In 2014, the Truth Justice & Healing Council (TJHC) commissioned the Pastoral Research Office (PRO) to provide an accurate count of all priests – diocesan and religious – who held any appointment in Australia in the period from 1950 to 2010. The information was required as part of the Council’s response to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.
The goal of the project was to compile an electronic list of names of priests who held an appointment in Australia from 1950-2010 so that the following numbers could be provided to the TJHC for that period:
- Number of priests in Australia (nationally)
- Number of priests by diocese
- Number of priests by religious order.
The project involved a number of paid staff from the PRO as well as volunteers who donated their services to the project.
The primary sources of information for compiling the required list of priests were copies of the Official Catholic Directory (OCD) and lists obtained from Corpus Christi College and the National Council of Priests. Other supplementary sources, such as hard copies of the NCP Directory of Australian Catholic Clergy, were also used. Information was also requested from dioceses and religious orders along with information on ‘Deceased Clergy in Australia’ from the Official Catholic Directory website maintained by the NCP.
While the task appeared relatively straightforward, the range of information sources and the task of cross-referencing data was more intricate and time-consuming than initially expected. This complexity was indicated by factors such as:
- The existence of both geographical and non-geographical dioceses (e.g., the Military Diocese and the Eastern Catholic dioceses), combined with changes in the structures and names of certain dioceses during this period;
- The large number of religious orders active in Australia over the given period, some of which no longer existed, and others which changed names and acronyms;
- The movement of priests between Australian dioceses, and between Australia, New Zealand, and other countries in Oceania, making it challenging to identify and track individuals;
- The inconsistencies and errors in the way the data was presented in the source documents, including different methods of indexing, numerous spelling errors in names, differing titles and postnominals, the duplication of names, the fact that in some years, priests were listed by Christian name and surname and in other years only by surname and initial, and the occasional omission of names from the OCD’s alphabetical lists of Clergy;
- The fact that some diocesan priests joined religious orders, and some members of religious orders left their orders to become diocesan priests.
As an indication of the scope of this project, it was estimated that the staff and volunteers had entered a minimum of 385,000 separate pieces of data into the database, although it may have been closer to 500,000.
The project concluded in 2016, and the relevant information was provided to the TJHC.
Report details: 9 February 2016. Robert Dixon, Priests in Australia 1950 – 2010: A Project Commissioned by the Truth Justice and Healing Council, Progress Report. Pastoral Research Office, Australian Catholic Bishops Conference.