1.5 THE ROLE OF ST FIACRES

1.5.1 St. Fiacre's, the San Francesco Italian Association and the Capuchins in Leichhardt

St. Fiacre's is recorded in The Jubilee History of Leichhardt (Dec. 1871-Dec.1921) as one of the two Roman Catholic churches in the suburb. It is the Leichhardt parish church, with frontages on Catherine and Prospect Streets. The history of St. Fiacre's in the post-World War 2 period is indissolubly linked with the history in Australia of the Order of Capuchin Franciscan Friars. As Pino Bosi notes, from 1837 "either singly or in groups, about 25 Capuchin Friars had come to Australia" (Bosi 117). Two distinctive elements of this history are as follows. Irish and Scottish Capuchins were active in Australia around the mid-nineteenth century. And the Italian-born Capuchin, Elzear Torreggiani, served as Bishop of Armidale from 1879-1904.

The Capuchins were formally granted the parish of St Fiacre's by Cardinal Gilroy on 3 November 1946. This was in recognition of their missionary work from 1945 among Italian immigrants, first at Wynnum (near Brisbane) and later in Halifax (North Queensland). Italy-born had lived in Queensland since the 1890s. The Capuchins responded post-war to the invitation of the Archbishop of Brisbane, James Duhig, although, as Pino Bosi records, the Order intended during the 1930s to minister in the Italian-born concentrations in rural Australia. The war interrupted these plans.

First anniversary of the handover in 1947

Fr Atanasio Paoletti was among the group of four Capuchin Friars who arrived in Brisbane in 1945. Their point of embarkation was America, where they had all lived for many years. Their Italian-American background or their length of service in the U.S.A. ensured that they were bilingual and possibly also, as Bosi notes, "more acceptable to the Australian clergy than the mistrusted Italians" (Bosi 121).

The Capuchins were granted by Cardinal Gilroy not only the parish but the role of chaplaincy for Italian immigrants in Sydney. St Fiacre's was initially staffed principally by Capuchins who, like Fr Anastasio, had strong links with Italian immigrant communities in the United States. Fr Anastasio was born in Philadelphia of Italian immigrant parents. Capuchin Friars began to arrive in Australia directly from Italy after 1948. The first Capuchin Friars at St Fiacre's included Henry Kusnerick (a German American), Adalberto Salerno, Silvio Spighi (who had arrived in Australia from India), Samuel Rodomonti, and Anastasio Paoletti, first as parish priest and from 1948, Superior of the Australian Province at the new Capuchin House in Sydney. Among Capuchins who followed were Frs Alfonso Panciroli, Atanasio Gonelli and Romano Franchini, as well as Frs Paolo, Filippo, Claudio and Carlo (Bosi 125).

Italians in Australia in the late 1940s carried a triple burden, first as recent national enemies, second for what was seen by many as their racial and cultural deviation from Anglo-Celtic norms, and thirdly as Roman Catholics in the climate of parochialism, biogtry and mutual distrust between Catholics and non-Catholics that characterised Australian society until, some would say, well into the 1970s. As the Reverend Dr Ryan observed in April 1947, remembering the work of Fr Giuseppe La Rosa, at a reception offered by the Italian community to honour the arrival of the Capuchin Friars:

You Italians are here in a land where there are people whose attitude towards you is determined in large part by racial and religious prejudices which are based simply on ignorance, ignorance of history and ignorance about Catholicism. There is no need for you to be ashamed of being Italian, just as there is no need for you to be ashamed of being Catholics._

In 1950 Fr Anastasio reflected on the Australia which he had discovered in 1945:

After one week in Brisbane in 1945 I was shocked and hurt to realise the amount of dislike towards all foreigners, in general and to Italians in particular. I told myself that it was the war. But then, on second thought, we had a war in America and there were no such ugly feelings. As I talked to the hundreds of Italians who returned from internment camps, I was bewildered at the resentment expressed by them. Internment had made them bitter . . . All this is the result of hostile public opinion and that alone. That is my conviction. Public opinion is a mighty weapon . . . The basis for this antagonism I do not know fully. I believe that it is partly due to Australia's long isolation in the Pacific, to what the Hon. A. Calwell calls xenophobia; and partly due to a racial pride that seems to have deep roots in countries with non-catholic majorities._

