Patrick Cardinal Moran
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Patrick Francis Cardinal Moran (16 September 1830 – 16 August 1911) was the third Archbishop of Sydney.
An Irishman born at Leighlinbridge, County Carlow, Ireland, he died an Australian at Manly, Sydney. His mother and father both dead by the time he was 11 years old, he had left Ireland in 1842 (at the age of 12) to pursue studies for the priesthood at the minor seminary and then major seminary in Rome at the Irish College.
He was so intellectually bright he gained his doctorate by acclamation. Among the principal objectors was Cardinal Joachim Pecci, afterwards Pope Leo XIII who was impressed by the genius of the Irish student.
Moran was appointed vice-rector at the Irish College, and also took the chair of Hebrew at Propaganda Fide. He was also some-time vice-rector of the Scots College. In 1866 Monsignor Moran was appointed secretary to his mother's half-brother Cardinal Cullen. Moran was also appointed professor of Scripture at Clonliffe College. He founded the "Irish Ecclesiastical Record" (on which he later modelled the "Australasian Catholic Record").
In 1869 he accompanied Cardinal Cullen to the First Vatican Council, a council also attended by Melbourne's then first Archbishop James Alipius Goold. While in Rome and Ireland he was very active politically in opposing English Catholic Benedictine plans for monastic foundations undergirding the Catholic church of Australia.
He was personally chosen and promoted by Pope Leo XIII to head the Archdiocese of Sydney — a clear policy departure from the previous English Benedictine incumbents (Polding, Vaughan) who were experiencing tension leading the predominantly Irish-Australian Catholics. Moran was appointed to Australia on the 25 January 1884 and arrived on 8 September 1884. He was created Cardinal-Priest on 27 July 1885 of the title of St Susanna. The new Irish-Australian Cardinal made it his business to make his presence and leadership felt.
In the year 1886 it is estimated he travelled 2500 miles over land and sea, visiting all the dioceses of New Zealand. In 1887 he travelled 6000 miles to consecrate fellow Irishman Dr. ([1]) Matthew Gibney at Perth. He also travelled to Ballarat, Bathurst, Bendigo, Hobart, Goulburn, Lismore, Melbourne, and Rockhampton for the consecration of their cathedrals.
Over his episcopate, he consecrated fourteen bishops (He was the principal consecrator of William Joseph Walsh, Michael Verdon, Patrick Vincent Dwyer, Armand Olier and also assisted in consecrating Patrick Clune, among others). He ordained nearly five hundred priests, dedicated more than five thousand churches, and professed more than five thousand nuns. He made five journeys to Rome on Church business between 1885 and 1903.
After his death in 1911, aged 80, a quarter of a million people (the largest crowd ever to gather in Australia until that date) witnessed his funeral procession through the centre of Sydney. He is buried in St. Mary's Cathedral, Sydney.
| Preceded by Roger Bede Vaughan OSB |
3rd Catholic Archbishop of Sydney 1884-1911 |
Succeeded by Archbishop Michael Kelly |
