Abstract
This thesis explores the neglected history of Australian Catholic social welfare, focusing
on the period, 1920-85. Central to this study is a comparative analysis of diocesan welfare
bureaux (Centacare), especially the Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide agencies. Starting
with the origins of professional welfare at local levels, this thesis shows the growth in
Catholic welfare services across Australia. The significant transition from voluntary to
professional Catholic welfare in Australia is a key theme.
Lay trained women inspired the transformation in the church’s welfare services. Prepared
predominantly by their American training, these women devoted their lives to fostering
social work in the Church and within the broader community. The women demonstrated
vision and tenacity in introducing new policies and practices across the disparate and
unco-ordinated Australian Catholic welfare sector. Their determination challenged the
status quo, especially the church’s preference for institutionalisation of children, though
they packaged their reforms with compassion and pragmatism. Trained social workers
offered specialised guidance though such efforts were often not appreciated before the
1960s.
New approaches to welfare and the co-ordination of services attracted varying degrees of
resistance and opposition from traditional Catholic charity providers: religious orders and
the voluntary-based St Vincent de Paul Society (SVdP). For much of the period under
review diocesan bureaux experienced close scrutiny from their ordinaries (bishops),
regular financial difficulties, and competition from other church-based charities for status
and funding.
Following the lead of lay women, clerics such as Bishop Algy Thomas, Monsignor Frank
McCosker and Fr Peter Phibbs (Sydney); Bishop Eric Perkins (Melbourne), Frs Terry
Holland and Luke Roberts (Adelaide), consolidated Catholic social welfare. For four
decades an unprecedented Sydney-Melbourne partnership between McCosker and
Perkins had a major impact on Catholic social policy, through peak bodies such as the
National Catholic Welfare Committee and its successor the Australian Catholic Social
Welfare Commission.
The intersection between church and state is examined in terms of welfare policies and
state aid for service delivery. Peak bodies secured state aid for the church’s welfare
agencies, which, given insufficient church funding proved crucial by the mid 1980s.