These words, in an article by Fr Anastasio published in English in La Fiamma of 13 October 1950, went on to call on Catholics to come to the moral and material help of "New Australians". And it concludes in part: "It is well to mention that of the 33,000 Italians in Australia in 1947, only 7,000 were not naturalised". _

St Fiacre's was (and still is) a reference point for many of Sydney's Italy-born. Italy-born, residents and non-residents of Leichhardt, made contact with the parish in increasing numbers over the 1950s. The church still ministered to Australian parishioners, since it was not Church policy to create exclusively ethnic parishes. Australian-born members of the congregation at St. Fiacre's traditionally sent their children to the parish school, adjacent to the church, which was run by the Sisters of St Joseph. From the 1950s, the school was frequented by increasing numbers of Italian-born and Australian-born children of Italian parents. Father Henry was instrumental in the building of a second school in the Lilyfield parish, which Cadinal Gilroy blessed in 1951 (Bosi 125).

One Australian-born resident of Leichhardt for twenty-two years until 1957, Mrs Patricia Fin, who attended the St. Fiacre's parish school during the war years, reported learning Italian from the small number of Italian-speaking children who attended at that time. However, Italian was never part of the school curriculum. After-school Italian classes were instituted in the early 1960s on Saturday mornings, taught by volunteers. In the early 1960s the Sisters of St Joseph sponsored twice-weekly evening English classes for immigrants, taught by lay volunteers.

The Italian-language services and assistance offered at St Fiacre's would have been a significant factor for some new arrivals in their choice of an area for settlement. By the mid-1950s all the clergy at St. Fiacre's were reportedly Italian speakers. Under Fr Anastasio, in the mid-1950s the interior of St Fiacre's was re-modelled: the marble used to replace the timber floor and furnishings of the sacristy would have created for many of its Italian-born parishioners an element reminiscent of Italian churches.

A wedding in the remodelled sanctuary.

Catherine Street itself gradually grew into a recognisably Italian community. By 1960 an estimated ninety Italian families lived in Catherine Street. Around three-quarters of the houses in the street were owned by Italians at that time. Gradually the Church itself also bought up houses near the old presbytery in Catherine Street.

In accord with the Christian mission of the Capuchin Friars, St. Fiacre's played a significant role in services and assistance for Italian immigrants. Peak years for the church's direct involvement in material assistance were 1949-1955 when newly arrived immigrants attended the Missionary Centre at the church which offered varying types of support, such as help in finding accommodation and work. The Missionary Centre in church's presbytery was a lively hub of this activity.

One important role played by the Capuchins was meeting immigrant ships on arrival in Sydney. Fr Romano Franchini reported that customs officers were at first suspicious of the help the Friars gave. However, a degree of trust developed between the two groups. Later the Capuchins regularly accompanied customs officers to meet ships at the entrance to the Harbour. The Capuchins provided a service that few Australians could at that time. As Italian speakers, they shared cultural experience and memory. They were themselves immigrants. The Capuchins also ministered to Italians in hospitals and sanatoria and occasionally made visits to prisons, as well as to work sites where Italians worked such as the Kandos cement works and the Warragamba Dam. When Co.As.It was founded in 1968, it took over much of the welfare role that the Friary had borne.

In 1962 La Fiamma described St Fiacre's as the "Italian church" near where Italians preferred to live. At that time, Fr Adalberto Salerno, the Italian-American, was parish priest and chaplains to the Italian community were Frs Silvio Spighi and Bonifazio Zurli, both of Tuscan Italian origin.

Social contacts, housing, employment, and legal and translation assistance were among the services offered to immigrants by the Capuchins at St. Fiacre's. Fr Atanasio Gonelli reported a memory of the involvement in the early 1950s of Callagher's Real Estate agency in Annandale which assisted with rental accommodation for new arrivals when the housing market was tight and rent control the norm. Another pattern of accommodation was sub-division of local houses by small-time landlords who rented out rooms.

