Archdiocese of Hobart

Archdiocese of Hobart Archidioecesis Hobartensis
Location
Country	Australia
Territory	Tasmania
Ecclesiastical province	Immediately subject to the Holy See
Coordinates	42°53′09″S 147°19′35″E / 42.88583°S 147.32639°E
Statistics
Area	67,914 km2 (26,222 sq mi)
Population Total Catholics	(as of 2021) 541,760 92,680 ( 17.1%)
Parishes	27
Information
Denomination	Catholic Church
Sui iuris church	Latin Church
Rite	Roman Rite
Established	5 April 1842 as the Vicariate Apostolic of Hobart; 22 April 1842 as the Diocese of Hobart; 3 August 1888 as the Archdiocese of Hobart
Cathedral	St Mary's Cathedral, Hobart
Patron saint	Saint Patrick
Current leadership
Pope	Leo XIV
Archbishop	Anthony Ireland
Map
Website
hobart.catholic.org.au

The Archdiocese of Hobart is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or archdiocese of the Catholic Church in Australia located in Hobart and covering Tasmania, Australia.

Immediately subject to the Holy See, the area covered was initially administered by the Apostolic Vicariate of New Holland and Van Diemen's Land. In 1842, the Vicariate Apostolic of Hobart was erected; elevated as a diocese a few weeks later; and as an archdiocese in 1888.

St Mary's Cathedral is the seat of the Catholic Archbishop of Hobart, currently Anthony Ireland, installed on the 12th of August, 2025.

History

Established 5 April 1842 as the Vicariate Apostolic of Hobart and became Diocese of Hobart on 22 April 1842. On 3 August 1888 the diocese became the Archdiocese of Hobart.

Bishops

The following individuals have been appointed as Bishops of Hobart or any of its precursor titles:

Order	Name	Title	Date enthroned	Reign ended	Term of office	Reason for term end
1	Robert Willson †	Bishop of Hobart	22 April 1842	16 February 1866	23 years, 300 days	Resigned and appointed Bishop Emeritus of Hobart
2	Daniel Murphy †	Coadjutor Bishop of Hobart	14 November 1865	8 March 1866	114 days	Succeeded as Bishop of Hobart
		Bishop of Hobart	8 March 1866	3 August 1888	22 years, 148 days	Elevated as Archbishop of Hobart
		Archbishop of Hobart	3 August 1888	29 December 1907	19 years, 148 days	Died in office
3	Patrick Delany †	Coadjutor Archbishop of Hobart	15 June 1893	29 December 1907	14 years, 197 days	Succeeded as Archbishop of Hobart
		Archbishop of Hobart	29 December 1907	7 May 1926	18 years, 129 days	Died in office
4	William Barry †	Coadjutor Archbishop of Hobart	7 April 1919	8 May 1926	7 years, 31 days	Succeeded as Archbishop of Hobart
		Archbishop of Hobart	8 May 1926	13 June 1929	3 years, 36 days	Died in office
5	William Hayden †		11 February 1930	2 October 1936	6 years, 234 days	Died in office
6	Justin Simonds †		18 February 1937	6 September 1942	5 years, 200 days	Appointed as Coadjutor Archbishop of Melbourne
7	Ernest Victor Tweedy †		7 December 1942	20 September 1955	12 years, 287 days	Resigned and appointed Archbishop Emeritus of Hobart
8	Guilford Clyde Young †	Coadjutor Archbishop of Hobart	10 October 1954	20 September 1955	345 days	Succeeded as Archbishop of Hobart
		Archbishop of Hobart	20 September 1955	16 March 1988	32 years, 178 days	Died in office
9	Eric D'Arcy †		24 October 1988	26 July 1999	10 years, 275 days	Retired and appointed Archbishop Emeritus of Hobart
10	Adrian Leo Doyle	Coadjutor Archbishop of Hobart	10 November 1997	26 July 1999	1 year, 258 days	Succeeded as Archbishop of Hobart
		Archbishop of Hobart	26 July 1999	19 July 2013	13 years, 358 days	Retired and appointed Archbishop Emeritus of Hobart
11	Julian Porteous		17 September 2013	12 August 2025	12 years, 352 days	Resigned and appointed Archbishop Emeritus of Hobart
12	Anthony Ireland	Archbishop of Hobart	12 August 2025	present	1 year, 23 days	Incumbent

