Community and Church: the Italian “problem” in Australia during the inter-war years.
Abstract
The mass migration of Italians to Anglo-Saxon countries, such as the USA
and Australia, caused a great amount of discontent in religious circles, so
much so that Italian migrants have been considered a religious “problem”.
One of the greatest contributors to the Italian “problem” was the folk
religion of the new arrivals. They had very little or no instruction in the
doctrines of the Catholic Church and their folk religion was considered a
“syncretic melding of ancient pagan beliefs, magical practices and
Christian liturgy”.1
This paper will examine the Italian “problem” in Australia. It will
establish that the “problem” did exist in Australia before the Second
World War, a period that has been considered by scholars to be a period
of non-activity and has consequently been neglected. Quite often it is
believed that, due to small numbers and remote settlement patterns, Italian
migrants did not pose a “real challenge” to the Catholic Church in
Australia before the Second World War.2
This paper will look at the attitudes of the Australian Catholic hierarchy to
Italian migrants in Australia during the inter-war years and how the
Australian bishops attempted to care for Italian migrants by providing
them with Italian-speaking Irish priests who, in some cases, sufficed, but
were not a complete answer to the “problem”. The Italian priests who
worked among Italian migrants in Australia during the 1920s were Fr
Vincenzo de Francesco, Fr Severino Mambrini and Bishop Coppo. This
paper will examine the methods used by these priests to bring Italian
migrants back to the Church.