In the early years, single Italian males were the primary group to benefit from the assistance offered through and at St. Fiacre's. Proxy weddings were later common. In a majority of cases, the couple were already known to each other. According to a Capuchin publication of 1972, Almanacco Cappuccino, over the period 1947-1972, St. Fiacre's services were used by an estimated 60,000 Italy-born, and its registers include 10,000 baptisms and 5,000 weddings for that period. Given the ageing of the Italy-born population, in the year 2001 funerals are a more common service. Baptisms now number at most around 100 per year. Archival material at the church includes, among other documents, copies of a monthly publication titled the Capuchin Clarion.

Relatively soon after being granted the parish, the Capuchins began to hold Italian-style religious feste with processions in the streets surrounding the church (when there were complaints about noise, the feste processions were transferred to the church grounds), followed by social activities in the church grounds, often accompanied by a traditional band, singing and picnics. St Fiacre's initially held about three feste per year, and the number rose to about five or six per year. Fr Romano Franchini remembers crowds of 1,000 people at feste: people came from all over Sydney. Celebration of regional Italian saints' feast days (feste) was an important part of activities at St. Fiacre's. Feste were celebrated in honour of the Saints Bartholomew, patron saint of the Aeolian Islands (this festa began in 1951), Anthony, Catherine, Sebastian, Our Lady of the Rosary and Our Lady of the Martyrs.
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To enhance the festa a rudimentary, portable stage was sometimes erected, where the festa band, singers and speakers performed. Traditional and sentimental songs were sung. These occasions celebrated patron saints of different regions and villages. Regional groups provided the saint's statue and music for the procession. Feast days were one of the ways in which regional groups maintained solidarity. These occasions possibly also helped to create cohesion in the regionally diverse Italian-born congregation of the church.

Australian Day Picnic @ Clifton Gardens in 1954/55

In the mid-1950s an Italian choir was formed by Fr Silvio Spighi, which sang at one service each Sunday and for social evenings. Many of its members were from the Veneto region.

The Italian Choir @ St Francis Lilyfield circa. 1954/55

Non-religious aspects of parish activity, such as social events and picnics, were coordinated by the San Francesco Catholic Italian Association. Fr Giuseppe La Rosa, in addition to his roles in the groundwork for establishing La Fiamma and in directing the newspaper in first year, established the San Francesco Catholic Italian Association (S.F.C.I.A.) in 1945 for Sydney's Italian-born laity. In 1946 when the parish of St. Fiacre's was handed over by Cardinal Gilroy, the Capuchins took over the Association's spiritual and other direction. Fr Anastasio Paoletti (1946-1951) and Fr Alessandro Merighi (1951-1958) were the first two directors of S.F.C.I.A. In the early years of the 1950s, S.F.C.I.A. operated a mensa and social centre, designed for the many single, male immigrants who lived at that time in the local area, upstairs at 444 Elizabeth Street, Surry Hills, on the site of the Chianti restaurant. S.F.C.I.A. published a newsletter titled Il Sentiero.

In its early years of its existence, the San Francesco Association temporarily occupied two premises in Elizabeth Street, Sydney, Cusa House and the Australian Hall, for meetings and functions. Through the involvement in the organisation post-1946 of the Capuchins, S.F.C.I.A. was closely linked to St Fiacre's. S.F.C.I.A. was also linked through common membership of their respective committees to the Italo-Australian Welfare association (I.A.W.). I.A.W. and the San Francesco Catholic Italian Association worked in tandem until 1951 when S.F.C.I.A. officially made its base at St Fiacre's. S.F.C.I.A. aimed to encourage a Christian lifestyle among the laity through a program of religious, cultural, social and sporting activities. The Association also organised fundraising for charitable institutions and causes and supported the Villa Fatima in Hurstville, a hostel for the needy which the Capuchins purchased in 1951 to provide accommodation for 60 needy single male immigrants. A drama group was formed, and a soccer team was fielded in the Canterbury Metropolitan League in 1950, the C-grade Annandale Franciscan soccer team. This team had large following and support among pre- and post-war immigrants and, although it did not prosper in competition; it is considered a forerunner of the A.P.I.A. S.F.C.I.A. also sponsored the inaugural Festa dei Pescatori (Fishermen's Festival), held at Iron Cove in 1952.