The above table also includes coadjutors, all of whom later served in this see. There was another coadjutor whose appointment did not take effect: Thomas Butler †, appointed Coadjutor Bishop on 13 Mar 1860.

Other priests of this diocese who became bishops

• Anthony Joseph Burgess †, appointed Coadjutor Bishop of Wewak, Papua New Guinea in 2000
• Geoffrey Hylton Jarrett, appointed Coadjutor Bishop of Lismore in 2000

Cathedral

St Mary's Cathedral, Hobart is the cathedral for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Hobart.

Parishes

Southern Tasmania

Parish	Location	Church name	Image
Bellerive-Lindisfarne Parish	Bellerive	Corpus Christi
	Lindisfarne	Church of the Incarnation
	Rokeby	John Paul II
Bridgewater-Brighton Parish	Bridgewater	St Paul's
	Pontville	St Matthew's
Cathedral Parish	Hobart	St Mary's Cathedral
	New Town	Sacred Heart
Central Tasmania Parish	New Norfolk	St Peter's
	Ouse	Immaculate Conception
	Bothwell	St Andrew's
	Tunnack	St Brigid's
	Ellendale	St Colman's
	Oatlands	St Paul's
Claremont Parish	Claremont	St Bernard's
Glenorchy Parish	Glenorchy	St John's
	Chigwell	St Monica's
Hobart Parish	Hobart	St Joseph's
Huon Valley Parish	Cygnet	St James
	Geeveston	St Joseph
	Ranelagh	St Mary of the Cross Catholic Church
	Dover	St Mary Our Hope
Kingston Channel Parish	Kingston Beach	Christ the Priest
	Kettering	Church of the Holy Spirit
	Kingston	St Aloysius
	Alonnah	St Brendans
	Snug	St Mary's
Moonah-Lutana Parish	Moonah	St Therese's
Richmond Parish	Richmond	St John the Evangelist
	Dodges Ferry	Community Centre Hall
	Triabunna	St Anne's
	Colebrook	St Patrick's
	Sorell	St Thomas'
Sandy Bay Parish	Sandy Bay	Holy Spirit
		St Canice
	Taroona	St Pius X
South Hobart Parish	South Hobart	St Francis Xavier's

Northern Tasmania

Parish	Location	Church name	Image
Campbell Town Parish	Campbell Town	St Michael's
	Swansea	Our Lady of the Perpetual Succour
	Ross	Our Lady of the Sacred Heart
Flinders Island Parish	Whitemark	St Paul's
George Town Parish	George Town	Our Lady Star of the Sea
	Karoola	Sacred Heart
	Lilydale	St Anne's
Kings Meadows Parish	Youngtown	St Peter's
	Longford	St Augustine's
Launceston Parish	Launceston	Church of the Apostles
	West Launceston	Carmelite Monastery
	Newstead	Sacred Heart
	Invermay	St Finn Barr's
	Prospect Vale	St Patrick's College Chapel
Meander Valley Parish	Westbury	Holy Trinity
	Deloraine	Holy Redeemer
Scottsdale Parish	Scottsdale	St Patrick's
	Ringarooma	Sacred Heart
	Bridport	St Mary's
St Mary's Parish	Bicheno	Bicheno Community Church
	St Marys	St Mary of the Assumption
	Mangana	Our Lady of the Sacred Heart
	St Helens	St Helena & St Stanislaus
	Fingal	St Joseph's
West Tamar Parish	Riverside	St Francis of Assisi
	Glengarry	St Canice
	Beaconsfield	St Francis Xavier

