Places of worship: one, two, three, four…..
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Four: St. Patrick’s
Church, Ingham, blessed and opened March 12, 1961. Built in the shape of a
cross, and dedicated as a memorial to those who had died for Australia in wars,
it seated 450 people at capacity. Its
capacity coupled with improvements in roads, means of transport and the
economic boom of the post war period meant that the small country churches began
to fall into disuse and be dismantled.
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Church life, at least Catholic
Church life, isn’t all hell, fire and brimstone, ponderous ritual and
self-righteous clerics. The delight of writing a parish history was hearing the
stories, particularly the stories about and told by the Sisters, Brothers and
Priests who, for the most part gave their lives selflessly, energetically and with
good humour!
It is difficult, in the first
place, not to be impressed by the vision and character of the priests, who
ranged from a decorated war hero, to survivor of a concentration camp to a
future home grown Bishop. Recollections of contemporaries consistently remark
on their charm, grace, kindness and ready sense of humour while not either
glossing over their foibles and sometimes pedantic ways. Parish Priests, to a
man, were movers and shakers and BUILDERS taking the church to the people with
the little bush church buildings and educational facilities spread throughout
the district. Their prodigious energy, and that of their assistant clerics jumps
out from any recollections of them. Father Ferlazzo described his own job role
as one of a “three tonne truck trying to carry a ten tonne load!” Dean Grogan
was described as “a great worker – he was always on the trot- and those who
tried to keep up with him had to be on the trot too, while those who kept ahead
of him had to be on the trot to keep out of his way!” Father Mambrini was
recalled for his “racy” style and his “zeal”. Others were described as “unremitting’
in their “acts of kindness and zeal”. While advancing their own Parish they
were committed to the wider community and it was not only Reverend Dr Kelly who
would be described as having “endeared himself to all other denominations as
well as his own”.
Some of my favourite stories
however, were those involving the Italian language. The population of Ingham
and district is largely of Italian origins. The church hierarchy soon came to
appreciate that it would be an advantage if they sent priests to Ingham who
could speak Italian. Parishioners were
grateful for the efforts individual priests made to learn the language. Reverend
Associate Professor Ormond Rush, when assistant priest in Ingham for example, had
gone to Florence to study the Italian language. When he was farewelled from the
district in 1983 he was praised and thanked “for making the effort to learn so
that he can be a better priest for the Italian speakers in the district.”
However, the attempts of priests
to speak Italian, and Italian parishioners English, sometimes caused confusion
and funny situations on either side. Father O’Meara was sent to Rome in 1925 to
learn Italian to prepare him for his work in North Queensland. He recalled that
“when he had preached in Bemerside an Italian parishioner had told him he did not
know what language he had been speaking!”
Another, Father Michael Mullins,
a local boy of Irish origins, who was ordained in Rome in 1942 spoke fluent
Italian which gave rise to a story Father himself delighted in: “…a domestic
who worked in my home in Brisbane told me her grandson was baptised in Ingham
by the ‘little fat Italian priest’. When she showed us a photo- sure enough it
was “Father Mick” himself!
Father Severino Mambrini OFM who
was sent to the district by the Apostolic Delegate to make a report on the Italian
immigrants in 1923 ended up staying 10 years. It was he who suggested that the Parish should
be served by English or Irish priests who spoke fluent Italian. His
determination to effect change often got him into trouble with Church hierarchy
and there is no doubt he was quite a character as this story attests. “…he is
remembered for visiting just on dinnertime, eating up all the fish and leaving
the potatoes for the family to eat; or if meat was on the menu rather than
fish, even though it was Friday, it was not unknown for him to make a ‘sign of
the cross’ over it saying: “I bless you the fish” and then to sit down heartily
and partake of the’ fish’!”
Another story figuring Father
Mullins and the Italian language involved one of the little country churches
that were once dotted the district. This story happened at the Church of Saint
Theresa, Toobanna. He recounted: “There are very few of the galvanised iron
churches now in the Parish of Ingham They were built to bring Mass to the
people in the country at a time of bad roads, limited transport etc. Most of
them were unlined, with no ceilings, and they were certainly hot boxes!!One
Sunday morning I was saying Mass in one of these churches at Toobanna. It was
blisteringly hot; the morning sun was scorching, heating up the walls. I opened
a small wooden louvre beside the Altar, hoping for some relief. None came! But
shortly afterwards a gentle breeze sprang up. How welcome but it blew out the
candles. So be it! A very little boy in the congregation came up to the Altar
and whispered to me:
“Mama dice: le candele sono morte” (In English – My mother says the
candles are dead”).
I sent him back to tell his mother that Father said:
“It is better to have two dead
candles than one dead Priest”. She enjoyed it!’
As for Italian members of the
congregation and their growing mastery of the English language there is this
priceless story recalled by Father O’Dwyer: “One venerable man I often think
about was Mr. Venturato who lived down in Coolbie area. He used to drive his
big truck to Bambaroo church with about 12 of his family on the back. He was in
his 70s. He always became M.C. and altar boy at Mass. He used to move the book
from Epistle side to Gospel side then turn to the people and with a wave of his
hand say “Up” and all would stand. One Sunday he got tangled up in the
Confiteor, and in trying to catch up he beat his breast, with one Mea Culpa
running into the next and finished with an extra touch, as [sic] – “E tutto
Buggerup”. He was a grand person. I went to his house once for Mass and then to
lunch. One end of the table was set aside for the “Prete” with one of the
biggest dishes of spaghetti, I had ever been faced with.”
Source: Vidonja Balanzategui,
Bianka. Portrait of a Parish: A History
of Saint Patrick’s Church and Parish Ingham 1864-1996. Ingham: St.
Patrick’s Parish, 1998. Portrait of a Parish can now be read
online at http://onesearch.slq.qld.gov.au/SLQ:SLQ_PCI_EBSCO:slq_alma21131607220002061
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| One of the many
little churches erected around the district: Church of Our Lady of Pompeii,
Lannercost, built in 1933. This was the first of the small churches to be
built. These churches could not have
been built without the financial support of the Italian immigrants. Mrs Borello
donated the land for this church. Photograph used in Portrait of a Parish with the kind permission of Mario Cristaudo. |