Opening of the Association's Hall in 1968

In 1968 Bishop James Freeman opened the Association's hall in the grounds of the church, the Sala San Francesco, built mostly by voluntary effort and demolished when the parish school was extended. Dances and other social functions were held in the hall. In 1972-1973 S.F.C.I.A. built a pre-school kindergarten in Styles Street, Leichhardt, with funds raised from the Italian community and donations and government assistance. The kindergarten was designed to cater primarily for the children of working women of Italian background, whose children's linguistic and other needs were not being met by mainstream kindergartens. An Italian bocce court was constructed behind the kindergarten. The Mayor of Leichhardt at the time of the official opening of the kindergarten was Alderman Nick Origlass. Origlass, born Nicola Origliasso, was Italian on his father's side, having been born in Queensland of a Piedmontese father and Australian mother. Origlass, a member of the Marxist Revolutionary Tendency, was possibly the first Mayor of Leichhardt with Italian heritage. The Styles Street kindergarten was later sold to Leichhhardt Council.

Opening of the Kindergarten in 1973_

Another important link between St Fiacre's and the Italian community was established through Mrs Lena Gustin who emigrated to Australia in 1956. Mrs Gustin was editor of the Catholic monthly, La Croce del Sud (1957-1958) and a columnist for La Fiamma (1957-1964), using the pseudonym Grazia. Fr Anastasio Paoletti was the first manager of La Croce del Sud, and Mrs Gustin acted as his secretary. Later she became manager. Mrs Gustin is perhaps best known for her roles as a radio broadcaster and welfare worker through A.N.F.E. Mrs Gustin's radio broadcasting career began in the later 1950s on Sydney radio 2SM's "The Italian Hour' which was sponsored by the Capuchins. Earlier broadcasts in Italian on 2SM were conducted, around 1953-1954, by Fr Anastasio and Miss Ines Raffaelli. Mamma Lena, as Mrs Gustin was affectionately known to her radio listeners, within two years moved to radio 2CH where her program "Arriverderci Roma" (and related programs) flourished for ten years from 1959-1969, well before the era of ethnic radio. These transmissions were organised under the auspices of La Croce del Sud. The editorial and administrative offices for Capuchin broadcasting activity were located in Catherine Street, close to the church.

In addition his founding contribution to Italian language broadcasting, Father Anastasio Paoletti was the driving inspiration and organiser of many of the significant religious and lay structures which supported the Italian-born community of Sydney. His roles in La Fiamma (see 5.2) and the formation of the A.P.I.A. association (see 5.3) are two lasting elements of Anastasio's work in Sydney. Pino Bosi reports that Fr Anastasio was also instrumental in the formation of I.A.W, the Italian Association of Assistance. In fact, Fr Anastasio's role on behalf of Italian immigrants in its breadth, depth and diversity must be described as legendary.

The year 2000 marked a special milestone for another Italian-born Capuchin friar, Fr Atanasio Gonelli. Born Luigi Gonelli near Massa Carrara in Tuscany on 11 February 1923, Fr Atanasio arrived in Australia in 1950, beginning missionary work in Surry Hills and Woolloomooloo where the Capuchins preceded the Scalabrinian Fathers. Fr Atanasio's contacts with the parish of St Fiacre's have been enduring, over some forty of the fifty years spent in Australia. Fr Atanasio was instrumental in 1950 in organising the youth group, Catholic Action, and in writing from the early years for the religious page of La Fiamma, with which he always maintained close links, eventually becoming director of the newspaper in 1963 for a number of years. Fr Atanasio was also involved with the Capuchin-sponsored radio broadcasts (and is currently heard on Rete Italia). Another initiative promoted by Fr Atanasio was the establishing from 1963 of a network around Sydney of Italian language classes for the children of immigrants, a forerunner of the Sydney-wide after-school and language insertion program now administered by Co.As.It. Fr Atanasio has been continuously at St Fiacre's since 1964. In a recent commemorative article in La Fiamma, to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of his mission in Australia, he recalled celebrating 4,000 weddings, 8,000 baptisms (up to 23 in one day) and many funerals._ Like other Capuchin Friars, Fr Atanasio also carried out missionary work in other Australian locations. Over 54 years, Capuchin achievements are many. St Fiacre's at Leichhardt played a central role in this history. The Capuchins at St Fiacre's have a central place in the history of Italians throughout Australia.

Association members in 1969/7