North Western Tasmania

Parish	Location	Church name
Burnie-Wynyard Parish	Burnie	St Mary's Star of the Sea
		Marist Regional College Chapel
	Somerset	Sacred Heart
	Wynyard	St Brigid's
	Yolla	St Joseph's
Circular Head Parish	Smithton	St Peter Chanel
	Stanley	Our Star of the Sea
King Island Parish	Currie, King Island	Our Lady Star of the Sea
Mersey Leven Parish	Devonport	Our Lady of Lourdes
	Sheffield	Holy Cross Church
	Ulverstone	Sacred Heart
	Port Sorell	St Joseph's Mass Centre
	Penguin	St Mary's
	Latrobe	St Patrick's
West Coast Parish	Queenstown	St Joseph's
	Strahan	Holy Trinity (parish makes use of Anglican parish church of the same name)
	Zeehan	St Fursaeus
	Rosebery	St Joseph's

Monasteries

Notre Dame Priory is a Benedictine monastery in Colebrook, Tasmania, Australia, founded in 2017 which is part of the Archdiocese.

Controversy

In 2007 Gregory Ferguson, a Marist priest, was sentenced to two years jail (eligible for parole after 12 months) for offences in 1971 against two boys aged 13 at Marist College, Burnie, Tasmania. On 13 December 2007 he was sentenced to an additional three years' jail for offences against a third boy.

While in 2008, a jury found former priest Roger Michael Bellemore guilty on three counts of maintaining a sexual relationship with a young person under the age of 17 years in the 1960s and 1970s, while he was at the same College.

In 2015, Archbishop Julian Porteous was notified that a complaint had been filed with the office of Tasmania's Anti-discrimination Commissioner in relation to the distribution in all Tasmanian Catholic schools of a booklet, Don't Mess with Marriage, stating marriage should be a "heterosexual union between a man and a woman" and changing the law would endanger a child's upbringing. The complaint was filed by a transgender activist and Federal Greens candidate Martine Delaney. The complaint was called "'an attempt to silence' the Church over same-sex marriage" by Archbishop Porteous. The complaint was treated as a possible breach of the Anti-Discrimination Act 1998 (Tas), and sparked fierce debate on the issues of freedom of religion, freedom of expression, and tolerance. The complaint was ultimately withdrawn.

It has been reported that "The real problem with the Porteous case was that it was unresolved".

See also

• Roman Catholicism in Australia

Canonical status and jurisdiction

Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Hobart is a non-metropolitan archdiocese of the Catholic Church.

External links

• Official website

From the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia

Archdiocese of Hobart — (HOBARTENSIS)

Hobart comprises Tasmania, Bruni Island, and the Cape Barren, Flinders, King, and other islands in Bass Straits. Tasmania was originally under the jurisdiction of the vicar Apostolic of Capetown, Mauritius and New Holland, and afterwards under that of New Holland, when it was made a separate vicariate. Hobart was made a diocese in 1842. On the establishment of the Australian hierarchy the Bishop of Hobart was suffragan of the Archbishop of Sydney. When in 1874 Melbourne became the archdiocese of the new province of Melbourne, Hobart was named one of its suffragan sees. It remained part of the province of Melbourne until 1888, when Hobart was made an archdiocese and Tasmania became an independent ecclesiastical province. Though Tasmania was discovered in 1642 by the Dutch, no attempt at settlement seems to have been made by them. Towards the end of the eighteenth century, the presence of French exploring expeditions aroused the suspicions of the British, who had already established a colony in New South Wales, and led to the permanent occupation of Tasmania by Britain. The first settlement was made in 1803 at Risdon, but in 1804 it was removed to Sullivan's Cove, the site of the present city of Hobart. The population of Tasmania was about 183,000 on 31 December, 1908 (Catholics, 32,000). The circumstances of the early settlement of the island did not tend to religious progress. It was made the dumping-ground for the refractory prisoners of Botany Bay.

