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| M A R Y I MM A C U L AT E PA R I S H E AG L E VA L E
W
hen Eugene de
Mazenod founded the
Oblates two hundred years
ago, his prime aimwas to
help restore the Church in
France after the devastation
of the Revolution which
began in 1789. At its worst,
the Revolutionaries persecution of the Church
resulted in the closure of almost all of the 37,000
parishes in the nation. Historians estimate that
only about 125 still functioned normally. St.
Eugene’s great zeal for the cause of Christ found
an outlet in the very first words he penned for
his Oblates:
The Church, that glorious inheritance purchased
by Christ the Saviour at the cost of his own
blood, has in our days been cruelly ravaged. (The
Church) is torn with anguish as she mourns
the shameful defection of (her) children. (OMI
Constitutions and Rules Preface)
In undertaking this mammoth task, Eugene
encouraged his Oblates to develop a great zeal
for the cause of Christ and a great love for their
fellow Christians:
They must wholly renounce themselves, striving
solely for the glory of God and the growth and
salvation of (their fellow Christians) . . . And
be filled with unbounded confidence in God.
(Preface)
It was this same zeal that prompted Eugene to
answer the call to send missionaries beyond
the sorely tried France to serve in South Africa,
Canada, USA (Texas), Mexico, Ceylon (Sri Lanka)
and the United Kingdom. In the years following
his death in 1861, the Oblates continued to
answer the call to newmissions now serving in
almost 70 countries.
In 1894 the (then termed) British Province
(England, Ireland, Scotland andWales)
undertook a newmission inWestern Australia.
A large part of the missions of the home
Province was to serve poor working class
people in numerous parishes in the now rapidly
industrialised UK. The same Oblate desire
to serve those most in need prompted their
undertaking this remote mission. They served
in Fremantle, then populated by many poor
Irish working class people. The first parish
priest Fr. Matthew Gaughren (later Bishop
in South Africa) served for only one year and
his successor Fr. Thomas Ryan (1858-1929)
was responsible for the present Church which
has been such a landmark and devotional
centre in theWest ever since. Shortly after
the establishment of Fremantle, the Oblates
opened an Industrial School at Glendalough:
an institution to educate poor lads generally
committed into the care of such institutions by
the Courts. This worthy Oblate ministry ceased
in 1921 when State legislation changed the policy
for providing for such needy young men.
The relatively small population of Western
Australia in the early days, meant that an
opening in the more populous East was needed.
After many efforts, the then Provincial (Fr
Eugene Callan d.1940) secured an opening from
T H E O B L AT E S A N D
T H E PA R I S H O F E AG L E VA L E