes mission at Nguiu; Archbishop Kelly condemns the evils of mixed bathing |
| 1913 | Daniel Mannix arrives in Melbourne as Coadjutor; Eileen O’Connor founds the “Brown Nurses” to help the sick poor in their homes |
| 1914 | World War I declared; Ben Chifley marries in a Presbyterian church, incurring automatic excommunication |
| 1915 | Fr John Fahey and Fr Michael Bergin SJ minister at Gallipoli |
| 1916 | Catholic Women’s Social Guild founded in Melbourne; Mannix a leader of the successful “No” case in the first conscription referendum |
| 1917 | James Duhig appointed Archbishop of Brisbane; Mannix succeeds Carr as Archbishop of Melbourne; death and huge funeral processions of Les Darcy |
| 1918 | Completion of Beagle Bay Church with its pearl shell altar; Special Intelligence Bureau investigates suspected Sinn Feiner Arthur Calwell; opening of Newman College, University of Melbourne; Fr Ted McGrath awarded Military Cross for rescuing soldiers under fire; Nurse Annie Egan unable to receive last rites when dying of Spanish Flu |
| 1919 | Democratic Party founded in NSW; Knights of the Southern Cross founded |
| 1920 | Democratic Party fails in elections; Sister Liguori “flees” Wagga convent, leading to Catholic-Protestant controversy; Melbourne St Patrick’s Day procession led by 14 VC winners on white chargers; Royal Navy prevents Mannix landing in Ireland; Dr Mary Glowrey leaves Melbourne for medical missionary work in India; first issue of The Far East magazine on the China mission; a WA Christian Brother jailed for sexual abuse |
| 1921 | Death of Eileen O’Connor |
| 1923 | Central Catholic Library established in Melbourne as focus of intellectual life; beginning of Br Henry‘s long string of successes as football coach at St Joseph’s Hunter Hill |
| 1924 | NSW legislation to forbid the promulgation of the papal marriage decree Ne temere defeated by two votes |
| 1925 | Silent film of Around the Boree Log (Part 1, 41MB) (Courtesy of the National Film and Sound Archive); Catholic Evidence Guild begin outdoor speaking in Sydney Domain |
| 1926 | Frank Sheed and Maisie Ward found Sheed & Ward publishing house in London |
| 1927 | Work begins on Brisbane’s never-completed Holy Name Cathedral; national Catholic pilgrimage to Canberra |
| 1928 | Crowds of half a million watch the procession ending the International Eucharistic Congress in Sydney; Sydney University Newman Society formed |
| 1929 | James Scullin becomes Australia’s first Prime Minister of Catholic background |
| 1930 | Maude O’Connell founds the Grey Sisters in Melbourne to help poor mothers with housework and respite; Edward McTiernan appointed to High Court and serves for 46 years |
| 1931 | Catholic radio station 2SM opened in Sydney |
| 1932 | Joe Lyons becomes Prime Minister; Olympic runner Jim Carlton gives up career to enter priesthood |
| 1934 | Eucharistic Congress in Melbourne (newsreel) |
| 1935 | Port Keats mission founded; Francis McGarry moves to Alice Springs and helps establish Little Flower Mission |
| 1936 | Catholic Worker newspaper begins; The Grail women’s movement brought to Australia |
| 1936-7 | Tension between Australian cricket captain Don Bradman and Catholic members of the team |
| 1936-9 | Spanish Civil War divides Catholic opinion in Australia |
| 1937 | National Secretariat of Catholic Action established, with FK Maher & BA Santamaria as leaders; Norman Gilroy appointed Coadjutor to Sydney; Plenary Council issues 685 decrees; nuns undertake care at Derby Leprosarium Joseph Nugent Bull wounded while fighting for Francoist forces in Spain |
| 1938 | Aboriginal order of nuns founded in the Kimberley |
| 1939 | Pius XII elected; Vienna Mozart Boys Choir given refuge in Melbourne when stranded in Australia on the outbreak of war |
| 1939-45 | World War II |
| 1940 | Death of Archbishop Kelly (newsreel); Norman Gilroy succeeds as Archbishop of Sydney; first annual Catholic bishops’ social justice statement; foundation of Australian Catholic Historical Society; Matthew Beovich appointed Archbishop of Adelaide; Boys’ Town, Engadine, founded by Fr Dunlea |
| 1941 | Morris West leaves the Christian Brothers and marries; Percy Jones‘ Australian Hymnal published |
| 1942 | Three Australian Marist Brothers murdered by Japanese in Solomon Islands; nuns imprisoned near Rabaul; two priests and a brother killed in Montevideo Maru sinking; Fr Pierce organises an escape from Singapore; chapels built in Changi POW camp; Bathurst Island mission warns Darwin of approaching bombers; Catholic Weekly begins in Sydney; University Catholic Federation of Australia formed |
| 1943 | Enid Lyons elected first woman member of the House of Representatives; Kalumburu mission bombed by Japanese |
| 1944 | Death in action of war photographer Damien Parer |
| 1945 | Fr Cosgrave survives bayoneting by Japanese in Manila; Catholic Social Study Movement formed; Ben Chifley Prime Minister; Arthur Calwell appointed Australia’s first Minister for Immigration; Dr Woodbury founds Aquinas Academy in Sydney to teach philosophy to laity; publication of Bernard O’Reilly‘s memoir of poor Catholic rural life, Cullenbenbong and of B.A. Santamaria’s The Earth Our Mother promoting rural settlement; St Thomas More Society for Catholic lawyers formed |
| 1946 | Gilroy appointed first Australian-born Cardinal; Fr Murtagh‘s Australia: The Catholic Chapter and Paul Grano‘s Witness to the Stars: An Anthology of Catholic Verse by Australasian Poets |
| 1947 | Calwell’s agreement with International Refugee Organization begins large-scale immigration of Eastern European Displaced Persons |
| 1948 | Anti-communist priest Dr Paddy Ryan debates communism before a crowd of 30,000 in Sydney; Hospitaller Brothers of St John of God establish first facility in Australia at Morisset; Ruth Park’s The Harp in the South portrays poor inner-city Catholic life; Cardinal Spellman and Fulton Sheen visit Australia |
| 1949 | “Diver” Dobson hoax alleges connections between security services and Catholic authorities; Fr Lionel Marsden, survivor of Burma-Siam Railway, founds Marist mission to Japan; defeat of Chifley government by Menzies |
| 1950 | Frank Hardy’s roman à clef Power Without Glory caricatures Mannix and associates, criminal libel trial fails to proceed; Mannix apologises to Bertrand Russell |