There was no Catholic chaplain to administer to the prison population and the first few free settlers until 1821, when Rev. Philip Connolly was appointed; he was vicar-general to the Vicar Apostolic of Mauritius for Van Diemen's Land and New Holland. His first church, a small wooden structure, was named after St. Virgilius; in 1835 Father Cotham, O.S.B., was appointed to help him. Connolly died in 1839, and Bishop Polding appointed Father Therry as his vicar-general in Tasmania. The account of his struggles in those early days, when as in other British colonies an attempt was made to make the settlement as Protestant as possible, is very interesting. Therry and his colleagues did wonders among their flock. They had a parish of 26,215 square miles, with a number of scattered settlements, without roads to make passage easy, and with hostile blacks to endanger their lives. When in 1842 Bishop Willson took possession of the See of Hobart, he found a land well prepared for his labours.

It was mainly through his efforts in directing attention to the inhumanity of the prison system that the penal settlement at Norfolk Island, then under his jurisdiction, was broken up, the lot of the prisoners in Tasmania made much more tolerable, and the system itself finally abandoned. His successor, Most Rev. Daniel Murphy, who arrived in 1866, had laboured in India previously. He died on 27 Dec., 1907. While Dr. Wilson's episcopate was chiefly noted for his labours in the cause of humanity, Dr. Murphy laboured for the training of the young. The Sisters of Charity had long worked in Hobart under Bishop Willson. Under Bishop Murphy their work was extended, and the Presentation Sisters, the Sisters of St. Joseph, the Sisters of Mercy, and the Sisters of the Sacred Heart all opened schools. Dr. Murphy's last work was the erection of the College of St. Virgilius for the young boys of his flock. The present archbishop, Most Rev. Patrick Delany, has arranged with the Irish Christian Brothers to take charge of St. Virgilius's College. At the request of the archbishop, the Catholic schools of the island are subject to inspection and examination by the State School inspectors, but they receive nothing from the public funds. The State schools have Scripture lessons in their curriculum. The teacher, whether a believer or an unbeliever, is bound to give them. If Catholic parents object, their children are exempt from attendance at these lessons. The Catholics strongly protest against the injustice of being forced to contribute to a system which teaches a kind of mild Protestantism to the children.

The State offers a number of scholarships to be competed for by the pupils of all schools, whether public or "private". But as both schools and teachers have now by law to be registered and licensed by the School Registration Board, there is, strictly speaking, no longer any "private" school in the State. Education is now free in the public primary schools. There is a Tasmanian university, on the board of which a Catholic priest has a place, just as a priest holds a seat on the school registration board. The personal influence and example of the Bishops and Archbishops of Hobart and of the pioneer priests succeeded in removing almost altogether the religious acerbities by which other British dependencies are often troubled. There are at present in the archdiocese, the archbishop, 26 priests, 135 nuns, 4 superior day schools, 25 primary schools, i orphanage, 1 Magdalen home (ùnder the Good Shepherd nuns), and 3280 children in Catholic schools. Like every Australian province, Tasmania has its Catholic paper, the "Monitor". During the early days the clergy were paid by the State as chaplains to the prison population. The endowment continued after the State had received the right of representative government. In 1869 State endowments to religion were withdrawn, but certain sums of money were voted, according to the number of their adherents, to the hitherto endowed churches. The sum granted to the Catholics is held in State bonds and returns to the archdiocese about £700 a year. The aborigines are extinct, having been "civilized" out of existence. The last survivor died in 1876. There are some half-castes who are forced by the Government to reside on the islands in Bass Straits. They, too, are dying out.

KNIBBS, Commonwealth Statistics; MORAN, History of the Catholic Church in Australasia (Sydney, s. d.); Government Handbook of Tasmania; Australian Catholic Directory, 1909.

External links

• Catholic Archdiocese of Hobart