CANBERRA: The Bishops in Australia have written a pastoral letter to school leaders, staff, students and families for the 200th anniversary of Catholic education in the country, celebrated throughout 2021 with a range of events, beginning with the national virtual launch on Thursday.
The bi-centenary anniversary celebrates the founding, in October 1820, of the first official Catholic School in Australia by Irish priest Father John Therry. The school, according to Catholic historians, taught 31 students. An Irish Catholic convict, George Marley, who was sent to the colony, opened the school for Fr. Therry and ran it for three years. In 1837, the school was transferred to the site of the present St. Patrick's Cathedral in Parramatta, and it was subsequently entrusted to the care of the Marist Brothers in 1875.